Wal-Mart Allowing DRM Files To Remain Listenable After All

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Wal-Mart has had a change of heart about dismantling their DRM services, meaning users who bought songs from Wal-Mart's digital music store before February 2008 will still be able to listen to their music. In an e-mail sent out to customers yesterday, Wal-Mart said "Based on feedback from our customers, we have decided to maintain our digital rights management (DRM) servers for the present time. What this means to you is that our existing service continues and there is no action required on your part." The retail giant had initially planned to do away with their out-of-use DRM technology and its help desk to make way for their "100% MP3 store," which essentially would have prevented listening to DRM-filled WMA (Windows Media Audio) songs in the future. Customers complained that Wal-Mart should replace the obsolete WMA files with shiny new DRM-free MP3s, but Wal-Mart opted instead to just keep DRM alive. Still, the company recommends "you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD," just in case they change their minds again.

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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