Liebert on Walmart's music designs

I'm a sucker for guitar music, so I was especially pleased when Zjelko (Tucows platform product manager, the guy responsible for our provisioning infrastructure) introduced me to Ottmar Liebert a month or so ago. This morning, I was even more pleased to see that Liebert has a great weblog. I've spent the last half hour or so going through his archives and love the perspective that he brings to issues that blogosphere usually deals with on a more technical basis. For instance, this bit was reported yesterday via Gizmodo and elicited a pretty practical response...

Wal-Mart Music Store Opens, Price War To Come?

JOEL JOHNSON -- Wal-Mart's music download service launches today with a per-song charge of 88 cents. With 30-second previews and DRM-locked files (including the ability to authorize 2 additional computers and make 10 burns to a CD), it looks a lot like a web-based iTunes Music Store clone--not a bad... [Gizmodo]

Does anybody really believe that a virtual record store will rip artists off less than a brick and mortar store? I have news for you, the income still flows through the record company's bookkeeping department and real and imaginary expenses will be deducted...

I'm definitely looking forward to reading more.