http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20041014-4313.html

I don't know about you, but I got my ~$12 check from the RIAA last year as part of the massive price fixing settlement between the music industry and the states. As a quick recap, the music industry was running a "minimum advertised pricing" scheme (MAPS), under which they'd withold valuable in-store promotional materials (i.e. giant cardboard cut-outs of Outkast, posters of Britney, and the like) from large retail chains that advertised CDs at low prices as a way of drawing people into the store. Wal-Mart is one of the chains that uses CDs as a loss leader, so when the feds found that MAPS was another just word for "illegal price fixing" Wal-Mart went right back to its loss-leading ways.

Now, the retailer is tired of losing money on CDs, and has told the music industry to lower prices, or else. Wal-Mart is looking to sell CDs for under $10 (still a rip-off in a world of $15 DVDs), and still make a profit. Here's a quote from the Rolling Stone coverage of this that gives you an idea of how much clout Wal-Mart has in the music industry:

Tensions are not as high now as they were last winter, but making sure Wal-Mart is happy remains one of the music industry's major priorities. That's because if Wal-Mart cut back on music, industry sales would suffer severely -- though Wal-Mart's shareholders would barely bat an eye. While Wal-Mart represents nearly twenty percent of major-label music sales, music represents only about two percent of Wal-Mart's total sales. "If they got out of selling music, it would mean nothing to them," says another label executive. "This keeps me awake at night."

I never thought I'd say this, but good for Wal-Mart. Maybe they can get CD prices lowered across the board. If this happens and CD sales go up, then it'll be yet more proof that the folks who're responsible for the current state of the music industry are myopic fools who should be tarred and feathered, or forced to watch MTV for a few hours, or some other such horrible punishment.

When a company gets as big as this it's scary. Why doesn't the Monopolies Commision seem to do anything anymore?

They threw a double six and landed on Mayfair.

Does Walmart discounting actually increase real sales of new releases?

In the UK the supermarkets seem to have a lot of compilation CDs. Recyling old stuff which I assume is profitable for the record company even at low prices.

Just wondering how much the purchases of (for example) top 10 singles/albums are influenced by discounts.

To be honest I wish Walmart would properly take over Asda and have their huge stores here.
As a customer I loved the amazing range they had in Walmart when I went to Florida last year, you could even get new tyres for your car while you waited!
In the music dept they were cheap and had added value as in dvd's with free soundtrack cd's etc

I know Tesco's and Sainsbury's have cheap cd's but they never stock the special editions with bonus dvd's etc