Beginning October 9th, Walmart is planning to sell only DRM-free music and end support for DRM-protected music bought before February 2008. This effectively requires customers to backup all purchases to audio CDs -- a process that reduces quality when the songs are re-imported to a computer -- or lose them entirely. The company joins several other major corporations that have ended or will end support for DRM services, making purchases either completely unusable or requiring time-consuming, lossy backups: Google, Microsoft, Virgin Digital and Major League Baseball all disbanded their music stores or services last year, Sony killed its proprietary ATRAC format in lieu of more popular protection schemes, and Yahoo will shut down its Music Unlimited store late this September. Though Google and MLB were forced to give refunds or replace content that was destroyed by the structural changes, it remains to be seen how Walmart will treat its paying customers if they fail to backup store-bought music before the deadline -- a date that is less than two weeks away from the first notice.

[Via Gizmodo]