Didn't take long. In fact, it took only until MP3-sales hit the radar of the sorts of pundit reports that would be read by their ilk, and sure 'nuff, puff go all those get-rich dreams of selling billions and billions of your MP3 tracks online because Wal-Mart has joined the fray, and we already know what that means for supplier's profits.

So the RIAA slide a bit farther down the slope of fronting sweatshop labour, trapped now by that delicious fat WalMart order cheque and the escalating backfliptrick demands that will precede it. Juicy. What's worse, the big yellow smiley Devourer of Whole Cities doesn't even need to turn a profit on this new upstart sideline service; like Genghis Khan, they don't seek fortune, only territory ...

Analysts have said that the goal for Wal-Mart is to bring more people to its Web site. Even if the music service sold 100 million songs, that would add up to just $88 million -- a paltry sum for a company that recorded nearly $260 billion in revenue last year.

88 cents this year. 77 the next, then 66 and then...

Shares of Wal-Mart were up 12 cents, and shares of the profit-eyed MP3-vending artists just went down.