This follow up is a bit late (school is killing me lately) but worth noting. A few days after r I posted on Wal-Mart's threats to movie studios against licensing content to iTunes, Variety reported the two companies are negotiating. While any threat from Wal-Mart is a credible threat, I thought it was more a scheme to get concessions that something that would lead to an outright ban.

Turns out Wal-Mart may get concessions. One possible result: iTunes gives Wal-Mart a cut of its sales. In exchange, Wal-Mart sells digital download coupons for iTunes. One good thing that could come out of that, other than more movies at iTunes, is that iTunes downloads may less the effects of seasonality in digital downloads; gift cards increase sales in the fourth and first quarters (mainly the first) and then sales drop and level off.