Walmart MP3 Downloads, the retailer's 7-year-old iTunes competitor, will go dark at the end of the month.

The company plans to silence the site on August 29, according to The New York Times. Once viewed as a serious threat to iTunes, Walmart's online music store never made huge inroads against Apple, despite deep discounting. The store's introductory price per track was $0.88, which undercut Apple by $0.11.

Walmart rebooted the store in 2008 by offering top hits at $0.74 cents per song and other tracks for $0.94, plus a free download of the week. The store included more than 3 million tracks with content from all the major labels. There were other perks, including a free MP3 download with every CD purchased in-store or online. But nothing, it seemed, could tempt enough Apple users away to make it worthwhile for the Bentonville giant.

Why do you think Walmart could never compete? Let us know in the comments.