Yahoo Closes Music Service
Posted by Radimus on 02/5/08 in The Internet, Yahoo
More and more of these music services are closing their virtual doors. Is iTunes forcing them out due to market dominance or is this just the first of the Yahoo services being sacrificed in the light of the possible Microsoft buyout.
Yet another iTunes competitor is going down the bit bucket–Yahoo will close its Music Unlimited service and move its remaining subscribers over to RealNetworks’ Rhapsody later this
year.
Yahoo explained the move yesterday in a post on its corporate blog:
Around 25 million people visit Yahoo! Music each month. Relatively speaking, a small percentage of those use Yahoo! Music Unlimited, yet an large portion of our resources were being poured into this service. It was clear to us that we needed to make a major strategic shift.The post goes on to say that Yahoo subscribers will be able to “easily take their music catalogs and migrate to Rhapsody.” But a press release at Real’s site notes that these people will wind up paying more for “a limited time” after they’re moved over to Rhapsody. Where Yahoo charges $8.99 a month for unlimited, “tethered” downloads to a computer (or $5.99/month if you prepay for a year), Rhapsody’s equivalent service costs $12.99 a month.
Yahoo’s pricing advantage was even stronger when it launched the service. But as the company ratcheted up its prices, then mysteriously dumped the “To Go” option that allowed copying these rented downloads to certain “PlaysForSure” music devices, Yahoo Music Unlimited had less and less to distinguish itself from Rhapsody and other services.
Some things are still unclear after Yahoo’s announcements:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/02/yahoo_hits_the_eject_button_on.html
Written by Radimus · Filed Under The Internet, Yahoo
Tagged:
Did you like this post?
Share your vote!
(No Ratings Yet)
Leave a Reply