Yahoo! Music Unlimited

Infobox Online music service
service_name=Yahoo! Music Unlimited
service_

opened=May 11, 2005
pricing=subscription
platforms=Windows: XP, Vista
format=
restrictions=
catalogue=
preview=
streaming=
trial=
protocol=
availability=
features=
support=
homepage= [http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/ Yahoo! Music Unlimited]
footnotes=

Yahoo! Music Unlimited is an on-demand online music service launched on May 11, 2005 and provided by Yahoo! Music. Users paying a subscription fee could access a library of over two million songs which could be either streamed or downloaded as DRM'd WMA files and played from a computer in near CD quality sound. Subscribers could also download songs at a discounted rate of $0.79 per song for transfer to CD or supported portable devices. Yahoo! Music Engine was the original client for the service. Subsequently, the client changed to the Yahoo! Music Jukebox. The service required an active internet connection to play Yahoo! Music Unlimited tracks added to Yahoo! Music Jukebox's My Music.

Billing

Yahoo! offers two billing options: $8.99 monthly, or $71.88 billed annually (calculated to $5.99 per month). To transfer downloaded music to a compatible portable music player, an additional $6 per month is added to both plans. The subscription services are only available for users living in the U.S. or Canada and require a credit card (no other billing method being accepted).

Before November 1, 2005, the To Go feature was included at no extra charge. However, experts believe that this was done in order for Yahoo! to promote their service.

Features

Users who subscribe to Yahoo! Music Unlimited are able to stream and download an unlimited number of music tracks, but Janus DRM (digital rights management) technology prevents these tracks from being accessed once a user's subscription is discontinued or expires. Thus, if a user wishes to download and own a music track, they must pay an additional fee. The digital rights management employed by Yahoo prevents a user from freely distributing these tracks.

Users living outside the USA or Canada can still download the player and enjoy the features of the Yahoo! Music Engine, a software product that basically functions as a music collection organizer in a similar fashion to that of iTunes.

Yahoo! tech support has reported that Windows Media Audio codec, similar to MP3, is used at 192 kbit/s for all songs. This is a high-quality encoding and without high-end playback equipment, nearly indistinguishable from CD.

imilar services

Napster To Go and Rhapsody Unlimited, provided by Napster and RealNetworks respectively, are both similar to Yahoo! Music Unlimited. Subscription fees to these services are slightly higher. Yahoo also offers Musicmatch On Demand, a streaming music subscription service available through the Musicmatch Jukebox client. Effective, August 31, 2007, Musicmatch Jukebox will shut down. Musicmatch is offering a temporarily free migration to Yahoo Music Unlimited. Fact|date=March 2008

UnlimitedDownloadCenter.com and klitepro.com mislead viewers into believing they are buying a similar subscription service, when in reality, they are only selling tech support for programs that are already free and which give no legal rights to download music.

Discontinuation

The Yahoo Music Unlimited service was discontinued on September 30th, 2008. Yahoo's existing users were either transferred to Rhapsody(if they chose to transfer) or had their accounts deactivated. (http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/music/rhapsodymigration/faq.html)

Regions

The service is currently only available in the United States and Canada.

ee also

*LAUNCHcast
*Yahoo! Music

External links

* [http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/ Yahoo! Music Unlimited]
* [http://music.yahoo.com/ymu/resources/web/togo/devicepopup.asp List of devices compatible with Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go]
* [http://www.searchengineguide.com/mintz/008858.html Yahoo! Music Unlimited Reviewed]
* [http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-FDuiCSg4eqinB8z.GGJ7TmAz?p=89 Yahoo Music Unlimited Developer Ian Rogers Discusses The Service]

References

* [http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000127042960/ Yahoo! Music Unlimited launches]
* [http://news.softpedia.com/news/Yahoo-Raises-Fees-for-Online-Digital-Music-Service-10979.shtml Yahoo! Raises Fees for Online Digital Music Service]
* [http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9775823-7.html/ Yahoo Music Apparently Slated for Cutbacks]