Yahoo Music Shutting Down, Users Going to Real

Tech.Luver sends in word of Yahoo's decision to exit the subscription music business. Yahoo's current subscribers — the company doesn't disclose how many it has — will be switched over to Real's Rhapsody service, and Yahoo will promote Real on its site. Yahoo had priced its subscription service significantly below Real's: $5.99 a month (if users pay a year in advance), vs. Rhapsody memberships at $12.99 a month and up. The Mercury News wonders how the Yahoo-Real deal would fare if Microsoft takes over — not well, the betting goes.

Re:RealPlayer

[numbsafari]

I refuse to use any site that requires RealPlayer... Hence I don't use Amazon's song sampling...

I hate RealPlayer.

It would actually be a great thing for MS to take over Yahoo if only to help prevent the further spread of the virus that is RealPlayer.

Re:RealPlayer

[mrxak]

As much as I agree with you about RealPlayer being utterly evil, I still prefer the unstable tripod of Google-Microsoft-Yahoo to the cold war deadlock Google-Microsoft.

Subscription DRM services

[nurb432]

Yet another example of why you never want to sign up with one. No matter how good the company is, *today*.

How to monetize -- Yahoo style.

[whoever57]

One assumes that Yahoo could have raised prices -- to the same level as Real now charges. However, this would incur quite a lot of displeasure amongst users. This deal will undoubtably incur some displeasure, but, some of that will be directed against Real, not Yahoo.

So, Yahoo presumably has a deal under which it will be able to be compensated for the lost revenue (perhaps even the revenue which could have been gained by increasing prices) without the pain of actually putting up prices. THere may be some upfront cash which may help in a battle aginst Microsoft.

The problem is that the net result is less eyeballs on Yahoo's pages. It's those eyeballs that are Yahoo's value. The long term effect of this may be a net reduction in revenue.

The Big Questions: How do users transfer?

[JoeCommodore]

I have a friend who uses it pretty regular probably has a 1000 songs he listens to (DRMed - has to check in regularly to keep them alive).

I wonder how it will transfer?
Will it transfer (DRM compatibility)?
Will Real support his devices?
And what songs will he loose access to due to the transfer (from RI contract differences between Cos.)

If they do it right he probably will keep going with them, if they mess it up he probably will leave along with others.

Re:RealPlayer

[kcornia]

This argument always fascinates me. The same is true of your cable TV, but I don't see constant bitching about the cable pay model. The music goes away if you stop paying because you're paying for a SERVICE, not for the music. If you want to pay for the music, then Amazon/iTunes is all there for you. But to buy just what I have in my sansa right now you'd be paying about 5-10 years worth of rhapsody monthly fees. Do you think you'll still want all that music that far in the future? I know I don't listen to many of my old CDs, so Rhapsody is great value for me.

And as far as the comment above this, you're asking the company to let you download whatever you want, whenever you want, as much as you want, in any bitrate/codec you want, on the HONOR system, the promise that you won't download it and then stop paying and share it with your friends?

DRM for music that you guy is lame, I agree. But DRM for music that you buy as a service makes total sense and I have no problem with it. Sure it would be nice if they could all agree so I didn't have to have both a Nano and a Sansa player. But Sansa players are 40 bucks and its plug and play from there so I'm not losing sleep over it.

Re:RealPlayer

[Skynyrd]

This argument always fascinates me. The same is true of your cable TV, but I don't see constant bitching about the cable pay model. The music goes away if you stop paying because you're paying for a SERVICE, not for the music. If you want to pay for the music, then Amazon/iTunes is all there for you. But to buy just what I have in my sansa right now you'd be paying about 5-10 years worth of rhapsody monthly fees. Do you think you'll still want all that music that far in the future? I know I don't listen to many of my old CDs, so Rhapsody is great value for me.

Yeah, but that argument doesn't hold water at all. Video is generally watched once or twice (with some exceptions) where music is listened to repeatedly. I want to rent video (because it's so much cheaper per viewing) and buy music (because I keep it and listen to it over and over, for years).

I can play MP3s in my living room (HTPC), bedroom (PC), truck (MP3 player/CD player), car (iPod + tape deck), motorcycle (cell phone + earbud) at work (thumb drive in my PC + speakers or iPod + speakers/earbuds) and on and on... I just don't have that flexibility with rental music. I'm also not interested in the "band of the week". I tend to listen to music for years, so renting doesn't do it for me. I guess if I was 15 again and listened to whatever the radio told me to, I'd rent.

My music collection is about 1,000 albums, and I've been buying CDs for 20 years (records for a few years before that).

If renting works for you, that's great. But the music/video comparison doesn't really work.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Forcing badware on users ?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Well, fuck you too, arsehole.

If you'd read that page, you'd clearly see that RealPlayer 11 indeed includes Rhapsody.

RealPlayer comes with the engine that plays Rhapsody music. That is not the Rhapsody client. When you join Rhapsody, you download the Rhapsody Client, not Real Player. Basically what I'm getting at is you still don't know what you're talking about. Worse, you're actually spreading FUD. (Amusingly, you would have gotten this if YOU had read the page you linked to.) You see, Real Player is not forced upon you. You're not even tricked into downloading it like iTunes and Quicktime. (Which is probably why you and the numbnut mods believe what you're saying without challenging it.)

Since you're so adamant about arguing with me about this, I'll just take a moment here to explain something: I am a Rhapsody subscriber. I have been for years. I've installed it a number of times. Wanna hear something fascinating? I have never once installed Real Player while installing Rhapsody. When you sign up for Rhapsody, you are taken to a download link, and all you download is the Rhapsody client. You don't have to, for example, go find the 'basic' version of Rhapsody or go hunting around the site for a de-packaged version. The truth of the matter is, if you want to have both Rhapsody and Real installed, you have to root around for two different downloads. (At least coming from the point of view of somebody signing up for Rhapsody, which is what these users from Yahoo will be asked to do.)

I really don't care if you think I'm an 'arsehole'. I think you're an 'arsehole' for spouting bullshit. Frankly, if the roles were reversed you'd again think I was an 'arsehole'. You can sit there and be mad at me for not being diplomatic in my original post (which I admit to. Not my proudest moment). Or you can sit there, realize your mistake, and learn from it. Your choice. Either way, have a nice day. :)