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Yahoo Plans Its Own Music Player, Download Service

Posted by timothy on from the despite-its-face dept.

iPod writes "Since late last year, Yahoo has been developing its own music player software, which will be underpinned by a subscription and download service provided by MusicNet, sources familiar with the plan said. Yahoo is developing its own music player software, backed by MusicNet-provided downloads and subscriptions, that it plans to run alongside the recently purchased Musicmatch."

2 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Should be good... by here4fun · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Yahoo plans to beef up its IM service with more-interactive music features that enable people to listen to one another's playlists, according to sources familiar with the initiative.

    So how is this different than if I share my songs?

    The Musicmatch acquisition brought Yahoo the third-largest audience for online music, according to Internet research firm ComScore Media Metrix. As of August, Yahoo's Launch ranked top with 14 million unique users, followed by AOL Music at 13 million and Musicmatch at 5.8 million. MSN Music came in fourth with 4.3 million, Napster owner Roxio had 2.1 million unique users, and RealNetworks' Listen accounted for 1.8 million.

    I don't own any drm music. If I want mp3's, I rip them from my own CD's and trade with friends (since we paid for the CD, we can make copies and give them out for free to anyone we want, regardless of what the RIAA says). Those pay services all have their own DRM (I am guessing from what I have been reading), so it is like owning a cripled peice of software. I don't get why people buy something that will only work on X's player.

    --

    Come and say hi. http://forum.penpals.com/index.php

  2. Re:Wow, just like they manhandled the TV networks! by caddisfly · · Score: 5, Interesting
    ...maybe it is the morning, but I thought this should have been moderated as "funny" or at least sarcastic. ;-)

    ...downloads are becoming more and more of a commodity item.

    Does this favor those that give "value add" - like Apple, who develops products along the entire vertical chain (below music creation point, anyway) and can distinguish themselves in the market any where along the chain *OR* will the monopoly presence of MS and the use of the WMA format by the commodity providers make that uniqueness/differentiation hard to maintain/defend?

    ...time will tell. Right now, ipod is cool and has established name/concept recognition that no one else can touch. It is still the crown jewels and no one else will ever produce an "ipod" except Apple. I would imagine a large percentage of the consumer market couldn't name another music player other than ipod. It is kinda like Kleenex and Sheetrock.

    And we already know that Apple produces better software

    ....we will see if this matters.