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February 4, 2008

music

Yahoo Music bids us all adieu

Posted Feb. 4, ’08, 9:32 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Music

Yahoo! MusicAnd, as Freddie Mercury famously sang, another one bites the dust. See, this is what happens when every dot-com and their mother thinks “Hey, a media store! What a great idea!” A few months back, it was Sony’s Connect service that took a long walk off a short pier; around the same time, MTV decided to fold its Urge store into Rhapsody: now, Yahoo Music has followed along in their footsteps.

In a post on the official Yahoo Music Blog, Ian Rogers announced that Yahoo Music would be shutting down, with existing customers transferred to Yahoo’s new music partner—drumroll, please—Rhapsody. So, on the upside, Yahoo Music owners won’t be stuck with DRM-encoded tracks that they can’t use; on the downside, Yahoo was one of the first distributors to really push DRM-free music, so it’s a shame to see them go. The integration deal will take place later this year, with more details still forthcoming. Needless to say, it’s an interesting development in the wake of the potential Microsoft deal—of course, Microsoft has their own music “marketplace.”

So what does the market look like now? iTunes is still sitting pretty in the top spot, and Amazon’s not one to be shrugged off, for sure. Does Rhapsody still have a chance? With much of the rest of the industry putting their eggs in Rhapsody’s basket, maybe, but it’s got an uphill climb ahead of it.

[via iPod Observer]


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