Yahoo! Music Jukebox

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Yahoo! Music Jukebox

Developer:	Yahoo!
Latest release:	2.0.2.042 / January 26, 2007
OS:	Windows 98/Me, 2000, XP, Vista
Use:	Media player
License:	Proprietary
Website:	music.yahoo.com/jukebox

Yahoo! Music Jukebox is a free music player released by Yahoo! in 2005. Its appearance is somewhat similar to the MusicMatch Jukebox, related to the fact that MusicMatch, which developed the Jukebox, was purchased by Yahoo! in 2004.

Its features include CD ripping and burning, access to LAUNCHcast and the Yahoo! Music Unlimited music subscription service, playlist creation, transfer of music to select portable devices such as mp3 players and USB flash drives. The program allows Yahoo! Messenger users to stream music to one another (not to be confused with uploading and downloading or filesharing) and browse one another's playlists. Only those subscribed to Yahoo! Unlimited can add entire songs to their collections, however. Non-subscribers are limited to a thirty second sample.

One can rip songs in a variety of formats including .wav, .mp3, and .wmv. Interestingly, one cannot rip songs in the .wma format, despite the fact that songs purchased from Yahoo! are encoded using that format.

The engine also has a number of plugins available for free download from the program's official website below. The programming interfaces for the engine are open; anyone may create a plug-in or skin to modify the behavior of the engine.

Recently it has been upgraded and renamed to Yahoo! Music Jukebox (from Yahoo! Music engine).

[edit] System Requirements

Yahoo! Music Jukebox requires Microsoft Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6 or newer and Windows Media Player 9 or newer. [1] It currently does not support running on other operating systems. Due to its dependence on Active X, a proprietary technology developed by Microsoft, it is likely not to be ported to other operating systems.

YME does not completely install under Windows XP Pro x64, but it will work after the partial install is finished. However, it sometimes crashes, which can be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the program.