Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Users with Yahoo! accounts can gain access to hundreds of thousands of songs sorted by artist, album, song and genre.

History

Yahoo! Music began as "LAUNCH", a website and magazine produced by LAUNCH Media which Yahoo! acquired for US$12 million in 2001.^[1] LAUNCH was later rebranded as "Yahoo! Music", then simply "Y! Music" in February 2005. LAUNCH's LAUNCHcast Internet radio and music video offerings were integrated into Yahoo!'s site along with artist profiles containing an extensive selection of music and biographical information.

Yahoo! Music was the number one online music site in terms of audience reach and total time spent in March 2007.

As of June 2008^[update], Yahoo! Music's old website is inactive and redirecting to the new website at new.music.yahoo.com.

Products

Yahoo! Music offers a variety of products, including:

• Yahoo! Music Radio (formerly LAUNCHcast) (Content provided by CBS Radio) and LAUNCHcast Plus Internet radio (No Longer offered beginning Feb. 2009)
• Yahoo! Music Jukebox
• Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription streaming and download service
• Live Sets - Exclusive video concerts from A-list artists
• Who's Next - Listeners vote on emerging artists
• Pepsi Smash on Yahoo! Music - Exclusive video interviews, performances, and reality segments
• Artist profiles, music videos and lyrics
• Official Grammy Awards coverage

Key dates

In 2001, Yahoo! purchased LAUNCH Media, makers of the LAUNCHcast Internet radio service. On September 14, 2004, Yahoo! purchased Musicmatch, Inc., makers of the Musicmatch Jukebox software. As of Musicmatch 10.1, Yahoo! has rebranded Musicmatch Jukebox as Yahoo! Music Musicmatch Jukebox, and integrated it with the Yahoo! Music Engine store. The main difference is the branding and physical program. In 2005, Yahoo! Music became the first major online music service to provide a $5 per month unlimited download service similar to the Open Music Model, albeit with digital rights management, called Yahoo! Music Unlimited. In 2008, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo! Music Unlimited will be merged into Rhapsody.^[2] This merge was completed with the shutdown of Yahoo! Music Unlimited on September 30, 2008.

In 2011, Yahoo Music became the main CBS Radio player, with AOL Radio switching to Slacker Radio.

Lyrics

Yahoo! Music provides officially licensed lyrics.

Limits

• Local stations are limited to CBS affiliates
• No play-on-demand, playback, rewind, or fast-forward
• No direct customization, although rating songs influences the songs played
• Songs cannot be banned entirely, although a one-star rating will have it played very rarely
• Commercial interruptions every hour
• A maximum of six skips per hour per station. Refreshing or reloading the player, as well as changing the station, will use a skip.
• Banner ads, which cannot be blocked
• As of 2010, there is no premium service to remove skip limits or ads.

See also

• Yahoo! Music Unlimited
• Yahoo! Music Radio
• Live365
• Mercora
• Last.fm

References

External links

• Yahoo! Music