Posted on Monday, February 04 2008 @ 15:57 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Yahoo announced it will close its online music subscription service and transfer its users to RealNetworks' Rhapsody.
Terms of the deal, to be formally announced Monday, were not disclosed. The move is part of Yahoo's overhaul of its online music offerings.
"People want to have music and consume it in lots of different forms and across different devices and platforms and we want to have a play in as many of those as we can," said Scott Moore, Yahoo's head of media.
Moore said the partnership would allow Yahoo to focus its energies more on free, ad-supported music and other media offerings.
Yahoo Music Unlimited lets users download an unlimited number of tracks that are playable as long as their plan is active.
Under the Yahoo-RealNetworks partnership, subscribers to Yahoo Music Unlimited will be shifted to the Rhapsody service sometime in the first half of this year. Yahoo subscribers' music library and payment plans will remain the same for a limited time after the switch, but those wishing to remain on Rhapsody eventually will be required to sign up at Rhapsody's rates.
Yahoo's subscription rates range from $5.99 a month, if users pay for a full year in advance, or $8.99 a month. Rhapsody memberships start at $12.99 a month.
More info
at Google News.
