Yahoo Music Engine to become a serious iTunes competitor

Posted on Wednesday, May 11 2005 @ 15:15 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

Yahoo today unveiled its online music store with prices 60 percent less than its rivals. Users can subscribe to the music download service for only $4.99 per month if paid on an annual base. For this fee you can download an unlimited amount of songs and transfer them to portable devices that support Microsoft's Janus DRM (digital rights management) technology.

Competitors like Napster and Real ask a $15 monthly fee for the same functionality and Apple's iTunes charges users per song. The songs downloaded from Yahoo's online music store stop working if a user stops paying his subscription but individual songs can be purchased for 79 cents.

Yahoo Music Engine offers more than a million songs in the Windows Media Audio format, encoded at 192Kbps.

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

Loading Comments

Share this story!