Yahoo Music

About Yahoo Music

Yahoo Music Unlimited - Yahoo Music, for short - was launched in November, 2005, as a challenge to success online P2P file sharing sites. P2P sites were coming under increasing fire from the music industry for allowing illegal file swapping, and Yahoo Music stepped in to offer a legal alternative to P2P networks for a bargain price.

Yahoo Music is a subscription based service with two different membership formats. A yearly membership, billed once annually, is around $70 per year, and a month to month membership costs $8.99. With each of these subscription plans, users can access Yahoo Music’s 2 million (and counting) song database, and they can also take advantage of special Yahoo Music promotions, like live tracks recorded exclusively for use on Yahoo Music, video clips, interviews with artists, and free promotional tracks. You can download as many songs as you like every month for the one low rate. These downloaded tracks can only be played on your computer, and you can also share your favorites with other Yahoo Music customers (you cannot share songs with non Yahoo Music customers).

If you want to take your music with you, you can purchased the special “Go To” feature from Yahoo Music, which allow you to download music to a portable music device. This features costs $6.00 per month on top of your subscription fee. These songs, however, cannot be burned onto a CD. If you want to burn songs, you have to pay a specific price per track, usually in the neighborhood of 79 cents.

Yahoo Music - The Drawbacks

While the large database of music available on Yahoo Music is certainly a boon to any music fan, there is trouble in paradise. The most glaring issue with Yahoo Music is that you are essentially “renting” songs. If you drop your Yahoo Music membership, or forget to pay one of your monthly bills, all your song downloads go up in smoke. That includes tracks that you have downloaded to a media player. Yahoo Music claims this is a cost effective way to get all the music you want without the high price tag of a mega music collection, some music fans may balk at the idea of choosing between a lifetime subscription to Yahoo Music or giving up their music collection.

Another issue with Yahoo Music is that the files are not compatible with iPods. There is a whole list of compatible MP3 devices listed on the Yahoo Music website, but since Yahoo Music files are downloaded in WMA (Windows Media) format, your iPod becomes a causality of the great Windows/Mac war.

What Can You Find on Yahoo Music?

Yahoo Music definitely has an extensive music selection, and their music library covers many different genres of music. Looking for songs by The Fray/Justin Timberlake/Nelly Furtado/My Chemical Romance/Toby Keith/Snoop Dogg and the like? No problem! Looking for MP3s of The Wedding Present Hit Parade collection? Not so much. Yahoo Music is really great for all of the latest music trends across the genres, but independent music is sorely lacking.

More About Yahoo Music

To find out more about Yahoo Music, or to get your own music subscription, visit their home page.

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