INTERACT FORUM
More => Music and Movie Services => Topic started by: JimH on February 04, 2008, 06:44:08 am
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"Yahoo Inc. will cease operating its online music subscription service and switch its customers to RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody music service as part of a new deal between the companies that calls for Yahoo to promote Rhapsody on its site."
Full article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080204/ap_on_hi_te/yahoo_online_music;_ylt=Avt5aQiw6A6qSIhQdSp2yxd34T0D
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Interesting...
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As long as Rhapsody supports my remaining free year from the buy-one-get-one-free Mastercard deal I signed up with at Yahoo Music, I'll happily ditch Yahoo's craptastic Yahoo Music Jukebox software :) After that expires, I'll have to start comparing services again, because Rhapsody is a LOT more expensive than Yahoo was.
Unfortunately, I'll bet the people Yahoo screwed when they bought MusicMatch (purchased tracks disappearing...) aren't going to find Rhapsody any more helpful...
-John
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More Information
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/two-views-of-digital-music-subscriptions/?ref=technology (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/two-views-of-digital-music-subscriptions/?ref=technology)
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Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo!
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-01CorpNewsPR.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-01CorpNewsPR.mspx)
This More Sound Like The Army Saying During Combat "Incoming!"
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I don't like this announcement at all, but time will tell.
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I read somewhere (maybe TechCrunch) that Yahoo subscribers would be allowed to keep their lower priced service for a limited time. That sounds ominous to me.
I still have almost a year on my two-years-for-one deal and I'll be pretty unhappy if I lose it.
While I have been moving more toward pay-to-own services (especially DRM free Amazon), I do still like being able to listen to newly released albums in their entirety via Yahoo (after I've downloaded them into my MC library).
We'll see how this plays out.
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Here's Yahoo's FAQ on the shutdown/transfer:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/music/rhapsodymigration/faq.html
-John
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Yahoo announced this week (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080724-drm-still-sucks-yahoo-music-going-dark-taking-keys-with-it.html) that they plan on shutting down their DRM servers on September 30th and you will no longer be able to reauthorize any files you purchased legally (if you, for example, buy a new computer some time in your life or reinstall Windows or something like that).
Once the Yahoo store goes down and the key servers go offline, existing tracks cannot be authorized to play on new computers. Instead, Yahoo recommends the old, lame, and lossy workaround of burning the files to CD, then reripping them onto the computer. Sure, you'll lose a bunch of blank CDs, sound quality, and all the metadata, but that's a small price to pay for the privilege of being able to listen to that music you lawfully acquired. Good thing you didn't download it illegally or just buy it on CD!
And as a lawyer from the EFF points out (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/here-we-go-again-yahoo-music-throws-away-drm-keys), this isn't a great idea because...
What is worse, this suggestion could put customers at legal risk, as they may not have documentation of purchase. Furthermore, there is no certainty that all relevant copyright owners would agree that making such backup copies without permission is lawful.
So, if you end up getting sued by the RIAA at some time in the future, and you have all those MP3s you ripped through this workaround-CD-loophole, they could end up being used against you as evidence that you're a pirate. Arrrgh!
And this is why DRM is a very, very, very, very bad idea. How do you trust that those companies are going to be around in 5, or 10, or 25 years? Or even if they are, will they support the old files still on new hardware and software, or would they rather you just purchase it again with whatever new hairbrained file scheme they have in the future?
Makes you glad you bought them legally, eh?
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JRiver could run the servers. We're a close partner of MediaNet who provides the back end music tracks for the Yahoo service. I've written MediaNet's CEO, Alan McGlade, to offer to help.
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Wow. I really hope for the customers' sake that they take you up on that offer. (I'm a bit skeptical that they will, but hopefully they won't be that silly.)
Either way, it demonstrates the major underlying problem with DRM and really any closed format. Who knows how long support will last? They can really turn off support for this stuff without a moment's notice, and this proves it.
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Wow. I really hope for the customers' sake that they take you up on that offer. (I'm a bit skeptical that they will, but hopefully they won't be that silly.)
I'm guessing that Rhapsody's deal with Yahoo requires it. Rhapsody "bought" the customers.
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Rhapsody "bought" the customers.
I Need Some Reparations.
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I Need Some Reparations.
The Good Yahoo Fairy is going to grant your wish:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/music/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209601121
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Has anybody made the transfer yet from Yahoo Music to Rhapsody? From reading everything I can find, it doesn't seem like it will affect anything since you can set Rhapsody to download in WMA. I have already taken care of my purchased music from Yahoo. If somebody has made the transfer, anything we should watch out for?
Or have you decided not to make the transfer because there's a better service than Rhapsody out there, maybe cheaper like Yahoo was? My subscription ends in November so I wouldn't be opposed to changing.
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Has anybody made the transfer yet from Yahoo Music to Rhapsody?
Umm, Yes
It Could Not License All Tracks, But Most Came Out OK.
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I've also transferred. The selection is basically the same, with a few tracks here or there that exist in one but not the other.
My bigger complaint is that Rhapsody's player still hangs on occasion when you start downloading tracks and try and do anything else with the program... I figured they would have at least fixed that after almost 2 years since I left them for Yahoo.
-John
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Isn't the transfer only available for the subscription customers, and not the DRM-laden "purchased" tracks you may have bought in "one-off" fashion from Yahoo?
Everything I've read (including the reimbursement offer article Jim linked to above) says that's the deal. I wasn't a customer though so I'm fuzzy on the details.
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Isn't the transfer only available for the subscription customers, and not the DRM-laden "purchased" tracks you may have bought in "one-off" fashion from Yahoo?
Everything I've read (including the reimbursement offer article Jim linked to above) says that's the deal. I wasn't a customer though so I'm fuzzy on the details.
You're exactly correct.
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Isn't the transfer only available for the subscription customers, and not the DRM-laden "purchased" tracks you may have bought in "one-off" fashion from Yahoo?
Everything I've read (including the reimbursement offer article Jim linked to above) says that's the deal. I wasn't a customer though so I'm fuzzy on the details.
If you're replying to my comments. I was talking about the fact that they transfer your "library" of subscription tracks. On both services, you can save a track/album to your library and you can choose whether this automatically causes the software to download the DRM'ed track to your library, or just put a link to it. You won't find me purchasing tracks with DRM. It never ends well...
-John