Yahoo! tunes! out! of! music! subscription!

Yahoo! is taking some time out from worrying about what it's like to be a Microsoft tentacle to offload its damp squib music subscription service. Rhapsody, the near-identical subscription service joint-owned by RealNetworks and Viacom, will take on Yahoo! Music Unlimited's undisclosed customer base, in what's descibed as a " …

[Anonymous Coward]

Music as a rental service

Hmm, let me see...

£15 per album, ten tracks per album (yeah, I know, in the olden days you got 12 or even 15...),

Lets say I keep the album for 10 years (yes, I'm aware that some strange people actually keep their albums forever).

So I guess I'd be prepared to rent for maybe as much as 1p per track per month - provided the catalogue had good coverage of the last 60 years of music of course.

Any sellers? No?

Oh wait - I forgot to factor in that eight out of ten tracks on each album nowadays are dross. So /that's/ why it costs so much... they need to recoup the losses made letting made-for-TV 'bands' record badly-sung atonal dirges....

[AJames]

But what about Canada?

It's easy to dismiss the music subscription model if you haven't tried it, but for some of us it's a viable option. Whatever else their faults may have been, Yahoo performed two great services for us:

1. They offered the cheapest music subscription service by far, and the competition kept everybody else's price down. Their imminent demise has allowed Rhapsody to raise prices by 30% already.

2. They offered service in Canada. As all online music buyers know, the music industry cartels restrict licences to sell music regionally, and Rhapsody is tightly restricted to USA only. What are they going to do for the Canadian subscribers to Yahoo's service?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shame - it was a great service.

I thought the Yahoo music service was fantastic. I paid $3 a month (because I signed up via the mastercard link) and I got access to almost everything. I no longer even thought about what music I owned - just what I liked. It is this service that got me to go clean.

You shouldn't right off a service just because it won't play on iPods - for people who don't own iPods (yes, there are still some of us) this is irrelevant.

But now I am in the same boat as AJames. Yahoo offerred their service in Canada, but Real does not. So what happens to me? And even if they did, am I comfortable installing software from Real on my computer?

[wyly]

Subscritpion Music is much better than the Reg is willing to admit

I suggest our Canadian friends sign up for Napster, which offers its service in Canada as well as England, Germany, Japan, and many others through its mobile service. I have been a NAPS subscriber for over two years...love it. You bashers really need to get over the concept of "owning" littel files of electrons hidden in a box under your desk. Music is enjoyed only when heard and the best way to hear the most music is via the subscription model. I was a nay sayer as well until I tried it.

[Tom Chiverton]

@wyly

When your direct debit is mucked up by your bank, or your hard drive crashes, maybe you'll see why 'subscription' isn't very good...

[Dazzer]

@Tom Chiverton

Why? You can just download it all again. +1 for being a fan of subscriptions but Napster lost me due to their crappy client software losing all my DRM certificates every month resulting in constant re-installs. The web based client sounds good but I haven't done any research into it's UK availablity yet.

[Anna Log]

Sorry, but I do actually like Napster's service!

With teenaged daughters whose musical tastes change every 5 minutes buying music to listen to forever is a waste of time and money in our household. The Napster subscription is equivalent to roughly one full price CD purchase a month, so it's much better than piles of CDs that may as well be coasters after a month or two. One subscription allows storage / playback on 3 PCs, so HDD failure isn't much of a risk.

... and it all works nicely again now I've dumped Pipex/Tiscali :-)

[wyly]

Subscritpion Music is much better than the Reg is willing to admit

Well, I've never had a problem with the way Napster charges my credit card every month nor have I any problems with the software. The new version 4.1 works like a charm. I have it loaded onto my laptop which receives a wireless signal from my desktop and the laptop is plugged directly into the Auxillary jack in the back of my stereo system. I gotta tell ya, I can't imagine a better way to experience music. My laptop is now basically my control center for all music and I have the world's largest music library at my command. I can also listen on my office PC and my nephew uses the third PC allotment so he gets all the music he could ever want for free off my sub. I also have three Napster-provided mp3 players that I download or sync to various playlists. I use one for my workouts at the gym, one is loaded up with nothing but guitar music that I use for practicing guitar and the third is used by my nephew. If all that isn't a bloody amazing value proposition then I don't know what is.