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Yahoo! Music raises prices

if you're renting your music, you didn't really care that much in the first place, did you? :D

seriously tho, rot in hell Yahoo.
 
It only affects subscribers who want to want to transfer Yahoo! tracks to portable players, so that's like, six people?
 
iMeowbot said:
It only affects subscribers who want to want to transfer Yahoo! tracks to portable players, so that's like, six people?
Click to expand...

I think it's 5 now. Not sure but I thought I heard a guy saying he was getting rid of his Zen for a nano.
 
Subscription based music sounds like a great idea, actually. Its like unlimited downloading from a site that has craploads of music. However, it'll never fly if you can't own it, although I'm sure there's a million and 1 ways to cheat it and get it onto a music player, or just keep the music if you unsubscribe.
 
I went to yahoo today and they are still pushing it as 4.99 per month. (when you sign up for a year). To me that would suggest that you will get it at 4.99 for at least a year. After that it clearly states that
Once billing begins, your subscription will automatically renew on the monthly/yearly anniversary of your billing date, at the then-current price offered to the public for the subscription you select,
Click to expand...
This is no different than any other subscription service. Heck I wish I could still have cable TV at the 15$ per month I used to pay when I first signed up.

Abstract said:
Subscription based music sounds like a great idea, actually. Its like unlimited downloading from a site that has craploads of music. However, it'll never fly if you can't own it, although I'm sure there's a million and 1 ways to cheat it and get it onto a music player, or just keep the music if you unsubscribe.
Click to expand...


I kind of like the idea of having unlimited access to music. There are many times at work where we will be talking about a song and want to hear it. If it is not in any of our libraries (3 iPods in my group with rather varying tastes) then we have no way to hear it unless you count a 30 second clip from itms. Sure we could just buy the song for 99 cents but I may never listen to it again.. I would even like to see itms do something similar to this. Make it an option for say $5 per month and give you the option to DL it for a slight discount after you listen to it.

I think you can do that on yahoo for .79 cents per song.

Yep I was right.

Play over a million full length songs – just $4.99/mo*.
Pay just 79¢ to download songs for burning your own CDs
Click to expand...
 
watcher2001 said:
This is no different than any other subscription service. Heck I wish I could still have cable TV at the 15$ per month I used to pay when I first signed up.
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Personally I think it's a bit different.
If you record a lot of shows, from cable, you will still be able to view them years later. Even if you've stopped paying.

Your music from Yahoo! wont be around though.
Unless you paid premium to be able to burn the songs.
 
snowdog said:
Personally I think it's a bit different.
If you record a lot of shows, from cable, you will still be able to view them years later. Even if you've stopped paying.

Your music from Yahoo! wont be around though.
Unless you paid premium to be able to burn the songs.
Click to expand...

I guess you could legally do the equivalent of taping TV shows- you could record the rental songs and re-encode to mp3. I'm not sure if it's illegal, since you're not cracking the protection (like ripping DVD's), and are making lossy copies (just like recording off the radio.)

I guess it maybe illegal, since it's probably illegal to copy rental movies (even lossy copies?)
 
madmaxmedia said:
I guess you could legally do the equivalent of taping TV shows- you could record the rental songs and re-encode to mp3. I'm not sure if it's illegal, since you're not cracking the protection (like ripping DVD's), and are making lossy copies (just like recording off the radio.)

I guess it maybe illegal, since it's probably illegal to copy rental movies (even lossy copies?)
Click to expand...

That gets into a really fuzzy area. I think you are allowed to reproduce it for personal use as long as you don't rebroadcast it or use it for personal gain.
 
watcher2001 said:
That gets into a really fuzzy area. I think you are allowed to reproduce it for personal use as long as you don't rebroadcast it or use it for personal gain.
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Normally I think that is the case. But with Yahoo Unlimited, I would then be able to download 200 GB of music, and convert it all to mp3. All within a single month of use...
 
Well, offering a subscription based service and then the opportunity to buy the good songs outright for $0.69 would be the winning idea. I know Yahoo lets you transfer that song for $0.79, but if you "own" it for $0.69 or $0.79, that might be better.

I think iTunes should give you the $0.99 price per track, and a lower price of $0.69 per track if they're part of the subscription service.
 
Abstract said:
Well, offering a subscription based service and then the opportunity to buy the good songs outright for $0.69 would be the winning idea. I know Yahoo lets you transfer that song for $0.79, but if you "own" it for $0.69 or $0.79, that might be better.
Click to expand...

OK, I am confused now. When you download the track from yahoo for .79 cents do you not at that point OWN it. It says you can download it to burn it to a CD. That to me leads me to think that I own it?
 
watcher2001 said:
OK, I am confused now. When you download the track from yahoo for .79 cents do you not at that point OWN it. It says you can download it to burn it to a CD. That to me leads me to think that I own it?
Click to expand...
Not quite, there are still restrictions (just as there are with the iTunes store). Maybe the biggest one is that the DRM negates the traditional right of first sale that you would get with a book or CD. You could try to resell the burnt tracks, I suppose, but those have reduced value built in and (unlike with an original CD) it would be a copyright violation to do so since you agreed not to do that. You really get no resale rights to those tracks, and DRM helps to back that up; therefore, you don't really own anything of substantial value (and even the little value you keep could disappear if the DRM servers are taken down in the future, the permissions they are willing to extend change, and so on).
 
I think a lot of this is in perception. If this were sold as "Programable streaming radio" would people look at it differently? As I stated in an earlier post in this thread. I like the thought of being able to listen to any song I want, any time I want, on an computer I want without having to carry anything with me. (Not that my iPod is ever more than 2 feet away from me).

For example. I am listening to the radio, I hear a song that is new and I like. I can then go to "music unlimited" and listen to the entire song again (not just a 30 cecond clip) to see if I really like it. Then I can listen to the rest of the CD (once again the entire thing, not just 30 second clips) to see if it is something I really like... If I like it then I can either buy or download the CD. Also if I just want to listen to music that I kinda like (not well enough to own) then I can do that as well.
To me that would be worth $5 dollars a month. The only reason I have not signed up is because it does not appear to be iPod compatible.
 
reposed as directed

Actual quotes from the Engadget site of comments about the Yahoo price increase. Can you spot the common thread?

"I agree the software itself seems a bit buggy at time and is slow and a bit ugly, but it's still a wonderful value in my opinion, for all the new music I've discovered."

"Anyone who has actually tried this service knows how buggy and pathetic the engine is. Yes, I said pathetic. While the selection may be good and the price is good. What’s the point if the program you have to use feels like it never left alpha stages? "

"I've been using Yahoo for a couple of months. The application itself is the crappiest thing ever (script errors, random crashes, features suddenly stop working). But the concept is great"

"I'm a member of YMU, and as others have said, it's a boon for discovering and experimenting with new music, and the price and quality is best-in-class, even with the price increase (which we all knew was coming anyway.) Annual subscribers like me will see no price increase for a year anyway, and after that, it's less than a Benjamin a year."

Lifetime windows users who are comfortable with mediocrity.
 
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