Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Yahoo Unveils Music Subscription Service

Yahoo's Santa Monica-based entertainment division announced that it is entering the online music subscription business with a new, subscription-based music download service. The new service goes head to head against services like Los Angeles-based Napster, Apple iTunes, and the RealNetworks Rhapsody service. The company said that its Yahoo! Music Unlimited service will also be linked to its popular instant messaging application and enable legal music sharing. The company is rolling out beta availability of the service for $4.99 per month, and will offer the service at $59.88 annually or $6.99 a month. The service will be available today and feature a catalog of more than one million songs, featured in protected WMA and other rights-managed formats. The new service is powered by New York-based MusicNet.