~HeadShot~
Skilled
Music Mis-Match?
When Yahoo acquired Musicmatch last September, it was clear the company wanted a larger piece of the digital music market.
But with Wednesday's launch of Yahoo Music Unlimited, the company's digital music subscription service, some wondered where Musicmatch -- which Yahoo acquired for $160 million -- fit into Yahoo's music plans. The two services offer similar ways to find and buy songs.
"I think that Yahoo's overwhelming strategy is about finding and acquiring members of communities and registered users so they won't get Googled again," said Eliot Van Buskirk, technology editor at MP3.com and author of Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More. "By that I mean, people switching suddenly (from Yahoo to Google). Yahoo has an institutional memory of that and they're learning that it's important to keep people attached to your services.
"Finding members of communities and registered users is the new way to own users on the internet," Van Buskirk said. "I think eventually it will fold in the Musicmatch users."
Yahoo hopes its new service will retain loyal Yahoo users and entice digital music novices to try the new features. The company wants to provide a Yahoo-branded music service to members now, and will incorporate some Musicmatch elements later, according to Dave Goldberg, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Music.
"(Yahoo Music Unlimited) is more integrated into everything else you do with Yahoo," Goldberg said. "Musicmatch is also one of our products and we're going to continue to market it. The products are different but related. The goal is to build one great combined application. It's going to take us some time to get it done."
Yahoo Music Unlimited is a subscription service that offers many of the same features that other digital music services already in the marketplace provide, at a lower price. The service, which costs $5 per month for an annual subscription ($60 total) or $7 on a month-by-month basis, allows music fans to access a catalog of over 1 million tracks on a PC and transfer them to portable devices. Napster To Go and Real's Rhapsody subscription services both charge $15 per month. Yahoo's permanent downloads cost 79 cents, for now, as opposed to 99 cents on most other music sites.
Yahoo's Messenger service is also integrated into the music service, allowing subscribers to search through their friends' playlists and listen to their collections. Yahoo's Launchcast radio is also included.
"We didn't want to wait and not give Yahoo users these benefits," Goldberg said. "We wanted to get them out to users now."
Musicmatch is best known for its music management software that helps users organize their digital music library and play music in its jukebox, as well as rip and burn CDs. People can also listen to radio for free, purchase music through its service or subscribe to its On Demand subscription service.
Attempting to match the pricing of Yahoo's new service, Musicmatch dropped to $7 per month, $6 per month per quarter or $5 monthly for an annual subscription.
Analysts said the launch of Yahoo Music Unlimited is a natural progression for the company and the digital music market as a whole.
"I think we're seeing the first steps in the process of integrating the two services," said Susan Kevorkian, an analyst with IDC.
"Since February we've seen Napster To Go launch and Rhapsody To Go launch," Kevorkian said. "Yahoo Music wants to stay on the radar of existing Launchcast and Musicmatch customers, and more importantly, get on the radar of prospective music customers who haven't necessarily been reached by any online music brand."
Yahoo's lower-priced service also provides a new opportunity for device manufacturers to challenge Apple Computer in the digital music player marketplace, said Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research.
When the two Yahoo-owned music services are eventually combined, one analyst predicted the Yahoo brand will likely prevail.
"I think Yahoo will invest in (its) own branded services," said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. "It's the Yahoo brand they want to push."
[RANK="www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67495,00.html"]Source[/RANK]
Edit:
Today's news posting quota ends here! Whew! Long day! Worked real hard gathering news from various sources!
hyeah:
When Yahoo acquired Musicmatch last September, it was clear the company wanted a larger piece of the digital music market.
But with Wednesday's launch of Yahoo Music Unlimited, the company's digital music subscription service, some wondered where Musicmatch -- which Yahoo acquired for $160 million -- fit into Yahoo's music plans. The two services offer similar ways to find and buy songs.
"I think that Yahoo's overwhelming strategy is about finding and acquiring members of communities and registered users so they won't get Googled again," said Eliot Van Buskirk, technology editor at MP3.com and author of Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More. "By that I mean, people switching suddenly (from Yahoo to Google). Yahoo has an institutional memory of that and they're learning that it's important to keep people attached to your services.
"Finding members of communities and registered users is the new way to own users on the internet," Van Buskirk said. "I think eventually it will fold in the Musicmatch users."
Yahoo hopes its new service will retain loyal Yahoo users and entice digital music novices to try the new features. The company wants to provide a Yahoo-branded music service to members now, and will incorporate some Musicmatch elements later, according to Dave Goldberg, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Music.
"(Yahoo Music Unlimited) is more integrated into everything else you do with Yahoo," Goldberg said. "Musicmatch is also one of our products and we're going to continue to market it. The products are different but related. The goal is to build one great combined application. It's going to take us some time to get it done."
Yahoo Music Unlimited is a subscription service that offers many of the same features that other digital music services already in the marketplace provide, at a lower price. The service, which costs $5 per month for an annual subscription ($60 total) or $7 on a month-by-month basis, allows music fans to access a catalog of over 1 million tracks on a PC and transfer them to portable devices. Napster To Go and Real's Rhapsody subscription services both charge $15 per month. Yahoo's permanent downloads cost 79 cents, for now, as opposed to 99 cents on most other music sites.
Yahoo's Messenger service is also integrated into the music service, allowing subscribers to search through their friends' playlists and listen to their collections. Yahoo's Launchcast radio is also included.
"We didn't want to wait and not give Yahoo users these benefits," Goldberg said. "We wanted to get them out to users now."
Musicmatch is best known for its music management software that helps users organize their digital music library and play music in its jukebox, as well as rip and burn CDs. People can also listen to radio for free, purchase music through its service or subscribe to its On Demand subscription service.
Attempting to match the pricing of Yahoo's new service, Musicmatch dropped to $7 per month, $6 per month per quarter or $5 monthly for an annual subscription.
Analysts said the launch of Yahoo Music Unlimited is a natural progression for the company and the digital music market as a whole.
"I think we're seeing the first steps in the process of integrating the two services," said Susan Kevorkian, an analyst with IDC.
"Since February we've seen Napster To Go launch and Rhapsody To Go launch," Kevorkian said. "Yahoo Music wants to stay on the radar of existing Launchcast and Musicmatch customers, and more importantly, get on the radar of prospective music customers who haven't necessarily been reached by any online music brand."
Yahoo's lower-priced service also provides a new opportunity for device manufacturers to challenge Apple Computer in the digital music player marketplace, said Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research.
When the two Yahoo-owned music services are eventually combined, one analyst predicted the Yahoo brand will likely prevail.
"I think Yahoo will invest in (its) own branded services," said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. "It's the Yahoo brand they want to push."
[RANK="www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67495,00.html"]Source[/RANK]
Edit:
Today's news posting quota ends here! Whew! Long day! Worked real hard gathering news from various sources!
hyeah: