Yahoo! Music, owned by Yahoo!

Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...

, is the provider of a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Users with Yahoo!

Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...

 accounts can gain access to hundreds of thousands of songs sorted by artist

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 and genre

Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...

.

History

Yahoo! Music began as "LAUNCH", a website and magazine produced by LAUNCH Media

LAUNCH Media

LAUNCH Media is a Santa Monica-based media company that created LAUNCH.com, an online music site, and LAUNCH , a magazine issued both in print and as a CD-ROM disk magazine. LAUNCH Media was acquired by Yahoo! for US$12 million in 2001...

 which Yahoo! acquired for USD$12 million in 2001. LAUNCH was later rebranded as "Yahoo! Music", then simply "Y! Music" in February 2005. LAUNCH's LAUNCHcast

LAUNCHcast

Yahoo! Music Radio is an Internet radio service offered by CBS Radio through Yahoo! Music. The service, formerly offered by LAUNCH Media, and originally developed by Todd Beaupré and Jeff Boulter, debuted on November 11, 1999, and was purchased by Yahoo! in October, 2001...

 Internet radio

Internet radio

Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

 and music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 offerings were integrated into Yahoo!'s site along with artist profiles containing an extensive selection of music and biographical information.

Yahoo! Music was the number one online music site in terms of audience reach and total time spent in March 2007.

, Yahoo! Music's old website is inactive and redirecting to the new website at new.music.yahoo.com.

Products

Yahoo! Music offers a variety of products, including:

• Yahoo! Music Radio (formerly LAUNCHcast) (Content provided by CBS Radio) and LAUNCHcast Plus Internet radio (No Longer offered beginning Feb. 2009)
• Yahoo! Music Jukebox
• Yahoo! Music Unlimited
  Yahoo! Music Unlimited
  Yahoo! Music Unlimited was an on-demand online music service launched on May 11, 2005 and provided by Yahoo! Music.The service was discontinued on September 30, 2008.-Service:...
  
   subscription streaming and download service
• Live Sets - Exclusive video concerts from A-list artists
• Who's Next - Listeners vote on emerging artists
• Pepsi Smash on Yahoo! Music - Exclusive video interviews, performances, and reality segments
• Artist profiles, music videos and lyrics
• Official Grammy Awards coverage

Key dates

In 2001, Yahoo! purchased LAUNCH Media, makers of the LAUNCHcast Internet radio service.
On September 14, 2004, Yahoo! purchased Musicmatch, Inc., makers of the Musicmatch Jukebox

Musicmatch Jukebox

Y!Music Musicmatch Jukebox, a remake of the original Musicmatch Jukebox made by Musicmatch, Inc., is an audio player that manages a digital audio library...

 software. As of Musicmatch 10.1, Yahoo! has rebranded Musicmatch Jukebox as Yahoo! Music Musicmatch Jukebox, and integrated it with the Yahoo! Music Engine store. The main difference is the branding and physical program.
In 2005, Yahoo! Music became the first major online music service to provide a $5 per month unlimited download service similar to the Open Music Model

Open Music Model

The Open Music Model is an economic and technological framework for the recording industry based on research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

, albeit with digital rights management

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

, called Yahoo! Music Unlimited

Yahoo! Music Unlimited

Yahoo! Music Unlimited was an on-demand online music service launched on May 11, 2005 and provided by Yahoo! Music.The service was discontinued on September 30, 2008.-Service:...

.
In 2008, Yahoo! announced that Yahoo! Music Unlimited will be merged into Rhapsody

Rhapsody (online music service)

Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...

. This merge was completed with the shutdown of Yahoo! Music Unlimited on September 30, 2008.

In 2011, Yahoo Music became the main CBS Radio player, with AOL Radio switching to Slacker Radio.

Limits

• Local stations are limited to CBS affiliates
• No play-on-demand, playback, rewind, or fast-forward
• No direct customization, although rating songs influences the songs played
• Songs cannot be banned entirely, although a one-star rating will have it played very rarely
• Commercial interruptions every hour
• A maximum of six skips per hour per station. Refreshing or reloading the player, as well as changing the station, will use a skip.
• Banner ads, which cannot be blocked
• As of 2010, there is no premium service to remove skip limits or ads.

See also

• Yahoo! Music Unlimited
  Yahoo! Music Unlimited
  Yahoo! Music Unlimited was an on-demand online music service launched on May 11, 2005 and provided by Yahoo! Music.The service was discontinued on September 30, 2008.-Service:...
  
  
• Yahoo! Music Radio
• Live365
  Live365
  Live365 is an Internet radio network where members can create their own online radio station or listen to other Live365 broadcasters' online stations. As of October 2006, there were about 6,500 active stations, some of which play niche genres seldom heard on AM/FM radio...
  
  
• Mercora
  Mercora
  Social.FM was a free social music network run by Mercora that was shut down in August 2008. Social.FM allowed Internet users to search and listen to a digital radio network of over three million songs, express their musical identity via a customizable profile page, and webcast music to other...
  
  
• Last.fm
  Last.fm
  Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....