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Yahoo Search Adds Rhapsody Music Function
Yahoo partnered with RealNetwork’s Rhapsody music service several months ago after ending their own attempts at audio programming. Until late last night the purpose of the move was unclear. Now, Yahoo search has revealed a new music streaming service available through their engine.
Instead of the old, 30-second streaming clip of searched artists, Yahoo is now offering four free plays of an entire track (up to twenty-five listens per month) with an optional upgrade. Users who opt to pay a $13/month fee for Rhapsody will be able to stream entire songs to their heart’s content until they cancel out of the subscription.
Although this isn’t the most revolutionary feature ever conceived of for music fans it’s still an interesting idea that may end up steamrolling into a popular concept as time goes on. The service is being implemented for more and more bands with every day.
Best Buy Purchases Napster
If you flashed back to 2000 it would be hard to imagine Shawn Fanning, backward-baseball-cap wearing and hunched over his computer in a darkened dorm room selling Napster in a $127 million dollar deal to electronics superstore, Best Buy. Just the same, that’s the deal that went down today, adding yet another footnote to the history of the music industry.
Best Buy has been attempting to expand their current services with the Best Buy Music Store (using Rhapsody) and Napster has been slowly dying off against the competition offered by Apple and iTunes so this may be a perfect fit for both sides of the deal. The electronics company is currently selling mobile handsets which may be a large reason for the acquisition of such a notable MP3 download service.
