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As Yahoo Latest News continues to overhaul the focus of its music business, the company will migrate its online music subscription customers in the coming months to Rhapsody America.
Yahoo will shut down its Music Unlimited service and divert subscribers to Rhapsody, a digital music venture of MTV Networks and RealNetworks (Nasdaq: RNWK) Latest News about RealNetworks. The company will continue to offer music videos and download services through its Yahoo Music branch, however.
Pricing levels -- US$5.99 to $8.99 a month -- will remain unchanged temporarily for Yahoo Music Unlimited customers. Rhapsody America's service begins at $12.99 per month.
Yahoo will promote the Rhapsody America service as part of the agreement, terms of which were not disclosed.
Follows the FoxyTunes Acquisition
The deal followed Yahoo's announcement that it acquired FoxyTunes, which developed a plug-in that enables users to control more than 30 music players. FoxyTunes also allows users to locate lyrics, videos, biographies and other information, based on what is currently playing in a user's media player.
"Yahoo Music will continue to innovate and forge new ways to marry music content with the rich content of the Internet," said Ian Rogers, Yahoo's vice president of video and media applications. The move is practical for Yahoo but crucial for Rhapsody America, which says it has 2.75 million subscribers worldwide, commented David Stepherson, senior portfolio manager for Hardesty Capital. "On the surface, this is great for Rhapsody, because it gives them a million of new peepers that they never had before," he said. |
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