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Yahoo Set To Launch New Online Music Service

Yahoo Latest iTunes Contender
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
March 8, 2005 12:00 AM EST
Reads:
 12,052
In a move that will place Yahoo in head to head competition with Apple's iTunes music service, Yahoo is poised to launch a new digital store and music player. Yahoo and digital-music wholesaler MusicNet have been working together on the project. Sources familiar with the project said the service was set to debut this week, but has been pushed back.

The new MusicNet-powered music service will be integrated into Yahoo's existing infrastructure, possibly including features such as links to its popular instant-messaging program, sources said. MusicNet's technology allows companies to offer subscription services or per-song downloads, and is used by Virgin Digital, America Online and others.

Yahoo has a solid customer base using its streaming-music and video service. The company may be able to take that following and upset a market that Apple has dominated since its entry into e-music. Launchcast, Yahoo's radio service, was the highest-rated Web casting service online in January, according to ratings firm Arbitron and ComScore Media Metrix, attracting more than 2.2 million people that month.

Others giants like Sony and Microsoft have set up similar services but have been unable to put a big dent in iPod's market share. Last week, Apple said it had sold more than 300 million songs through its iTunes store since its launch.

"You have to look at how to create a linkage between a device and the online service," GartnerG2 analyst Mike McGuire said. "But given Yahoo's traffic and their very active communities, the potential (for success) is there."

Yahoo has begun to streamline its music and multimedia properties over the past few months, changing the name of its Launch site to Yahoo Music and consolidating its entertainment businesses to Santa Monica, CA, near Hollywood.

Published March 8, 2005 – Reads 12,052
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Expo series, of the International Virtualization Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" on SYS-CON.TV.

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