Yahoo Music Unlimited: A Review of the Yahoo Music Unlimited Service

Update: Yahoo has recently announced that it is to use the Rhapsody service to provide music for its subscribers. This will happen in the first half of 2008. Until this happens, Yahoo Music Unlimited still provides a subscription based service along with an a la carte option.

Has Yahoo used its vast resources to full effect and crafted a digital music service worth using? Find out in this full review.

Pros:

• Polished Yahoo Music Jukebox.
• Over 2 million tracks.
• Good subscription pricing.

Cons:

• Only available to PC users.
• Can't transfer to portable players.
• Service only available in the United States and Canada.

Service Features

A la Carte Option: If you’re not ready to sign up for a subscription, then a la carte will give you the freedom to buy music without needing a subscription. You can download songs and albums that can be burned onto CD.

Pricing:

• songs = 99 cents.
• Albums = variable.

Subscription Option: Yahoo’s subscription plan only allows you to keep listening to the digital music you have downloaded if you continue to subscribe. When you download a song, you are only ‘renting’ it for your subscription period; if you stop your payments, then the music stops too. To permanently own the music you like, you can purchase it using Yahoo’s a la carte option.

Pricing:

• $8.99 per month.
• $71.88 per year ($5.99 per month).
• Burnable song price = 79 cents (20% discount).

Free Trial: A 14-day free trial is offered which will give you a good idea of how the service operates. If you find that it’s not for you, then be sure to cancel before the free trial period ends or you’ll end up paying a subscription fee.

Content: There are over 2 million songs to choose from and the service gives decent coverage of the different genres. A few years ago, 2 million songs would have given any service the ‘wow’ factor but these days it makes Yahoo Music Unlimited look very average indeed.

LAUNCHcast Radio: Built into the Yahoo Music Jukebox software is LAUNCHcast. This is a streaming music service that has numerous radio stations. There is also the facility to create your own radio station based on your music interests.

File Formats

File Formats: All downloaded music is in the WMA format; this excludes all iPod users from using this service. Subscription based music from Yahoo Music Unlimited is also wrapped in DRM in order to stop files being played without a subscription and to prevent piracy. Alternatively, if you go a la carte and buy music outright then you can burn the music to CD.

Audio Bitstream Rates:

• All downloaded WMA files are encoded at 192Kbps.

Software

Yahoo Music Jukebox: An excellent piece of software to use even if you decide not to use Yahoo’s music service. Visually, it is well designed and the menu system is easy to navigate due to the logical design. The music jukebox software is able to import your CD collection into WAV, OGG, MP3 and FLAC file formats, complete with a range of tweakable import options. There is also an integrated CD burning engine enabling you to burn to CD.

Conclusion

Is it right for you?
Yahoo Music Unlimited is a solid music service that offers the basics and will suit the sort of person who wants simplicity in their life. However, if you’re in search of more than this then the Yahoo Music Unlimited service doesn’t quite deliver - iTunes, Rhapsody and Napster all offer significantly more content. Two million songs is no longer a huge selection and so Yahoo need to increase their catalog if they want to compete with other digital music services. While on the subject of services, Yahoo did have a to go service that enabled people to transfer music to portable music players. This now seems to have disappeared from their website and the only way to subscribe to it is via special promotions with hardware manufacturers. That said, the monthly and yearly subscription prices offer good value for money and are lower than many of the competing digital music services.