Yahoo! Music! Closing! Burn! Tracks! Now!
There had to be a better way. It’s no surprise that Yahoo! Music is shutting down its download store and pointing customers to Rhapsody. But did they have to pull a Microsoft and stop supporting the retrieval of license keys or authorize playback on additional computers? Here’s the email that came last night:
Greetings,
The Yahoo! Music Store, along with the ability to purchase and download single songs and albums, will no longer be available as of September 30, 2008.
Songs and albums that were purchased through the Yahoo! Music Unlimited Store…
are protected by a digital rights management system that requires a valid license key before they can be played on your computer.
After the Store closes, Yahoo! will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for music purchased from Yahoo! Music Unlimited, and Yahoo! will no longer be able to authorize song playback on additional computers.
After September 30, 2008, you will not be able to transfer songs to unauthorized computers or re-license these songs after changing operating systems. Please note that your purchased tracks will generally continue to play on your existing authorized computers unless there is a change to the computer’s operating system.
For any user who purchased tracks through Yahoo! Music Unlimited, we highly recommend that you back up the purchased tracks to an audio CD before the closing of the Store on September 30, 2008. Backing up your music to an audio CD will allow you to copy the music back to your computer again if the license keys for your original music files cannot be retrieved.
For further information on the closing of the Yahoo! Music Store, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions or contact Customer Care.
Stay tuned! While the Yahoo! Music Unlimited Store will no longer be available, Yahoo! Music has partnered with Rhapsody so you can still purchase your favorite tracks. Plus, Yahoo! Music will continue to offer users a complete online music experience with the largest collection of music videos, Internet radio, exclusive artist features, music news, and more!
Thank you for using Yahoo! Music.
The Yahoo! Music team
And we wonder why people distrust the music business?
We all knew this was going to happen. To nearly everyone Yahoo never had a music product. It was unused!
This is absurd! Not that I ever bought anything through Yahoo music, but if I had, now I wouldn’t be able to listen to it anymore?
Wow.
I used Yahoo Music service and love the subscription model. For about the price of one CD a month, I could download oodles of music. Sure I have to sync up my MP3 player once a month but who doesn’t do that to switch songs.
This didn’t upset me as Rhapsody seems better and I was already happy with Yahoo Music service.
Just to clarify, Microsoft changed it’s position for renewing licenses for music bought from MSN Music. Due to the negative feedback, they decided to keep supporting customer’s licenses.
Hopefully, Yahoo! will do the same. Yet another reason DRM sucks.
I’ll post it Monday but thought you might be interest in seeing that Yahoo may now offer some refunds for music purchased: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080726/tc_cmp/209601121
Agreed Seth, another example of how DRM is not consumer friendly. Musicians don’t want their music stolen, but we also don’t want our music to frustrate our fans! And its only the fans that legally purchase music that have to deal with DRM, its asinine.
a pal that works there said this:
Yahoo! Music Unlimited, our subscription/download service, is closing down. Yahoo! Music is not going anywhere. The good news for me is that supporting that service was a pain in the arse, which I no longer have to be bothered with.
i do the eMusic thing, and everything is DRM free… I know hypebot has bias against eMusic/Orchard, but whatever…works for me, and other indie music lovers.
Da da dun dun dun, another one bites the dust..
Thats sad news that yahoo is closing their business