Yahoo doubles its subscription music prices
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Yahoo Inc. has announced it will be doubling the fees charged to users of its online music download service. The monthly cost will jump from $6.99 per month (or $60 annually) to $11.99 a month ($120 annually). Yahoo, like many other online music services, uses a subscription plan instead of iTunes’ “pay-per-download� model. The subscription plan gives users access to over 1 million songs for a flat fee, so users are effectively “renting� songs. If a user of a subscription plan opts out of the service, they no longer have access to any of their music. Songs purchased through Yahoo and other online music services are not compatible with Apple’s iPod player.
This price increase was widely expected by industry insiders who felt Yahoo would be unable to keep such a low price on services. Still, even with Yahoo’s increased fees, members still pay less than users of rivals Napster and Real Networks respective services.
where is all this headed? aren’t subscription services essentially the same thing as satellite’s highly specialized stations? i mean, you wouldn’t get both, would you? i was listening to some song today that i used to love, and now i wondered why the hell i have it on my ipod. maybe rental isn’t so bad. i thought ashlee’s first album would age much better.
To Macula,
If you don’t like a song that you used to love, then why the hell don’t you just delete it? Seems like a simple enough solution. Now, if you acquired this tune through a subscription service, you would lose it and every song you love when you terminate that agreement….gone for good unless you continue to pay the piper every month until you die.