NEW YORK - Leading online media company Yahoo Inc has revealed that it will not be operating its music service site called Yahoo Music Unlimited. Instead users will be redirected to Rhapsody America, which is a partnership of MTV Networks and Real Networks.
Yahoo also revealed that users visiting its site will still be able to access music videos, Internet radio and music downloads. While the music site does receive 20 million visitors on a monthly basis, the Music Unlimited service has not really taken off.
Data from comScore Media Metrix shows that the subscription service has managed to rake in just 400,000 customers. Yahoo senior vice president Scott Moore explained the decision to sell the service by saying that the company "made a strategic decision to focus on the mass audience."
Yahoo also said that it would be promoting Rhapsody on its site.
Users of Yahoo Music Unlimited would have paid a yearly rate at $5.99 a month, but now with Rhapsody, users will have to shell out $12.99 on a monthly basis for using the music services on the web only. In order to download songs to a device, users will be charged $14.99.
“They are our subscription partner going forward and there's money to be made for both of us in that,” said Scott Moore, Yahoo's head of media. However financial terms of the deal were not immediately known.
Meanwhile Dan Sheeran, a senior vice president at RealNetworks said that the Yahoo deal would not be altered even if Microsoft succeeds in acquiring Yahoo.
