I subscribed to and installed Yahoo! Music Unlimited, the
new and shockingly inexpensive streaming/To Go
service, this morning soon after it was launched. The final stage of installation requires an automatic system reboot.
My test machine came back up with a blank desktop and missing taskbar. I managed to invoke System Restore in Windows XP
and recover normal operation by setting the restore point two days in the past. I skipped two days because I was not
(and am not) certain what caused this. The Yahoo! installation seems like the obvious culprit, but that could be the
result of flukey timing. during those two days I also freshly installed the latest version of Google Desktop in order
to document the indexing process for a book.
I am preparing a safeguarded testing environment to try the Yahoo! service installation again, and hope to be running
it by the end of today. In the meantime, a few observations that I gleaned while I could:
The social networking aspects of the service are intense. Yahoo! Messenger is deeply involved, and a new version of
Messenger is installed with the pack. A desktop media client, Yahoo! Music Engine, is also installed. Music sharing is
implemented with a P2P streaming feature that, by reading the specs, seems to resemble Mercora.
Subscribers can directly access and stream each other's downloaded collections. (It is possible to opt out.)
Subscribers can identify each other by Yahoo! screen name and IP address. Users automatically reveal their online
status, unless that feature is opted out.
Usage data is compiled aggressively and unapologetically. Subscribers must acquire a Yahoo! ID or use a preexisting
one. Subscribers *must* pay via Yahoo! Wallet. (!) If you own a Yahoo! ID and have ever opened a Wallet account, you
must go through that account to subscribe. Wish to use a different credit card? You must edit the Wallet, add or revise
the card, and proceed from there.
Many have wondered how Yahoo! will make money at the service's low price point. Perhaps making money on the music
isn't the point. With Yahoo!'s immense user base, and the bold harvesting of user information built into the service,
it seems that Yahoo!'s dominant model here is to claim ownership of the user and expand the user base of Yahoo!'s
payment, shopping, and IM services.
Yahoo! Music Unlimited: Preliminary Report
Reader Comments
(Page 2)23. yeah , i get a problem i joined up and every time i try downloading the yme suite exe. it freezes and i cant get it to load or launch,,,... and when i try to end program by hitting cancel it hangs saying (not responding)
then i have to reboot ,cause it stays there stuck and nothing else happens..
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Frank .P.
24. yeah , i get a problem i joined up and every time i try
downloading the yme suite exe. it freezes and i cant get it to load or
launch,,,... and when i try to end program by hitting cancel it hangs
saying (not responding)
then i have to reboot ,cause it stays there stuck and nothing else
happens..can anyone help or know whats causing this,,,...
--------------------------------
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Frank.P.
25. FYI...to the person above who said they didn't think YMU allowed downloads to your hard-drive...I believe this is not true. Yahoo DOES let you do this with your subscription. Chek out this link:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/music/unlimited/unlimited-20.html
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Herb
26. Anyone else having trouble deactivating Y! Unlimited from one of your PCs? (Your allowed 3 installs.) Get error 8004D01B. I am logged in and using current software, etc. Customer support hasn't responded yet after 4 days.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Dan Y.
27. It's a great service - in concept. Yahoo charges for a service that only works with their software which is a buggy beta version. When I tried to launch it a second time, most of the modules of Music Engine remained blank. Per their customer service I have to re-install it then. Every time? Come on, charging for a buggy beta - that's the Microsoft way.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Ian Ashton
28. I subscribed, foolishly, for a years subscription. It runs ok on one machine but refuses to run on a second one. I've tried every permutation in the book and still no dice. 4 emails to Yahoo unanswered. I have NEVER encountered such bad service. I've paid and I can't even get a response from the company.
I cannot overstate YAHOO'S COMPLETE LACK OF SUPPORT for their BETA software.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Dave Johnson
29. Yes, it's a good service from Yahoo. But I think Napster, MSN and AOL (Time Warner) will create other better music services. Let's see. Consumers will be benefitted.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by JalanSutera
30. I just wanted to comment on the fact that people are complaining about Y! charging for a beta version. I think you have it turned around: Y! offered their beta software for a cheap price and you paid for it. You said, "This isn't finished, but I'll buy it anyway."
I've had a couple of glitches come up. I sent a support request to Y! and they responded within two days with a solution that seems to be working. So far, I'm quite pleased with the service.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Craig Gunderson
31. I love it so far and I got a support problem fix in one day
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by ADW
32. I've been enjoying Yahoo Unlimited for a couple of weeks now. I can transfer all my music to my cell phone (slowly) and I can customize the heck out of radio playlists, etc.
Davejohnson: Try logging out and re-logging into your Yahoo unlimited account on your 2nd computer. Works for me. I copy music back and forth between my two computers.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by NickT
33. I've had YME for 3 weeks and I like it very much, purchased some music, listen a lot via the subscription service (lease my music) - my only problem and still not resolved is I wanted to purchase a certain cd and was able to go through the process, but the files would not download. I went through a week of support emails back and forth but it was never resolved and I'm still waiting for the purchase to be refunded. They (YME) need support people you can call and talk to, not just email.
34. I've had Launchcast for several years now and if it weren't for the fact that I've been able to program a great station, I would drop them in an instant. Launchcast even now still has problems, one of which they have never been able to fix. Yahoo's customer service is THE WORST! Just try & contact a real person there. And if you do, it's usually some robot that tells you to submit your problem via email. I tried Rhapsody for the 2 free weeks and was pretty impressed. Not once did I have a problem connecting and Staying Connected! Can't say the same for Launchcast. And I pay for that service! I'm debating trying Yahoo's music service but I can't imagine it being any less problematic than Launchcast. Yahoo needs to spend a little less time on advertising and spend some time fixing the numerous bugs in their services.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Raoul Borans
35. I downloaded Y Music a few weeks ago have Boo Coo music BUT it wont let me play any now says I have to Pay My Question If i pay the $59.00 Do i still have to pay for all the songs I have If i want to load them on to a I Pod ? at 79 cent a song I will have to sell my first born . WHat is it Im really getting for 59 bucks a chance to listen to music that I will have to pay for If i want to burn a CD. I have alot of Songs that I loaded from Napster and Kazza and can burn them . WIll Yahoo Music go to my hard drive only if i pay for each song Thank you for your Information havnt pushed the Agree button yet ,Oh PS is RHapsody what i want?
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Tess
36. I can't get it to load either.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Tlumaczenia
37. I just installed the public version of the YM engine and I also keep getting IE script errors; thus I cannot play any music and I'm stuck with a year's subscription I can't currently use! My attempt to send e-mail to support@yahoo.com bounced as undeliverable! so what do I do now? I agree, their tech support just plain sucks!
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Steve Holmes
38. I downloaded when it was beta and paid month to month. It worked fine for the first 2 months and I had no complaints. I then did the software upgrade and paid for a year subscription, I've had no service since. I can only listen to 30 second previews and it tells me that my subscription has expired. My yahoo wallet and credit card statement show that it's been paid and processed. I've sent over a dozen emails to the "support" email and have gotten nothing but automated support emails in return, all of which say I either have a firewall or something running(which I don't) or to restart or reinstall the software(which has been done many times).
I've just sent a reply to cancel my service and refund my money both for the year subscription and also what I'd paid on a month to month basis since I can't listen to any of that music either.
I do not expect much of a response and I would HIGHLY recommend AGAINST Yahoo Music Unlimited.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Troy
39. In my opinion $0.10 per track is better.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by BuyPiercing
40. I recently quit yahoo, and went back to Rhapsody. However, now I can't get rid of 20 gigs worth of useless music from yahoo. I have deleted every folder associated with music, yahoo, shared jeez you name it. But windows player still shows all of them. yes I have uninstalled it all the way down to nothing and everytime they show back up. Now, even more fun ... my dell dj is unrecognized by the media player
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by has anyone quit yahoo?
21. I've been using the service for a few days now and I really enjoy it. The only problem i have is that I want to copy the songs to my smartphone, which runs Windows and has Media Player 9. When i move the files over it gives license errors. I want a mobile version of the yahoo engine so that I can use my phone as an MP3 player since i have a 512mb of flash card in it for storage.
Posted at 4:30AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Walter