Yahoo Music Unlimited and MasterCard Promo:

[LonghornXP]

Note: You must order it from the Mastercard page that Yahoo has and I'll post the link at the end of this post.

I don't tend to give much frontpage news but I felt this might be a big benefit to some. Right now if you order an annual subscription to Yahoo Music Unlimited using only a MasterCard you will get one year free. So its a buy one year get one year free. Its for new customers only and the offer is good until 1-31-07. I've been in contact with Yahoo over the last several weeks during their trial run for this offer and was told they do plan to roll this out to all existing customers but they need to change the billing system before.

So for now you must be a new customer and you must use a Mastercard. Please note you don't need to sign-up for a Mastercard as it isn't that type of deal. If you have a MasterCard today you can use that card and be fine. You just need to pay for it with a mastercard is all. These are the prices below as the BOGOF offer is valid on both their basic and To Go plans.

The basic plan (includes unlimited downloads and streaming but no portable player subscription support) will cost just under 60 bucks for the year. So your charged 60 bucks upfront the day of order and get 24 months of service for that price. After 24 months it will auto-renew but you can cancel the account anytime even after a week to avoid the auto renewel issue. Once you cancel you don't get any money back but your subscription will run the rest of the months you have left of those two years.

The To Go plan which offers everything above along with portable player subscription support will cost just under 120 bucks for two years service. Again you pay 120 bucks upfront and the auto renewel and cancellation is the same as above.

So IMO I think 2.50/month is a great deal for this type of service and for To Go support at 5 bucks a month is also a great deal. Also during those two years even if prices go up your locked into the price you paid upfront. Now after the two years whatever the best price is at that time or the best promo is will be what you pay.

http://music.yahoo.com/mastercard

 

[John Corn]

Thanks, but it doesn't work with an ipod.

 

[noneroy]

Thanks, but it doesn't work with an ipod.

There are ways around this which may or may not be legal. You can make digital dubs of songs which does not break any DRM on the files, which may not violate DMCA... I'm not a lawyer, I don't know the legality of it and don't want to get into any trouble with the mods on this forum so I'll say that one should do their google homework and see what they can find. If you'd like to PM me, I'll give you more info. If you put it into a drm free mp3 format it should work with any music player.

Mods, please nuke this if it violates any policies with my apologies.

 

[bonscott87]

Thanks, but it doesn't work with an ipod.

And that's a *good* thing! It will work with any "play for sure" MP3 player from dozens of different manufacturers.

I've had Yahoo Music Unlimited for about a year and a half now and love it. For all of $7 a month or so I can download, listen and transfer to my Creative player literaly their entire catalog. I've only actually purchased one song track just to try it out and the only reason you need to buy a track is if you want to burn it to a CD and re-rip it back to MP3 to remove the DRM (similar to Itunes). But what I like about it over Itunes is that with Itunes you have to buy every single track. Using a subscription service like Yahoo or Rhapsody gives you the option to buy but also the awesome option of never buying a thing and still listening to millions of songs for a low price. Think Netflix for music.

Anyway, I highly recommend Yahoo or other subscription services.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Will it work with a XM / Pioneer Inno?

 

[bonscott87]

Yahoo music subscription files are simply MP3s. The DRM is the Window's Media Player "play for sure". So all you need is a play for sure capable device.

If you actually buy songs it's just like Itunes in that you can burn them to a CD and then rip them back to MP3, AAC or whatever you want and they will be DRM free and you can put them on anything at that point.

 

[topcats69]

Will it work with a XM / Pioneer Inno?

I believe that the inno is not compatable but I have not heard that from official sources.

Sorry I can't help you better.

 

[JosephB]

I see this quickly turning into an iPod vs. "plays for sure" thing, but if it doesn't work with my iPod, i'm not buying. But, I don't buy iTMS music either, so I'm not advocating the iTunes DRM regime either, however I do think the iTMS system is the most workable..especially when WMP11 comes out and you can't back up your licenses...what happens when you need to reinstall windows? re-purchase your music. at least with iTMS your music never expires and your license is included with the file.

 

[LonghornXP]

I see this quickly turning into an iPod vs. "plays for sure" thing, but if it doesn't work with my iPod, i'm not buying. But, I don't buy iTMS music either, so I'm not advocating the iTunes DRM regime either, however I do think the iTMS system is the most workable..especially when WMP11 comes out and you can't back up your licenses...what happens when you need to reinstall windows? re-purchase your music. at least with iTMS your music never expires and your license is included with the file.

You really can't back them up today. Yahoo and other services will simply auto download your music again after a fresh install of Windows XP. Just make sure you deactivate your computer using the Yahoo software before doing your fresh install. With the DRM you can only playback songs on three different computers and a new fresh installed Windows XP will appear as a second computer to Yahoo and others even though its the same exact computer. By deauthorizing your computer before doing the fresh install it will redownload everything on the new install and consider that computer your one and only computer. If you don't deauthorize the computer at all once you fresh install Windows XP twice the third XP install will not authorize and you must either call or email them to reset everything. Its very easy to avoid but most do not take the time to press three mouse clicks or so todo it.

Also with Yahoo after you install the Yahoo software on your fresh installed copy of Windows XP you just launch the software and sign into your account and it will start redownloading each and every music file you had on your system before the fresh install in the background. Its not perfect but most broadband connections and most customers will have everything downloaded within 15 or so minutes max. Most of my music downloads get downloaded at well over 700KB/s speeds which means about one second per song.

 

[bonscott87]

what happens when you need to reinstall windows? re-purchase your music. at least with iTMS your music never expires and your license is included with the file.

That's the great thing about a subscription service, you never purchased anything in the first place!

If I actually do buy any music per track or per cd the first thing I would do is burn it to CD so I have a hardcopy. I'd do this no matter what my music service be it iTunes, Yahoo, Napster or whatever. Not doing this is only asking for trouble.

And as Longhorn points out, Yahoo will autodownload all your music for you on a new computer you activate to it. I see that now if my wife downloads music on her computer, when I log in it wants to re-download it because it doesn't see it in my music library yet before it scans the library and sees it.

That said I don't like any of the DRM methods, play for sure or iTunes. The advantage to me with play for sure is I'm not tied into an IPod. I can get any player I want.

 

[JosephB]

That said I don't like any of the DRM methods, play for sure or iTunes. The advantage to me with play for sure is I'm not tied into an IPod. I can get any player I want.

Unless, of course, you want an iPod!

 

[GaryPen]

I don't understand. If these are mp3'S. why can't they be burnt to audio CD or xfered to a portable player?

 

[txcruiser]

I don't understand. If these are mp3'S. why can't they be burnt to audio CD or xfered to a portable player?

Under FAQ

5. What kind of files (or file type) are the subscription songs in Yahoo! Music Unlimited?

Subscription tracks are provided to you in Windows Media format (WMA) at near-CD-quality 192 Kbps stereo. They can be enjoyed on Windows Media devices and subscription-compatible portable players.

 

[Mark_AR]

PayPal is Mastercard. Will that qualify?

 

[bonscott87]

Under FAQ

5. What kind of files (or file type) are the subscription songs in Yahoo! Music Unlimited?

Subscription tracks are provided to you in Windows Media format (WMA) at near-CD-quality 192 Kbps stereo. They can be enjoyed on Windows Media devices and subscription-compatible portable players.

Correct. The subscription tracks are DRM's and can't be burned to a CD. If you buy them then they are like iTunes and you can then burn them to a CD which removes the DRM. At that point you can rip the tracks to whatever you want like MP3 or AAC.

So for example I just downloaded the latest Peter Frampton CD via Yahoo as part of my subscription. I can listen to the song all I want on both my computers as well as my MP3 player. No need to buy it. If I decide I want to buy it I can actually buy it via Yahoo for $7.99 for the whole CD. Once I buy it then I now get the option to burn the tracks to CD. At that point the DRM is removed and it's like I bought the CD in the store.

I also did the same with the latest Evanessence CD. I got it via Yahoo to check it out to see if I'd like it. I did and actually went to Best Buy and got it on sale (I wanted to case and lyrics). But if I hadn't liked it I wouldn't have wasted $12 on the CD, I would have just deleted my subscription tracks. I've already saved at least $50 by not buying CD's I would have otherwise purchased because I got to listen to them first. This is probably why I like a subscription service the most, the ability to listen to anything and everything at no extra cost first. For the most part I don't ever buy anything anyway since I can just listen to the subscription songs all I want via my computers or MP3 player.

 

[bonscott87]

Unless, of course, you want an iPod!

And that's fine. If you want an iPod then you're stuck with iTunes, you have no choice. If you're fine with that, great. But for me, that why I don't want to get an iPod. I refuse to be stuck into just one music store that forces you to buy everything per track.

Different strokes for different folks.
Neither is right or wrong and neither is better or worse. Just what you prefer.

 

[ultranet]

This looks ok... Im goin to check this out!!