MusicMatch Matches Up With Yahoo
Posted by Harry McCracken | Tuesday, September 14, 2004 8:53 AM PT
We're going through a spate of acquisitions of interesting small companies by portal behemoths, what with Google buying Picasa, AOL snapping up MailBlocks, and Yahoo grabbing OddPost. And now Yahoo
has spent $160 million to add
MusicMatch to its portfolio.
Actually, MusicMatch wasn't a startup like those other companies--it's an oldtimer in digital-music years--and it probably wasn't that small an enterprise. But it always seemed like a scrappy David in the music wars, pitted against Goliaths like Microsoft, Apple, and Real. I was a hardcore user of its music player for years--especially back when RealPlayer was endlessly annoying and Windows Media Player was largely inpenetrable--although I confess that I've mostly switched to ITunes in recent months.
You can see why Yahoo would want to buy a well-established digital audio provider; every one of its competitors is into music big time these days, and Yahoo's existing music offerings don't exactly have a high profile. (In fact, I wasn't sure what they were until I just checked--they seem to consist of content and services branded as
Launch, another venerable name in digital music.) With Hollywood veteran Terry Semel running Yahoo, it's even more logical that it would try to add more entertainment-oriented features.
Betcha that Yahoo rolls out a more prominent music offering soon--when it does, I hope that MusicMatch manages to maintain some of its own personality...
"Betcha that Yahoo rolls out a more prominent music offering soon--when it does, I hope that MusicMatch manages to maintain some of its own personality..."
Yep Me too. MusicMatch is a great program. I just hope Yahoo dosn't rape it.
Nice artical
-Chris
yahooo yea TOTAL CORRUPT
$160 mil is a drop in the bucket as an entry fee into the digital music retailing space. The question is, can Yahoo! succeed in a business that, so far, seems to work only when there's a hardware/software combo, like the iPod/iTunes match? Apple loses money with each song it sells; it succeed only through spurring iPod sales.
CT
http://www.populationstatistic.com/
I hope they don't screw up MusicMatch too much! It's a great program. Hopefully they keep the Dell relationship going too. That was always a bonus too!
I was excited, too, when I heard about Yahoo!'s acquisition of MusicMatch. My first reaction: "Cool!" Then: "I hope they'll keep the player around in some form."
I'm beginning to think that if Yahoo! wants to play with the big boys (Apple iTunes, MS Media Player, et.al.) they'll keep the Jukebox, probably renaming it something like "Yahoo! Media Player." (You heard it here first.)
I, too, used Jukebox. Back in those days, it was my MP3 app of choice, even over WinAmp. I liked its robust features. What I didn't like was its large footprint. What a hog! Also, I received a fully-licensed copy (I'd been using the demo version) with my CD-RW drive and thought that was just groovy. What wasn't so groovy was its weird upgrade and licensing path: Once they upped to the new version, all incremental updates to my older version were no longer available: every time I reinstalled Windows and reinstalled Jukebox, I was stuck with either the outdated version I had or "upgrading" to a non-fully functional demo version of their latest version.
windows media player 10 with dfx plugin is best dunno why people all run for itunes ... it's ok for buying but the sound quality yeeech !
I liked MM on older versions of Windows but can't get version 7.5 to work on XP unless the user has Admin rights.
Anyway, MP4 and AAC are better encoders.
I still have MM on my system but iTunes is now the default player.
I did an extensive review of all the jukebox players out there awhile back. iTunes worked great for a while and then just kept crashing on me. MusicMatch has been a great program. I like to use as few as apps as possible and the MusicMatch jukebox does it all for me. I also have high regard for Yahoo and their services (ie: the excellent Yahoo Photos!). I hope this becomes a match made in heaven and they crush the competition.
I've been using Music Match for as long as I can remember. I believe I bought the very first version and then I bought an upgrade for life subscription. What I love about this program is the ability to burn tunes to a CD and the name of the song and artist is there. I hate it when I get a CD and all I see is track 1, track 2 etc. I hope Yahoo honor my lifetime subscription upgrade.
Music Match is a great program. The only knock I ahve on it is the forced upgrades if you do not want to see the popup. Hopefully, Yahoo will do it justice and the customers once they fully take over.
Let me just say i try every music player availible and i perfur the MM player it has an awesome clarity ans its mp3 encode is BOSS! like super fast! I have a friend that grew up using the WM winamp player i introducted him to MM and he could instantly see the difference in quality, he says it is his fav now and to be honest its the overall player thats easy on the eyes as well. :D now im not sayin i don't like the other players, but if i had to choose one, it would be the MM 7.5 and 9.0 versions...
MM is great, but i have a lot of mp4s from when i had an ipod. i hope that they develop mp4 support. does anyone know of a codec or something?
I have'nt been able to download music to my mp3 nor can I burn since "yahoo" has taken over, will you please sort out this problem.
This is my third e/mail to you, I await your reply with anticipation.
Yours Truly
Liz