TopTenREVIEWS
**Yahoo! Music Unlimited is no longer available. All subscribers were rolled over to a Rhapsody account. New users are being redirected to Rhapsody.**
Yahoo! has made some major upgrades to its music site in the last few years. They have acquired MusicMatch Jukebox and have put their own spin on the digital music domain. Like our #2 and #3 services, Yahoo! focuses its sales on its subscription service; however, they do allow you to purchase songs and albums individually, without a subscription.
With the best subscription prices and one of the easiest to use music players we found, the only thing really holding this service back is the music selection; two million songs just isn’t enough to compete with our top three services.
With about two million tracks Yahoo! Music offers fewer options then our top three services. However, it does offer a wide variety, from rock and roll to holiday music. If you are looking for an easy, organized list of music, Yahoo! Music Unlimited is a good option.
Through Yahoo! Music Unlimited, you can search by Artist, Album or Song Name. Yahoo! Music includes a sizable list of sub-genres to help you narrow your music search.
We highly suggest using Yahoo!’s free Jukebox music manager and player, even if you don’t plan to use their services. The Jukebox is extremely easy to use and well organized. In general, Yahoo! included exactly what you would expect to see from a music download service; however, they really just sit in the “average” range.
Yahoo! Music uses WMA format for all downloaded files. These files are not compatible with iPod or Zune; however, they do work with most other MP3 players.
Yahoo! Music was extremely easy to install, and the set-up wizard is helpful. We do caution you however to pay attention to all the little questions the wizard asks you while installing, otherwise, the Jukebox will reassign it’s self as your primary player, and you will get an unwanted Yahoo! tool bar in your browser.
As mentioned earlier, Yahoo! Music focuses heavily on their subscription plan. This plan doesn’t allow you to burn downloaded music, nor can you transfer it to your MP3 player. Also, when you cancel your subscription those downloads will no longer work.
They do have a “To Go” option that lets you put the music onto a portable player, but this option is only available though promotional offers. However, you can purchase songs and albums individually, but you have to download the Jukebox player to view selections.
Yahoo! Music Unlimited offers a fleet of useful FAQs, but little else. The PDF user guide is buried in the installation process and getting an email address is almost painful. However, when we did contact Yahoo! regarding some questions we had about their “To Go” subscription, our questions were answered in about a day.
Yahoo! Music has made some great strides in the last few years, but is seems like they are still playing catch-up with our top three services.
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