links for 2008-04-02

Yahoo Quitting the Music Biz?

Ok, So I awoke this morning to a new twist in the Yahoo! saga. As USA Today announced, Yahoo has just announce that they are selling their music subscription service, Rhapsody to a new company called Rhapsody America, a partnership between Real Networks and MTV. So what is really going on here...?

I am keen to think that Yahoo may be positioning themselves to enter the retail game even though all signs point to the mass phasing out of their music products... I have hope for Yahoo!. I have been listening to Yahoo! Music for way too many years just to give up on them because of a number of corporate rumors.

I guess, this like so many other cases with the music biz will have to stand the test of time.

Week End Review... or Holy Crap!

OK, so now that I am doing this whole blog thing again, I thought I might cap out the first week with a short review...

These are my week's headlines:
* I started blogging again... for better of for worse... be happy
*I am now officially running the Country Music Marathon. well... the half marathon... but hey, it's still 13 miles. I started training for it last weekend with my first 4.25 mile run (ever!). I only walked a bit... and am pretty happy about the possibility of gettin my run on.
*Just realized that in two weeks I am going to be in Costa Rica! I will have many pics and outlandish stories upon my return...
*The Superbowl is this Sunday... (does anybody really care?)... I am watching for the commercials.
*and on the music front... $$ Yahoo *may* be coming out with a new digital music service... AFTER they are done being bought by microsoft!
$$ Amazon continues to expand their digital offerings by buying Audible for a measily $300 million
$$ In addition to the audible acquisition, keep an eye out on Sunday for the Amazon - Pepsi promotion... Hey, it worked for Itunes and Coke... Why not?

Well that is it for now... More next week!

What's with Yahoo?

Yahoo! is sending me mixed signals and it makes me very nervous about the state of our "relationship." You see, Yahoo! and I have had an on again, off again relationship since back in the 90's. First there was my very first Yahoo email address, then Chat rooms (where nothing good or productive ever happened)... then later on I discovered a beautiful part of Yahoo's personality: Yahoo Music. Oh, we had a great run. There was of course some give and take.. I would listen for hours to my favorite music picked for me by my great friend (Yahoo!) only to put up with a few random commercials every now and then. It was a very nice symbiotic relationship. A little give and take if you will...

Fast forward to now.

Accoring to ABC News, Yahoo is in shambles. Operating like a 90's dot commer apparently doesn't cut it in 2008. There is a glimmer of hope though... a possibility that our relationship may not be totally over. This great white hope falls in the possibility of Yahoo becoming yet another distributor of digital music.... not any digital music now... DRM FREE digital music! I am all about fair competition and as it stands right now, there are only two real players in DRM free music... Amazon, and Emusic (iTunes tries to play the game, but Apple is still in love with the AAC file). I welcome this concept with open arms. Bring on the competition I say! Maybe, just maybe some positive press and cash flow from their music arm might just be the catalyst Yahoo! needed to right their ship.