by Yahoo! Music Unlimited launched today and I quickly dumped Rhapsody in the middle of my two week free trial for the Yahoo! music client even though it is still in the beta phase. Here’s why I prefer Yahoo! over Rhapsody for streaming and downloading and carrying around my music: Yahoo! integrates better with my Yahoo! Plus account. Yahoo! is three times cheaper than the same setup on Rhapsody — I’m sure that will change any minute now if it hasn’t already.
All of my 10,000 previously rated songs from Yahoo! Launch carry over into Yahoo! Music Unlimited. I no longer need Internet Explorer to listen to my Yahoo! Launch rated music. I can play my Yahoo! Launch Radio Station and then add each song as it plays to my local download library. Canceling service.
If you don’t want something on Yahoo!, you just sign in to your account and get rid of it all by yourself. Rhapsody makes you cancel online AND they make you call an 866 number to cancel. Rhapsody will not let you easily cancel, either. They harp on you. They interrupt you. I finally had to say — no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no — in a steady stream to get Rhapsody to get off their script of extending my free trail and give me a confirmation number to end my free trial.
What a harassle!
Here’s where Rhapsody barely beats Yahoo! Music Unlimited: Better streaming sound. Faster download speed. Faster online library searches. Cleaner user interface. Yahoo! Music Unlimited is still in beta so I hope the sound quality will be quickly enhanced. There is no lower end throb and the upper end is tinny.
When you resize windows in the program interface the new window position signs are not remembered. However, Yahoo! does many things well. Their new 360 Blog is outstanding and innovative. Their mail service is fast and sublime — though it really needs to support IMAP and outside IMAP email accounts to really be a niche filler killer. Yahoo! masters portal integration. They do it better than MSN or even Google. Watch out! Yahoo! IMAP Plus must be coming soon!
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