Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS
Yahoo's music subscription prices to double
Sounds like Yahoo Music's $4.99/month subscription price was too good to be true. As of Nov. 1st, Yahoo will be raising the monthly price of its basic annual purchase plan from $4.99 to $9.99, and the monthly-by-month price from $6.99 to $11.99. Current monthly subscribers can hold onto their $6.99 price, but they'll lose the ability to transfer songs to a portable device.I have two guesses as to why this is happening: 1) Yahoo's subscription model is really taking off and this is a move to capitalize, or 2) the music labels were just a tad uncomfortable with letting millions of songs fly out the door for less than $8/month. Being that #1 is pretty darn unlikely, my money's on the labels popping out some diamonds over Yahoo's wholesale pricing. Sounds like the labels just can't get enough of other companies' pies.
[via Macenstein]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rob Perkins said 10:40PM on 10-30-2005
Good example why subscription based services Suck!
Can you Imagine having to pay twice for the same song and still not owning it?
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Derek said 1:14AM on 10-31-2005
I'm imagining it will rise to $20 dollars a month within 3 years. I still can't fathom even wanting to download more than $40 dollars a year in music.
Isn't Napster at $15? Yahoo! is still losing money on purpose.
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pb said 1:03AM on 11-02-2005
It should be noted that this is only for the portable subscriptions. The non-portable subscription pricing remains the same.
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Small Paul said 2:06PM on 11-01-2005
It was pretty cheap to begin with though. $12 a month isn't too bad for the sheer volume of music you can listen to, if you're not fussed about owning it permanently.
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Brady J. Frey said 12:30PM on 10-31-2005
Oh man I'm glad I didn't get stuck in that model -- I'd continue to keep paying just to hear music, no matter how they raised the price! And just like leasing, the day that comes when I want to own it, I'd have to pay the same rate as it was before just to own it. Leasing - makes sense for large purchases when you simple just don't have the expenses and don't want to own -- doesn't make sense for small simple purchases that you'll most likely want to afford and choose to afford down the road. Pay as you go like the rest of us just makes more sense.
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