Update: Yahoo kills Yahoo Music

On Friday, I pondered if Microsoft would kill Yahoo Music. Now, it looks like Microsoft won't have to bother: this morning, Yahoo announced an agreement with RealNetworks to transfer all Yahoo Music subscription customers to Real's Rhapsody service. In all likelihood, this deal was well underway before the Microsoft announcement--Yahoo's been rumored to be considering a free service for several weeks now--but the timing certainly makes it look like Yahoo's accelerating its cuts. And it appears that Rhapsody's the default partner of choice for companies that want to cut their digital music ties with Microsoft--recall that MTV signed a similar deal last August after Microsoft stabbed the Urge service in the back with the Zune Marketplace.