February 4, 2008 10:44 AM PST
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.
Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure.
