Yahoo! Music has teamed up with other online music providers to edge forward in the digital music business stakes.
Now, when you visit the artist pages on Yahoo! Music, you have the option to access music videos stored on YouTube, listen to internet radio streamed from Pandora, buy songs from iTunes and customise your view.
Unveiled yesterday, this revamp of Yahoo! Music combines both the paid and free music services currently available on the internet, allowing Yahoo! users to access the services directly from the site.
According to the company, it has formed commercial relationships with digital music retailers such as Apple Inc, collecting a fee for every referral.
Over a year ago, Yahoo! announced it was shuttering its own paid-music service, so this move is in tune with the company’s latest efforts to make Yahoo! a more open service.
“We really want to focus on providing a service that’s most valuable to users, and then partner with third parties to provide the entire set of music services,” said Yahoo! Music general manager, Michael Spiegelman.
Visitors to the new Yahoo! Music site can opt for a plethora of options — from tuning in to free, radio-like streaming audio services such as Pandora and Last.fm, checking out music videos from YouTube, and carrying out paid music downloads from iTunes and Amazon.com.
Yahoo! Music also features new Artist Pages, so depending on whether Taylor Swift, The Killers or Leonard Cohen are your thing, you can check out their pages to retrieve information on tour dates, photos and concert tickets.
The site will offer music or information about 500,000 artists, almost double the size of the selection Yahoo! previously offered.
Because most of the pages haven’t been customised and are in beta mode, the new revamp of Yahoo! Music is not running quite so smoothly just yet. It looks slightly cluttered, with ads and boxes running together.
Due to report its first-quarter financial results later this month, Yahoo! is currently undergoing a big reorganisation effort under CEO Carol Bartz, who took over from Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang in January.
By Carmel Doyle
