Searching for music is one thing, but have you ever wanted to search for an artist and play their songs without needing to visit other sites? If so, Yahoo and Rhapsody have launched a new service that will let you do just that.
Staring today, users who search for an artist on Yahoo Search will be able to play the artist’s songs in the search results, thanks to a shortcut sitting at the top of the page. Even better, the songs will be played in their entirety through Rhapsody’s FoxyTunes Player. According to Yahoo, the new feature is just another elemt of its “play the Web” strategy and its desire to open its site for outside content and services.
Yahoo said that about 5 million tracks are currently supported, but there’s just one catch: the partnership with Rhapsody only allows users to listen to 25 free full-length tracks every 30 days. Once that limit is reached, users have the option of subscribing to Rhapsody Unlimited for $12.99 per month or continue to listen to an unlimited number of 30-second samples until the next month begins.
When the user searches for a song, the artist’s picture is displayed along with music videos and tracks. Once they pick which song they want to listen to, the FoxyTunes Player launches near the bottom of the window. The player displays artist, track, and album information, along with a Yahoo search link to find the song’s music video. Song playback doesn’t stop users from scrolling through the results, but once they input another search query, playback stops.
All in all, the service works well. I searched for a slew of songs and Yahoo found them with ease. Even better, it doesn’t count a “listen” until you play the song for one minute, so if you’re not sure whether you like a song or not, you have up to a minute to figure it out.
More importantly though, this move puts Google and Microsoft on notice. Now that song playback is available in Yahoo Search results, you can bet that both companies are looking for ways to catch up right this moment. And considering companies like MySpace and others are getting into the streaming music business, they better move fast to gain a foothold as the trend picks up steam.
I’m glad the music industry is trying different options. If they test enough, they’re bound to get to what I’d really like: whatever music I want, whenever and where ever I want it.
(And I’m happy to pay for that.)
I as well think it is awesome that the music industry is making it so that we can listen to music anytime and anywhere. I also think it is very smart for Rhapsody to utilize such a popular search engine that so many people go on, so it is going to get a lot of attention and credibility and will slowly grow once people realize how much they like listening to songs online and they are asked to subscribe. It is a strong partnership between Rhapsody and Yahoo that is going to get a lot of users.
Bravo Yahoo!
Is this based on SearchMonkey?
Yeah, bravo!
I am actually very happy with the kind of steps Yahoo is taking to get out of the mess that it was till recently — This song playback in search-results, Yahoo BOSS, the app platform (and support for OpenSocial), etc. Good job!
Completely agree!
So just a note – StationRipper will record the full length songs that Yahoo is putting on the search page. Doesn’t get the song name yet, but the MP3 file downloads without issue.
also a note: … with a limit of 25 songs per month.. so you could rip a album a month… but I don’t think that is thrilling enough
finally! sick of just getting lyrics results
I like seeqpod’s service for playable search. Unlimited play backs, though they don’t have that many older tracks.
Yahoo ! putting its best in every sector to get the lost respect back…Good work
It’s a great move from yahoo, at least it might save their ass from getting burnt by Microsoft. They should acquire some music recommendation companies — there are lot out there in the market .. after all Yahoo is a portal and they can create a portal for entertainment. I still love Yahoo and I would recommend some companies that I personally like .. I love Pandora for music, Cruxle (www.cruxle.com) for all sorts of entertainment. It recommends TV shows, movies, books, music, videos and what not. It’s a great website, I love it as much as I love Pandora. Yahoo, take some action, fast!
I think this is a great move. It will make searching and sampling for music infinitely easier because now you get to sample the entire song and not just portions of it. That Google and Microsoft will be left trailing in the wake of yahoo’s innovation is something that will only benefit the consumer when it comes to getting more for their search efforts
Yahoo’s making a good call here. While I thought they may be abandoning streaming audio for awhile with the closing of Yahoo Music (which I preferred over Rhapsody) it looks like this may be the next best thing. Plus, its resparked my interest in subscription streaming since Y! Music closed. Good job!
Though I am a little bummed I can’t hear Mungo Jerry’s In The Summertime through that service.
Now I am excited! 3 cheers yahoo! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooo!!!!!
That explains why Yahoo cut their Yahoo music ads on Commission Junction..
yawn
Very interesting, and very interesting also is this new Firefox extension that’ s able to record on your PC the song you listen to: https://addons....efox/addon/8818
This is honestly the first legitimate reason I’ve ever had to use Yahoo’s search engine. I like it (thought I feel bad that Yahoo will have to pay off the RIAA to allow full-length playback).
I thought google would be the first to offer this service! I still think they will, in one way or another, but still, this is a good move from Yahoo. First time in ten years that i used Yahoo search and im considering buying the monthly subscription from Rhapsody. Having milions of songs at your fingertips is def worth paying for.
Deezer, Myspace Music, Spotify, Imeem… music streaming is the next big thing I hope.
Yaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!
its nice interesting intialtive by yahoo!
but it seems like its not working with FF3 … i have tested on other browsers and its working fine
I think that yahoo teaming up with Rhapsody was a brilliant idea. It is nice to have a variety of resources when it comes to searching for music and listening to songs on the web. This new feature on yahoo will make it easier to search and access millions of artists, while allowing you to preview and listen to the songs of your choice. However even though this is a great addition to yahoo, I am surprised that google didn’t think of something like this first.
there seems to be such a limited number of artists/songs available.
i know they said 5 million songs are supported, but all i can find is top 40.
it returned songs for Jessica Simpson and Black Eyed Peas, but no music available for Miles Davis? no Led Zeppelin?
and forget about indie bands like Morning Benders or Pedro the Lion.
Useless.
just another shallow marketing tool for Rhapsody.
ditto, 1st time i’ve used yahoo in YEARS. already a rhapsody member, but why not the full rhapsody catalog yet. also, is there a way to stream the full playlist of the band you’ve selected?
Look at http://www.playaudiovideo.com with all multiemdia 3 Billion pages indexed in this beta.