Back in August we pointed at the deal being cut by RealNetworks, MTV and Verizon to create Rhapsody America, and said that finally something had come along that could challenge iTunes.
Then like a bus coming along after a three hour wait, four come along at once and Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Europe’s Musicstation each delivered viable alternatives in the space of a few months.
Rhapsody became the music service behind Verizon’s VCast Music and MTV’s URGE music was merged into Rhapsody, as Viacom’s MTV put in some of its own cash, and backed a $230 million five year note taking a 49% stake.
Now Yahoo has decided that it wants in on the act, and has dropped its own service in favor of the Rhapsody America. If and when Microsoft buys Yahoo, this deal will mean that Microsoft will face some tough decisions about whether to unravel it or even move its own MSN Music into the Rhapsody pot, including all the re-purposing of DRM and devices like its Zune handheld player.
Yahoo had, up until now, been saying it would rebuild its in-house Music Unlimited service, and perhaps the deal has been done entirely to discomfort Microsoft. Existing Yahoo Music’s subscribers will gradually be brought into line with Rhapsody price, from the $9 a month they pay on average right now.
The next stage is to move Rhapsody America outside of the US, and the Yahoo brand would be the perfect arm to do that with, and then pitch it as a sideloading partner for further Cellular deals.
Anywhere around the world where MTV sells its services, and that’s most countries, it will be pushing, with some credibility, for a local cellular operator as a partner for its music service.
Meanwhile Yahoo is buying Boston-based online video technology provider Maven Networks says Techcrunch, for around $150 million. Maven has tooled up to provide advertising and management tools around Adobe Flash video on the web, and numbers CBS, Fox, Sony BMG, and TV Guide among its customers.
Maven offers a policy based ad insertion engine for web video, which has a drag and drop rules builder, includes advertising measurement features, and an interactive advertising toolkit, advertising management, analytics and forecasting and will plug straight into the dominant DoubleClick Dart system, acquired recently by Google.
In short much of what it can do for Yahoo, are things that Microsoft can also do, and once again this looks like a takeover that is designed to spoil, not oil, the Microsoft deal. The board of Yahoo have yet to give advice to shareholders on whether or not to accept the Microsoft deal, but these two moves are clearly not designed to ingratiate Microsoft, and would have to be signed off by the same board members considering the offer.