Subscription Music and Licensing Overview
"Subscription music" is a term used throughout the Yahoo! Music Jukebox and in materials describing the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service.
Getting music with a subscription is a more cost effective and efficient way to discover and enjoy music than buying individual download songs at retail prices. However, as with most new concepts, there's a learning curve involved in understanding its value and utility. A key part of understanding subscription music is "licensing." You may see this term used throughout your subscription music experience, and this FAQ provides an overview of what "subscription" and licensing means, how to manage your licences, and their relationship to subscription music.
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What is "Subscription" Music?
Subscription music is a new way of getting and enjoying digital music that's a win-win scenario: it's great for the music consumer and good for the artists and companies who provide music.
[Background] As everyone knows, music theft and piracy has become a problem. Illegal downloading and trading prevents artists from receiving their just compensation and distributors from making legally mandated copyright payments, among other issues. The music industry led some well-publicized lawsuits to stop illegal music piracy. But that doesn't mean that they, or any artists, want to stop the flow of great music to the people who love it. So, together with music distributors, the industry developed a new concept for the distribution of digital music that achieves two goals: it provides an amazingly cost-effective way for music lovers to get and enjoy as much music as they want, and it insures the artists and distributors get the compensation they deserve. This is "subscription music."
[How It Works] Yahoo! Music Unlimited is the subscription music service from Yahoo! Music. When you sign up for a Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription, you get the free Yahoo! Music Jukebox as a desktop application to manage your music, rip, burn, enjoy free Yahoo! LAUNCHcast Radio, and more. Through the Yahoo! Music Jukebox, you search for music you want from our catalogue of more than 1 million songs, then you click the Add to My Music button next to the song, album, or artist.
When you do this, a full download of the song(s) are added to your computer for you to enjoy any time. There are some restrictions to this, which are outlined below. The music files act and function like any MP3s you already have; however, they are digitally tied to the limits of the subscription. That is, if you cancel or let your monthly subscription dues lapse, the songs become non-playable. They're still on your hard drive, so if you re-start your subscription, they become active again; in that way, they work like any magazine or TV cable subscription.
With monthly dues of between $5.99 and $8.99, you can see how cost-effective this is relative to buying CDs at a store or individual retail download of songs for .99 each: one CD costs $12 to $14, and if you don't like all the songs on it, you've still laid out that much nonrefundable cash; and buying an online album by retail download can cost $17. With subscription music, you pay the small monthly fee, then you can download as many full albums of as many artists as you like, with no limits, to listen to and enjoy. If you dislike an album, song or artist, you simply delete them from your collection, and the cost never changes.
[Burning Music to CDs] One issue with subscription music is that you can't burn it to CDs. This is part of the digital rights management (DRM) restrictions mentioned above. It's not hard to see why this is: there has to be a way to prevent the music from being copied and illegally traded. However, a lot of people really like to own music they can burn to CDs, and we totally get that. So, we made buying retail downloads less expensive when you have a Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription. If you have a song or album you really want to burn to CD, you can buy it with burn rights at generally a 20% discount over most other online retail prices. You purchase those songs separately from your monthly subscription dues, and they do not expire if you end your monthly subscription.
[Portable Music Players] But what about putting subscription music on portable players? As everyone knows, certain portable digital music players have made taking music on the go a regular part of life. Well, we thought of that too. Subscription music is fully transferable to a wide range of cool, popular portable players from manufacturers like RCA, Samsung, iRiver, Dell, Creative, and more. To comply with DRM requirements, the player you use with a subscription service has to be certified as "subscription-compatible." This means it can recognize the special encoding of subscription music files. A standard MP3 player or iPod won't recognize subscription songs, and won't play them. In order to have the capability to transfer subscription music to portable players, sign up for the optional Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go feature.
At the end of the day, subscription music is an amazing and cost-effective way to discover and acquire all the music you love without laying out much cash. If you look at what you use music for -- playing at home, taking away on portable players, sharing with friends -- you can do it all with subscription music, all for a low monthly fee. Imagine getting a million songs for $4.99 a month … that's precisely what subscription music with Yahoo! Music Unlimited gives you. Plus, if you really like to own music on CDs, we provide that to you as well at a substantial discount.
Read more about the specifics of licences and digital rights management (DRM) below.
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Licensing Basics
If you read the introduction to subscription music above, you understand the basics. This information provides more detail about how subscription music works on a daily basis.
Subscription music is governed by what are called digital rights management (DRM) limits. These limits determine how song files can be accessed and on how many and what type of devices they can be played. The rules are set by music publishers and distributors, and most subscription services are required to follow them. Permission for use of machines and song files are managed by "licences."
[Number of Allowed Machines] DRM limits for Yahoo! Music Unlimited allow you to access downloaded subscription songs on up to three computers. However, you may access your subscription music in bookmarked (or streaming) form on an unlimited number of computers. We'll explain:
Yahoo! Music Unlimited gives you two options for getting subscription music: download or bookmark.
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Download: The default setting in the Yahoo! Music Jukebox is download. That means, when you click Add to My Music, any subscription song is downloaded to your hard drive as a full song file. It takes up space on your hard drive and you can play it when not connected to the Internet.
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Bookmark: If you change the access settings in Preferences, you can tell the Yahoo! Music Jukebox to simply bookmark songs when you click Add to My Music. A bookmark to our servers is set instead of a song file being downloaded and the song is streamed over the Internet. This means you can only access the song when connected to the Internet, and the song takes up no space on your hard drive.
You may install the Yahoo! Music Jukebox on any number of computers, but if you download subscription music, DRM monitors the number of machines on which downloading is taking place. When it detects three computers are downloading music from the same account, it will not allow you to download music to any more machines. You must deactivate one of the active machines in order to add another machine. This allows you to use the same account, say, at home, at work, and in the kids' room; but if you want to add another machine (or if one of your machines' hard drive dies and you replace it), you must go to one of the currently active machines and deactive it. See the FAQ on deactivating machines for more information.
However, you may access your music in bookmarked form on an unlimited number of machines. That is, if you travel, and check into hotels or visit internet cafes, you can install the Yahoo! Music Jukebox, enter your use ID and access your music in bookmarked form with no limit. The song files just can't be downloaded to any more than three machines at a time.
[Song File Licence]
Individual subscription songs are encoded with DRM information called "licences." When you add a subscription song, you are also issued a licence for the use of that song. Each song in the catalogue has its own permissions: most songs have permission for download and transfer to portable devices, but it's not uncommon to encounter a song that the publisher restricts from one or both. Sometimes a song has a license for play on Yahoo! LAUNCHcast only, but not for individual download.
You would encounter this issue most likely when trying to transfer a song to a portable device or burn it to CD. If it's a subscription song, the song file has no permission for CD burning, and you would see an error or a message telling you this. If the song lacks permission for transfer to a portable device, you may see a "licence error" when trying to transfer the song. It means simply this song was not issued a licence for transfer to devices. We regret the publishers stipulate these rules and Yahoo! Music Unlimited cannot change these established rights.
On other occasions, the individual song licence may simply be missing or defective. You may be able to resolve this yourself by manually relicensing the song. If this occurs, you would see a dialogue box leading you to an FAQ for resolution. What is happening here essentially is that the song licence may be lost, and you manually refresh the licence by right-clicking the track in My Music on the Yahoo! Music Jukebox and highlight Edit > Reacquire License (version 1.1) or Relicense Track (version 1.0). This ensures the song license is refreshed, and you can try using the track for download or transfer again. If it still doesn't work, chances are the song is not licensed for the use you want.
The song licences on the Yahoo! Music Jukebox and on any portable device expire based on a clock: since subscription music runs on a monthly fee, the licences know to expire at the end of the month unless they are automatically refreshed. For this reason, the Yahoo! Music Jukebox must be connected to the internet periodically, i.e., at least once a month, for it to check our servers to confirm your subscription dues are paid. A portable device also must be connected to the Yahoo! Music Jukebox periodically to check that the individual song licences on the device are also still up to date. You may see a licence error on a device in this case, which means you must connect it to the Yahoo! Music Jukebox. See the FAQ on resolving portable device issues for more information.
[Root License]
In addition to individual song licences, your version of the Yahoo! Music Jukebox has what is called a root licence. This means the subscription itself is properly licenced and the version of the Yahoo! Music Jukebox is licenced for use. On some occasions, this licence may have been inadvertently corrupted or lost. If that should occur, you would see a licence error dialogue box leading you to an FAQ to resolve the issue. Find out more about this in Problems Transferring to Portable Devices.
[Device Transfer Limit]
DRM limits determine the number of portable devices you can transfer music to with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go optional service. At present, this limit is 2. You cannot transfer music to more than two devices from any single subscription account.
[CD Playlist Burn Limits: Purchased, Burnable Downloads Only]
This applies to tracks purchased as individual, burnable downloads through Yahoo! Music Unlimited only. These songs, while not governed by subscription music DRM limits, also come with certain encoded limits. They have a maximum playlist burn limit of 7, meaning they can be burned to CD in the same playlist up to seven times. In order to keep burning these tracks, move them to a new playlist. Then, that new playlist has a burn limit of 7, and so forth.
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Summary of Yahoo! Music Unlimited DRM limits
- Number of machines licensed for Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription music download: 3
- Number of machines licensed for Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription music bookmarked (streaming): unlimited
- Subscription music burn to CD: no
- Device transfer limit, subscription music: 2
- Playlist burn limit, Yahoo! Music Unlimited burnable downloads: 7