YAHOO WANTS MYPLAY IN ITS LOCKER
The report follows recent suggestions that Yahoo is in talks with one or more major record companies (see story, 5/19) and news of its proprietary music player (see story, 5/26). Both developments have fueled speculation that the renowned portal and search engine—which already hosts substantial music content—is looking to build a digital-music infrastructure.
The price, assuming a deal is completed, likely will be about $200 million, sources said.
Yahoo has been looking at ways to expand its involvement in online music. In recent months it has had talks with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group about music initiatives, according to people familiar with the situation, although those two companies decided to launch their own subscription service together.
Myplay also has been in talks with record labels about getting licenses to store copyrighted music, though it has announced no agreements yet.
Reps of Yahoo and Myplay declined to weigh in on the matter. "It's our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation," said one Yahoo employeee.
Sheesh! What fun is that?
Myplay, which currently has deals in place with AOL, Emusic, Rollingstone.com, DreamWorks Records, Jive and Artemis, allows users to store music files online in personal "lockers," and recently expanded its offered storage capacity to 3GB.
It's not known how these affiliations, especially with AOL, will affect the potential Yahoo deal.
In a related story, it's such a relief to be able to store our Uriah Heep tracks somewhere other than our hard drive.
