Hacking Yahoo Music

Sandisk Has No Plans To Fix Connect Features

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:42:00 +0000

As Yahoo mentioned, mid-2008 is approaching, and accounts are expected to start being migrated to Rhapsody very soon. However, one group is still in the dark- the Sansa Connect Users.

Sansa Connect uses a proprietary protocol to interface with Yahoo's Launchcast and Catalog wirelessly via 802.11 wireless networks.

Once this transition to Rhapsody begins, Yahoo has announced that the wireless features in the Connect will no longer function, but the MP3 player will still be able to play music from the Rhapsody To-Go account as well as from other sources- but will have to be transferred via USB cable instead of wireless network.

Many requests have been made to Sandisk to see if there have been plans to upgrade the connect's firmware to make it compatible with Rhapsody, or even just stream free shoutcast stations- but to no avail. Sandisk and Yahoo's offical public response has left absolutely every Connect user in the dark, with the very vague:

(Feb 10, 2008) We are committed to you, our customers and want to provide accurate and reliable information as soon as we are able to. SanDisk is exploring several potential courses of action to address a situation which is not entirely in our control. We expect to post more information shortly, which we hope will answer some of the questions that have been raised in several forum threads. We thank for your continued support.

Of course, these answers never did eventually appear, leaving both the Yahoo Music Feedback forum and the Sandisk forum full of questions and confused customers.

According to Sandisk support (as of 5/29/08), there are no plans to actually update the firmware (beyond removing the wireless features). This is, of course, much to the dismay of the community, who were holding on with dear hopes that a magical solution (such as rhapsody support) would come along.

Sandisk support has confirmed that the wireless capabilities will cease to work on (or around) the week of July 1st, 2008.

According to Sandisk support, it is possible to get a refund or Sandisk online store credit by returning the Connect- but only if it's still within warranty.

I have not yet found out the details on the value of the refunds or credits, or how/when they will be applied, however I should find out in more detail tonight or tomorrow. I will update as soon as I have information.

For those interested in returning their Sansa Connect, contact Sandisk support:

North America Technical Support
1-866-SANDISK (726-3475)
7 days a week:
4am. - 10pm. Pacific Standard Time
7am - 1am Eastern Standard Time
support@sandisk.com

More info...

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:58:00 +0000

New FAQ available from Yahoo Music- they still won't discuss the absolute death-day of the unlimited service, however I got word from Sandisk that they've been told the wireless capabilities of the Sansa Connect will discontinue on July 18th, and that they will discontinue Yahoo Music unlimited on that day as well.

The updated FAQ is vague and doesn't answer many questions such as the fate of Sansa Connect users and the actually date of the cross -over, other than a reference to "mid-2008"

In other news, according to Sandisk support, we may be able to get refunds for purchased Sansa Connects at www.shopsansa.com. The friendly support at Sandisk alerted me that I should keep my sansa connect until July (because mine is still under warranty at this point) and see if there might be a new firmware to support additional providers. There's a chance they might do this, or suffer mass returns. I'll keep you posted.

Update for Sansa Connect users

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:53:00 +0000

After the news that broke today about Yahoo migrating it's users to Rhapsody, one very obvious question came about- what will happen to the Sansa connect and it's features?

I have posed the question to both Yahoo Music, as well as Sandisk, and so far I've only received one response, from Kristian Burch, Supervisor - Yahoo! Customer Care.

"After you migrate to Rhapsody, the wireless Yahoo! features on your Sansa Connect device will no longer work. You will still be able to upload Rhapsody subscription tracks onto the device using the Rhapsody Music Software when you connect the player to your PC. "

This is very disheartening news, and furthermore, it destroys the very reason Sansa Connect users bought the players. I've asked for more details on this decision, but in the mean time, is it possible it's time to ask Sandisk for refunds? Is a class-action lawsuit possible?

Yahoo music users going to RealNetworks

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:29:00 +0000

So after just about a month of silence from the people over at Yahoo Music, the final announcement that Yahoo Music Unlimited customers were being traded off to a new company is announced in a business week article. Not exactly my favorite way of discovering a service that I use is getting rid of me.

From the article:

Under the Yahoo-RealNetworks partnership, subscribers to Yahoo Music Unlimited will be shifted to the Rhapsody service sometime in the first half of this year. Yahoo subscribers' music library and payment plans will remain the same for a limited time after the switch, but those wishing to remain on Rhapsody eventually will be required to sign up at Rhapsody's rates.

Yahoo's subscription rates range from $5.99 a month, if users pay for a full year in advance, or $8.99 a month. Rhapsody memberships start at $12.99 a month.

I have yet to hear any details about how this may affect sansa connect users, but generally news like this is better heard from the source, who is conveniently silent at the moment.

More news as it comes- keep watching.

Special thanks to Evan for bringing this article to my attention.

Yahoo Lay-Offs, Yahoo Music Future Uncertain

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:11:00 +0000

A blog reader, Evan, directed me to an article in the NY Times regarding changes being made at Yahoo! including laying off hundreds of employees, and consolidating some of their services.

From the article:

Some other areas would be de-emphasized. In recent months, Yahoo said it would phase out or consolidate services like photos, premium music, auctions and Yahoo 360, a largely unsuccessful social network.

The future of Yahoo Music and it's premium service UNLIMITED is in question. So far, I have no received any response from the Yahoo Music Team- but as is their custom, even a response from them will likely do little to dispell rumors, as I often receive prepared statements from them which offer little in terms of useful information.

Will keep you posted.

Year-End Focus of Yahoo Music

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:52:00 +0000

A few questions were brought up in a recent conference call with Yahoo Music Reps, including Ian Rogers, so I'll cover them here to try to help with the big questions that have been lingering around here and on the Yahoo Music Feedback Forums.

The first and obvious question that needed to be answered is the question of features Yahoo Music Jukebox lacks that ex-Music Match users miss, such as "Super-tagging" and file conversion features.

While Ian didn't have an official comment immediately, he did mention that early next year Yahoo Music will have a few announcements that may shed some light on this and other issues, and put their decisions into context. That being said, Ian did mention that Yahoo Music Jukebox was meant more for a portal to their online music store and subscription content.

If you're looking for a place to organize a huge collection of your own personal MP3s, Yahoo Music Jukebox may not be the right place.
He recommended other programs such as Media Monkey.

On the DRM front, Ian Rogers has been very public with his distaste for DRM-laiden music and noted that while they can't announce any specifics, we can most likely look foward to DRM-free MP3s in the Yahoo Music Store next year.

I've scheduled regular calls with the Yahoo team, so if anybody has any questions please feel free to let me know and I'll try to communicate those questions with Yahoo Music.

Still no news... but soon?

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:14:00 +0000

I just recently had a phone conference with a few at Yahoo Music regarding issues and customer relations (such as the lack of presence on the Yahoo Music Feedback board). Here's the skinny-

First off, all the issues brought to my attention were brought up in the conference- Music Match users' "upgrade" problems, questions about features being added to the jukebox, problems with support and lack of communication from Yahoo.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that I was able to communicate these issues with them, they had to take the questions and confer with their people before getting back to me with "official statements" on most of those. Sadly- the big questions about the future movement of Yahoo music were put on hold until our next conference due to Ian Rogers having Jury duty at the time of the call.

What I did get out of support was that they realized the lack of communication and had plans to get more attention to the Yahoo Music Feedback board and open communication via the Yahoo Music Blog, and through this blog.

I encourage you all to at least subscribe to the RSS feeds. I can't guaruntee you the rate at which news will come in... I'm at a loss for new information until they get it to me- but for now I am checking both this forum, and a few other spots on a regular basis to keep up with anything.

Feel free to contact me using my email (to the right) if you have any direct concerns you'd like me to bring to Yahoo Music's attention. (But not tech support, please).

No news is ... good news?

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:37:00 +0000

Sorry for the slow updates this week- truth be told I'm watching all outlets as much as possible- multiple times a day. Unfortunately, despite a new Yahoo Music Blog post, not much is going on.

The good news is, I have another call scheduled with a few people in Yahoo Music in a week or so, and I'll have a chance to present a lot of the questions and concerns that have been brought to my attention - most through the Yahoo Music Feedback forums.

Anyhow, just letting you all know I'm still here and actively working on the back-end to get some information for everybody- so don't forget to check back often!

I'd like to thank everybody for the positive words I've been getting in my email! I'm glad that I can help the community! Please let me know if there are any concerns that I haven't mentioned in a previous post (yes, yes, I know, I'm going to ask about the Music Match features) that might be useful to get some light shed on!

Sansa Connect Firmware Update Confirmed

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:07:00 +0000

An update to the Sandisk Sansa Connect mp3 player was released yesterday, adding, among other things, video support and Yahoo! music catalog searching. A list found on the Sandisk forums appears below:

The released version number is:
ZAP: 1.1.1.50371
OS: 1.1.1.50239

New Features:

1) Video Support – The 1.1.1 release allows users to play MPEG4 video files on the device. Only videos converted using the Sansa Media Converter are supported. Get Sansa Media Converter at http://www.sandisk.com/driverdownload/index.asp

2) Artist Search in Get More Music – Users can now search the Yahoo! library for songs by artist’s name.

3) “Browse Music” feature added to Get More Music – Top Albums, Top Songs and Explore by Genre are the user selections available for browsing.

4) Ability to stream music in Get More Music – Users can now play from a stream, instead of having to download the music found.

5) Support for microSD and microSDHC cards up to 8GB. Ability to read and write to the microSD card via MTP.

6) WiFi – Captive Portal support at many public hotspots. This depends largely on the way the hotspot was setup by the Internet Service Provider used. Support for major hotspots include: AT&T, FON, Wayport and T-Mobile.

7) Support for hidden WiFi networks ( access points using the Hide SSID option)

8) Power saving enhancements in SLEEP mode. The Connect will transition to OFF after 72 hours in SLEEP mode or if the battery level drops below 5%.

Breaking News: Video on Sansa Connect?

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:26:00 +0000

No official report has confirmed this as of yet, however the Sansa Connect user guide available on sandisk's website appears to have been recently updated - most likely in conjunction with a firmware update that's rumored to come out today or tomorrow. Within the user guide are instructions for using a new feature - VIDEO.

Again- this has not been confirmed, however the user guide looks to be pretty obvious proof that this was more than just a rumor.

***Update (5:30 PM EST) also included in the user guide is text about the much awaited Yahoo Music catalog search, which, according to the text, can be done by searching for an artist and browsing titles after that. ***

***Update (6:40 PM EST) Just received the firmware upgrade and can confirm now video support and catalog search and browse features! Will give details in just a bit...****

Sansa Firmware Rumors

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:16:00 +0000

Rumors on the Sandisk forums suggest that a new firmware for the Sansa Connect could be pushed as early as Nov 6 or 7th.

Suggested on the forums to be rolled out in this update include video support, bug fixes, rhapsody support, but most of all... the much anticipated support for browsing the entire yahoo music catalog.

These are, of course, just rumors. There has been no official comment from Sandisk or Yahoo.

Yahoo Forces Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:13:00 +0000

Many users are reporting that Yahoo Music Jukebox has recently forced an update (or had an option to quit). After the update, it requires a restart.

I, myself, have encountered two forced updates on my Vista machine in the last two weeks. Does anybody know what was fixed in the updates? Yahoo Music is relatively silent on this one.

Future of Yahoo! Music Unlimited

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:03:00 +0000

During a call with Ian Rogers, he had mentioned that although the Yahoo! music staff won't be spending as much of their resources on Yahoo! Music Unlimited, there were no plans to close or end the Unlimited or To-Go services. (To-Go for Sansa Connect Users, or already To-Go subscribed users, however new registrations are otherwise closed.)

He couldn't reveal numbers but mentioned a large percentage of their Yahoo! Music traffic utilizes their free services, and they'd be concentrating a good amount on those.

To put the community at ease, he did mention that Yahoo Music Unlimited had a contract with Music Match before the acquisition to continue the service and support until at least 2009, which, he mentioned, was already public knowledge.

I will continue to update as I get information.

-Robbie

Yahoo! Podcasts Create Suspicion

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:41:00 +0000

With Yahoo! Podcasts to be closing it's doors in just about a week, in addition with announcements from Yahoo! higher-ups, everybody is speculating that this could be signaling the end of Yahoo! Music.

Sadly, the people at Yahoo! Music have yet to respond to this allegation, which does little to deny this rumor.

What do you think?

Sonos Adds Napster

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:14:00 +0000

The Sonos wireless network music player company just announced support for Napster's Unlimited Download service (among other things). This is, of course, in addition to their already existing support of Rhapsody.

With the Sonos' support of Napster and Rhapsody, one can browse the entire catelog from a handheld device and put together playlists of what ever the user wants.

The Sonos does support Plays For Sure content, and will play protected files from other services including Yahoo, but doesn't include the catalog searchablilty.

When will Yahoo! get on the ball and deliver catalog searchability from remote devices? A much awaited and promised feature of the Sansa Connect, but one wonders why Yahoo! hasn't tried to strike a deal with a bigger player such as Sonos.

War Driving, War Walking

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:21:00 +0000

Eric Brandt at the Sansa Community describes a process called "War Driving" which basically involves driving around with a wireless network sensitive device looking for a place to piggy-back off an insecure wireless network.

He then realizes an interesting use for the Sansa Connect:

Down the street, music streaming… And then suddenly, nothing. I’m out of range. Grrrr, I wanted to hear the rest of that song! I wanted to "zing" it and get the rest of that album, and now I don't even know the name. How cool it will be when WiFi coverage is seamless!

And then the innocent curiosity of war-walking creeps in. Would it be theoretically possible to make it to the store hopping WiFi connections?

A funny read, make sure to check it out.

Musicmatch Migration FAQ

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:06:00 +0000

Although this doesn't answer many of the questions ex-Musicmatch users have regarding loss of features in the Yahoo Music Jukebox "Upgrade," a FAQ is available on Yahoo! Answers with some information that's useful and interesting nonetheless.

Yahoo Music vs Rhapsody vs Napster

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:20:00 +0000

Eric Fleming at Associated Content declares Yahoo Music the winner in an abstract comparison of the major subscription music services:

There are so many different music subscription services out there, such as Rhapsody, Napster and Yahoo Music Unlimited, that who really knows which one is best? They all claim to have millions of songs, and all are - in certain respects - very similar. Over the past few weeks, I've tried out the free trial option for all three of the aforementioned services, and have come to the conclusion that there is a very clear "winner" amongst the three. My conclusion may come as a surprise, and I doubt very much that the service I like is the most popular... but it should be.

Whether or not this review hits on all the topics some might find important, it does point out some core differences between the services.

My Story

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:48:00 +0000

A question about my background that lead to this blog came up on the Yahoo Forums, so I thought I'd repost my response here as an addition to my disclosure on the right.

I originally became a Yahoo Music Unlimited subscriber in Dec 2006, and have since loved the service. I tried Rhapsody for a while, but came right back after I realized that Yahoo's music discovery capabilities were far better.

Then just recently I decided to buy a sansa connect, and that's when the trouble started happening. I had significant trouble getting the To-Go account working, and I quickly discovered that the support that I never needed until now lacked horribly.

I searched the web for countless hours looking for solutions and for definite answers about Yahoo's continuation of the To-Go service (why invest in a mp3 player that's literally tied to a service that might not last?). All I found was this forum, and a sansa forum- both of which asking the same questions: WHERE IS YAHOO SUPPORT?

I realized that Yahoo Music had a seriously PR crisis on their hands. When the most popular topic on their feedback forum is about how to sue the company, you know things are going bad.

I decided I needed answers, and I needed them now. Yahoo Music's Support gave little in the way of definitive answers, and just like everybody else on this forum, I felt alienated by a company whose product I truely loved.

That's when I decided I needed to get in contact with a higher-up. I dug around and finally made contact with Ian Rogers who was very concerned by my experience to say the least. He admitted that Yahoo Music was having trouble in this dept, and that's when we got to talking-

We discussed the posibility of a community-leader-type-role that could help bring a flow of information back to the community. I had let him know that despite the technical difficulties that every company has- the most important thing for this community is to know that there is communication. Communication is key.

Now, this doesn't mean I have much sway with the Yahoo Team - I certainly can't make anything happen. I don't work there, and I don't get paid by them. However - I do have an open line of communication which I plan to use to bring to light issues that we open in this forum and on my blog ( http://hackingym.blogspot.com ), as well as help settle issues with truth straight from the source.

This is, of course, in an effort to stimulate the community and help things move along. One things' for sure: Yahoo has a great product and a very exited and willing team. They're excited about adding features and listening to music. And this passion is something that I see and is why I consider sticking around with Yahoo Music.

Their PR sucks and they are screwing up royally on this end- and I just don't want to give up on a product that easily.

My talks with Yahoo Music are still in progress, so I'm not sure to what extent I'll have a flow of information- but I assure you that I'm on the consumer's side, as I'm a customer just like you.

As I said, my goal is to open communication between the company and the customers.

My goal is to have a line of communication with technical support information, official FAQs, and hopefully some neato details on new stuff to come.

This is all dependent on how much information Yahoo Music decides to direct my way.

I do pledge to make sure all information I get will be shared with all of you, and that I will attempt my very best to get major issues on this board in front of them. What they do with this information is up to them. But hopefully both sides will feel heard and with an open line of communication things will improve dramatically here.

Amazon MP3 Store a Threat?

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:43:00 +0000

Hypebot has an article about the Amazon MP3 Store's success:

[...]Amazon could be #2 by year's end for some labels if measured by dollars paid instead of the number of tracks downloaded, according to at least one prediction. Amazon pays labels far more per track downloaded than eMusic's subscription model.

If true, Amazon's instant success is not great news for Rhapsody, Zune, Napster and other download services who have invested millions of dollars over the last several years to gain market share.

What effect could this have on Yahoo Music? What effect could this have on the subscription music model altogether?

Many Users Complain About Downgrade From Music Match

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:16:00 +0000

Many topics on the Yahoo! Music Support and Feedback Forums have been dedicated to customers unhappy about a recent switch to Yahoo Music Jukebox for previously existing Music Match users, and are considering this switch a "downgrade."

Complaints Include the Following Features Are Missing From Yahoo Music Jukebox:

0. Stability
1. Super tagging/tag management
2. Rating system changed from 5 star to 4 star
3. Album cover art retrieval
4. line-in recording
5. conversion of file formats, MP3 to WAV, etc.
6. conversion of MP3 bit rate
7. Support RCA's wireless music distribution product RD900W
8. Repair broken links
9. Player skins
10. Play control from task bar
11. Auto DJ (although a similar feature does exist in YMJ)
12. System mixer(recorder)
13. Ability to apply multiple sort fields in a drop-down fashion(artist/album)(artist/genre/album)
14. YMJ does not remember how you sort colums
15. Ability to edit/make custom visualizations.
16. Putting visualzation in full screen mode
17. Check for updates Button
18. DFX Enhancements
19. MP3 CD Support

Are there any other ones we've missed?
How critical are these missing features, and how are they affecting your desire to stay/leave Yahoo! Music?

New Yahoo! Music Jukebox Available

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:13:00 +0000

From the Yahoo! Music Forums:

We've just released version 2.2.2.056 of the Yahoo! Music Jukebox. You can download the latest version here: http://music.yahoo.com/jukebox/

The focus for this release was quality over new features so the update mainly contains bug fixes. Here's a list of those fixes:

• Stopped Album Art from MP3 tags overwritten by new, wrong art
• Address identified streaming/buffering issues
• Issue with Fatal Exception on attempt to play YMU stream
• Playlists with non-local files are now being published via Network music
• Improved messaging when YMU status is unavailable
• Prevent songs randomly skipping on playback - LCRadio and YMU
• Excessive Advertising - Reduce ads shown while playing 30 sec samples
• EULA is no longer shown again on launch
• YMJ can now correctly read and display MP3 tags written by some MMJB versions
• Added 'Track #' as a default sorting option.
• Fixed problems with importing a CD to Jukebox while you are not online
• Fixed issue where Visual C++ Runtime error appears sometimes when starting YMJ
• Fixed issue where fatal exception received when trying to access 'My Music' upon first start
• My Music - Now retaining added library after restart.
• Fixed issue where all the songs in 'My Music' would disappear occasionally after quickly starting up and shutting down client

We realize there are some issues with login at this time and unfortunately this update will not address that specific issue. The engineering team has identified the problem and it should be fixed very soon. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Thanks
--Dave

Welcome to Hacking Yahoo Music

noreply@blogger.com (Interested) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:39:00 +0000

Welcome to my new blog on Yahoo Music. Despite the fact that the name suggests that we'll be going over how to "hack" the Yahoo Music system, we won't actually be covering that here.

The name came from another site called Hacking Netflix, which covers news and information pertaining to Netflix.

My goal is to provide open communication about and pertaining to the Yahoo Music Unlimited services and related services. I hope to bring to the Yahoo Music community communication that runs both ways between the company and it's users.

I also hope to cover news and frequently asked questions in this blog- and to become the first place to look when curious about something Yahoo Music Related.

My Disclosure: I don't work for Yahoo Music, however I am in communication with them, and whenever possible I will try to bring any information I learn from them to this blog- and vice versa. I do hope to create discussion about the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of Yahoo Music, and I hope to bring it to the attention of the staff of Yahoo Music.

Thanks,
-Robbie