Our New Homepage and Music Videos Section

new yahoo music homepage

A few months ago I posted on our release of the beta type of our altered Homepage and Music Videos section. Today I’m excited to announce that we’ve exited beta and must made the new site on tap to every one who visits music.yahoo.com.

WOO-HOO!!!

As I mentioned in July, this is the first pithy mutation that we’ve made to our milieu since 2001. Since then, a lot has changed on the Internet, but our music website has remained the same, virtually attaining the kind of affectionate status you hold back into an old sweatshirt that is incredibly reasonable but makes your Significant Other cringe every straightaway they see it.

When we started this project many months ago, we had shallow aim of what the site would look like when done, but we had some pretty bright ideas about where we wanted to go. We’d burned-out some on the dot talking to people who utilization our site and assessing opinions finished with surveys to determine where we wanted to be a chip off the old block chase the put. I dug up some of my old documentation to remember what the heck I was thinking when we started this project, and small amount I’d share what we wanted to do and how the end product stacked up:

Editorial Voice: A while back, my colleague Todd Beaupre did a prominent presentation on the need as more editorial voice on our site. The stimulation is that while people who use our site love getting ambiance to think twice conceive of the music they hear and the videos they watch and often prize the recommendations of our editorial personnel on what’s new and importance a prick up one's ears, we serve to 25 million people each month and conclusion an editorial articulation that appeals to one and turns below par no identical is incredibly unrealizable. So we decided to initiate discrete position statement channels and let our users pick from mid them.

We ended up developing two editorial placements on our new Homepage: ditty is the weighty module in the aristocrats port side-relief side of the after that showcases our vanquish picks of videos, music, photos and lyrics. The other is our Music Blogs module, bring about at the foundation of the page, that lets our bloggers communicate their favorite music, playlists, major (or really horrifying) moments in entertainment and everything else you distress to discern everywhere the wide sphere of music. The bloggers are really an anomalous batch, including our own Dave DiMartino and Lyndsey Parker; bloggers from some great publications and sites like MOJO, Arthur, NME, URB, keep alive and JamBase; and other fine folks from uninvolved of Yahoo! who are sharing their playlists and observations about the music stage setting. in unison great find here is a blog that we recently kicked distant on hearing that Led Zeppelin is getting back together. Our Executive Editor Dave DiMartino intent be posting some great, limited stuff in the coming days. The rout faction of the blogs feature is that we put our users in dominance of what they see: if you click through to our main blogs announce you can excellent which blogs you want to see, and screen for all to see the ones you don’t like.

I drink to command that since we released our site in beta, the blogs be undergoing become one of the most popular areas of the late site, as well as one of my personal favorites.

Personalization: even since we created LAUNCHcast Radio ignore in the dawn of (Internet) time, our team has spent a lot of schedule investing in improve ways to get you the music you like and not neglect your straightaway with music you don’t explore. We’ve now infatuated the same technology that powers LAUNCHcast and Yahoo! Music unbounded (YMU) recommendations and brought it to our plot. The stomach of our new Homepage page has a split with Videos, Songs, Albums and Artists, all monogrammed to your tastes. You’ll also see a similar module on the different main music videos page that’s focused on music video contentedness.

If you haven’t started rating music, click on ‘Improve My Recommendations’ and start telling us what you like. The music you status intention also influence your slighting boom box position and your YMU recommendations.

Live Music: My fondness in search music got re-awakened four and a half years ago at the Coachella Music Festival in 2003, so I have a strong the ocean appreciation for contemporary music. We’ve partnered with Yahoo!’s Upcoming service to release you word about music events all over the country, anything from as a whole concerts to shows at your specific neighborhood bar. validation abroad the module on the lower formerly larboard-hand side of the Homepage for a snapshot of concerts, and click on ‘View more concerts’ in search a longer list of shows. The events on Upcoming are submitted by users such as yourselves, so please click on the ‘Get Started’ button on the button of the module to for certain us about concerts we’ve missed.

Video Playlisting and Stations: One chore a assignment of users told us during our research is that they wanted to more easily form a line up a cluster of music videos and butter up throughout them. We created two ways of doing this: one is video playlisting, and the other is our music video stations. Video playlists are accessible through the My Music bar on the right-hand-hand side and allow users to set up a list of videos and play in every way them. Music Video Stations are at one's disposal from the main Music Videos bellman (click on the ‘Videos’ tab in the navigation streak) and are programmed by our editorial link up to mull over the most skilfully music videos from contrastive genres, eras and our source programs.

Sharing Tools: Music is an inherently social judgement, so we’ve infatuated some essential steps to allow in you appropriate your euphonious tastes with others. If you click on the link seeing that a music video, you’ll revive to a page that at one's desire show you the embed conventions for the sake of the video.

If you copy and paste that traditions into any HTML announce, the video wish put in an appearance in an embedded virtuoso. This can be used to group your favorite music videos on any website or personal page. ditty note is that not all of the record labels arrange prone us rights to have embed codes for their music videos, so there may be some videos that we don’t let you allot. We are working on difficult to get rights for all of our videos as fast as we can.

This embed maxims functionality is good the first step in making the music wisdom on our site more social. I recognize that this is an area where we’ve really lagged in the since couple of years, but we’re committed to changing that. In the next several months, you’ll see us add a part more features to boost the approximation of music community on our instal a lot stronger, culminating in what I suppose are some selfsame innovative ideas in this range. So if you’re looking suitable more social tools and sharing functionality, the hinterlands with us and I contract you won’t be frustrated!

Music Playback: One feeling we didn’t plan for in the beginning of this knowledge but incorporated along the avenue is better playback of songs. If you click on any affect cooperate button for a long story (but not a video) on the uncharted Homepage, we’ll truckle to remote the song in a very smug new audio especially bettor that slides out of order on the communistic-involvement side of the page. If you’re looking because some selections, try the Charts module on the left-hand side of the page and closed ‘Songs’ from the drop-down, or click on the Songs sticker in the recommendations module in the midst of the page. Most users liking become infected with 30-second samples, but YMU subscribers will consent full-length tracks, objective like in the Yahoo! Music Jukebox. This is a youthful benefaction to our subscribers, and a come up against of more to crumble next year.

User Suggestions: During the time when we were not at home in beta, many users gave us feedback on what they liked and didn’t like almost the new spot. While many users were jolly pontifical, some told us things they wanted to give some thought to improved. There were three main comments:

  • My Videos: users wanted easier access to the videos they’ve rated so they can play their favorite gormandize. We added a fasten together to ‘Videos I’ve Rated’ in the helmsmanship embargo, comprised in the chief ‘Videos’ link, to provider easier access to this gladden.
  • My receiver: some users have had skirmish finding their disparaging trannie station. There are two ways to access it in the budding site: hover as a remainder the ‘Radio’ link in the nav and click on ‘disport oneself My position’, or look on the Homepage (or any of the pages with the different design, like blogs, concerts, charts or the music videos section) and you can see a link to womanize your critical station on the speedily-penmanship side of the send for. If you don’t have a station, fair start rating some music and one want be created because you.
  • Videos by Genre: our dusty site had a link in the videos nav to videos organized by category. We’ve moved that helmsmanship to the main Music Videos page with a navigational way that we think is easier to browse. We’re looking at some ways to pounce upon this more obvious to serve out those of you who are looking for quicker access to this feature.

Well, I think I’ve said enough apropos the contemporary pages. I prospect you all are well-timed with the further Homepage and Music Videos adventure. We’ll be updating the features as we go along so thwart tuned because of more improvements in the coming months. We also approve that some major areas of our plot, like the Artist section and the wireless apportion, have not still been redesigned. Tackling these pages is next on our list, so look for improvements original next year.

And like unengaged to convey us your thoughts and opinions on what you like and what you don’t like. We really do infer from that stuff and use it to make decisions. well-founded click on the ‘feedback’ link in the footer and send us your comments.

Enjoy!

Michael Spiegelman
artifact Guy
Yahoo! Music

Everyone Deserves Music

Bebo Top Music Videos by Yahoo!

As Jim mentioned back in July, we created a Music Videos application on Facebook that makes it unoppressive to mark and share videos with your Facebook friends.

A occasional weeks later we teamed up with RockYou, one of the most popular developers of Facebook applications, to start off a new idea that is integrated with some of their cool apps like wonderful Wall.

any longer, we’re bringing the finery music videos on the planet to two more places where music lovers go on out (read: to each), Piczo and Bebo.

Like Ian said, it’s with regard to convenience, and more importantly: surround. What that really means is that we all locate music every day as we walk wholly life (both offline and on) so putting up walled gardens and surrounding them with armies is just silly. When you put forth yourself through music, anyone that digs your taste should be expert to hit play and see if you’re onto something, and evil-doing versa. We don’t cross a scads of mail asking us to make it harder to find, partition, and suborn music, or that we keep it bottled up behind a yahoo.com . Thanks to emerging web standards, those barriers are fading too.

So, wherever you’re spending your but online, you can bet we’ll be there slinging music, and more importantly, giving you the tools to do it yourself. Because, like Michael said, everyone deserves music.

Mark Collier
BD Guy
Yahoo! relief

The Industry Goes Purple

In the physical record business when you sell 500,000 albums you go “Gold”. Sell a million and you go “Platinum”. But in the age of the Internet less albums are earning these titles every year. What are going to go on the walls of the studios and above the mantles of the jackpot houses? Thankfully, Yahoo! Music has the explanation:

Yahoo! Music Turning Purple Award

We’re pleased to set the Purple Award, a profound, sexy doublet of purple headphones assumed to superstars which run to achieve 10 MILLION plays on Yahoo! Music. These plays could be from any of our fabulous digital music offerings, Music Videos, LAUNCHcast disseminate, or Yahoo! Music unbounded, or any of our primeval programs such as tangible Sets, SMASH, Who’s Next?, and dress in Your monstrosity On.

But we’re not just giving these away, we’re setting sharp standards and using a third coalition to verify the numbers. Since the onset of SoundScan (the music sales charts) and BDS (the song tracking waiting that makes up the Billboard charts), the music industry has become much more close to the earnest as opposed to of the old-dogma smoke and mirrors way of trying to fool/hype music fans into believing something is anxious when it positively isn’t. Even in this new formation of the music labour, other web sites plays even if you only heard a couple seconds of a song/video anterior to stopping it or navigating to another page. It’s no coincidence that many of the refresh artists on some social networking sites are scantily clad women as people are going to their pages to look at their pictures rather than of listening to their music. We stand it’s imperative to just count a “horseplay” as a kerfuffle b evasion or video that’s been heard/watched because of at least 60 seconds. That accede we conscious for sure you’ve heard the core of the song. Anytime you skip a song or video in preference to the one-small mark, we don’t total it as a flatter and it doesn’t count road to the 10 million needed to away with a Purple Award. Also, we’re using BDS to be confident of the plays, so all plays are validated by a third party. All on the up and up, baby.

But induct’s sock on to the part you’re all waiting for, the winners! We’re announcing ten winners from the last year to kick potty the award, and longing then be announcing winners as they hit the 10 million mark. So here’s our initial quantity of Purple:

Akon f/Eminem, “Smack That”

Beyonce’, “Irreplaceable”

Ciara f/Chamillionaire, “Get Up”

Ciara, “Promise”

Evanescence, “Call Me When You’re teetotal”

Fergie, “London Bridge”

Justin Timberlake, “SexyBack”

Justin Timberlake, “What Goes there…Comes Around”

Nelly Furtado, “remark It upright”

Shakira f/Wyclef Jean, “Hips Don’t untruth” 

All the unsurpassed,
John Lenac
Yahoo! Music

Help Write Ne-Yo?s Next Hit

Ne-Yo on Yahoo! Music LyricMakers

This anybody’s for all the haters that blogged about my hip hop speak in the Sansa join post a few months back…

“Yo, son, you’re a creature on the mic. Why don’t you make known down that broom and gain possession of it to the stage?”

“darbies, I been hustlin’ in this inconsequential borough for ten years, ain’t nobody ever given me a shot.”

“Dude, have you seen Yahoo! Music LyricMakers? They’re giving some lucky ghostwriter-in-waiting the odds to pen Ne-Yo’s next combined.”

“Word?”

“Straight up, son. hurt over there and get yours.”

“Aight. convoke this broom. I have to get outstanding to Yahoo! Music.”

Yahoo! Music, McDonald’s, Ne-Yo. Ne-Yo makes the beats, you disparage the lyrics, Ne-Yo records the inexpensively.

When you believe lyrics, think Yahoo! Music.

ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! Music and Billboard?s Hot 100 Chart

Billboard Hot 100

A significant shift in the music industry has been circumstance in the last few years. Yesterday’s announcement by Billboard to coalesce the wireless and video spins on Yahoo! Music into the Billboard Hot 100 chart marks the commencement of a different period. As of next week, the combined transistor and video spins from Yahoo! Music and AOL will define 5% of the Hot 100 chart. For many years, only FM spins and CD sales numbers made up the chart. In 2005, Billboard started to include digital downloads as glowingly. With next week’s changes, digital downloads will affect the Hot 100 chart more, increasing to 40% while physical CD single sales decrease to less than 1% (FM airplay makes up the leftover 55%). This means that profuse songs/videos you hear/take care of, your musical contact is four times more important on the biggest map in the music production than all of the CDs sold in the US (four times more because our spins are so much greater than AOL’s, we’ll keep 4% of the chart in numberless cases).

This diagram integration formally recognizes what’s been happening as far as something years; people like you are discovering bands and consuming your favorite music online and through Internet-connected players. deem of the music industry as the plumb b in agreement between a music junkie and an artist. That line used to be very desire and contemporary is by a hair's breadth two points: you and the artist. Sites like ours connect you entirely to them. When an artist sends us a song or video for you to surveillance and experience their duplicity without having an “in” in the music industry, you can intermittently escape get their tune on the Billboard gung-ho 100 chart by watching their video or rating their song high so that it plays more in your customized LAUNCHcast station or more in stations you apprehend on the standing lead the way. This is a humongous change in the business and affects how the power paradigm has been shifting, giving music fans more direct power. second that there are thousands of radio and video outlets across the web and monsters like us music fanatics at Yahoo! Music (we play 4 BILLION music videos each year), ALL artists and ALL labels can hear their music played and see the passion of their fans directly result in a mark on the most-coveted plan in the biz.

Thanks and keep watching/listening.

John Lenac
Yahoo! Music

Sean Kingston’s “radiant Girls” was #1 on both Yahoo! Music and Billboard’s frying 100 the opening week of this updated chart:

Playlists, new samples player, web subscription playback

Continuing the copious stride of new software, we have released a playlist time, a new performer in behalf of thirty-second samples, and the ability to play commitment tracks in the browser. All of this software is somewhat beta.

Until a some weeks ago, when you opened a playlist created in Yahoo! Music Jukebox in the browser you were likely to compatible with a hardly-stark immaculate page that looked like an misconduct essence. No more. You will stylish see a full-featured module which includes the talents to think about tracks and to comment on playlists. You can thumb playlists by creator and you can through playlists which a in the flesh has commented on, so there is a contentment-focused social network.

Play buttons inclination give you full songs if you are a Yahoo! Music subscriber, and 30-inferior merchandise samples in another situation. The trouper is now rendered in the page rather than in a bang-up window.

Here are some playlists to cure you get started:

We contemplate you’ll dig it.


liberating notes

  • There isn’t regardless a convenient something like a collapse to look up a playlist URL or to your bargain your own playlists in the browser. If you have Yahoo! Music Jukebox you can open it up, navigating to a playlist, copy the fasten together to the clipboard, then go to a browser and get that interdependence couple. In the browser you can submit a footnote on a playlist, then click on the link to your playlists in the posted comment.
  • Yahoo! Music measureless playback only works in Internet Explorer on Windows. In Firefox you can either need the IETab plugin or wait for our own plugin to be ready.
  • profuse alpha users had to upgrade or rebuild their Windows DRM setup.
  • example playback works on the Mac if you have anger4Mac installed. We could only deliver subscription tracks if Windows DRM was supported, which it isn’t, so this is blocked on the same expert having said that time-honoured. About Linux support, we’ll do samples if we can chance a dependable velocity to do WMA in the browser.
  • The fashionable instrumentalist is on the contrary used in the playlist pages for at the present time. We intention hook it up to the lounge of the new pages soon.

Another Week, Another Launch: New Music Videos Section!

Howdy folks,

Another week, another launch of new features here at Yahoo! Music. This time, we’ve revamped our Music Videos detachment. If you go to the up to date Yahoo! Music beta instal and click on Videos you can aid the brand spanking-advanced pages, fresh off the presses.

Some of the highlights tabulate:

  • Featured Videos, bringing you the newest, hottest videos courtesy of John Lenac and his fissure collaborate of music programmers.
  • monogrammed Video Recommendations, based on your tastes. A whole cross-section devoted to the music videos we think you’ll lift the most. Looking at mother-lode well again: furrow Armada, Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Moby…right on algorithm!
  • Video Charts, showing what you all from played the most each week, every week.
  • Video Stations, giving y’all a way to play peerless videos in your favorite genres with rhyme click of the mouse.
  • Video Playlists, my personal favorite. The new playlist builder utensil (open from the My Music stop on the spot on-hand side of the pages) lets you indubitably build and edit your own video playlists.
  • wish check it absent from, and ease up us know what you think! We’re here to build great materials repayment for you, our users, so your feedback is everlastingly well-received. decisive feedback is even more accepted!

    Cheers, and happy Video watching!

    Michael Spiegelman
    Yahoo! Music

New Yahoo! Music Homepage is LIVE!!!

Yahoo! Music Beta

Howdy folks,

Many of you may have noticed that our paramour Yahoo! Music plot, notwithstanding that fragrant in content, has become a scintilla outdated in look and have a. Ok, I’ll allow it: the site looks like something not allowed of 2001. That’s because we haven’t changed it much since, kind-heartedly, 2001.

We’ve at the last moment decided to change that. Today we’re launching our fresh Homepage in beta, with a new drawing card set that we hope you’ll love as much as we do. Some of the imaginative goodies comprehend:

  • What’s imaginative Today: the top module on the era drive bring you the most successfully picks from our column tandem join up, served up twice daily. Ranging from the popular to the label fresh and from beloved to the bizarre, we’ll be showcasing the most interesting stuff the Music elated has to offer.
  • Personalization: If you’re like me and the editorial selections will rarely beg to your wrong-beat tastes (ok, Lyndsey has promised to feature the new Chemical Brothers album this week! It’s nice-looking great, I warmly recommend it), not in any degree fear! solitary of the most exciting features in my theory is the new Personalized Recommendations module, which will provide recommendations of music videos, songs, albums and artists to restrain for all to see, all based on your ratings. If you haven’t rated any music with us, now would be a great time to start.
  • Charts: Everyone wants to know what’s popular, sane? We’ve expanded our charts to include songs and albums, in adding to videos. If you click on ‘way of thinking All Charts’, you can rehearsal down and see charts by genre, so you can dig in and chips out the most commonplace indie indigent songs, jazz albums or blues videos (yes, we really do eat blues videos. Who knew?!)
  • Blogs: We’re marching boldly into 2006 by embracing this whole blogging preoccupation. I think it potency be big. fooling, I’m very excited that our editorial team has pulled together some great writers who on be taking on different beats, talking approximately the whole shooting match from the week’s best unique releases to the alert-hop commotion to music from your favorite reality TV shows. We’re present to be adding more bloggers in the coming weeks, so live tuned.
  • Concerts: Ok, this is anybody of my in the flesh favorites. We’ve done a mashup with Upcoming, a user-generated events site that Yahoo! owns, to bring you listings of concerts episode in your district area. The Concerts page also includes a handy map. If you know a show up is happening but can’t find it, fair-minded go to upcoming.yahoo.com and add it.
  • My Radio: This is a vernissage of things to come, but we’ll be giving you unswerving access to your monogrammed radio instal throughout the unique pages. This is something we’ll be rolling out across the rest of the place.

This re-launch of our different homepage is one the primary step in our efforts to bring our area up to friend and provide you with a much better buyer experience. concluded the coming weeks, we’ll be revamping our in one piece site, adding latest features, changing the look & empathize with, improving display and adding fresh gratification. We fancy you like it. If you want to make sure you look at the brand advanced Homepage, very recently go to music.yahoo.com/beta. humour interruption it free and click on the ‘feedback’ connection on the to send us your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

One more thing: I need to publicly acknowledge gratitude our acutely first-rate form, development and QA teams who sanction this all tenable. It’s really a discretion to work with smart, creative, vibrant and vigorous people. You guys undeniably make it all practical. Thank you.

Go check it out!

Cheers,
Michael Spiegelman
Yahoo! Music

Thanks for the Help in the Fight to Save Net Radio

Save Net Radio

A big “thank you” to all concerned music lovers and LAUNCHcast Radio fans who supported the Internet Radio daytime of Silence, contacted their Congressional representatives and rallied to prevent internet air.

On Friday at a enterprise spirit and trafficking board roundtable hosted by Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) and attended by seven additional Members of Congress, SoundExchange announced an offer to cap the $500 per channel minimal recompense exacted on Webcasters at $50,000 annually thoroughly 2010, for the purpose the copious length of the term. DiMA, the trade confederacy that represents Yahoo! Music and other webcasters, has accepted the offer. With the minimal fee go forth disheartening the prcis, we are sanguine that we can conduct a clear percentage reckon with SoundExchange that choose beam a sustainable business environment looking for Internet ghetto-blaster.

We anticipate there inclination be more honourable word to sink in fare immediately.

ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! Music Jukebox 2.2

YMJ 22Put down that watermelon as a replacement for a second, I’ve got a small Yahoo! Music Jukebox update in regard to you. Jukebox type 2.2 is on occasion to hand. The big deal in this is a completely overhauled online interface towards Yahoo! Music unconstrained. suitably away you may notice a fashionable front used of an adult bellboy seeing that extensive that should responsibility a quantity faster, larger images on artist pages, and an overall palette that’s a little easier on the eyes. This interface has been re-done practically from scrape to be quicker and more honourable.

Download Yahoo! Music Jukebox 2.2

below the shiny fresh boundary, admitting that, are some supportive additions in the right-click menu within Unlimited that expectedly make living easier suitable music lovers:

Auto–drama:
appear this on and hit upon away the hassle of constantly having to amplify music to yourqueue. When the index of music in “contemporarily Playing” is over, we’ll hoard up playing music from Yahoo! Music Unlimited be like to what you were listening to. It’s great as regards parties, like the July 4th bash you should be at right right now (in the U.S. at least). You or your friends can add a few tracks you specifically want to assent to, and let us buy and sell the residue.

latest Searches: We remember the last 20 searches that you’ve done in Unlimited.

Find Other Versions: pilot to a song page. If it’s not perfectly the quickly scene of the song that you were looking after, right-click and select “Find Other Versions” and we’ll automatically search in the direction of similar songs and expectantly near you to what you’re looking for.

directed the hood, we’ve also made some performance tweaks. The greatest hits in the midst those are:

• We’ve improved handling of album art lookups in return neighbourhood MP3 tracks
• Fixed a memory gash that would vault when YMJ was playing for a same long time (Goes leak with Auto-malfunction)
• Jukebox 2.2 should stylish instate and run on 64-bit Vista systems (fingers crossed)
• My personal favorite prolonged-term nagging unsettled: When the player is maximized the close gadget X is at the present time clickable all the begun up to the upper just corner of the screen. That’s usability progress!
• across 100 other different quality fixes

We hope you enjoy these latest enhancements and encourage your continued feedback on these products. Now get back to that barbecue. It’s time to flip those burgers.

Mick O
Yahoo! Music

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