Yahoo! Offers Refunds On Music Store Purchases

Yahoo! has announced that it plans to refund non-subscribing customers of the Yahoo! Music Store that will be affected when support of the store shuts down when it becomes part of Rhapsody on September 30, 2008.Yahoo! has announced that it plans to refund non-subscribing customers of the Yahoo! Music Store that will be affected when support of the store shuts down when it becomes part of Rhapsody on September 30, 2008.

All Yahoo! users: don’t panic. The change only affects those who are not regular subscribers but buy on a track-by-track basis. Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscribers will simply convert to Rhapsody subscribers in September and their music libraries will be protected.

Carrie Davis, spokeswoman for Yahoo! said that “very few people actually purchased” independent tracks without a subscription, but users are still worried about the safety of their purchases, and with good reason. After Yahoo becomes part of Rhapsody, those individual tracks will be frozen on the device on which they were purchased. In other words, the tracks cannot be transferred to another device (iPods, new computers, even updated operating systems). Davis mentioned that as a solution, people can burn individual tracks to a CD then transfer them onto a new computer, but the customers aren’t satisfied. Yahoo apparently is researching ways to convert the tracks so they can be played on new devices, but no solid evidence is available just yet.

Davis stated, “Yahoo always intended to provide refunds,” in reference to those who purchased individual tracks from the Yahoo! Music Store. However, the refund system they’ve set up is reminiscent of a mail-in rebate, in that you’ve got to contact Yahoo! Customer Service to even be qualified for money back.