Launchcast

Infobox software
name = LAUNCHcast



caption =
developer = Yahoo!
operating_system = Microsoft Windows
genre = Broadcasting - Internet Radio service
license =
website = [http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast LAUNCHcast]

LAUNCHcast is an Internet radio service offered by Yahoo! Music that plays music based on user ratings and preferences. Users with Yahoo! accounts can gain access to hundreds of thousands of songs sorted by artist, album, song and genre. The service, formerly offered by LAUNCH Media, was purchased by Yahoo! in 2001.

Personal radio stations

LAUNCHcast allows users to create personal radio stations or playlists of songs tailored to their musical tastes.

To create a personal station, users must rate music on a 4-star or 100-point (depending on one's preference) scale. The service uses those ratings to create a personal station of songs based on a user's favorite genres, artists, albums, and songs. The generated playlist contains a combination of rated and recommended songs. The ratio of rated/recommended songs can be specified by each user, but by default it is 50/50.

A recommendation engine suggests songs that may match a user's particular musical taste according to the following similarity criteria:

* Songs from the same artist
* Songs from the same album
* Songs from the same genre
* Songs recommended by users with similar musical tastes
* Songs recommended by Yahoo!

Users are not required to participate in the ratings system to listen to music. Pre-programmed stations based on theme, genre, or artist are available throughout the Yahoo! Music website.

Music videos can also be rated, allowing users to create personal music video channels as well. For legal reasons, particular songs cannot be played whenever one wishes. However, videos can be. The service can generate a personal video channel based on a single selection.

Free accounts

Users may share their personal stations publicly and listen to other users' stations.

Music is available for streaming at "Standard" quality. Previously, listeners had a choice between "Low" and "Medium" quality.

Between tracks, free accounts will hear commercial advertising for the Yahoo! service and its partners and affiliates. The advertisements are generally 30 seconds.

In 2007 Yahoo! added permanent banner ads to the LAUNCHcast player. Because Launchcast is only compatible with Internet Explorer, which charges for its banner ad blocker, users must either tolerate the banner ads or pay to block them.

Limited skipping is available, at up to 5 skips per hour. Previously, banning a song skipped the song automatically, but this has since been removed.

As of May 2008, free accounts are limited to playing up to 1000 songs/mo (up to 120,000/yr) without any special restrictions. This number is subject to change. A song may be skipped to bypass an undesired track, but skipped songs count against the monthly allowance. If a free account user exceeds the monthly limit, the user will no longer be able to listen to LAUNCHcast radio for the remainder of the month. If the user does not exceed the limit, the leftover songs are not carried over.

Access to only specific stations labeled "free". Such stations have a yellow icon whereas premium stations have a blue icon.

LAUNCHcast Plus

Users may subscribe to the LAUNCHcast Plus premium service on a monthly ($3.99/mo [$47.88/yr] ) or annual basis ($35.88/yr [$2.99/mo] ), or it may come as bundled software from some ISPs (included in price) such as Verizon Yahoo! online services. In addition to the features offered by the free account, LAUNCHcast Plus users receive the following additional benefits:

#"High" quality sound (CD-quality)
#No commercials or banner ads
#Access to all LAUNCHcast pre-programmed stations
#Unlimited skipping
#Unlimited monthly listening
#Access to all artists, songs, and albums (subject to licensing restrictions by country)
#The ability to designate other user's stations as "influencers" of one's own personal radio station
#The ability to create "moods" (genre-based subsets of a user's personal radio station)

Presently (September 2008), LAUNCHcast Plus is only offered in the US and Canada through Yahoo.

Geographic availability

The free version of LAUNCHcast is available in most areas of the world. However, content varies by country due to music licensing restrictions.Fact|date=August 2007

The LAUNCHcast Plus premium service is widely available in the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom it is restricted to BT Yahoo! Internet customers.Fact|date=August 2007

Technological requirements

The LAUNCHcast music player requires Microsoft's Windows Media Player to function. At the present time, LAUNCHcast only works with Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser, Netscape 7.1 and in Yahoo!'s Messenger and Music Engine programs on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Compatibility is claimed with Mac OS X, but there are known problems that have not been resolved.Fact|date=August 2007

Legal troubles

On April 27, 2007, Yahoo! defeated Sony BMG in a copyright infringement lawsuit involving LAUNCHcast's personalization features [ [http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i1043e7ff720693e99fffbf2b11a8c44d Yahoo! Defeats Sony BMG Infringement Suit] , Billboard.com. Accessed May 2, 2007] . At issue was whether or not LAUNCHcast's "personal radio station" constitutes an "interactive" service, which requires a negotiated license agreement with a record company, or a "non-interactive" service, which requires a cheaper "compulsory license" from SoundExchange. In an "interactive" service, users can play songs on demand, but with LAUNCHcast they can only influence whether or not a particular song appears in their station.

After a six-year litigation, a jury decided that LAUNCHcast was not required to negotiate licenses as an "interactive" service, and that the service's compulsory licenses as a "non-interactive" service were sufficient.

References

ee also

* Yahoo! Music
* SHOUTcast
* Live365
* Last.fm
* MeeMix
* Mercora
* Musicovery
* Pandora
* Slacker

External links

* [http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast LAUNCHcast]
* [http://music.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! Music]
* [http://jrhicks.net/CastInvite/ LAUNCHcast plugin for bloggers]
* [http://www.bradwheeler.net/AdMute3.htm LAUNCHcast AdMute - Automatically skips LAUNCHcast Ads!]