Yahoo continues to outsource lots of businesses it previously built and maintained directly. Especially in music – In February they shut their subscription music service, and in September they announced a deal to allow full song playbacks through the Rhapsody service.
Next up is Yahoo’s radio product, http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast. The site today, which draws 3 million monthly unique visitors says Yahoo, allows users to listen to music based on preferred genres and artists. But Launchcast is limited only to Windows users on Internet Explorer, shutting out a large percentage of the Internet.
Next year they’ll shutter the service and relaunch with CBS Radio, much as AOL did earlier this year. CBS provides streaming for 144 owned radio stations, as well as providing some Internet-only content.
CBS will also take over ad sales for Launchcast, offering advertisers both display, video and audio ads.
The new service will roll out sometime in the first quarter of 2009. Paid subscribers to Launchcast will receive a pro-rata refund (an ad-free version of Launchcast is available for $3/month or $24/year).