Yahoo Working on Music Search Engine
Yahoo is working on a Audio / Music Search Engine according to a CNET article which states that Yahoo “plans to introduce the music search engine within the next couple of months, according to a source familiar with the service. The specialty engine will let people search on an artist’s name, for example, and retrieve all the available songs from other music services, as well as album reviews and band information from Yahoo Music.”
Yahoo’s Director of Media and Desktop Search Bradley Horowitz hinted a little bit during an interview at Search Engine Strategies that something was up with Yahoo Search and all of their music departments, but could not go into much detail. So, no official word from Yahoo yet on this but given their ownership of Broadcast.com, Launch, and Musicmatch – it only makes sense for Yahoo to verticalize their search technology into the music track and integrate pay on demand or subscription based music download services. What does that mean for Napster, iTunes, Rhapsody and others? Well, Yahoo Search Marketing may be able to answer that question. Ever hear of sponsored links?
Integrate Yahoo Stores into the mix and behavioral targeting and Yahoo should be able to deliver ads for relevant t-shirts, posters, concert tickets, and whatever else to users who are downloading groups of songs or videos from specific bands. The news of Yahoo Music Search comes off the heels of the launch of Yahoo Video Search out of beta today and new media distribution deals with MTV, Bloomberg and the Discovery Channel. Did somebody say MTV? Do you Yahoo?
