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1. This is a great offer – very happy to see it happen. One question – when/where should we see confirmation that we got a 2 year subscription (as opposed to the normal 1 year?) I purchase through the mastercard specific site/link and used a MasterCard, but at no point was it made clear that it was a 2 year subscription. Another poster to yme-feedback yahoo group also had a similar experience.

   Thanks.

   Comment by clinchpac — August 21, 2006 #

2. You forgot the “http://” on the word “here” that links to the promotion page.

   By the way- awesome deal. I’m off to sign up.

   Comment by mhusson — August 21, 2006 #

3. It is a great deal, and I’m sure YMU will gain quite a few new customers.

   However, the offer doesn’t allow for existing YMU customers to extend their subscription by purchasing another year and getting one free (unless the user’s subscription happens to expire before the end of the promotion…then they can cancel and sign back up again using the promotion).

   So…YMU may unfortunately end up losing some existing customers as well. Too bad they don’t open this offer up to everyone.

   Comment by rod_hughes — August 22, 2006 #

4. Thanks for the heads up on the http://. Fix0red.

   ian

   Comment by iancr — August 23, 2006 #

5. any chance this will be available to existing subscribers in the near future?

   Comment by keithnet — August 23, 2006 #

6. Can existing subscribers cancel, then reapply with a MasterCard? Has anybody tried this yet?

   Comment by jsg4242 — August 23, 2006 #

7. I would also love to be able to extend my membership as well. But I’ll definitely be recommending this to friends.

   Comment by brossmac — August 23, 2006 #

8. Hey Guys,
   Thanks a lot for the comments. Let me address the 2 main questions:

   1) We are aware that the confirmation email only says 1 year. But not to worry – you are definitely getting 2 years if you paid with MasterCard. We apologize for the confusion on this one.

   2) We are looking into offering this to all existing customers. On launch, we were held back from doing so by some tech and policy issues. We want to do this and hopefully will be able to soon.

   Thanks again for the interest — tell your friends about this offer!

   Mike Cowan
   Y! Music Marketing

   Comment by cowan — August 23, 2006 #

9. Great to hear you guys are trying to offer this to existing subscribers!

   I (and I’m sure all the other existing subscribers who would like to stay with YMU) really appreciate it and look forward to it hopefully coming about.

   Comment by rod_hughes — August 24, 2006 #

10. I wonder if this is the real reason that subscriptions to Y! were reported to have peaked this weekend, rather than the uncouth suggestions at Engadget\’s article: http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/25/fairuse4wm-strips-windows-media-drm

    Comment by fpayne — August 28, 2006 #

11. I canceled my Yahoo Music to go subscription about a month ago and it has since run out. I was going to goto a new provider but then I saw this deal and decided the price couldn’t be beat(i used to have the 1 year for $60) and despite the DRM and customer service challenges I faced with Yahoo the price was great. At any rate I signed up again using this offer. I used my MC and it created a new subscription that expires in 1 year? What the heck? Anyway I have a message into customer care asking them for confirmation of the 2 year or my money back. We shall see what happens. Bottom line be careful as based on my signup I have no proof a free second year.

    Comment by RealImpact_4g — August 31, 2006 #

12. I too have cancelled my month-to-month and wanted to sign up for the two for one annual subscription, but I’ve been waiting to hear from someone who has done it successfully. I spoke to Yahoo billing and asked them your specific question, that is, how will I know I got the two year deal when the confirmation email only says 1-year. They told me I could log in to billing.yahoo.com and it would show me there.

    I would suggest RealImpact_4g try that. Please let us know how this issue gets resolved.

    Thanks

    Comment by tremble1 — August 31, 2006 #

13. Well after an email to Yahoo customer service I was told I did not qualify for the offer. In addition they told me that my account would expire on 10/06 as a part of the free trial so no worry about a refund. I had already checked the billing status before I emailed them. It showed only one year and no free trial(thanks for the idea though tremble1). Anyhow the person obviously didnt look at the account right because I wasn’t on a trial. Bottom line is I finally found the holy grail yahoo phone number and spoke to a person today who helped me cancel the transaction for my subscription. Based on my past experience I should have known how this would play out. Basically they told me I should create a new Yahoo id and then it would work. I figured that but like to be honest. In the end all is well but Yahoo has lost a customer. If you want Customer Service that is informed and tries to help look elsewhere(this was their 3rd strike for me). As for me I’m back to CD’s as this DRM stuff is for the birds.
    Impact

    Comment by RealImpact_4g — August 31, 2006 #

14. Impact,

    What kind of yahoo subscription did you cancel, month -to-month or annual?

    Also, does Cowan have any updates on all of this (based on his Aug. 23 posting)?

    Comment by tremble1 — August 31, 2006 #

15. My one year $60 susbscription ended on 8/22/06. I canceled the auto renewal. I really didn’t cancel an active subscription just let it expire. I had a few problems with DRM and had to deal with customer service on 2 other occasions. They elevated my problem and noone ever contacted me(I fixed em myself eventually). Thats why I let it expire. A week later I saw this 2 for 1 deal and figured what the heck I’ll sign up for it cuz $60 a year is a great price. I signed up for the 1 year to go(with the free second). Anyway… I am going to miss the music… but I just can’t deal with such poor customer service. I’d rather pay more elsewhere. Good luck =).
    Impact

    Comment by RealImpact_4g — August 31, 2006 #

16. Michael,

    Any word on when the mastercard deal might be offered to existing customers?

    Thanks,

    Comment by magikrat — September 6, 2006 #

17. Hey guys… thanks so much for the comments. I hate to hear about Impact’s customer service problems and I’ve made our team aware of this.

    As far as the new/existing customer issues, here’s the deal: If you are not on the books as a subscriber you can currently get the offer. If you cancelled but your sub hasn’t yet run out, we are unable to process the offer. This is a tech issue right now, not a choice by us. We would love to give people the opportunity to extend their current sub 2 more years with this offer.

    I’ll let you know through this post when we are able to offer this to existing customers. I hope we can soon.

    Talk soon…
    mike

    Comment by cowan — September 6, 2006 #

18. Mike,

    I cancelled my month-to-month sub (which I paid with MC) and it ran out. Does this mean I can sign up now for the promo? Your comment makes it sound like I can, but the folks in Yahoo customer service seemed to suggest I could not.

    Thanks for the update!

    Comment by magikrat — September 7, 2006 #

19. I just spoke to someone in the product team and they said that in this case, you should be able to.

    A couple of things:

    1) Make sure you buy the year on the Mastercard page “music.yahoo.com/mastercard”

    2) As per the other issue above, the confirmation email will say you received 1 year. Not to worry, if you got this far and purchased from the MC page, you’ll get 2 years.

    If you end up purchasing, can you let me know if it worked? Thanks for being the test case here.

    mike

    Comment by cowan — September 7, 2006 #

20. I went to music.yahoo.com/mastercard and clicked the ‘Get Started’ button. Then I selected the two-year to-go option for $119.88. I filled in my credit card info and everything was accepted. I received a confirmation email that lists ‘annual to go’ next to ‘options’ under ‘Service Summary’. It also says that I won’t be charged until 9/14/06. If I log in to billing.yahoo.com, it says I have an active annual-to-go subscription. If I click ‘edit service’ it says I’m currently in a 9-day free trial.

    So… I’m not sure if it worked or not. How can I know for sure?

    Comment by magikrat — September 7, 2006 #

21. I have just cancelled my month-to-month sub (it was supposed to be billed again tomorrow. I’ll try signing up for the two year deal Friday. Hopefully it will work I like the service, and it works very well with my T-Mobile SDA with the latest Yahoo Music Engine (I had some issues with earlier versions).
    Thanks for keeping up with this, hopefully it will work. I was wondering, however, will there be any update to customers with regard to the actual end date for this promotion?

    Comment by nam8ram — September 7, 2006 #

22. Well, Mike, I took you up on your offer to be a test case and it appears that it did NOT work. Since there was nothing in the confirmation email or my yahoo profile that indicated I actually got the 2-year mastercard deal, I called Yahoo Billing and they told me that I was ineligible to receive the promo because the yahoo ID and MC number I used were used before for a Yahoo music subscription (in my case, a month-to-month one). Apparently I am in the midst of a 7-day trial period and I’ve been told if I cancel before the end of it I’ll get my money back. The customer service rep also told me that to get the deal I’d need to use a new yahoo id *and* a new MC number.

    So, are you still confident that this deal will be offered to existing customers? Any advice?

    Thanks for the dialogue!

    Comment by magikrat — September 7, 2006 #

23. Hey there…

    Sorry to hear that it does not work with your current ID. There is a specific tech reason we need to address to eliminate this problem. All I can say is that it’s part of a larger project which will allow us to bring more of these kind of offers. We should have this ready in the next couple of months. I just want to reinforce to you guys that this is a systems issue and not a decision by us not to extend the deal to current subs.

    We can’t wait to be able to roll this out to current subs so that the people who supported us before the offer get this benefit too.

    With the info I have right now, I can’t commit in writing that this will happen on X date but know that I am pushing.

    As far as end date, the promotion officially ends on October 4, but we are in talks to perhaps extend. Watch this space for updates…

    Thanks SO much to you guys for helping us learn and optimize this…

    mike

    Comment by cowan — September 7, 2006 #

24. This offer most definitely does not work for previous customers even if their subscription has expired. Mike thanks for trying to communicate this stuff to your team. If you would like more info on my experiences I’d be glad to share. I might even have the emails. If Yahoo works on its service and offers this deal to previous customers I may re-join(just cuz of the price). If this two year offer is extended to previous customers you really should fix the billing date so it reflects the second year. Otherwise people are at the mercy of your computer system with no verification/proof that their susbription will indeed have a second year.

    Comment by RealImpact_4g — September 8, 2006 #

25. Thanks Mike. I guess I’ll sign up with a new ID then – glad I hadn’t renewed yet. I appreciate your efforts on this front, and look forward to continuing using the service I hope you all get these issues worked out soon – as an existing customer, I really like the service, and am willing to commit to using it for a longer period of time with this offer, but these types of issues will discourage those who want to take advantage of this type of offer simply. Good luck to your technical folks on getting the issues worked out, and thanks again!

    Comment by nam8ram — September 8, 2006 #

26. Mike, I know you said this is glitch and we should trust that we actually have 2 yrs. service, BUT is there any way that Yahoo can email us with a confirmation that we have 2 yrs. service? I see this being a problem a year from now…

    (I signed up yesterday for YMUTG and my confirmation email said only 1 year — I even opened a new account (at Yahoo’s suggestion) to get this offer because I previously used my “old” account only for a trial offer a year ago — I finally got an mp3 player and want to use YMUTG)

    Comment by tww5101 — September 8, 2006 #

27. Hey,

    I just wanted to confirm how you would know you have 2 years on your account — other than blind trust

    Go to http://billing.yahoo.com and click on your subscription.

    It should show the ‘Next Payment Date’ as 1 year from the day you subscribed. However, the ‘Next Payment Amount’ field (3 lines below it) should be blank, due to a full discount on the yearly price.

    So that’s how you know. If the yearly price of YMU (at your tier) is next to ‘Next Payment Amount’, the offer was not attributed.

    As the biggest internet company in the world, we know a hack when we see it . We realize the flow isn’t optimal right now, but wanted to get this low price out.

    Comment by cowan — September 8, 2006 #

28. Just to add my 2 cents – I was able to successfully let my old year-long subscription expire (in mid-August), at which point I signed up using the Mastercard link. The “Next Payment Amount” is blank, as described by Mike in the post above me.

    Thanks Yahoo! =)

    Comment by clinchpac — September 8, 2006 #

29. It shows as you described it on my (new) account It may be a hack, but it at least tells me what I wanted to know. Thanks again. I’ll be recommending this offer to some friends.

    Comment by nam8ram — September 8, 2006 #

30. Mike,
    Thanks. I am able to see the discount now being applied (as you described above). Yahoo should reward you for following up on this b/c I was very close to giving up.
    Will mention offer to friends!
    Tom

    Comment by tww5101 — September 9, 2006 #

31. my subscription expires tomorrow. any update on getting this promo to work for existing subscribers? if i renew with a mastercard, will i get two years?

    Comment by keithnet — September 13, 2006 #

32. Saw this in my local paper:

    http://www.popmatters.com/pm/blogs/popwire_post/5341/digital-music-field-becoming-increasingly-crowded/

    Not sure why Yahoo doesn’t fix whatever problem is keeping them from offering this to existing or past subs so they can lock in more people fpr 2 years while the online music landscape is in such a state of flux?

    Comment by JayZ — September 19, 2006 #

33. Following the threads it seems hard to understand where we are with this. Clinchpac said he renewed and got the deal. Was this with the same id and MC number? What about nam8ram, you signed up with a new yahoo id, had you used the MC number before, or was it a first time MC *and* yahoo id? Did keithnet renew and get the offer? Can’t yahoo take away the uncertainty and just say whether or not it will allow non-new subscribers to get this deal? I may start taking advantage of those free month offers from napster & rhapsody while I wait to see if existing subs are ever given the same offer.

    Comment by magikrat — September 22, 2006 #

34. Hey magikrat, JayZ… we would love to erase the uncertainty and are working on it. As I mentioned before, the functionality to do so is tied to a larger project that should be complete by the end of the year. I can’t wait to be able to offer this to everyone, especially our existing supporters. I’ll let you guys know when we can do this…

    Comment by cowan — September 22, 2006 #

35. Any suggestions on what to do till then? Should I go month-to-month or just wait? I’m afraid to subscribe even month-to-month since it may preclude me from any forthcoming deals.

    Comment by magikrat — September 23, 2006 #

36. Mike,
    Somone needs to do something about people in Yahoo Cust. Care! Long story but…

    1. I sign up for M/Card offer on my tww6130 account, but it does not work b/c I did a trial offer last year. I cancel this order.

    2. As suggested by Yahoo, I opened a new account (tww5101) to get the M/Card promo. This worked.

    3. Problem: I still got billed on my tww6130 account even though I cancelled immediately.

    4. I called to Yahoo Customer Care about this, and they cancelled my good account (tww5101) that had the M/Card promo!!! And, I’m stuck with the old account and NO M/Card promo!!!

    Ugghh…I’m ready to give up on this.

    Comment by tww5101 — September 27, 2006 #

37. So tww5101, do I understand correctly — you signed up with a different yahoo ID but the same MC number you used last year for the trial and you were still able to get the promo? Yahoo customer service made me think you had to have a new id *and* a new MC number. Thanks! (and I hope you get your problem figured out).

    Comment by magikrat — September 28, 2006 #

38. Magikrat, not sure of the answer to your question because I can’t remember if I used the same M/card for the trial offer last year — may have used my Amex or Visa. But Yahoo Customer Care told me all I needed to do was open a new account.

    Comment by tww5101 — September 28, 2006 #

39. Hey Guys,
    Catching up here… My understanding from Customer Care is that if you try the new account method, using the same Mastercard should not matter.

    Tww – that’s annoying about your Customer Care hassle. Do you think this is just a result of confusion on their part? Seems like they should be able to cancel the old one and enable your MC one.

    As an update, the technology allowing us to offer this to existing customers is one of the major projects on the roadmap. As I mentioned before, it’s part of an overall upgrade that spans many product areas so that’s why it takes a while. The goal right now is to have this ready by the holiday season.

    Thanks so much for all your comments to date. Talk to you soon…

    Mike Cowan
    Y! Music

    Comment by cowan — September 28, 2006 #

40. Mike,
    I just got a call from Yahoo Customer Care rep — Yesterday, I was told a manager would be calling me but instead got some guy who said he was “relaying the manager’s message” and could not transfer me to the manager.

    Bottom line, they cancelled both of my accounts and refunded my credit card (pro-rated). When I told him that they cancelled the wrong account by mistake and that I wanted YMUTG, he said he could not “reopen” the account once it was cancelled.

    Mike, yes, it’s confusion on their part but it’s too frustrating to deal with anymore — I will try one of your competitors.

    Tom

    Comment by tww5101 — September 29, 2006 #

41. Mike,
    Using the same MC does matter. I tried creating a new account and signing up for the offer, but after checking billing.yahoo.com, the Next Payment Amount field had the full price listed. I hope that I can get a refund from customer service. For the life of me, I can’t understand why there can’t be a message saying something like, “You are currently not eligible for the promotion, do you want to continue.” It seems very misleading to let someone continue on like everything was kosher and then not even tell them they didn’t get the deal. Do I need to be concerned that I won’t get my money back?

    Comment by magikrat — October 2, 2006 #

42. Glad to have found this thread. Thought I was going crazy when after signing up I did not get the offered deal.

    There seems to be many conclusions mentioned on this thread but I am unsure as to what the official Yahoo Music position is. My emails to support have gone unanswered for over a month now.

    I let my subscription lapse, then when I noticed the deal I signed up using a MasterCard. It appears that I only got a single year of service, no additional year mentioned anywhere on my billing confirmation or on My Premium Services.

    Can I expect to get this deal and how do I know?

    Comment by CervantesVive — October 2, 2006 #

43. Just to be complete, Yahoo did refund my money, but I did call as soon as they opened. So, my experience tells me that the offer is only good if you have yahoo id *and* MC number that have *never* been used for *any* type of yahoo music subscription before. Hopefully that will soon change and the things Mike has been talking about will happen.

    Comment by magikrat — October 3, 2006 #

44. OK, I’m irritated. To start with, I have never ever subscribed to (i.e. paid money for) Yahoo Music Unlimited. I have a messenger account and stream their radio through it, I’ve downloaded the free player to look at buying some songs, but I’ve never paid a cent for their service. I hear about the 2 for 1 deal, go to the website to subscribe (not having read this blog) and follow the prompts to get the free year offer. I didn’t see any mention that I would be getting a free year upon setting up my order, so I get worried that I did something wrong, and click “I don not agree, cancel my order” on “submit order” screen where it lists the terms of service. I then stumble onto this blog and see that it won’t tell me I get a free year until after I subscribe and I check billing.yahoo.com. Feeling relieved, I place my order, and then go to yahoo’s billing site — only to see that it says I have a one year subscription that expires 10/03/07 and that the Amount Due will be $119.88. What the heck!? Is this possibly because I had previously used the free messenger radio, or downloaded the free jukebox, or maybe because I put my Mastercard info in and canceled my order when I didn’t see the free year offered? Any help would be appreciated. Also, can someone give me the customer service number to call or point me to where I can find it? Yahoo’s online help section never actually lists a phone number so I can reach a live person that I can find (something I always find dubious). So far, not a good first experience with Yahoo! Music — this isn’t how new subscribers should be treated.

    Comment by Smitty — October 3, 2006 #

45. Hey guys… I’m reading these and there are things we can control and things we can’t.

    The ‘existing user’ problem everyone is having is a restriction we can’t help right now based on technology, not a decision on our part. The customer service thing is extremely disappointing because we lean on them to help us when issues like this arise.

    Try this number to get a human: (408)349-1572

    mike

    Comment by cowan — October 3, 2006 #

46. Here’s the number I’ve been using that is toll free (thanks for the alternate number, Mike) 866-562-7228 (for the options press 5 and then 1). Eventually you’ll get a person. I have found these folks the best source of telling you what you can and can’t do to get the offer.
    I wouldn’t want to be a Yahoo customer service person in about a year. You gotta figure there’s a lot of folks who signed up and think they’re getting the offer and may be surprised when a charge shows up in a year.
    Mike, as a bit of positive feedback for you, thanks for keeping us informed and communicating with us.

    Comment by magikrat — October 3, 2006 #

47. Mike — I was never an “existing user” so I don’t understand why the problem would apply to me. Does using the free plugin through messenger or the free jukebox make me an “existing user”? The promo says it is avalaible to “new subscribers” — since I’ve never paid for a subscription of any sort, I don’t see how I wouldn’t qualify as a “new subscriber.”

    Comment by Smitty — October 3, 2006 #

48. OK — maybe I jumped the gun here a little bit. I talked to customer care and they said it might take 2-3 days for my payment to clear the bank, and for my account to correctly reflect the free year on the billing.yahoo.com site. We’ll see what happens. This whole issue is pretty ridiculous and could be solved quite easily though… I mean how hard should it be for a giant internet company like yahoo to add a simple confirmation screen that confirms the price paid and the free year of service for using Mastercard?

    Comment by Smitty — October 3, 2006 #

49. What is the situation now Oct 6th. The promotion still shows but the fine print reads expired. Can this be corrected.

    Comment by Shoot2Thrill — October 6, 2006 #

50. I’m not sure when it was updated but as of right now the offer is still good and expires on 1-31-2007 now. Same offer and still for new customers only.

    Comment by LonghornXP — October 11, 2006 #

51. It was changed in the last day or so. That’s good!

    Comment by Shoot2Thrill — October 11, 2006 #

52. I just signed up and it’s only reflecting that i’m getting 1 year out of this deal on the billing page. I called Customer Service and she told me that it’s only good for new Mastercard holders. It doesn’t say that anywhere on the sign up page and i think it’s complete BS. Why do these customer service people make things up?

    Comment by kdt511 — October 19, 2006 #

53. Any updates, Mike? Are you still thinking that non-new & existing subscribers might get the deal at some point?

    Comment by magikrat — October 20, 2006 #

54. A comment on my experience. I signed up for the unlimited service using MC using the appropriate link. The instructions said it required a new subscription and a MC payment to get the deal. I sign up using MC on 9/5. It informs me I’ve purchased 1 year, but I have seen that this is normal. In the confirmation mail, it says I’ll be billed on 9/13.

    When I realized a week ago that my account still says I’ll be billed on 9/13/07. When I e-mailed customer service, was told I don’t qualify since I signed up for a “free trial” first. Follow up e-mails for clarification have thus far been unsuccessful. This is BS. I’ve had a Yahoo e-mail account for years, but have never been a paying customer (or non-paying for that matter)of Yahoo Music.

    So buyer beware. Either they are instructed to make up some excuse or the customer service people are just lazy morons. I obviously cannot recommend this service.

    Comment by kkwst2 — October 24, 2006 #

55. Hello — I subscribed to Yahoo Music Unlimited a few days ago, with the impression I was getting a two-fer because I used my Mastercard. There was nothing in the sign-up proceedure to indicate I the offer was closed, and there was also nothing in the confirmation email to indicate I got the second year….I had previously used this Yahoo ID [and also the same M/C number] to purchase Launchcast Plus.
    My Yahoo Billing info indicates no freebie, and I’m a little miffed. Also, as of today, I should still be on a “free trial”, but my account info ominously says “active” *sigh*, and I noticed by M/C has been charged — “pending”, apparently.
    So, what’s the deal? Am I out of luck here, or should I be phoning one of the magic numbers lol. BTW — I LOVE the service.
    If anyone can comment I would appreciate it — TIA Tom

    Comment by bobbocow — November 9, 2006 #

56. So I guess there’s no holiday gift for existing subscribers…

    Comment by magikrat — December 25, 2006 #

57. This offer still applies only to completely new customers only- ie never having paid for any music services.
    Further, the description of actual qualifications is only clear in the terms that appear during enrollment, not in the advertisement. I have to say I am additionally disappointed because these terms also specify it is non-refundable. This latter makes me wonder how “innocent” the misleading description of “new” customers is.

    Comment by barrhalevi — January 2, 2007 #

58. I signed up for that nearly a year ago – 2 Years for the price of one if I used a Mastercard. At the time it was 59.88, so of course I signed up with a MC.
    Now I’m getting emails that I will be billed annually, as in this year, one year later after buying a 2 year subscription. So after one year they are going to charge me the current price of $71.88 for the next year.

    What happened to my second year???

    Still happy I didn’t give Apple any of my money though

    Comment by luc — August 31, 2007 #

59. WARNING!!! NO 14 DAY TRIAL IF YOU USE MASTERCARD!

    Upon signing up, we realized that Yahoo! Unlimited wasn’t exactly unlimited…you can’t find or use the “To Go” options with MP3 players. And, we also had the nice problem of not seeing that they honored the two year agreement–when I logged in and went to My Account, it only showed that I was paid up for one year–so we assumed we didn’t get the deal.

    And because we used our Mastercard (with a little benefit of getting 2 years), they hit the card for the subscription fee and then claim there’s a second set of terms and conditions whereby the 14 day trial is not honored.

    We signed up, realized we couldn’t use our MP3 player and cancelled the service one day later. And for this, we get to pay $71 and have a useless service. The service remains active for one year if you cancel, and two if you don’t…well, we already cancelled, they got their money and we get the shaft.

    Shame on you Yahoo! and Shame on Mastercard.

    Comment by Exposing_RipOffs — January 11, 2008 #

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