Wifi-Enabled SanDisk Sansa Connect Features Yahoo! Music Unlimited, LAUNCHcast, Messenger, and Flickr

Posted by iancr, April 9, 2007 at 4:35 am, in LAUNCHcast Radio, Yahoo! Music Unlimited. 31 Comments

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It’s with great pride I announce the release of the SanDisk Sansa Connect, the new Wifi-enabled portable MP3 player set to free you from the USB cable chaining you to your PC, allowing you to listen to personalized radio, download music, share music with friends over Yahoo! Messenger, and view photos from Flickr, all direct over any Wifi network. Here are a few of the features not shared by either iPod or Zune:

It’s pretty fresh if I do say so myself, but why trust me? Here’s what Engadget had to say after spending a day with the device:

The Connect is tied to Yahoo! Music Unlimited for its subscription download model and streaming radio, and we’ve gotta say, a WiFi DAP really brings the model into its own.

Hells yeah. But they aren’t the only ones. Gadgetaholic liked it, too:

Sandisk has another winner here; I have no doubt. I am thoroughly impressed with the features available on this little device. Once you hooked this player up to your wifi network, it is almost impossible to put it down. This is what the Zune should have been.

You said it, homey. I also wanted to give a special shout out to my man Chris Leckness from Mobility Site for his very informative (and complimentary) unboxing and initial walk-through videos. Thanks, yo.

For me personally, the SanDisk Connect has put me in a completely different mode of portable music listening and discovery. I didn’t even connect mine to a computer for a week. I fired it up, started listening to personalized LAUNCHcast, and as songs I loved would play I’d grab the whole album. Then it was time to leave the house so I walked out the door and into the car, connected it to the line-in, and backed out of the driveway. The device elegantly said, “um, lost the connection to Wifi, dude”, so I flipped over into “My Library” and hit “Shuffle All” to start listening to the many songs I’d downloaded. Then when I got home the device was smart enough to wake up, realize there was Wifi available again, and restart my downloads. Simple and genius management of limited connectivity.

But there’s so much more. The Sansa Connect really underscores Yahoo! Music’s strengths and future direction, showing that we’re not just a way to get your music, but a set of services you use to manage your music experience across multiple endpoints. When you add songs to your library on the Sansa Connect, you’re also adding to your library on our servers and in Yahoo! Music Jukebox. The playlists you create in Yahoo! Music Jukebox show up on the Sansa Connect. When you rate songs on the Sansa Connect, the ratings will impact your LAUNCHcast station when you’re listening in the Web. The Sansa Connect is not an island, it’s part of your holistic Yahoo! Music experience. Yahoo! Music knows your music preferences, and helps you take them anywhere. Invest now, much more to come.

And of course you get other great Yahoo! features such as music sharing via Messenger and photos via Flickr. Can Rhapsody or Napster give you that? Thought not. How about Zune or iPod? Neither can give you unlimited music for one low price and neither are connected to the Internet for music discovery, playlists, and library management. My sixteen year-old daughter has a Zune, goes to a high school with 3700 kids, and has never once encountered another person with a Zune, shared music, or even used the Wifi functionality on the device. Welcome to the social? It’s 2007. How about welcome to the Internet. Duh.

[unfortunately controversial paragraph removed, explanation here]

So what are you waiting for? Buy one (or more!) now from Circuit City and subscribe to Yahoo! Music Unlimited if you haven’t already.

Word up,
ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music

31 Comments »

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  1. I’m really excited about this – looks like as great of a service device pairing as any that’s out there. Especially love the Flickr and Launchcast integration as a nice added touch. And frankly, YMU is only $6/month with the Mastercard promotion. To me, 1 well drink a month is sure worth virtually unlimited music. Looking forward to seeing the Sansa Connect in action (need to figure out what to do with my e260 first though).

    Comment by clinchpac — April 9, 2007 #

  2. [...] Yahoo’s Ian Rogers (listen to my interview with Ian Rogers here) is touting the device and the Yahoo subscription plan v. downloadable music. He does make one off-putting remark at the end of his post when he suggests that iPod users only have pirated music on their iPods: For those of you about to complain about the $12/month to get unlimited tracks (like, um, Steve Jobs), check yourself before you riggity wreck yourself. Labels and artists get paid for every radio play and every Yahoo! Music download to the Sansa Connect, whereas we all know iPods are mostly full of not-paid-for MP3s. At Yahoo! would like to help maintain a healthy music business, compensating labels and artists at a fair price to consumers. The labels and the consumers have been pretty far apart in this negotiation and we think we’re doing a damn fine job striking a balance between the two with the rich feature set Sansa Connect and reasonable monthly price of Yahoo! Music Unlimited. We hope you think so, too. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, right? (emphasis added) [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo’s New Media Device — April 9, 2007 #

  3. [...] Yahoo just announced the release of the new SanDisk Sansa Connect WiFi media player, which comes preloaded with Yahoo Music. The device costs $250, comes with 4 GB of memory and a 2.2 inch screen. It supports Yahoo’s personalized radio, sharing playlist suggestions over Yahoo messenger, Flickr photos, and unlimited downloads on Yahoo Music for $12/month. [...]

    Pingback by MobileCrunch » Yahoo’s New YPod: SanDisk Sansa Connect — April 9, 2007 #

  4. This is pretty slick Ian. Portable LAUNCHcast is fantastic. LAUNCHcast is still the best online radio service for getting the music recommendations right. The more accessible the service is the better. I also dig the instant gratification aspect of this… find it, get it, hear it, pretty much where ever you are.

    Congrats!
    -beach

    Comment by beach — April 9, 2007 #

  5. [...] [via mobilecrunch, source] Sphere: Related Content [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo! SanDisk Sansa Connect Announced… the YPod - PMP Today — April 9, 2007 #

  6. [...] Yahoo´s Ian Rogers is promoting the device and the Yahoo subscription plan vs. downloadable music and is trying to achieve a moral high ground by saying that For those of you about to complain about the $12/month to get unlimited tracks (like, um, Steve Jobs), check yourself before you riggity wreck yourself. Labels and artists get paid for every radio play and every Yahoo! Music download to the Sansa Connect, whereas we all know iPods are mostly full of not-paid-for MP3s. At Yahoo! would like to help maintain a healthy music business, compensating labels and artists at a fair price to consumers. The labels and the consumers have been pretty far apart in this negotiation and we think we’re doing a damn fine job striking a balance between the two with the rich feature set Sansa Connect and reasonable monthly price of Yahoo! Music Unlimited. We hope you think so, too. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, right? (emphasis added) [...]

    Pingback by Startup Meme » Yahoo Partners With SanDisk to Launch Sansa Connect — April 9, 2007 #

  7. [...] Update: Yahoo Music Blog has posted the details of this new device: …allowing you to listen to personalized radio, download music, share music with friends over Yahoo! Messenger, and view photos from Flickr, all direct over any Wifi network. Here are a few of the features not shared by either iPod or Zune: [...]

    Pingback by GigaOM » And now Yahoo wants a piece of iPod — April 9, 2007 #

  8. I bought one Sat. and have nothing but complements. I like this way more than my 280R. Better UI, scroll wheel, screen, etc. The tie in with Yahoo is very well done. Kudos to zing. Downloads of on the fly mixes didn’t make my launchcast stations stutter or pause. Now if only we could cache the launchcast stations to the device for when there’s no wifi. Any plans of that? :) Cut Slacker off at the pass!

    One minor note, both my transfers out of My Music gave me license errors. Funny to see that since I haven’t been using playsforsure for a while. I drag the album to the Connect. Maybe it’s that path that caused it? Should I add to My Music, download, then add to the device? Does it matter? Seems odd that one track on each download bombed.

    Comment by buchananmb — April 9, 2007 #

  9. [...] Source : Yahoo Music Blog via TechCrunch [...]

    Pingback by Experience Mobility » Blog Archive » Yahoo has a winner! The Sandisk Sansa Connect — April 9, 2007 #

  10. For all my whining about YMJ, I have to give you credit for this.

    Yahoo and Sandisk beat Apple, Microsoft, Creative and everyone else to really make this device do what MP3 players should do. Stream from an online store.

    Although this sounds good, what I really want is a way to access Launchcast and Yahoo Unlimited on a Windows Mobile device.

    Having this with 3G and WiFi would be killer.

    Seeing this kind of functionality on a mobile device gives me the patience to wait around with Yahoo Music while they improve things.

    Also, what’s the percentage breakdown of the subscription model? Label cut VS Yahoo cut.
    I am very curious about that.

    PS: Any baby that wears a Jimi Hendrix shirt has a bright future.

    Comment by resource — April 9, 2007 #

  11. [...] Sandisk – the #2 player in the space – partners up with Yahoo! to take on Apple.  My only question, frankly, is where on earth is Sony (Walkman anyone?). [...]

    Pingback by HipMojo.com - Main Street Meets Madison Avenue, Wall Street and Silicon Valley » Yahoo/Sansa’s Music Player Foray: 100M iPods too Late? — April 9, 2007 #

  12. Congratulations on launch of an interesting product. Nice integration of wireless.

    However, why lower yourself to denigrating potential customers?

    “we all know iPods are mostly full of not-paid-for MP3s”
    Please: iPods do not = music pirate. My iPod is full of songs I ripped from my 600 CD collection which I paid for.

    Comment by buggerme — April 9, 2007 #

  13. Hi Buggerme,

    Sorry for the remark. Here’s what I commented on Michael’s post at TechCrunch this morning:

    “Damn. Apparently I can turn any news item into an argument about file sharing! This was supposed to be about this rad new device! :)

    Anyway, Michael is at least partially right to criticize my comment, which was made flippantly, as an afterthought to the blog post, and wasn’t buttoned up for a debate such as this one. Any conversation about where the music on an iPod comes from needs to take legally ripped music into consideration. Groups like NPD study this and you can talk about this on an actual percentage basis if you do your homework.

    I, however, was looking a little further out. There’s no question at this point that CD sales are declining and digital sales aren’t growing fast enough to make up for the gap. I’d like to work to create a new paradigm (or a set of new paradigms) that works for music lovers as well as music creators. Do I think the model we have today with YMU and this device is perfect? No, I don’t. But I think it’s a step in the right direction and many music lovers are going to dig the freedom of unlimited portable music discovery and the piece of mind of knowing that Yahoo! is paying for every track they listen to.

    We will get there. It’s my job to make sure we do.”

    ian

    Comment by iancr — April 9, 2007 #

  14. [...] And they mention it in the release, just so you know. The Yahoo Musci Blog announced the release of the Sandisk Sansa Connect, the Wifi enabled MP3 player that will free you from your USB cables, at least until you need to charge it. You can listen to personalized radio, share music over Yahoo Messenger, view photos from Flickr and download music. They are offering unlimited downloads from Yahoo Music Unlimited for only $12 dollars a month, but I see no mention if they are cutting a similar deal of DRM less MP3’s from EMI. For me personally, the SanDisk Connect has put me in a completely different mode of portable music listening and discovery. I didn’t even connect mine to a computer for a week. I fired it up, started listening to personalized LAUNCHcast, and as songs I loved would play I’d grab the whole album. Then it was time to leave the house so I walked out the door and into the car, connected it to the line-in, and backed out of the driveway. The device elegantly said, “um, lost the connection to Wifi, dude”, so I flipped over into “My Library” and hit “Shuffle All” to start listening to the many songs I’d downloaded. Then when I got home the device was smart enough to wake up, realize there was Wifi available again, and restart my downloads. Simple and genius management of limited connectivity. Source: Wifi-Enabled SanDisk Sansa Connect Features Yahoo! Music Unlimited, LAUNCHcast, Messenger, and Flickr [...]

    Pingback by Sandisk Sansa Connect, what the Zune Should Have Been Tips Dr.com — April 9, 2007 #

  15. [...] YahooはSanDisk Sansa Connectという新しいwifi メディアデバイスを発表した。これはYahoo Music ( Yahoo Musicの概要とライバルとの比較（英語記事）参照)がすぐに聞けるほかにユーザーのFlickrアカウントとも同期する。これでYahooは Appleのますます拡張を続けるiPod帝国やMicrosoftのZuneミュージック (そして近く始まる携帯)デバイスに対抗できる足がかりを得た。Sansa Connectは価格250ドルで4 GBのメモリと2.2インチの(小さい) スクリーンがついてくる。定額購読契約で無期限に毎月15ドルを払い続ける気のあるユーザーなら、膨大なライブラリを聞けるのでこういうデバイスを好むかもしれない。100万曲以上あるYahooの全音楽コレクションをポータブルなデバイスで聞けるというのは確かに魅力がある。しかしDRMの壁が崩れ落ちつつある現在、多くのユーザーにとって制約なしに楽曲を所有できるほうが、定額購読を続けるというアプローチより魅力だろう。YahooのIan Rogers(私のIan Rogersインタビューはここに)はダウンロード販売を比較してYahooの定額プランとこのデバイスの優位を売り込んでいた。Ianはこのインタビューの最後に「iPodのユーザーが持っているのは違法な海賊版の楽曲ばかりだ」という、いささかがっかりさせるような発言をした。ほとんど無限の曲が聞ける代償に月12ドルを払うことに文句があるヤツがいる（スティーブ・ジョブズとか）ようだが、バカを言ってないで自分の頭をきちん調べてみたらいい。Yahoo! MusicからSansa Connectに曲がダウンロードされるたびにレーベルもアーティストもきちんと支払いを受けているが、iPodの中に入ってるのは金を払わないで手にいれたMP3ファイルばかりだというのは誰でも知っている 。Yahoo!は音楽ビジネスの健全性を維持する手助けをしている。レーベルとアーティストに消費者から公正な料金を支払わせている。レーベルと消費者の立場は残念ながら相当かけ離れているので、Yahoo!としては両者の利害の間で難しいバランスを探りながら、Sansa Connectの豊富な機能とYahoo! Music Unlimitedの膨大な楽曲の利用料を設定していると思う。ユーザーもそう考えてくれるように望みたい。解決策を提示できないなら悪事に加担しているのと同じだ。違うかね？(強調はTechCruchによる)。Ian、iPodsの音楽は普通 (「ときどき」かそれれとも「たいてい」かは分からないが) 購入されたCDからまったく合法的にリップされたものだ。アーティストは、特にレーベルはすでに一度この楽曲に関して支払いを受けている。私がそれをiPod上でも聞きたいと思ったからといって私が著作権泥棒ということにはならない。消費者は同じ楽曲を別のデバイスで聞きたいと思うたびに、繰り返し、繰り返し、繰り返し金を払わされることに強い不満を抱いている。それに消費者がずっとそういう目に会っていなければならい理由など考え付かない。[原文へ] Yahoo [...]

    Pingback by TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Yahooの新しいメディアデバイス — April 9, 2007 #

  16. [...] Anuntat acum 3 luni in cadrul CES Las Vegas, SanDisk Sansa Connect este in sfarsit lansat pe piata americana. Dar nu oricum, ci in partenariat cu Yahoo Music, in cadrul unei formule de consum nelimitat de muzica in schimbul unui abonament de 12 USD/luna. Mai mult, folosind Sansa Connect puteti trimite recomandari muzicale direct pe Yahoo Messenger – ar fi fost mult mai interesant sa poti trimite direct melodia, e drept, dar deocamdata ne vom multumi sa fim spamati cu “recomandari” de catre amicii nostri posesori de Connect. O functionalitate gratuita dar mai putin utila este integrarea cu serviciul de imagini Flickr. Pe scurt, un MP3 player cu un display bunicel, 4 GB de memorie extensibili cu micro SD si conectivitate WiFi. Plus, un bebelus purtand un tricou cu Jimmy Hendrix ca si imagine de lansare pe Yahoo Music Blog. Toate acestea pentru un pret US de 250 USD (apx. 680 RON). Asteptam cu interes oferta europeana. [...]

    Pingback by Gadget Mania - SanDisk Sansa Connect: lansat in partenariat cu Yahoo — April 9, 2007 #

  17. Oh Man this looks awesome! Such a shame I JUST bought a Sansa280R to go along with Rhapsody but I would rather have this. I’ll have to see what I want to do, Maybe I can sell my 280R… But congrats, this looks good!

    Comment by NrthnStar5 — April 9, 2007 #

  18. [...] Today they partnered with Yahoo. The headline alone turns you off . Obviously too many egos involved in this launch. Here is the headline — no joking: [...]

    Pingback by Howard Lindzon » Yahoo Sandisk partnership to compete with iPod…NOT! — April 9, 2007 #

  19. For users reporting transfer errors from YMJ to the Sansa, we have been hit recently by a Windows mandatory update 929399. MS has since fixed this problem with this update, but for those users still running into problems, checkout

    http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/music/jukebox/troubleshoot/license-error.html

    Comment by necromonger — April 10, 2007 #

  20. [...] More Info Here At Yahoo’s Music Blog [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo! Music Connects With SanDisk « Podcast Junky — April 10, 2007 #

  21. Well guess what Mr. Ian : I just bought my very first MP3 player because of this blog post. Yes I have never to date ever owned an MP3 player. No iPod. No Rio. No nothin’… until now. I just went down to Circuit City and got my Sansa Connect and it RULES!

    Since I mostly use Linux all day, I’ve never been into the MP3 players that need to connect to a computer. This thing is amazing. Thanks for the announcement about it.

    –
    Derek Sivers, CD Baby

    Comment by dereksivers — April 10, 2007 #

  22. [...] Because of the Sansa Connect’s integration with Yahoo!, the $250 device is being promoted by Yahoo! Music’s Ian Rogers, who justifies the monthly subscription price by attacking iPod users as thieves: For those of you about to complain about the $12/month to get unlimited tracks (like, um, Steve Jobs), check yourself before you riggity wreck yourself. Labels and artists get paid for every radio play and every Yahoo! Music download to the Sansa Connect, whereas we all know iPods are mostly full of not-paid-for MP3s. [...]

    Pingback by Fired Apple exec behind new iPod competitor at The Apple Blog — April 10, 2007 #

  23. [...] Cabe mencionar que, En el blog de Yahoo Music describen como el Sansa Connect permitirá acceder a su servicio de música por suscripción Yahoo Music Unlimited, a Flickr y a LaunchCast (conocido en estas latitudes como Yahoo Música Radio). [...]

    Pingback by A Chingao!!! » A Chingao! Sansa Connect, el iPod Wi-Fi de Yahoo — April 10, 2007 #

  24. [...] Vía | Error500. Más información | Ymusicblog. Compártelo [...]

    Pingback by Sansa Connect por fin es real — April 10, 2007 #

  25. Thanks, Derek! Truly an honor. I hadn’t expected to crack the l33t hax0r market! I hope you’re pleased with it.

    Hope to see you soon,
    ian

    Comment by iancr — April 11, 2007 #

  26. [...] Sadly, I got it before the Sansa Connect came out, which features built in WiFi, and a host of other nifty features. More importantly, the fine folks at Sansa worked with the fine folks at Y!Music to add quite a few nice Yahoo! specific features to it, including stuff like the ability to play Y!Music radio streams, Flickr Photos, and other things. Ian has a rundown of all the goodies, and you’ll find lots of reviews all over. [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo! Cool thing of the Day » Blog Archive » More Mobile Music — April 11, 2007 #

  27. [...] That, ladies and germs, is a man who is on top of his game from a strategy standpoint. Eleven words, says it all. Boom. We’ll forgive him for getting the blogoshpere twisted around the old P2P/mp3 rathole issue on Ymusicblog. Oops. [...]

    Pingback by You are killing me » Sansa Connect is da bomb — April 13, 2007 #

  28. [...] Check out the Yahoo! Music blog to find out more about this new Sandisk player. Hopefully we’ll get one here in the Messenger offices soon so I can give the Yahoo! Messenger features a more thorough test drive. Stay tuned! [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo! Messenger Blog » Yahoo! Messenger on the new Sansa Connect MP3 player — April 17, 2007 #

  29. [...] announced the SanDisk Sansa Connect–a new Wi-Fi-enabled portable MP3 player loaded with a bevy of Yahoo [...]

    Pingback by » Early reviews on SanDisk-Yahoo MP3 player good | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com — May 23, 2007 #

  30. The Sansa connect certainly has great features. Is this model made of titanuim alloy just as the Sansa e200 series. I own the 4GB Sansa e260 and I love it! It is the best investment I made within the past year. I would still purchase the Sansa e260 knowing that the Sansa Connect is also out in stores. The design is compact and sleek and I think it just might be smaller then the Ipod Nano. The connect is worthwhile for any person that doesn’t own an MP3 player yet. SanDisk MP3 players are built to last…assuming this particular model is manufactured with titanuim alloy. Again…is it?

    Comment by readesbc2005 — July 2, 2007 #

  31. [...] SanDisk music player is wifi-enabled and will pull the latest music down based on your listening profile for your drive to [...]

    Pingback by Online Advertising in an IP-Enabled World — everwas — August 12, 2007 #

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