WebProNews

RealNetworks and Napster suddenly find the online music subscription business a very crowded field.

Yahoo Music Unlimited will debut today from the Sunnyvale-based portal company. And Yahoo has priced the service very aggressively, undercutting Napster and RealNetworks Rhapsody To Go.

All three services differ from Apple's iTunes Music Stores in that they essentially rent music to customers. For an additional fee per tune, a song can be burned to a CD. Yahoo has priced that below the competition as well.

The pricepoints may be very appealing to customers who already favor a competing subscription service. For $59.88, about a third of Real or Napster's pricing, an annual subscription can be purchased. A monthly subscription can be had for $6.99 per month.

Subscribers wishing to burn songs to CD will be charged .79 cents per song; Napster and Real charge .99 and .89 cents each to their subscribers.

The ability to transfer songs to portable players won't include Apple's iPod. Instead of AAC encoding, songs will have Microsoft's digital rights management in place. Initially, thirteen portable music devices will be supported.

More information may be found online at Yahoo's web site.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.