Yahoo! Messenger Blog

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1. Sorry to see LAUNCHcast go, but glad to see it will live on and that there’s going to be an updated plugin for it. I personally won’t mind living through ads to be able to listen to all the great music.

   Now, I have to ask. Any changes to how skips are handled? Is unlimited skipping going to be supported, or is it going to be the same?

   Comment by Venom — February 11, 2009 #

2. @Venom – Skipping won’t be supported in this initial release but they hope to support it later on.

   Sarah Bacon

   Comment by Administrator — February 11, 2009 #

3. Ah, thanks for the info Sarah.

   Comment by Venom — February 11, 2009 #

4. I’m aware that there are going to be advantages of this partnership, but I am really sorry that “My station” will be discontinued …:(( When I first discovered Yahoo with LAUNCHcast Radio I was very enthusiastic about creating my own station and discovering it was actually playing my choices. I haven’t seen such a smart system before =D> and friendly with the user, so to speak, allowing us to really personalise our musical experience. That’s why I think it would be wonderful to bring us back one day this pleasant facility that makes Yahoo Music unique

   Comment by Roxy — February 12, 2009 #

5. gooooooddddddddddd

   Comment by psycho — February 12, 2009 #

6. Losing Launchcast Radio really upsets me. It works great picking songs for me. If CBS thinks I am going to listen to their ads their nuts. I will find something else to listen to. Yahoo got rid of the the best thing they had going. Really too bad!

   Comment by Gloen — February 12, 2009 #

7. I am so upset by this. I spent years building “My Station”. My tastes are really eclectic and no preprogrammed genre station is going to suffice. Don’t know what I’ll listen to now, but it won’t be CBS/Launhcast.

   Comment by Dawn — February 12, 2009 #

8. That really is bad news… Like Roxy, I too was very excited when I discovered this service and have spent quite a lot of time rating songs and artists through this plug-in.

   I’m not a huge fan of ads though and the fact that I don’t live in the US of A or Canada means that even if I didn’t mind listening to ads, I still wouldn’t be able to enjoy this service.

   I’m aware that there specific laws which restrict the streaming of audio and video material to various countries due to copyright restrictions but with this being increasingly enforced everywhere, don’t be surprised if you start losing your users.

   I’m glad that I have an account on Last.fm where music is still free to listen to, no ads, no streaming restrictions from country to country, I get to listen to unsigned bands and not just the mainstream artists and it’s a service I can use from any browser.

   Thanks for letting us know Sarah and trust me, I’m just as sad as you are that I’ll be permanently removing this plug-in from my Yahoo Messenger…

   Comment by Shiro — February 12, 2009 #

9. Yet more bullbutter me thinks….. Why are you throwing Yahoo! Messenger down the pan?

   Comment by James — February 12, 2009 #

10. I never got Launchcast to work properly OR consistantly. I repeatedly contacted Yahoo for assistance but their sollutions never resolved the problems. Now, after several months of rating songs and getting the station to play music I enjoy (when Launchcast did work), Yahoo is pulling the plug. All my “ratings” are lost.

    Why does this not surprise me? Yahoo had continued problems with Launchcast. It still has problems with Messenger. Their “help” is generic at best.

    Comment by JIMMY — February 12, 2009 #

11. too bad,they got rid of the best thing.

    Comment by babyygirl — February 13, 2009 #

12. For anything Yahoo! abandon, it can only get better!

    Comment by Tommy — February 14, 2009 #

13. Gah, I just discovered this today, when my LC radio started playing commercials out of nowhere. This is ridiculous! I LOVED how customizable LC is, for all the reasons everyone else already said, and more. I have a very varied mix of music likes, from country to pop rock to movie soundtracks to stuff from the 50s & 60s, etc etc.. I used to listen to iTunes radio, which is free and has no restrictions at all, but can be a hassle to keep changing the stations, especially when they are all sorted by only one genre per station at a time.. so when I discovered LC, it was like, whoa. So awesome!

    RiP, Launchcast Plus. What a shame.

    Comment by SimbiAni — February 14, 2009 #

14. Oh, and here’s the link to MY station, lol:

    http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/station.asp?u=1883853352

    Comment by SimbiAni — February 14, 2009 #

15. i find it sad that we in germany cant or must wait to get the new radio launch cast.we are faithfull users to.:(

    Comment by Chuck — February 14, 2009 #

16. So this means I lost my time rating my songs in “my station” So could listen to what I wanted? And now I have to listen to whatever CBS/Launchcast wants me to listen?

    I don’t think it was a great idea to get rid of people’s data. It would be like Yahoo! decides to host Yahoo Mail somewhere else and then say we are sorry but all your mail and contacts will be gone…

    Comment by Joel — February 14, 2009 #

17. come monday feb 16,2009 my 3 yrs of high & low rated artist & songs will be gone..whenever i hear 1 of my many favorite songs i freak out a bit because this will be the very last time i hear it

    Comment by VERONICA — February 14, 2009 #

18. after reading all this ,,,i just went and un-installed the plugin. i will install it later,,sometime after all the changes have been made,,,what the point of having the plugin when the site is going through a change.

    i will use the plugin in again,,just not now,,,change is change,,and when its free music to listen too, why complain.

    i hope all goes well,, i still love yahoo .

    Comment by karen — February 15, 2009 #

19. I was one of those that had a “plus” account. When yahoo decided to end my account on Feb.12th, I was no longer able to listen to any music because I was now “over my time limit”. Once again yahoo takes what should have been a simple change and screws it up. If yahoo gave any thought to customer service they should have done away with limiting the amount of time a person could listen during the four day gap between ending paid music service and the change over to CBS.

    Comment by Gary S — February 16, 2009 #

20. Feb 16

    When does it take effect?

    Comment by Guy — February 16, 2009 #

21. ok,,cool starting on the 16th . then you should change the looks of the yahoo music web site http://new.music.yahoo.com/

    why confuse us this way ,,,, it should say “CBS yahoo radio” the yahoo music site should make it obvious the CBS radio is now the new thing.

    please speed this up and get it over with ,,,

    Comment by karen — February 16, 2009 #

22. If it’s not broke? Why try to fix it? Oh yeah…it’s broke now! My launch cast has been messed up since i downloaded 9.0

    Comment by mzredd — February 16, 2009 #

23. yea,im a little tweeked about the loss myself folks i had 14,399 total ratings man3,248 artists 7,223 songs 3,928 albums, and i got that station vertually perfect for me, what a loss.but today 2 16 i still by some miracle am listening to my custom station
    im gonna crank it up today as a farewell to my station,
    what if any thaughts are there on slacker radio?

    Comment by magazz — February 16, 2009 #

24. I’m really sad about this. My station was pretty much perfect because it played songs that I actually like. Now I don’t really have anything to look forward to with this service. Disappointing.

    Comment by Kelly — February 16, 2009 #

25. Sarah, I had the Launchcast I was telling you about before I got the email that CBS was taking over went away.. I had the plug in open… not playing in the middle of the upgrade and I saw you have my local station B96 Chicago on the list…. and B96 HD2 on the list… I LOVE YOU… so what if there’s commercials.. everything works!!! But I shut and uninstalled the plugin and it kept saying error opening plug in.. but it’s understandable because your switching at the moment… I’m just excited everything works!!!

    Comment by Alece — February 16, 2009 #

26. mzredd… my Launchcast was messed up too since 9.0 was released but since the updates that I tried out earlier everything works but as I said above I uninstalled it and it’s not loading the plug in right now but when I tried it earlier when I already had the plugin loaded all the stations worked… so yay us…

    Comment by Alece — February 16, 2009 #

27. I now hate Yahoo or whoever the hell is in charge and I won’t be back. I loved my station and the idiots have removed it – how dare they! That was the best thing about it, a radio station that plays what you want to hear. I don’t want to be force fed their crap songs thank you very much – yahoo suck! Listen to the people who use the site, they’ll tell you they all love their own stations – that was the whole attraction you f*****g morons!

    Comment by bd — February 17, 2009 #

28. Thic completely SUCKS! I worked for 2 years to get my station to work the way I liked itI had tons of presets and preferences – many thousands of ratings ALL COMPLETELY WASTED. I was just telling my mother of how if she used the messenger program that she could customize her own radio station or listen to my own – THANKS FOR NOTHING. CONGRATULATIONS ON REMOVING VALUE FROM YOUR PRODUCT.

    I guess I will have to go back to trolling mediocre $houtca$t stations like I used to.

    This is VERY disappointing.

    Comment by Kent Snyder — February 17, 2009 #

29. i have a problem with my launchcast.. i click on it and cant get any stations to highlight.. cant get to any of them.. i just have the 3 options that are dislayed when i open yahoo maeesnger,, and losing ” My Station ” is a complete downer… cant customize a thing on it now

    Comment by zip — February 17, 2009 #

30. Sarah,

    What happened to my Launchcast? I get errors, my stations are all gone.

    Comment by Dave — February 17, 2009 #

31. The My Station feature was the best part of Launchcast radio and now they’re getting rid of it? WTF?!

    Comment by musiclover — February 17, 2009 #

32. I have spent over 8 years on my launchcast station. I was rated a FANATIC.

    It was all that i wanted, and even more with the recommendation of other users…. Now in these especially hard days, when I looked forward to the solice of the music, it is gone, for a dumbed down pablum subsittute.

    Good Bye launch cast.

    This is a majorly depressiong event for me.

    Comment by terry — February 17, 2009 #

33. you suck CBS radio!!!

    Comment by terry — February 17, 2009 #

34. THIS IS AWFUL! Does CBS really think we all simply transition from Launchcast Plus, a customizable station that plays what we prefer to this new offering, a non-customizable cluttered collection of US radio stations?

    I hope SNL includes this in their next “Really??” segment on Weekend Update….all jokes aside, this is depressing….I spent 4 yrs building up my station and had 5000+ ratings…this is a disgrace.

    Comment by tier3 — February 17, 2009 #

35. IF ANYONE HAS ANY RECOMMENDATIONS ON WHERE TO NOW GO on the web to get a comparable Launchcast Plus customizable no-commercial stream audio service (ie; what we used to all have before it was taken away), please let me know.

    I’ll pay whatever.

    Comment by tier3 — February 17, 2009 #

36. i never get your station

    Comment by Chico — February 17, 2009 #

37. what happen to my launchcast,, all station are gone.. how ill go back this station to my yahoomesenger

    Comment by Chico — February 17, 2009 #

38. Today was my first and last time I will hear an ad on CBS. I am very mad that commercial free music and my radio station were discontinued. This was very important to me and a fundamental reason for staying with at&t yahoo all these years. Now they suggest I pay for another commercial free service. Will yahoo reduce my monthly rate by the same amount now they took it away? PS. the CBS soound quality is poor – missing the high frequencies.

    Comment by Musicnut 123 — February 17, 2009 #

39. Does Comcast have anything similar to LaunchCAST?

    Comment by Musicnut 123 — February 17, 2009 #

40. Hello Sarah, I love the new radio! Awesome. But, I will never understand why Yahoo quit the program. All the best

    Comment by Henryk — February 18, 2009 #

41. This sucks. Why don’t you just change your name to google. Hmmmm… maybe they will create a “My Station” feature and I can enjoy music again – somewhere else.

    Comment by steve — February 18, 2009 #

42. The Australian launchcast works, and will even use your preferences. Canada works as well, but Australia seems to play a better range of music. Just hope that they don’t shut down this portal. It’s not plus, but hey, it’s something.

    Comment by Carl from Missouri — February 18, 2009 #

43. The personalized aspects of “my station” were wonderful and I will not regress back to passive radio. I found an alternative that is similar to but so far much appears even better than old Launchcast: http://www.pandora.com/. You rate music and get similar tunes, and can skip those you don’t like. It seems to be more creative yet better in suggesting new stuff than was old Launchcast. Like old Launchcast It is free with commercials or you can buy a commercial-free version for $36/yr. I’m so glad to have found this alternative, so CBS Radio and Yahoo can… well, you know.

    Comment by thom — February 18, 2009 #

44. UPDATE: I now find that Pandora (the Music Genome project) is WAAAY better than old Launchcast. It allows you to create multiple “my stations” each tuned to different moods. It also provides exceptionally good artist information and has a nice interface and style. Perhaps most importantly, the commercials are not auditory and so do not disrupt your musical enjoyment. You can just keep it in a minimized window and get a smooth flow of well-selected music. I liked old Launchcast a lot–but I LOVE Pandora.

    Comment by thom — February 18, 2009 #

45. Thx for the rec…Pandora is pretty good…I’m just beginning to use it, and it seems pretty comparable to the old Launchcast…what a relief.

    Best of luck CBS….

    Comment by tier3 — February 18, 2009 #

46. wow ,,how cool,,, my LaunchCast music plugin now works.
    seeeeee it was not my pc , but the LaunchCast site.
    it took CBS to fix the site so that the music plugin that we use from yahoo messenger and make it work.

    good job CBS, thanks for fixing this.

    Comment by karen — February 18, 2009 #

47. This is just one more of a lot of changes made recently to yahoo which has me looking for a better place to call home. Yahoo has been my home page for over 10yrs and I stuck with yahoo for not selling out and for offering quality free content/services to it’s users. This is clearly coming to end particularly with this latest sell-out yahoo has engaged in. I’d be interested if anyone elses shares these feelings.

    Comment by jallen — February 19, 2009 #

48. I personally like the new player alot better. it works on my mac (finally!) and now I can use ffox – goodbye IE. And it sounds like 10times better. thx and keep it coming.

    Comment by willie — February 19, 2009 #

49. What a load of TOTAL GARBAGE. I’m so absolutely peeved off at Yahoo… what a bunch of flip’n SELL-OUTS!!! I’ve had my account since 2001. That’s 8 years of building my preferences and getting my station to be an incredible and unique. They’ve taken all my hard work and flushed it down the squatter.
    They’re laughing all the way to the bank while completely betraying the fans/users who made them what they are today. I’m disgusted with your move guys. You can kiss my business good bye.

    Absolutely repulsed and spitting mad.

    Comment by Lisa — February 19, 2009 #

50. What do you mean “My Station” is gone? I spent years building it and — la de dah — you drop it. This is an outrage! You can tell CBS to go jump in a lake — I’m going to Pandora!

    Comment by Call me Phil — February 19, 2009 #

51. Over 10,000 songs rated. YEARS of programming songs I liked and songs I didn’t. This station was the ONLY one I could listen to at bedtime and 24/7. Being blatantly thrown away has been emotionally painful and feels a lot like punishment. The awesome new Launchcast is intolerable and I’m removing the icon from my site and favorites links. I guess now I have some idea how Black Friday must have felt to some. RIP Launchcast. Blog frequently across the web about this travesty.

    Comment by Max — February 19, 2009 #

52. And let the lawsuits begin…

    Comment by Max — February 19, 2009 #

53. Well I’ve calmed down a bit since my rant of the 17/02 further up. I’ve found a site which claims to let you have a free personalised radio station, I’ve had a mess about on it and it looks promising, don’t know how long its been up but I’ve just discovered it so its new to me. Anyway CBS get it sorted, I had nearly 10 years of ratings on my radio station and it was tailored to my tastes and you just wiped them out without so much as an e-mail to let me know – as someone once sang: you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone.

    http://www.finetune.com/

    Comment by bd — February 20, 2009 #

54. it is really a pitty that My station is not working anymore. I invested a lot of time in selecting my fav songs. plus that I don;t like the fonts displayed now….

    and everything happened “just like that”. take it or leave it – that’s the law, right?

    not fair! not fair!!

    at least please find a solution for each user to have the possibility to select the stations he prefers, play a list of random songs but only from these stations. what if one likes ’80s and today’s top hits? please do something to have the possibility to listen my favourite music!

    Comment by ioana bobi — February 20, 2009 #

55. this completely SUCKS.. i am so irritated… I had worked on my Launchcast MyStation player for a long time… potentially 6 years.. i forget when i started. It is the only clear differientiator for the player.. it becomes just another streaming music service.. good luck CBS… this seems moronic. Way to piss of me and most of my coworkers.

    Comment by Aaron Nilsson — February 20, 2009 #

56. Seriously sad about this… there are no other custom stations like this, and now i just have to wade through the crap again to listen to what i actually like. I have had my custom station for at least 7 years…

    I think this is a VERY bad move on CBS’s part.

    Comment by Smeebs — February 21, 2009 #

57. Has anyone figured out how to print our list of rated songs/groups so we have something to use while we try Pandora for example? Also I do use Pandora and you can only rate 100 groups at a time so I’ll be way over and will have to cull my Launchast list since I’ve been building for years so it’s going to be such a hassle to start over.

    Comment by CurlyGirl — February 21, 2009 #

58. awww u cant flipping skip songs anymore. what a crocka bull >.>

    Comment by mz.b0mb_p0p — February 22, 2009 #

59. I found my launchcast radio station at yahoo canada. I couldnt believe it!! Not sure if Canada is affected by the switch but here is link:

    http://new.ca.music.yahoo.com/

    Comment by jd — February 23, 2009 #

60. yeah!!yahoo canda works,atleast it plays my station.thanks dude!!!ur the best

    Comment by crayondude — February 23, 2009 #

61. I just need to vent here. I just want to express how much I hate the new CBS radio … it is just a bunch of radio stations – it is nothing different or spectacular to any other radios on the internet and the ratings don’t mean anything to the user. I spent the last 4-5 years rating my tracks and albums … no station could have my taste (world music, musicals, pop, country, 40s-90s).

    I don’t see the point. The only thing that keeps me on yahoo messenger used to be my yahoo radio – but now no point. Yahoo messenger is going to go!

    I tried Last.Fm (also by CBS radio) – it’s better than what Yahoo is currently giving … but still does not allow you to rate but can’t used love tracks. Unfortunately, I can’t get Pandora in the UK (they’re working on it).

    I tried the yahoo canada site and was able to get my radio (yes!). Wonder how long it will last …

    Comment by Anesa Hosein — February 23, 2009 #

62. Update: I went and programmed a bunch of stations in Pandora and I think I really like it. It matched two songs that I would have never programmed that are some of my all-time favorites so it’s just the hassle of having to redo it. You have six skips per hour but if you exceed that you can just select one of your other stations. Plus it has the QuickMix so you can shuffle all your stations. Pandora rocks! I will never have to go to Yahoo again.

    Comment by CurlyGirl — February 23, 2009 #

63. Yahoo Canada worked for me too!!!! Hopefully it lasts…. I love my station and would had to lose 5 years of ratings

    Comment by abwalrus — February 23, 2009 #

64. Pandora doesnt work in the UK, Launchcast has ben screwed…hmmm, looks liek im stuck with imeem and last now

    Comment by Xcrimsonstarx — February 23, 2009 #

65. Lol congratulations yahoo you have prob lost another 10,000 users LOL

    Comment by Karl — February 24, 2009 #

66. thanks jd, it works with http://new.ca.music.yahoo.com/.

    Also discongratulation to yahoo! HOOO!
    i’m the 10.001 that will be lost.

    Comment by marx — February 24, 2009 #

67. but with http://new.ca.music.yahoo.com/ doesn’t keep the ratings and moods made with old music.yahoo.com
    (

    I’m already lost by Yahoo.
    Thanks Yahoo….. you become a loser.

    Comment by marx — February 24, 2009 #

68. Yahoo Australia works, and better matches the old US launchcast. Keeps your ratings too!

    http://radio.au.music.yahoo.com

    Comment by Carl — February 24, 2009 #

69. After listening to this CBS radio for a few days I have to say…. If all you want to do is listen to one type of music (i.e. 1970s Rock or 1980s R&B) it’s okay I guess. But you can get that from any radio station that is streaming (and there are thousands of them). LaunchCast letting me build out my station and listen commercial free was the best benefit for having this plug in at all. What are the current plans for improving what CBS is giving us? Please give me a reason to continue listening to this. Why shouldn’t I just load a bunch of MP3s into Media Player and listen to what I like all day without commercial? I don’t like having to change the stations when I want a change of music. LaunchCast’s “My Station” learned what I liked and played it all day.

    Comment by Clifton M — February 24, 2009 #

70. Cutting My Station from Yahoo was a big mistake. I no longer use Yahoo Music for anything. Canceled the horrid Rhapsody subscription, and moved to a few other services.

    Pandora – good, but not a perfect match to the rating system or My Station from Yahoo. It also doesn’t have my 12,000+ songs rated.

    Musicovery.com – horrible interface, but it is very good at finding new music in similar styles. Can also see the entire music “map” nearby and jump to ANYTHING. That’s cool. Can also play “just music I rated” to “find new stuff”. Has potential, but that flash interface really needs some work.

    Slacker.com – good, but not quite right. From the original MusicMatch people that sold to Yahoo (became Launchcast). Unfortunately the ability to build your station is somewhat lacking as is the sliding scale or 5-star rating system for songs.

    Thus far all the rest are the standard “you’ll listen to whatever crap we jam down your throat” fare, JUST LIKE CBS RADIO.

    Bad move Yahoo. The new service sucks compared to the old format.

    Comment by CyberLance — February 24, 2009 #

71. What a DISASTROUS takeover from CBS…

    Triple the number of ads, no customized station, ratings are not saved, the exact same songs are played one day, and the next one, and the next one… (including those rated worse or even those skipped), and if you try to skip those everpresent songs…. the channel becomes “unavailable”!!!

    Bravo, Yahoo… You didn’t screw it up so much when you acquired Launch, but you have definitely SCREWED THE WHOLE THING UP THIS TIME.

    “Thanks” from a loyal listener from 2000 till Feb 2009.

    R.I.P. dear Launchcast

    Comment by Ignacio — February 25, 2009 #

72. I absolutely hate the new launchcast radio. I can’t even listen to “my station” anymore. I like to listen to a variety of music without having to choose one genre. Too bad, I will have to now find another online radio to listen to. Lost me as a paying customer.!!!!!!! Bad, bad, idea, Yahoo!!!!!

    Comment by Teresa — February 27, 2009 #

73. The full version of Launchcast was one of the biggest reason I stuck around with SBC DSL. The DSL service was par at best, but Launcast gave me a reason to stick with it. This new CBS radio service is just terrible. I’m now looking for another DSL service. Yahoo- you screwed the pooch on this one. Congratulations!

    Comment by Tom — February 27, 2009 #

74. yahoo canada still works,but the fan radio stations are gone.the user radio station still works

    Comment by crayondude — February 28, 2009 #

75. I am glad to hear the others are experiencing the same outrage at the loss of Launchcast as I have in the past few weeks. I have been a Launchcast plus subscriber for about 6 years. After it flipped to CBS, I quickly realized that the CBS version was just horrific. The ads are bad and the preprogrammed stations are worse. I also tried Pandora but while they have a nice interface and the creation of multiple seed stations can at first seem to generate a decent mix of music, I quickly found out that they don’t have a deep enough catalog to keep me interested for more than a day or too before everything starts repeating.

    I am currently listening to my old station on the Canada stream and it continues to add to my over 30000 ratings but I expect them to pull the plug eventually.

    After that, I will probably try Slacker. I will not use the CBS service. I will not pay the outrageous fees of Rhapsody. I will find my music in a stream over the internet, where by the way, Launchcast introduced me to dozens of new bands, many of whose songs I really liked and subsquently PURCHASED WITH REAL MONEY because I was introduced to them by the best internet radio streaming program ever.

    When it finally does go off the air, I will miss what has become a very close friend who helped me through every work day.

    Comment by MSTinPA — March 1, 2009 #

76. I hate not being able to skip songs, I spent a long time customizing my station and skipping bad songs. Now I am forced to listen to garbage. I hate this! I hope they switch back or change this current crap they have going on.

    Comment by Melissa — March 2, 2009 #

77. For all the loyalty I showed Yahoo! and for all the love I showered into My Station, to be subjected to this CBS garbage is outside of enough. I hope the CBS honchos are looking at these letters. I never really hate anything and I HATE the stations. Do you really think that I want to be forced to listen to whatever line-up YOU think I want to listen to? I am way more complicated than that and you CBS are making me waste my time. I will be searching for something better. I miss my old Station.

    Comment by NixxNaxx — March 3, 2009 #

78. Well after reading some of the random comments on this site. I have come to the conclusion that most of the people feel the way I do. That we hate or strongly dislike this new Launchcast powered by CBS radio. Granted they now allow you to use it on Firefox and Safari browsers, but there is no variety or customization like there used to be. I was a Launchcast Plus subscriber who didn’t mind paying for the ad free unlimited skipping ability. In order to listen to what I wanted when I wanted. I am listening to Pandora as I write this but it doesn’t compare to what I have lost. I will surely miss Launchcast they it was.

    Comment by Nicole — March 4, 2009 #

79. Oh yeah I want to add. Just because I was a loyal Launchcast Plus subscriber doesn’t mean I am willing to pay those expensive prices charged by Rhapsody to continue what they promise is the ability to have customization. Launchcast was reasonable in price and did just what I wanted it to do. I wish more launchcast listeners had been willing to pay back then perhaps we wouldn’t have lost Launchcast now.

    Comment by Nicole — March 4, 2009 #

80. I can’t begin to express my disappointment in the new LaunchCast Radio… I spent much time and effort building my own station. Now instead of having a song repeat once a week, I get it several times per day — which means the depth that was there is now gone. And I can only listen to one genre at a time. And when I start listening to the genre I like, I hear the same songs over (since the station starts over)… There appears to be little depth in the programming,

    The thing that bothers me most is that this comes with my AT&T DSL/UVerse subscription — so I am paying for a service that hasn’t really improved…

    I vote to show CBS the door. Bring back the original. (If you don’t, I will vote with my feet)

    Comment by Dale Andersen — March 9, 2009 #

81. NOT FAIR….!!!! I spent years to build my station….I am sooo mad…!!! x-(

    Comment by angie — March 10, 2009 #

82. Tom Oleniacz has developed the capability, for a fee because it is time consuming for him and his team, to migrate Yahoo song ratings to another service, such as last.fm or Rhapsody. I paid him to do the the latter and am very happy. Tom is in Poland and can be reached at tomekole AT NOSPAM yahoo.com . I had 10,000 ratings, so I was really happy I found Tom and I was glad to pay him since it was, like, years worth of work on my part to make those ratigns. .

    Comment by Derek Drew — March 17, 2009 #

83. Yahoo launchcast Canada is pulling the plug on April 19. Derek, what did it cost you to do migrate your ratings?

    Comment by Brian — March 17, 2009 #

84. Only in US and Canada are allowed to use Yahoo! LAUNCHcast Plug-In? Im from Philippines and I love this plug-in! please bring it back to Asia or Philippines?! Please please ohh pretty please???

    Comment by Norelyn — March 18, 2009 #

85. I’ve been a fan of the LC plugin and I panicked when I upgraded to ver.9 that I couldn’t find the LC plugin.. after searching on the web, I find out it’s only available in the US and Canada.
    WTH! Come on yahoo! This uberly sucks! You have a ton of users ALL OVER THE WORLD and I’ve always loved how my friends from other countries discover new artists through my LC and status messages.

    Bring back the old LC!

    Comment by CamPh — March 19, 2009 #

86. Goodbye 5+ years of building ‘my station’ – hello Pandora.

    Bad move Yahoo.

    Comment by TexasGooner — March 23, 2009 #

87. Brian – can you confirm that LaunchCast Canada is going down on April 19th with a link perhaps? Any word on the Austrailia stream?

    Comment by MSTinPA — March 24, 2009 #

88. Leave it to corporate America to screw up a good thing. I loved my radio station. After so many years of getting it dialed in, some idiot at CBS decides they don’t want us to have it anymore. Well guess what, not only will I no longer visit your dumb site, I will boycott everything CBS. IDIOTS!

    Comment by motomech10 — March 28, 2009 #

89. Yeah, here is another example of how Yahoo just plainly does not care about its users. What was wrong with allowing us to choose our own music for listening? My taste isnt all that eclectic, but I still dont see a hard rock station in between metal and hard rick- which is where most of my favorite things exist. I dont wanna have to listen to a bunch of crap in between the songs I wanna hear.

    The old “My Station” was probably one of the greatest qualities of Yahoo- you stupid bastards need to quit screwing over your users!

    Comment by prozack — April 4, 2009 #

90. oh, by the way- you couldnt have picked a better company to go with than CBS? Perhaps XM/Serius?

    CBS is another company like Yahoo that dont care what their users/viewers think. For example, they suckered everyone into watching the Mentalist online, after a show or two and seeing how popular it was, they took it offline despite all the angry responses they got. It was like they did it on purpose just to be dicks! They still advertised that you could watch it online, but you couldnt. I would love to have sued them for false advertising- CBS has a lot of loot- but anyway, there was no reason to take it off as all their other programs were still online.

    OOps, rant over.

    Comment by prozack — April 4, 2009 #

91. Yahoo! is getting worse and weaker everyday.

    WHERE IS LAUNCHCAST ON YAHOO MESSENGER?

    THE ONLY REASON I USE YM IS BECAUSE THE LAUNCHAST FEATURE.

    YM SUX WITHOUT LAUNCHCAST, WELL, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A RESIDENCE OUTSIDE US AND CANADA.

    Comment by Rose — April 10, 2009 #

92. What f—–g load of s–t! I spent years programming that station! Thousands upon thousands of ratings and now the whole lot’s deleted! I appreciate that corporate buy-outs will happen but couldn’t Yahoo at least come up with some kind of data file which will allow all of us so sorely ripped off by this to take our years of programming elsewhere!? I’m not even going to look at the new CBS thing, they’ll probably only delete all my ratings in time anyway! What are peoples thoughts on Pandora?

    Comment by Phil — April 19, 2009 #

93. I’m outside of US and Canada and it works for me. The skip feature is no longer available too, it was better when it granted you 5 skips.

    Comment by Crash — April 19, 2009 #

94. Phil – go here to learn how to download your ratings. I hope it still works.

    http://boulter.com/blog/2009/02/06/how-to-download-your-launchcast-ratings/

    Pandora is good, but not as good as LaunchCast is…LaunchCast lives on in Australia. I don’t know for how long but I will keep using it there until they kill it off.

    After that, I intend to try the Slacker Radio service at slacker.com.

    Comment by MSTinPA — April 19, 2009 #

95. Hello all, well I used launchcast canada for awhile and then moved on to launchcast Australia which probably is still working.

    Anyway, for those people who are unable to use Pandora … shall I recommend Jango. It’s not as good as Launchcast personalised radio – but pretty close! You can rate songs and artistes (LC still had a better rating system) and add them to your stations. So, really not too bad … I tried LastFm too but personally think Jango is better.

    Jango doesn’t have a lot of songs in its library as did LC but I remembered when I started with LC 5-6 yrs ago it also didn’t and gradually built up. So, Jango might do the same.

    PS. Since LC has gone, I never have any use for my Yahoo Messenger …

    Comment by Anesa Hosein — May 13, 2009 #

96. Wow. Yahoo and CBS: Do you care that all these people are so unhappy now that you’ve discontinued the personal radio station choice? You’re losing all of these customers. Isn’t that called lost revenue? All of these people spent years enjoying your service and you’ve pulled the rug right out from under them. My personal radio station was one of the very few reasons I stayed with you guys since 2001. With unwise moves like this I do not expect Yahoo to be around much longer. I’m currently making a list of all my email contacts so I can switch over to someone else and I’m canceling all of my services with you guys. Watch as I wave goodbye to you along with all these others.

    Comment by Roman — May 22, 2009 #

97. i miss the launchcast! man, it’s one way on how i discover more music,.too bad it’s not available anymore..yahoo – not a good choice.. >_<

    Comment by Timo — May 30, 2009 #

98. I’m devastated that my station is not around anymore! I realize it has been a while since this all happened but I am still upset non-the-less. For various reasons my station on yahoo launch cast was far superior to a plain ol’ streaming station: the recommendations, the ratings, influencer stations, the variety, the volume & depth of the music.
    I’m just as devastated that my YEARS of ratings have gone down the drain. I could have perhaps dealt with just the disappearance of my station, but I would have hoped that at least my ratings were saved so that I could still receive recommendations or have archived them…. or taken them elsewhere or something!
    I used launchcast CONSTANTLY until I was a little put off when I became a mac user and found out I could not successfully use it on my mac. I kept coming back though, occasionally listening on my hubby’s computer, and checking in hopes it would become available for mac and I could go back to my beloved station. It had been a while but I came back today only to find out though now it is available for mac the sole reason I wanted to use it is GONE!
    Yahoo/CBS….you failed. I’m left with a very bitter taste in my mouth… Maybe the folks over at google will pick up the pieces and make something better.

    Comment by Katie W — July 7, 2009 #

99. Katie – please read my post a few entries above where I left a link explaining how to get your ratings.

    LaunchCast out of Australia remains alive under the new name of Y7!; however, the music catalog appears to be limited to songs from 2006 and older.

    I have moved on to slacker.com for my music. It isn’t as good as LaunchCast was but it is the best alternative I have found.

    Comment by Mike Taddei — July 7, 2009 #

100. How can i install the radio in my Yahoo Messenger?

     Comment by Skids~ — July 18, 2009 #

101. @Skids – If you’re using Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0, click the Add Plug-ins button in the main Yahoo! Messenger window. When the menu pops up, click the ‘Start’ button next to the Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast item in the list.

     Sarah Bacon

     Comment by Administrator — July 20, 2009 #

102. Ok, so I have been a launchcast customer for like 10 years, and have used launchcast, before it was launchcast, yahoo brought broadcast.com, and they started streaming videos on 56k dial up. Ok let me get to the point, now I miss my old stations, I was a plus subscriber.

     I use play.it and have a few custom stations, along with pandora.com, last.fm and of course now maestro, imeem, and free.napster,com yes you can stream songs 3 times as well.

     And along with free rhapsody channels, and shoutcast, there is so much free music out there, I dont pay for a single song. I prefer to stream.

     There are so many good genres via cbs radio,launchcast, shoutcast etc, there is no doubt in my mind that you cant find a station you dont like, also the ability to custom your station via play.it, pandora etc.

     Ok while I was friggin pissed that My station got lost, I have so much musical choices its unbeliavable with streaming, oh and besides napster is a mere 5 bucks, but i have to try and test it, hands down rhapsody paid is better however its kind of expensive. so each there own.

     I am happy that there are even free streaming stations available to use and legal too. Besides what can one do?
     Go itunes that

     Comment by rockin2music — August 23, 2009 #

103. Is there a Launchcast plugin for Vista business? I cant seem to find it anywhere. Any news of one coming out soon?

     Comment by satur9 — August 25, 2009 #

104. @satur9 – Plug-ins are specific to the version of Yahoo! Messenger, not your operating system. So if you’re running Yahoo! Messenger 8.1, 9.0 or 10, the Yahoo! Music plug-in will work. All three of those versions of Yahoo! Messenger should work on Vista. If you’re not seeing the plug-in, click the “Add Plug-in” button in the main window and start it from the plug-in list.

     Sarah Bacon

     Comment by Administrator — August 25, 2009 #

105. I LOVED my Launchcast station…and am still mourning over all my ratings.

     I use Iceberg Radio now though which is pretty awsome! they have a new option of “blended channels” so you can pick specifics from your favorite genres and hear it all in one section… PLUS they have UMLIMITED skips! Since Yahoo soldout my favorite work-time station this has been the next best thing I’ve found!

     Go to http://www.icebergradio.com

     Comment by MDH — September 10, 2009 #

106. wow, was a launchcast user for 10+ years, rated thousands of songs… now all gone?

     I followed the link on the blog page that was supposed to have stored my ratings. It says “Sorry, the information requested is not available at this time. Please check back later.”

     About to leave Yahoo (and my 15+ year email account) for good…. very upset that no notice was sent to launchcast customers and that you deleted all of our ratings.

     Comment by Brad — October 12, 2009 #

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