Linksys and Yahoo! Music Team to Make Moving Digital Music in the Home Easy

Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Linksys and Yahoo! Music today announced an agreement focused on making it easier for consumers to move digital music legally from their computer to other devices around their home. The agreement enables Linksys and Yahoo! to work together to develop ways to enhance the customers' Yahoo! Music and wireless home networking experience. The integration of Yahoo! Music with the Linksys Wireless-G Music Bridge (WMB54G) is the first product resulting from this relationship.

Linksys and Yahoo! have developed a new plug-in for the Yahoo! Music Engine to work directly with the Linksys Wireless-G Music Bridge. This plug-in is integrated into both the Linksys Wireless-G Music Bridge and the Yahoo! Music Engine so users can stream music directly to a home stereo with the click of a button on the Yahoo! Music Engine interface. The free Yahoo! Music Engine provides users the ability to play and save songs, share music using Yahoo! Messenger, transfer music to compatible portable devices, access pre-programmed radio stations, burn CDs, create playlists and more. With the addition of the Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription service, Yahoo! Music Engine users can build music libraries from a catalog of over a million songs, access personalized music recommendations, and over 100 customizable and commercial free radio stations.

"We are thrilled to work with Linksys to make consumers' personal music experience available to them in their home with the Wireless-G Music Bridge," said Dave Goldberg, vice president and general manager, Yahoo! Music. "We are committed to being essential in our users' lives and this relationship builds on our focus on providing their Yahoo! Music services to them wherever and whenever they want it."

Malachy Moynihan, vice president, Linksys home networking business unit said, "Teaming with Yahoo! Music provides our home networking users with tools that enable them to expand their home network more affordably and more easily. Streaming Yahoo! Music and personal music content will enhance the users listening experience by making their music available throughout the home."

Pricing and Availability
The WMB54G is available from retail, e-commerce and direct response at an Estimated Street Price (ESP) of $99.99. The free Yahoo! Music Engine music management software and Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription service can be accessed from http://music.yahoo.com. Yahoo! Music Unlimited provides music fans with music listening and management functionality for $4.99 per month for an annual subscription or $6.99 for a monthly subscription.

To promote this agreement, an integrated marketing campaign will include cross marketing of each other's products and services on websites, newsletters, product packaging, advertising and more. Yahoo! will also be providing a $20 rebate on the Wireless-G Music Bridge when users sign up for a one year subscription to Yahoo! Music Unlimited.

In a recent survey conducted by research firm In-Stat, more than sixty percent of respondents expressed that they were at least somewhat interested in connecting their PC to a stereo system to listen to digital audio files. In-Stat analyst Joyce Putscher said, "Sending audio from a PC to a home entertainment center was the top response in our study as to what type of media consumers wanted to stream using a home network. The Linksys and Yahoo! relationship should help make customers even more aware of what they can do with their music services and where they can access them. It's a good collaboration that should serve the market well."

Wireless-G Music Bridge:
The Linksys Wireless-G Music Bridge lets users wirelessly stream Yahoo! Music services and other music stored on your PC to your Home Entertainment Center, without running cables through the house. Using a wireless connection, the Music Bridge finally frees your digital music collection from those little computer speakers to play in full glory through your stereo or surround sound system

The Wireless-G Music Bridge sits by your home stereo and connects to it using standard consumer electronic cables. It also connects to your home network by Wireless-G wireless networking, or via standard 10/100 Ethernet cabling. The included software creates a virtual sound system in your PC, which sends the Yahoo! Music audio output to the Music Bridge and the stereo system.

For more information, visit www.linksys.com..

SOURCE Linksys; Yahoo!