DevPlug.net

About a year ago Yahoo! Search launched a music artist shortcut to make it easier for users to find quick details about artists — like videos, photos, sample song tracks, and even their official website links — directly from the search results page. This evening, we’re rolling out some key enhancements as part of our partnership with Rhapsody.

Now, in addition to gaining access to all of the artist background that you could before, you’ll also be able to play up to 25 full songs a month, as opposed to the 30-second samples from before. And, by tapping into the vast catalog of songs available on Rhapsody, we’re expanding the number of audio files that are available for playback and increasing the number of tracks in the shortcut from three songs to four. If you want to look over a greater list of songs, you’ll also be able to link directly to Yahoo! Music right from the shortcuts; full song playback will soon be enabled in Yahoo! Music as well, so stay tuned.

Now you’ll be able to listen to Rihanna, sing along to Madonna and JT or rock out to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs without having to leave the search results page or type in a log-in. Simply click your song of choice and the new media player from Yahoo! Music, called FoxyPlayer, will launch near the bottom of the page. The player is easy-to-use and offers full functionality for song playback, like artist and song info and even an expandable playlist tab. You’ll be able to continue browsing the results page while the player is in use or turn it off at any time with a single click.

Try it out and search for some of your favorites. We’ll continue to work with Rhapsody to showcase more of their deep music catalog in the near future, so keep your eyes (and ears) open for even more artists and songs.

For more information on our partnership with Rhapsody, check out the Music Help Pages.

Greg Makris
Yahoo! Search

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