Yahoo! announced to subscribers of its portable music subscription service that it will increase rental rates for the service on November 1. The company released its Music Unlimited subscription service in August after a three-month beta testing period. The service's debut prices were considerably lower than Yahoo!'s competitors' prices: US$4.99 per month for one year with unlimited downloads to a portable music device, and $6.99 on a month-to-month basis.

The new rates will be $9.99 per month with a one-year subscription and $11.99 month-to-month. However, these new rates only apply to the subscription service for downloading songs to mobile devices; users who only want access to play songs on their computers will still pay the lower prices. Yahoo! also says that it will honor one-year subscriptions made before November 1st at the lower rate.

The company gave no indication why it was increasing its rates, but the move is not a surprise to analysts. Many were saying that Yahoo!'s prices would not be able to stay so low without cutting steeply into the company's profits.

Source: geek.com