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BT Yahoo! Intros LAUNCHcast Radio

Posted: 05th May, 2004 By: MarkJ

UK ISP BT Yahoo! Broadband has announced the introduction of LAUNCHcast, an online music service that allows users to customise their own Internet radio station by rating artists:

Customisable LAUNCHcast Radio Positions Yahoo! UK & Ireland and BT Yahoo! Broadband As The Leading Online Music Service for Consumers

Yahoo! UK & Ireland and BT Yahoo! Broadband users now have access to LAUNCHcast, a unique online music service that allows users to customise an Internet radio station by rating artists, albums and songs. LAUNCH, the music destination on Yahoo! now offers LAUNCHcast in the United States, Canada and UK & Ireland.

With the use of innovative technology, LAUNCHcast enables users to customise a station based on ratings of their favourite artists, albums and songs, while introducing them to new music that may be similar or popular within the LAUNCHcast community. LAUNCHcast stations covering a variety of musical genres programmed specifically for the British market by the LAUNCH editorial team have been available to Yahoo! UK & Ireland and BT Yahoo! Broadband users since October 2003. Yahoo! currently offers 26 pre-programmed stations in the United Kingdom.

LAUNCHcast will be an integral part of LAUNCH to enhance the music listening experience for nearly 900K unique users in the United Kingdom that visit the site each month. Radio listening via the internet is a rapidly growing area with more than 7.3 million people accessing services in the UK in 2003. Young people are the heaviest online radio listeners and the fastest growing audience with 29% of 15-24s and 21% of 25-34s tuning in. LAUNCHcast has been extremely popular in the US market reaching more than 2.7 million cumulative unique visitors streaming more than 19 million hours of music per month.

Director of LAUNCH Europe, Shannon Ferguson commented: Since going live last summer, LAUNCH has captured a very loyal base of music users in the UK & Ireland, mirroring the success of our US site. The addition of LAUNCHcast to our stable of leading music products and services sets the standard for Internet radio in this market. LAUNCHs unparalleled library of free on-demand music videos, now combined with LAUNCHcast, is tailored to serve the growing base of 3 million broadband users in the UK.

BT Yahoo! Broadband and Internet customers will have access to additional LAUNCHcast features for no extra cost, which includes commercial free, higher audio quality, unlimited track skipping and extended community features such as the ability to subscribe to other music fans' stations, which may influence your own music choices. "We've come a long way from the early adopter stage of broadband. Back then it was just about speed, now it is about content and applications" said Duncan Ingram, managing director, at BT Openworld. "BT Yahoo! Broadband and Internet customers now have access to LAUNCHcast Plus, which uses smart, intuitive technology to open up a wealth of opportunities and possibilities where the emphasis is very much on delivering customised music content to you.

BT is backing the promotion of LAUNCHcast on BT Yahoo! Broadband with a television and print advertising campaign devised by Fallon the creative agency. The 30 second commercial will air on May 4. Specialist print will also appear from May 4 onwards.

http://www.yahoo.co.uk/launch