Yahoo! Music Unlimited will soon reach its limit
The migration will apparently not be mandatory and Yahoo! should provide you with a prorated refund if you decide not to migrate and still have time left on an existing contract. If you choose to migrate then you will receive Rhapsody unlimited music for a limited time (not clear here if it will go to the end of your existing contract) before the Rhapsody rates kick in.
I purchased another subscription contract to Yahoo! Music last summer using the MasterCard 2 years for 1 promotion when I could still use Yahoo! Music on my S60 and Windows Mobile devices, as well as on the SanDisk Sansa Connect. I found some great news on the new Rhapsody migration FAQ though so I am actually pleased about this move, as I will explain after the quote below. Here is the question and answer regarding the MasterCard promo:
I signed up for the MasterCard promotion that gave me two years for the price of one. Will I still get my second year free if I transfer to Rhapsody?
Rhapsody will honor the terms of the Yahoo! MasterCard promotion and you will not be billed by Rhapsody until after the end of your promotional subscription.
So, it looks like I will be able to use Rhapsody's service for about a year with my existing contract. Now the question is, what devices can I use Rhapsody on and if you go to the Rhapsody support site you can see the list of mobile devices that are supported. I don't see S60 or Windows Mobile devices, but in the past I was able to get Rhapsody working on a Nokia N95 so I may still be able to use these devices. I do see the Nokia N800 in the list and actually tried out this service on the N800 in the past, but never signed up for the Rhapsody service. I look forward to using Rhapsody on the N800 and my 16GB of storage cards, but will have to wait until mid-2008 for the migration.
I also have a SanDisk Sansa Connect that works via WiFi to stream and download Yahoo! Music. According to the Hacking Yahoo Music blog the news for Sansa Connect users isn't as good. As stated in one one particular post on the subject wireless features will no longer work on the Sansa Connect after the migration of your account. You may be able to get a refund on your Sansa Connect when the migration is scheduled to occur in July and there is even the slight chance that a firmware update could be released that supports Rhapsody.