Eileen Chen

Eileen Chen, an analyst with market research firm Xceed Intelligence, called the deal expensive for Musicmaker.com.

"Usually if you can get away with $3 million to $4 million for a deal like this, it's a better value," Chen said."But at $6 million a year plus an equity stake, that sounds high to me."

Chen noted that using portals, such as AOL.com, to drive traffic may not be the best strategy."You can buy a lot of advertising for $18 million, instead of spending it on a portal strategy," she said.