

Last.fm makes music free to listen to - danw
http://blog.last.fm/2008/01/23/free-the-music

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rcoder
This looks suspiciously like an outbreak of common sense amongst the record
labels: royalty payments directly to the artists? Free full-length playback of
sample tracks, with opt-in for unlimited numbers of plays? Tight integration
with iTunes and other music players to track real-time listener data?

On the other hand, this could only come about _after_ the labels had basically
neutered independent Internet radio streams with their insane royalty
structures. Funneling everything through Last.fm gives them a single entity
with whom they can negotiate and from whom they can extort^M^M^M^M^M^M collect
payment.

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greendestiny
It's only direct royalties for independent artists. Naturally artists who
signed those rights away to record labels won't get them. Why the hell should
they?

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paulgb
"Ooops, forgot to mention that info on the new subscription stuff is only
visible/available in our launch countries today (US, UK, and Germany).
Apologies!"

Anyone in one of the launch countries care to tell me what the info shown
here: <http://www.last.fm/subscribe/> says?

I wonder if this is a move towards them selling their music?

~~~
danw
You can already buy some tracks from last.fm on a purchase rather than
subscription model, via 7digital.

From the UK the subscribe page says:

 _Unlimited Listening Subscription

We're publicly beta testing our new free listening service. You can listen to
most tracks up to three times for free.

When the beta is over, we'll offer a subscription package with unlimited
access to a catalogue of music built on partnerships with Universal Music
Group, Sony BMG, Warner, EMI and over 150,000 independent labels and artists.

We will continue to offer our existing Basic Subscription. _

~~~
paulgb
You can already buy some tracks from last.fm on a purchase rather than
subscription model, via 7digital.

\-- Cool, on first glance I like it; will have to look into it more later.

From the UK the subscribe page says:

[...]

\-- Thanks. I guess they haven't indicated a price yet.

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agentbleu
Yahoo announce today also that they will offer free music. It's the beginning
of new recession and the beginning of a new dawn for music. If the labels had
any clue they would have built last.fm themselves.

