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Last.fm unveils worlds largest free music service

23 January 2008 15:10 by Dave "Davedough" Horvath | 5 comments

Touting its newest service as the world's largest free music service, Last.fm has signed deals with record labels to pay royalties towards their catalogs of music. The four big labels have all signed as well as over 150,000 independent labels. Users of this service will be able to listen to each Track, streamed, up to 3 times for free. After that, if the consumer likes what they hear, they'll be obligated to purchase it.

If users of this service decide to buy the song after the introductory period, they will be provided direct links to several music services out there, including the likes of iTunes and Amazon. Last.fm will share profits of these sales and that is how they predict they can pay for the cost of running such a service.

One of the original founders of Last.fm before it was sold to CBS, Richard Jones has said, "We want to make music available free and legally to whoever wants it, while rewarding the artists at the same time." He was later asked whether users would not prefer to own music and be able to put it on a portable player rather than just being able to stream it, he said, "The way people consume music is changing - sometimes you just want to listen to it there and then."

Source:
BBC

Permalink to this article | Topic: Online music services

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Discuss this article!
sgriesch (Newbie) 23 January 2008 19:41
I am assuming that this is the whole track instead of the random 30 second snippet that I-Tunes gives. For their sake, they should have income through advertisements as well. I doubt this will float for more than 2 years depending if it depends on people linking through the site. If they see that they can get it through I-Tunes or Amazon, they may come back later to purchase it directly through those sites, skipping LastFM. On the other hand, if you truly love the site, you could always link through it everytime you buy. [ + quote]
handsom (Senior Member) 24 January 2008 14:13
I hope they move towards more of a DRM protected download model, the way Spiral Frog has, I very much like that system, and would like to have more variety! [ + quote]
sgriesch (Newbie) 24 January 2008 19:39
According to the article, this site doesn't send you the music. It sends you to another site that you that allows you to pay for and download the music. Then, that site pays LastFM. What this is allowing you to do is hear it before you buy it. That's it. and at that, you can only hear it 3 times before you're cut off. :-( Not good if you want to share what you heard with friends. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 24 January 2008 19:39
RNR1995 (Inactive) 26 January 2008 14:46
*Originally posted by handsom:* I hope they move towards more of a DRM protected download model, the way Spiral Frog has, I very much like that system, and would like to have more variety! Why would you WANT DRM? [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 18 February 2008 2:14
*Quote:* *Originally posted by handsom:* I hope they move towards more of a DRM protected download model, the way Spiral Frog has, I very much like that system, and would like to have more variety! Why would you WANT DRM? I would have to agree why drm. would not drm free be better?? [ + quote]