p2pnet - rss feed: Last.fm free on-demand streaming
p2pnet news | Music:- Last.fm said it’s now offering free on-demand, ad-supported music streaming.
In a post today on paidContent, it says it’s signed deals with all of the Big 4 organised music cartel members and 150,000 independents to offer free streaming of full length music.
Each track can be listened to just three times but for the moment, it’s available only in the US and EU, but Last.fm says it plans to launch internationally, "before long".
"Last.fm founders Martin Stiksel and Felix Miller have taken the stage [at Studio 19, CBS headquarters]" to, "explain the origin of the company and how it got to this point now," says the story, going on >>>
What advertisers get: A mini billboard space beside every song. Even without a user login, the company will be able to deliver ads. Artists and labels will get a cut of advertising revenue; even independent artists can upload their tracks to Last.fm and get paid when their music is listened to. CBS will use its ad sales resources to pitch advertisers. And right now, they’re confident that there will be plenty of advertiser interest. Kinds of advertisers likely to be on the site include auto makers, Coke, etc. There’s also an SEO play here, as the site wants to rank highly anytime a user searches for a given artist.
Limitations: Last.fm is still fundamentally a discovery site. After a user has listened to their three tracks, they get recommendations for other music they might be interested in. Question: How will they monitor how many tracks a user has listened to? Answer: Not telling. No doubt, people will look for a way to circumvent this. And again, Stiksel stressed that they’d like to increase the number of listens if the labels were willing
Money targets: Quincy Smith: "As much as we can … we’ve made it economically so it’s going to work."
Video: Stiksel "Already, we are working with music videos." There will be more to come on that and new announcements shortly. The company does own the domain name Last.TV, though they’re not announcing plans to use that.
Promoting Last.fm at CBS: Smith: Radio and Last.fm talk a lot. As the network covering the Grammy’s, CBS will be promoting Last.fm heavily in the US. After the announcement, Smith told me directly: "If you watch the Grammy’s you will be exposed to Last.fm." While the announcement mainly centered on the full streaming tracks, this may be the real news, that CBS is now going to be pushing Last.fm, introducing it more aggressively to the US audience. This is something Leslie Moonves has noted, when discussing the service, that for the most part, it hasn’t been exposed to US listeners. Obviously, if Last.fm is going to be promoted during the broadcast of the Grammy’s, then that’s about to change.
Good one.
Also See:
paidContent - Last.fm Announcement: Free On-Demand Music Platform, January 23, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
There is nothing wrong with ad supported free and legal music.
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
This is a good thing for everyone I reckon. Hopefully this is the way music will be ‘paid for’ in the future.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Honest people will put up with ads and maybe even find some of them useful and entertaining. Pirates will prefer stealing because they are to lazy to be honest.