Last.fm: The Free Ride is Over for Smartphones. It’s no secret that streaming music services must pay a licensing premium to offer their libraries on smartphones and other devices, but now it seems that Last.fm’s ad revenue wasn’t enough to pay those bills. Effective February 15, Last.fm will charge $3 per month for access on iPhones, Android phones and home entertainment devices such as Sonos and Logitech’s Squeezebox.
The exceptions are Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which includes Last.fm with a $50 per year Xbox Live subscription, and Windows Phone 7, which will remain free through 2011. Ads will be removed as part of the shake-up. Last.fm’s website will remain free with advertising in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, but Matthew Hawn, Last.fm’s vice president of product, explained in a blog post that an ad-supported service is simply “not practical” on other devices and in other countries. Pandora, for example, offers a $36 per year premium service but still allows 40 hours of free streaming per month.
Q&A: Last.fm puts an end to free mobile streaming. Personalised radio service Last.fm is trying to stuff the proverbial genie back into the bottle, by charging for mobile access that was previously free. In a blog post, the head of Last.fm's product team, Matthew Hawn, wrote: "On February 15, the radio service built into Last.fm mobile apps and on home entertainment devices will become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature. " The CBS-owned, London-based, music service has long offered mobile apps that let you listen to personalised streams of songs you like. You can "love" or "ban" particular tracks, which will then affect what you get delivered next, but you can't pick individual tracks to play or pause music like you can with services like Spotify.
On the flipside, the radio functionality offered by Last.fm is a whole heap better than Spotify's atrocious attempt. All the non-radio features that Last.fm offers -- the data gathering (" scrobbling"), the events calendar, the forums and the artist information pages -- will remain free. Last.fm Radio becomes a premium feature on mobile and home entertainment devices. On February 15, the radio service built into Last.fm mobile apps and on home entertainment devices will become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature. Last.fm Radio will remain free on the Last.fm website in the US, UK and Germany and for the US and UK users of Xbox Live and Windows Mobile 7 phones. We’ll also continue to offer radio for free via the Last.fm desktop app.
I want to explain why we’re making some of these changes. On the Last.fm website an ad-supported, free-to-listeners model is what supports our online radio services in the US, UK and Germany. In other markets and on emerging mobile and home entertainment devices, it is not practical for us to deliver an ad supported radio experience, but instead, we will migrate to what we believe is the highest quality, lowest cost ad-free music service in the world. You’ll see that this change brings us in line with other music services that already charge you to listen to music on mobile devices.
Last.fm Moves to Paid Content Model, Largely Abandons Free Mobile Service. Last.fm, champion of free music streaming services, has pulled an about-face, and is largely moving to a paid subscriber model for its mobile service on smartphones and tablets. Starting next Tuesday, February 15th, Last.fm's "radio service" in its mobile apps, and some home entertainment devices will "become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature" according to an official blog posting.
It'll remain free-to-access on its website in the U.S., U.K., and Germany and for U.S. and U.K. Xbox and "Windows Mobile 7 phones" and through its desktop app. What's the reasoning here? Money, of course. The blog posting explains why the change is due to a desire to move to an ad-supported model. In the U.S., Germany, and U.K. the free streaming model for desktop access to Last.FM's tracks works, with enough eyeballs-on the adverts to bring income to Last.fm.
But the move could be taken as a bad sign for Last.fm itself, and also for Spotify's oft-delayed entry to the U.S. market. It’s Not Free – Last.fm to Charge for Mobile App. Last.fm calls time on free mobile radio service. 7 February 2011Last updated at 18:28 The music site was seen as a major British success story Users of online music site Last.fm will have to pay for its mobile phone service starting from next week.
Until now, the site has provided its personalised radio for free for mobiles, making money by placing adverts between songs instead. However, it now says this is "not practical" and is instead asking users to pay for an ad-free service. Listening via the web will remain free but charging is a "rational" move, the site's Matthew Hawn told BBC News. "We think that the best experience is ad-free," said Mr Hawn, Last.fm's head of product. "It's not that we're losing buckets of money on our service... but we're trying to make rational decisions about our business model. " From next Tuesday the new mobile service will cost £3 a month, a price which will allow users to listen to personalised radio stations - but not to pick out individual songs.
User complaints Continue reading the main story “Start Quote. Last.fm Announces Major Free Music Initiative and New Business Model. After speculation earlier in the week, Last.fm has just announced that they will be offering “the biggest legal collection of music available to play online for free.” That means the big four labels – EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner – are all on board, with an interesting new business model that Last.fm has also announced. Users will be able to play full-length tracks up to 3 times, at which point they will be asked to sign up for a new Last.fm subscription service, where they will be able to enjoy unlimited listening. As for artists, according to Last.fm they’ll get paid every time someone streams a song. That revenue will come from advertising – a similar model to that being tried by imeem.
Last.fm says, “This is good because artists get paid based on how popular a song is with their fans, instead of a fixed amount.” Critics were beginning to wonder when CBS was going to do something after the $280 million acquisition of Last.fm, and today they have an answer.