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Last.fm moves to a subscription-based streaming service for much of the world

Contributed by el_matt. Posted by Bryne on Monday, May 4, 2009 at 1:00 PM (EDT)

Popular music/social media website last.fm has started charging users outside of the United States, United Kingdom and Germany a fee for their streaming radio services. After a 30 song trial period expires, users must pay a €3.00 monthly fee to continue utilizing the streaming radio services. Some reasons behind the change were given on the site's official blog:

Last.fm Radio has always been ad supported, which means we sell ads on the site to cover the cost of running the service and paying the music licensing fees. If you've spent more than 5 minutes on the site you'll know that the Last.fm community is international to the extreme – we are made up of people from practically every country in the world. Last.fm is a better place for it.

However, we simply can't be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service. The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it's a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships.

The rest of the site's features (scrobbling, recommendations, charts, biographies, events, videos, etc.) will remain free in all countries.

News (59 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Seriously.

Petrus_T (May 4, 2009)

http://www.kongshoej.dk/fun/Asshole%20art.jpg

1+ Reply

chickswithdicks (May 4, 2009)

this is amazing.

UNTJosh (May 4, 2009)

stupid

Banal242 (May 4, 2009)

As a privileged white American, I am outraged.

(Sips organic, free trade coffee)

What were we discussing? The new Broken Social Scene? It's garbage. Just listen to a few songs on Last.fm.

SloaneDaley (May 4, 2009)

sucks but understandable. available everywhere except Quebec, if you are under the age of 13 you must have parents permission.

3+ Replies

chickswithdicks (May 4, 2009)

i don't know lloyd, the french are assholes.

TheOneTrueBill (May 4, 2009)

That John Denver's full of shit, man.

TheOneTrueBill (May 4, 2009)

I chuckled.

chickswithdicks (May 4, 2009)

do i want the new killzone 2 maps for $6?

ffwoodycooks (May 4, 2009)

i dont see why people are complaining, you still get fee charts

also, the new future of the left album gets more amazing the more i listen to it.

3+ Replies

Ragdoll (May 4, 2009)

Yeah, I rarely use it for streaming; the charts are what interest me the most.

el_matt (May 4, 2009)

If you are outside the privileged countries, the website uses your scrobbling information to create playlists, etc. but charges you to listen to the radio that everyone else gets for free.

eyepatchguy (May 4, 2009)

Agreed on Future of the Left. Why is nobody except you talking about it?

TheOneTrueBill (May 4, 2009)

Seems like as good a time as any... post your Last.fm link and we can compare compatibilities!1!1!11

http://www.last.fm/user/Blitzzkrieg Bill

30+ Replies

Banal242 (May 4, 2009)

http://www.last.fm/user/Brian242

chickswithdicks (May 4, 2009)

^^^

Dante3000 (rich) (May 4, 2009)

I'm a commoner so I use iTunes and I had the plug in for a while but eventually my itunes went batshit on me. After digging through some stuff I removed the plugin and everything worked perfectly, so I just don't use it anymore. Kinda bummed about it.
-Dante

american_666_jesus (May 4, 2009)

http://www.last.fm/user/TropicalParadox

acris (May 4, 2009)

haha I didn't know that this was your username on here

- christine from the mpc

Diver (May 4, 2009)

^ Yup.

acris (May 4, 2009)

a chick? word.

SloaneDaley (May 4, 2009)

^^^ but I'm at work sos I can't see it.

chickswithdicks (May 4, 2009)

where's your work?

SloaneDaley (May 4, 2009)

bay and adelaide street

chickswithdicks (May 4, 2009)

alright mr. financial disctrict. my hood is on your way home, we should get a beer post-work soon.

lintsay (May 4, 2009)

it's up there.

_911 (May 4, 2009)

I just signed up for and haven't use it much but here it is:

http://www.last.fm/user/ShruteFarmer84

rebeccaa (May 4, 2009)

boop boop de doop

kneel (May 4, 2009)

last.fm/user/kneelconqueso

Ragdoll (May 4, 2009)

http://last.fm/user/RevoltPuppy

sbit (May 4, 2009)

me ^

brown (May 4, 2009)

http://www.last.fm/user/tasertaser

I doubt I'll have much in the way of compatibility

brown (May 4, 2009)

Apparently I am mistaken.

TheOneTrueBill (May 4, 2009)

Contrary to what some may think, I don't hate everything.

LarsBars (May 4, 2009)

^-^

The4footpartysub (May 4, 2009)

http://www.last.fm/user/scottcarr

McFlynnTHM (john) (May 4, 2009)

http://www.last.fm/user/mcflynnthm

BusinessSocks (May 4, 2009)

Ooooooooo, me me me! ^^^

Nameless (May 4, 2009)

This ^

alif (May 4, 2009)

http://www.last.fm/user/AirRaid/

IanIsSuperRad (May 4, 2009)

^^^^^^^^

I pretty much never use the last.fm radio, so even if they implemented the charge here, I wouldn't care.

Rastid (May 4, 2009)

http://www.last.fm/user/rastid

acris (May 4, 2009)

I probably have most people added on this site anyway

I'm such a last.fm whore

McFlynnTHM (john) (May 4, 2009)

And here I thought I was special when I got the email.

Phooey.

skazilla (May 5, 2009)

hm i have super or very high compatibility with almost everyone... that's kewl!

http://www.last.fm/user/heroinbobftw

chrisafi (May 5, 2009)

I'm going to add ALL of you and then write confusing shouts when you least expect it

c-i-c-a (May 5, 2009)

Yup,
http://www.last.fm/user/c-i-c-a

miniblindbandit (May 4, 2009)

i don't really listen to music on my computer and i don't have an ipod so i never really got into this site.

badbrain (May 4, 2009)

why does this site always replace apostrophe's with backslashes

4+ Replies

miniblindbandit (May 4, 2009)

it's a beta bug.

droopypunk (May 4, 2009)

In russia the apostrophe backslashes you!

TheOneTrueBill (May 4, 2009)

My favorite part of it is the rolling charts thing where it'll show what your top bands fro the last 7 days, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year are. For instance, this my current three month rolling chart. There are no Ramones or Replacements to be found, and I really don't remember listening to THAT much Severed Head of State. It's constantly full of surprises!

1 Rudimentary Peni 109
2 Minutemen 103
3 Joy Division 102
4 Sex Vid 93
5 The Nation of Ulysses 75
6 Mob 47 73
7 Crass 70
8 Severed Head of State 64
9 Swingin' Utters 63
9 Limp Wrist 63
11 The Mr. T Experience 62
12 No Age 61
13 Nobunny 60
13 Career Suicide 60
13 Hüsker Dü 60

TheOneTrueBill (May 4, 2009)

Well that was obviously meant for the response above.

givemeamuseumandillfillit (May 4, 2009)

The radio channels must be my favourite thing on the entire internet, so this sucks.

I'll just get into using Spotify more.

1+ Reply

el_matt (May 4, 2009)

Yeah, someone recommended that to me as well, but I haven't checked it out yet.

hotwaterbrogden (May 4, 2009)

oh shizzle.

www.last.fm/hotwaterbrogden

el_matt (May 4, 2009)

I was starting to wonder if this was going to get posted or not.

ThreeChordsAndTheTruth (May 4, 2009)

This has gotta be related to Spotify.

binaural111 (May 5, 2009)

not happy about this

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