Last.fm, the CBS-owned online music network, is launching a free music on demand service that will allow users to listen to their favorite tunes anytime. Reuters is reporting that Last.fm has partnered with the four largest music companies worldwide and has obtained the cooperation of more than 150,000 individual music labels and artists to provide the new on-demand service with content.
The new service will allow Web surfers in the US, Germany and Great Britain to stream songs by their favorite artists online at no charge. Users will also have the option of buying a downloadable MP3 version of the song through Amazon.com’s popular new MP3 store.
The combination of CBS, all of the major music labels and Amazon.com gives Last.FM a powerful platform from which to operate, and an operating and advertising budget to rival any terrestrial or satellite radio station in the US. The new on-demand music streaming service will be entirely funded by advertising placed on the Last.FM web site, and profits will be shared among the various music companies involved.
The announcement of the new service has been a long time coming. It has taken nearly 6 years for Last.fm to realize their dream of a free on-demand internet music portal, as they began negotiating with individual music labels and distributors back in 2002. Back then, Last.FM cofounder Martin Stiksel says, “they wouldn’t even take our calls.”
But perseverance has paid off for the fledgling music web site, and they have now procured the cooperation of the biggest players in the industry, giving them a solid foundation from which to challenge the superiority of iTunes, Rhapsody, and other online music distributors.
Although the concept of streaming on-demand music online is anything but new, many startups have failed to garner the cooperation of the major music labels, resulting in very limited play lists, and pages of red tape regarding digital rights management and other legal matters.
But while London-based Last.FM appears to be succeeding in the online music distribution game, many other “webcasters” are struggling, or going out of business altogether. For example, Pandora, a competing UK on-demand music distributor, has announced it will close up shop later this month due to “outrageously high” royalty fees. Other online music services find themselves and the same position, and will have to carefully consider whether they should continue to compete in the shrinking online music market.
But by partnering with so many of the industry’s big players, Last.FM has at least a solid chance to succeed where so many other startups have failed. With CBS funding the site, many experts feel that if Last.FM cannot succeed online, no one can.
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“The announcement of the new service has been a long time coming. It has taken nearly 6 years for Last.fm to realize their dream of a free on-demand internet music portal”
It’s such a shame that imeem, deezer and spiralfrog beat them to it months ago, of course none of the press releases sent out by last.fm mentioned that their new streaming feature was neither new nor superior to the existing offerings.
imeem.com is the one to watch, it’s already established itself as ‘youtube for music’ and supposeldy has twice as many users as last.fm
Comment by Robert Hewlit — February 3, 2008 @ 10:21 am