Today, Last.fm was acquired by CBS, a company who had the first commercial radio station in the US, ran a record label (CBS Records), and amongst other things are responsible for several respected TV series (CBS on Wikipedia).
The team here have spent a lot of time this year discussing what the future should hold for Last.fm, and while contemplating raising some additional venture capital we were approached by CBS. As you can imagine, we have been approached numerous times in the past few years from all the usual suspects regarding acquisitions and so on; CBS are one of the few companies who needed no explanation of what we are doing, and we were impressed at how progressive their plans are. This deal with CBS gives us a chance to really make Last.fm shine, and gives us more flexibility than other funding options would for doing all the crazy stuff we’ve had scribbled on whiteboards for years.
CBS understands the Last.fm vision, the importance we place on putting the listener in charge, the vibrant and vocal community, the obsession with music stats, and our determination to offer every song ever recorded.
I’ll try and answer all (reasonable!) questions regarding the deal and what it means for Last.fm. Here are some miscellaneous thoughts upfront:
- The Last.fm team stays put in London, we’ll grow the company some more here.
- We will continue to execute our world domination plans – our focus is still music and the surrounding ecosystem. The founders (myself included) are still at the helm.
- We have more resources at our disposal now, and more clout when it comes to negotiating licensing deals etc.
- OH NOES UR SELLIN MY SCROBBLES!!1!! — Don’t panic. The openness of our platform and our approach to privacy won’t change.
There is quite a sense of achievement at Last.fm HQ today, we see this is as a huge boost for Last.fm and we are confident that together with CBS we have the wherewithall to change the music industry, and way people interact with music for good. Now we are all going for a slap up vietnamese lunch at the Viet Hoa. We’ll be back in an hour to finish off our facebook app :)
Comments
Simon
30 May, 13:32
Great news! I remember following you from the early days of Audioscrobbler – and I actually think your site is way more worthy of multi-millions than Youtube etc. Keep up the good work, and I hope it stay UK-centric…
robram
30 May, 13:34
Congratulations on the buy-out, although I’m surprised you didn’t manage to get more cash ;oD
Along with many other users, I do hope your vision won’t be compromised by having a far bigger boss than before – we all fear interference for interference’s sake, especially if we feel we’ve been part of something like last.fm for quite a while.
Good luck and keep asking for our feedback!
ade
30 May, 13:34
congrats.fm
Andrew
30 May, 13:39
Congratulations (tentatively…)!
Any clues as to what cool new things you’re going to develop with all this new cash that’s come your way?
trovster
30 May, 13:49
Congratulations to everyone on the Last.fm team. Hopefully this means even more cool things to the site I’m addicted to!
Jono
30 May, 14:26
I’m really pleased for you guys – i just hope it all goes well in the future.
Chris Harrison
30 May, 14:29
When I first heard that CBS acquired you guys, my gut reaction was “Oh f—-, they’re going to screw Last.fm up.” But reading this post has calmed those fears. It’s good to know the team that has made Last.fm great is staying on board.
(BTW, I can’t wait to see the facebook app!)
Rob
30 May, 14:44
Sounds exciting (more music :)) but does this mean that you’ll be doing anything new like putting adverts in with the music on the streams? :( Also, Will the pricing of the subscription change at all?
Kolja
30 May, 14:47
Wow,
I really have to congratulate all of you.
I was amazed by the idea of last.fm from the very beginning, and still enjoying the system a lot.
Keep up the good work!
...taking a look at your vacancies now ;-)
Kolja
hirenj
30 May, 14:50
Congratulations! It’s nice to see you guys are getting access to more resources, so you can keep on your good work.
Is listening history integral to your plans on making money? I ask, because as a part time music stats geek, I’m wondering if you guys have any plans for expanding the possibilities to do stats on the data.
cheers,
Hiren
Henrik Torstensson
30 May, 14:57
Congrats!
Alexandre
30 May, 15:21
I like the idea of Last.fm having more money to do the things we need!
But honestly, I think Last.fm is worth WAY more than just 250 million. ^^’
Guys, some quick tips: – Stay true to the idea – Don’t get blinded by the money – Don’t underestimate the power of the community, ever!
Do that and you’ll live happily ever after…
Congrats and good luck to you all :)
Jeroen Hulscher
30 May, 15:22
Congrats everyone! Hope you enjoyed your lunch this afternoon, keep it up!
Kirsty Chestnutt
30 May, 15:25
Gah, I’m gutted. I thought last.fm were different, but can’t think what gave me that impression.
Staying independent whilst being owned by CBS? How does that work? And are the ‘extras’ really worth it?
Meh, bah and humbug from me.
Do us subscribers get our money back now you’re loaded?
Ahmed
30 May, 15:27
Well done, chaps. Does this mean you’re all loaded now?
Just don’t bow to any pressure to start spelling “neighbours” as “neighbors”. God save the King/Queen (whichever it is, I forget).
Mat
30 May, 15:31
Good One. You sold out to the one of the companies responsible for the increasing homogeny of our musical landscape. Now you’ll be able to take crap-loads of Payola as the ‘industry’ tries to keep the digital in check.
RJ
30 May, 15:37
Thanks for the kind words everyone :)
Rob: Regarding the ads in the stream – we have no plans to do this (for obvious reasons). Our label deals will allow us to do more commercial stuff though, such as on-demand playback etc
hirenj: Of course, listening history is integral – i’ll be pushing my own personal agenda of more stats (and visualisations) too.
As for the fun new stuff we’ll be able to do on Last.fm, i will have to come back and answer that in a couple of weeks once the chaos has subsided..
George Black
30 May, 15:42
Congratulations from another UK start-up! You are inspiration for us :)
Paul
30 May, 15:55
Congrats! I hope you are all rich (or at least richer!)
Dom
30 May, 15:58
This is a really
reallybad move.With all the problems the RIAA is causing at the moment, you had to go and sell out to a US media company. And for such a paltry price.
I’ve heard of shooting yourself in the foot, but this is more like shooting yourselves in the head.
Laurie
30 May, 16:00
I have a question that I initially posted in the forum topic. Figured the blog’d be easier:
“I’m just wondering with the internet royalty rates catastrophe incoming, how will it affect Last.fm now it’s been acquired by an American company? Or will it not matter if Last.fm continues to be stationed in the UK?”
Regardless, congratulations.
eh
30 May, 16:05
>Now we are all going for a slap up vietnamese lunch at the Viet Hoa.
Make sure you leave some salted prawns for me!
Anirudh
30 May, 16:09
This is great news. Last.fm is my favourite website and hopefully we’ll have some more great features coming up.
-prototypeangel
last.fm/user/prototypeangel
Ian
30 May, 16:09
Looking Forward to a Lovely Honeymoon!
The openness of our platform and our approach to privacy won’t change – So long as that also implies a continuance of the level playing field for all musicians (and their agents) ethos, great news! I’m with y’all all the way :) Ian last.FM/user/IanAR
Harryroberts
30 May, 16:12
I hate change, when a site like last.fm (the site i’m on more than any other during the day) is sold i’m obviously curious. This site has come a long way since i joined in December 2004 and has grown to be huge. More money to do the things they want and to improve already existing aspects of the site are obviously a good thing. I guess only time will tell if the site remains something i personally want to be a part of. I know some people will stop subscribing immediately but i’ll give the last.fm people the benefit of the doubt before i start with the “OMG CANCELLING SUBSCRIPTION NOW!” thoughts.
Congrats by the way RJ, we all knew this day would come eventually.
Mat
30 May, 16:17
How do you think the ‘empire’ that is CBS grew from its inception at the beginning of a new way of distributing music?
Last.fm could have been a CBS of a new mode of open distribution – a new way of doing capital…
I would’ve thought you’d understood that.
McKillaboy
30 May, 16:19
I don’t like change either, especially when the big company buying the smaller company is an American one. I don’t really like the whole American way of dealing certain things, I actually wanted Lfm to stay a European company.
But after all said, congratulations with the huge amount of money! lol
HdotNET
30 May, 16:21
can I come for lunch too?
Jacob Kaplan-Moss
30 May, 16:22
Congratulations; you guys deserve to get filthy rich from your hard work. Hope you got swimming-in-cash-Scrooge-McDuck kinds of money.
Still, I can’t help feeling like I’m back in 2000… I fail to see what CBS is gonna get out of this deal, and it makes me think it’s all speculation. I’m afraid this is the beginning of the end for last.fm. I hope I’m wrong, of course…
franky
30 May, 16:25
Congrats. Well done.
sparsely
30 May, 16:25
Loved it for a long time. Too bad you guys were teh objects of desire in the corporate race to have a bigger ePenis. What was once a cool site and a revolutionary idea is now just a boardroom trophy, and a marketing strategy.
meh.
Yip yip
30 May, 16:28
I am a little unsure of this at the minute, as my initial thought is that CBS will want to run it as a cash cow, whether that means current free things becoming subscriber only, subscriptions going up, or infact subscriptions being the only way to use the service.
Also 250 million sounds great on paper, but I’m another one who thinks you may have sold yourself short. Facebook turned down an offer of close to 1 billion from Yahoo last year, and although Facebook does cater for a different audience, and get a lot more hits (I’d imagine), I doubt that Last.FM gets a quarter of the traffic.
Also for myself. When I look at Facebook, I’m there for 10-15 minutes, checking updates, looking at posts, and then moving on. With Last.FM I am there for 10-15 minutes, every hour!
So yes, congrats – but I think you’ve undervalued yourself, and I am a little wary of where this will lead.
taj
30 May, 16:29
I hope that this doesn’t mean that us Indian last.fm users have to give up yet another source of Internet music. The US recording industry clearly doesn’t get just how important music sites like last.fm and pandora are for creating a market for their product, since traditional channels are basically non-existent here.
Hopefully they’ll keep their filthy mitts off last.fm, but I don’t see why they’d make an exception in just this case.
pepecasablancas
30 May, 16:33
You deserve all the money but please, keep it simple. Last.fm is perfect the way it is. And please don’t add too many features and new stuff otherwise it will turn into some kind of MySpace or Hi5 crap :)
boerge30
30 May, 16:34
Great deal – Congratulations from fragr.de :)
Peter
30 May, 16:36
Congrats you guys. Been using last.fm since way back when it was still Audioscrobbler, love the service. You guys deserve it.
Dan
30 May, 16:39
Congratulations! Not to mention you’re all absolutely minted now ;) Bet it’s good to see all that hard work and late nights finally pay off in a way your bank manager understands.
Dom
30 May, 16:41
Well I just deleted my account and will be recommending to my friends that they do the same. I have absolutely no intention of handing over my personal details or listening habits to Viacom.
Robbie
30 May, 16:41
I have to admit I am disappointed that Last.fm has sold out to a major corporation.. although I trust what you say that this is not gonna mean a major change in the site and that you will stick to what you believe in.. it’s still worrying for the internet in general. It’s the internets independence I like(d).
mark
30 May, 17:05
mmmmm viet hoa….
Nectar_Card
30 May, 17:09
Congratulations. Looking forward to seeing piles of CBS cash being invested on more tracks in the database and more cool features.
Mr. Johnson
30 May, 17:10
last.fm along with the rest of all these “web 2.0” sites being bought are too greedy for money. You are not staying with what your followers want, you are selling out. The future of last.fm looks bleak.
Good riddance then.
Momofunk
30 May, 17:18
Just wanted to drop in to congratulate you all on this. You should have to buy your members a round of drinks to celebrate now! :)
After reading your comments on this, I’m looking forward to the next year. You’ve come a long way in the year since I joined and I expect there will be a lot more twists and turns over the next year. I’m still holding out a bit of skepticism over whether or not CBS will be a good thing for Last, but only time will truly tell. I love the site, so I hope for the best. If the past is any indication, I think you’ll find a way to make this happen and stay true to your vision of what Last is supposed to be.
Now get to work for your corporate overlords!! :D
Ilgaz
30 May, 17:18
Congrats really, forget the utopic people, this is way you can handle gigabits of bandwidth and further change the scene and concept of radio.
(a guy from media)
Money Talks
30 May, 17:19
Gutted :(
mll
30 May, 17:20
Before the buyout news, I’l delighted to see last.fm at last has his blog. :)
doesntreallymatter
30 May, 17:20
first of all, congrats and thank you! although it’s probably the beginning of the end for last.fm, you have opened the way for others :)
still, since you’re the property of a major RIAA company, I’m afraid I’ll have to part ways with last.fm (and I still have a lot of my subscription :(( ); turns out that I was right to avoid linking my regular online identity to my last.fm profile in the first place. oh, well… you could at least have sold yourselves for more. bye!
Russ
30 May, 17:23
Err, I think you must be confused. CBS isn’t a member of the RIAA. They don’t even own any record labels.
It would be a cold day in hell if Last.fm was bought out by a major record label…
Tim
30 May, 17:26
I can’t see how anyone can see this as good news apart from a couple of people at last.fm who sold out. Selling to an American corporation only means the end of an extremely good web service.
This site is going to drift away from what it’s always been about and turn into a marketing cash cow. I have never been a paid subscriber, but have always intended to, as it is (soon to be was) one of my favourite sites. Its so disappointing to see this site being bought for mega bucks, the only reason for the site to exist now is to make money in return quickly – this means bad things are going to happen to this site like all the other “web 2” websites which were sold for stupid amounts of cash! It won’t be long before your terms and conditions change silently and all our details are sold on.
Adios last.fm, was good whilst it lasted
si
30 May, 17:29
i’m surprised google didn’t get in there first…
Maxim
30 May, 17:37
Viet Hoa? Loong Kee is so much better…
alter, listening since 2004
30 May, 17:41
big cheers from milano — you didnt start as a group of funky MBA drilling for the next market opp but with the nice idea of doing a beautiful system. no wonder big guys took good notice… yet i understand some of the screams here. are u going to be the same? you know what people mean.
mabu
30 May, 17:45
that sucks, you sold all your user..
i thought lastfm was different.. same bullshit again..
sellouts
snarlydwarf
30 May, 17:45
I am not too afraid of CBS: at least in the realm of music, they are now going to be the enemy of RIAA. If CBS still owned Columbia, yes, I would worry about it, and about favoritism towards Columbia artists…
CBS, though, has to pay RIAA tons of money every year. And now RIAA wants to raise the rates not only on Internet Radio, but on broadcast: do you think that makes CBS happy with them? Especially since CBS has numerous radio stations with ‘net simulcasts that have to pay the Net Radio rates…
I just hope they toss some money at servers and bandwidth so that page loads go better. And not mess with the layout …. gads, the world doesn’t need another MyDeface site filled with horrible black backgrounds with dark grey text.
adischi
30 May, 17:54
Congrats. Too bad the bootstrap subscribers don’t get a share.
malana-lars
30 May, 18:01
that’s sad.
i hope, you can pay your bills know, but for the community it’s a sad day.
rich
30 May, 18:01
im very much in two minds here. im really happy for you guys who have put so much effort and time and energy and beleif in. and thats brilliant. real brilliant. but selling to a US based megacompany… its like sigur rós moving to emi from fatcat… a let down with what could have been. but i wish you all the best. im not going to jump ship just yet. at least not for now
Andrew
30 May, 18:03
Sellouts.
Your approach to privacy won’t change? Don’t make me laugh.
Subscription cancelled. Account deleted.
hanapbuhay
30 May, 18:07
CBS better not screw this up, but if they do a good job, they’ll have a nice position in the social networking/music aggregation arena. Powerful stuff, if used properly.
Congratulations Last.fm Team.
Cybernetic Broadcasting System
30 May, 18:09
greetings Robots!
good to see that CBS has bought you
where did I:F get the cash for that then? maybe a mysterious italian aristo benefactor with spare millions of hoarded Mussolini war funds
Will we finally see an decent italo tag radio on last.fm now..
http://www.cbs.nu
Junko Gardenour, BizDev Mgr at Naxos
30 May, 18:25
Congratulations from Naxos! We look forward to our long & exciting relationship. Now go and conquer the world! :)
Lorimoz
30 May, 18:32
Hi guys
just seen you on the BBC news.
Congrats.
Good news for you as well as for us.
A toast to all your hard work and to new features.
Viva MOZ. L x
MG
30 May, 18:36
Hum, let’s just hope the suits don’t mess with the funk.
dr4m4
30 May, 18:36
Generally, I’d consider myself to be a bit of a cold-hearted sceptic. So to buy into the whole Last.fm ethos was, initially, against my better judgement. However, I gradually began to believe that the people involved in this company were genuinely different. How foolish was I?!
But never mind, eh? Who cares about the opinion of one silly music-loving nobody. Pretty soon you’ll be the darlings of the music industry! CBS may even send you the occasional hamper to congratulate the team on coming up with those new ultra-efficient data-mining techniques that enable them to determine the life expectancy of a user that spends 2.73 hours a day listening to prog-rock!
But who cares what I think, right? Why should my opinion matter? I’m sure you’ve all got better things to worry about now anwyay… you know, like which button opens the roof on your new convertible, or whether the glass staircase in that Hoxton apartment might look a bit passé in a couple of years.
Congratulations. Not only did you succeed in selling yourselves out, but you sold-out all of your users, too.
joffeman
30 May, 18:41
“I think it was his eye! — yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture — a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold”
poe
Alin Zainescu
30 May, 18:52
Congratulations guys !
jason
30 May, 18:58
yes this day was inevitable. big ups to the team, you surely deserve your just rewards for redefining how music is accessed on the internet.
Observing the two distinct initial reactions, I’d say the jury is out as to who and how many users stick around. As has been the case with other mergers of this magnitude, my guess is there will be little if any noticeable traces of CBS anywhere on last.fm. They just bought 15 million users, and i suspect do not want to piss any of them off. I have to say, I’ve been a subscriber to this site because it is the most valuable music resource on the net, and I wanted to support the young bucks out there that seemed to be sticking it to the man. Now that my money will be going into Viacoms pockets, i’ll be very interested in watching what will continue to be the free service, and what the cost of subscribing will bring (not to mention how much it will be). I know i know, no changes FOR NOW, but lets chat again in feb 08 when my subscription expires and its time to renew.
I dispute the information privacy concerns as I publish all my music history to the world anyway, so that CBS will have some special access to my information is really unfounded.
Thanks for the music, and now the blog, looking forward to your upcoming adventures!
SkySkull
30 May, 18:59
I hope this is good news. Really! Nonetheless, congratulations from Covilhã, Portugal :)
DxM
30 May, 19:00
Don’t let them screw it all up, like they did with Fender.
verysleeping
30 May, 19:02
Just wanted to congratulate all the cats who’ve been developing LastFM — you deserve financial security after all your hard work.
That said, I too will be deleting my account. I simply am uncomfortable giving a mainstream multi-national media company access to my demographic data and listening habits…
Sincere congrats to the LastFM team, pay your bills and keep making great stuff! I’ll continue to visit from time to time, but will no longer participate.
A Nonny Mouse
30 May, 19:20
Hard to believe the naivety of some people here…
How do you think last.fm has been able to run and become the network you love over the last couple of years? with cold hard Venture Capital CASH. investors want return and an exit strategy. The sale of last.fm has been a guaranteed outcome for years. As it happens CBS arent bad. Who would you prefer? Innocent smoothies? get a grip.
in purist terms last.fm “sold out” about four years ago when the developers stopped camping on the fucking roof and started getting a salary, and well done to them. They employ lots of people, they entertain millions more. All the staff will most likely see some benefit on this sale, from share options or at least a fat bonus.
Dutch
30 May, 19:46
Congrats for becoming rich.
Shame on you to do that over the back of the musicmakers, without whom their would have been no last.fm. You got dosh for the shoebox, while the people who delivered the contents got sold out (again).
No news here , because after all, this is the recordindustry (read:mob).
Anywho, go on holiday and think up another wrapping paper.
Dutch
Christopher Walken
30 May, 19:52
FANTASTIC! Love it.
arcadiandream
30 May, 20:14
Said this on the forum, but epic congratulations. Don’t listen to the “sell out” crowd – this has made all the bitching you’ve had to put up with over the last few years worthwhile.
Chris
30 May, 20:29
Well done guys. Last.fm is my MySpace. It was inevitable that you were going to get snapped up by someone, I hoped it was going to be Google because they rock, but alas CBS will do LOL! Thank you avoided News Corp.
However, you are worth twice what they paid for you? What’s the deal with that, you should have squeezed them a bit. Don’t let Last.fm become CBS’s promotional bitch either, you’re all far too good for that!
Here’s to many more years of scrobbling.
Cheers guys!
gradiate
30 May, 20:31
I love how cynical people are. Like you would do any different if you had worked like mad for no reward for a long time.
As long as it doesn’t get messed up too much I am staying. Flickr (touch wood) hasn’t really changed in the time its been owned by Yahoo! Well it appears not too of have.
Lily
30 May, 20:45
Heard about this earlier on the bbc news.
CBS are huge, and theres definatly mixed opinions on this deal and stuff. At least it wasnt Sky or Rupert Murdoch buying you out though like he did with Myspace. It makes you think well’ what does he know!?’ I think alot of people are like that with this whole thing.But either way…
I just think you need to stay as true to yourselves about all this as you have been for the last few years. Just keep it real. And British. And most importantly, listen to everyone. At the end of the day, its all the users and subscribers that have supported you and helped you reach you goals and widen your visions and give you ideas and if you allow cbs to compromise the huge respect people have for last.etc then this obviously wasnt the best idea.
What do i know though. Im 16 and dont do business studies in college. I just love music and respect people that have ideas for things like last.fm so much.
Despite that congrats. You all must be so so happy and excited now. Your all so young too. I doubt ill be as minted as some of you now by the time im in my early 20’s. Definately an achievement and a half.
All the best everyone.
xxxxx
jaks
30 May, 20:49
$18.66 per user is a great deal, can’t blame them for taking it.
BUT, I know I don’t want a large corporation like CBS to have my music listening information. Good thing I moved to http://soundcrank.com.
papabean
30 May, 21:00
So far as social networking sites go, last.fm has always had the edge in my book because of its dedication to providing a quality experience for its end users. It’s open source roots and dedication to music and musicians made it appear to be different from the “meat market” social sites that are so popular. Couple that with a low subscription price, an obvious lack of obnoxious advertising and the belief that the information I provided to last.fm stayed with last.fm and I was sold.
However, this sale to a major media corporation fills me with concern. The goal of any corporation is to make money, bottom line. But the pursuit of that bottom line tends to leave consumers and end users behind in favor of profit.
Please don’t change that which is not broken.
Carl
30 May, 21:03
This is slightly worrying. CBS aren’t just handing over money so we can all have a better service. They have invested a huge amount of money and are going to want that back. I don’t particularly look forward to finding out how they are going to get it, be it more intrusive advertising or data mining or whatever.
Congratulations are due on the success, but I’m being entirely selfish here and saying I’m a bit disappointed and apprehensive.
Chris Anderson
30 May, 21:09
You guys have been working it seriously for years, so you deserve recoginition and success. Big props!
Jim
30 May, 21:10
“Err, I think you must be confused. CBS isn’t a member of the RIAA. They don’t even own any record labels.
It would be a cold day in hell if Last.fm was bought out by a major record label…”
ORLY?????????????
http://www.cbscorporation.com/news/prdetails.php?id=1383
Melle Gloerich
30 May, 21:18
I can’t imagine this to turn out positive for all the users of this fantastic website as well. This site had the potential power to be one of the major players in media distribution or at least show the media monguls what direction the people want to take. Now it’s just another outlet of those monguls.
It will be only a matter of time to get caught redhanded, or accused of, adjusting algorithms in favor of CBS-artists…
Martijn
30 May, 21:18
Good job!
Respect!
I’ll continue supporting Last.fm. I’m looking forward to your future
regueiro
30 May, 21:24
Congratulations. You and your team really deserves this. Keep on rockin’
Sharbaz
30 May, 21:36
cancel my account, please
illissius
30 May, 21:43
Feh. Why not Google? Or are they not one of the “usual suspects”? I’d have a lot more confidence in Google than in CBS.
I won’t be congratulating you on your pile of cash; as the pile of cash is likely quite sufficient in itself, without the congratulations. I hope that you are being truthful and that CBS was with you as well.
Otokichi
30 May, 21:48
It could have been worse. Imagine what Malcolm Murdoch’s Fox(es) would do with this site! (Nooo! 24/7 feeds from Paris Hilton’s jail cell? Scrobbling interrupted for “Thoughts from Chairman Malcolm”? Hourly radio identification spots followed by “God Save The Queen”?) And if Bill Gates had wanted this site? There are other fates too horrible to comtemplate. Let’s see what CBS does next. (Well, there’s always http://mog.com, for those who vote with their cyberfeet.)
cgsparkly
30 May, 22:01
Well, good for you guys. I know you’ve worked hard and deserve it. Last.fm is a great thing and will continue to be…for at least a little while. It is naive to think that CBS will maintain a hands off approach. This is Corporate America we are talking about. Once there is any change in management at the corporate level, the new ones are going to want to make their mark. They will not care at all about the history or community that last.fm has built. At that point it will be another profit center. If it is not making a profit, then it will be changed (revamped! rebranded! new and improved!) or sold off.
I’ve worked at one of the largest companies in the world for 15 years and I’ve seen it happen many times over.
I’m not going to jump ship, but I will be watching closely. What has made me a long time user and subscriber is the community. When I no longer get the sense of that is when I’ll be moving on. I give it 3 to 5 years.
grapgrap
30 May, 22:11
Damned! I fear for the indieness and the broadness now that Last.fm has been acquired by a major.
Interesting move of CBS though. Finally, after years of neglegtance of what internet technologies could bring them, they start making their moves. Pity its an old incumbent and not a real internet company, although that probably would’t make any difference in the end.
tom
30 May, 22:31
was it really worth to sell independency and our souls ???
randomguy
30 May, 22:36
Yeah you guys are right. Making money is stupid! They should keep busting their ass for us and not get anything in return!
Seriously, wake up and realize that they didn’t take the first offer that came their way. They’ve been approached dozens of times and have never accepted because they people that were trying to buy them had no clue what they were doing. I’m glad all the arrogant douchebags are closing their accounts. Why would you close them just on the news of being bought out? Why not wait like a normal, rational person and see what happens? People like you are the rejects who screamed when the servers went down or the submission servers were slow, and now are screaming because they are ‘selling-out’.
It must suck having a userbase made up of arrogant people who get up in arms when your company hits it big. It’s the same type of mindset people use when their favorite “underground” band gets signed to a major label and they call it “selling out”.
Congratulations on everything. You guys stuck it out through times when there was definitely not much to go on, and your perseverance has paid off! Anyone who has been around for a while and are true fans of the site will know how dedicated you are. The posers here talking about “closing their accounts” are people who don’t have a right to complain in the first place, since hardly any of them are bothering to contribute in the first place.
erica
30 May, 22:40
Presubaly this means all last.fm services will be free now? You surely can’t keep on with the subscription thing. Right?
Tom Clarke
30 May, 22:42
Congratulations! Your current rate of development has been impressive… from what you say, CBS will only help you in that direction. Brilliant! I reckon this deal will benefit all of us.
http://www.insidetonic.com/cbs-wants-to-get-down-with-the-kids-buys-lastfm/
Todd
30 May, 22:45
This is horrible news. CBS is going to drain this site for every last ounce of it’s life blood and then throw it away like a used condom.
thebingsinger
30 May, 22:51
Hearing the CBS news on BBC I signed up to Last.FM. I like big band, jazz, ‘easy’, there seems to be an equivalent if not wider selection on this site than on Yahoo Radio, and a smoother player. Success to your product.
David Precious
30 May, 22:59
Congratulations guys… all your hard work so far has paid off! :)
I hope you will stick around and keep running last.fm your way though, it’d be a shame to see it turn into a fully-commercialised thing, and lose its soul.
Nice one, I raise a beer to you in celebration :)
And for all the people posting bitchy comments like:
> that sucks, you sold all your user..
> i thought lastfm was different.. same
> bullshit again.. sellouts
Chill out, the last.fm team have obviously put a massive amount of work into this project, and deserve to make some money out of it. They’ve already stated that they’ve come to a deal where they maintain control over last.fm’s operation, they haven’t just handed the whole thing over (although, if they had, it’s their choice, and you have no right to abuse them for it).
I would have thought last.fm could fetch a bigger price than it did… but that’s still a pretty decent sum of money, I think the drinks are on you guys ;)
alionsonny
30 May, 23:14
I will for sure no longer publish songs on LastFM, because I am an independent musician from the heart. I don’t want any music industry major company to benefit from my works in any way. I planed to publish more songs for free on LastFM, but now I’ll take down the few I have online down and put them on an Indiesite.
When I first read the “About us”-Page, I felt like this site was a site of my taste. This has now changed.
Bye LastFM, a short but good time
alionsonny
DeeFee
30 May, 23:18
Well it’s good to see everyone is keeping an open mind about this…
Personally, I am going to trust their judgment and not go deleting my account on a whim. I think some people are overeacting a tad.
Anyhoo, I offer my congrats and wish you a happy lunch.
Adam
30 May, 23:30
I can’t see how this can possibly be a good thing for us users. CBS are going to have to start making money out of us somehow.
If CBS screw us too hard, we will leave and go elsewhere, and someone will write a better program.
The big fish always swallow the little ones, that’s the way capitalism works. Long live the real social music revolution!
Saraphim
30 May, 23:46
Congratulations last.fm
It’s great to hear that you have garnered a firm international presence that ultimately lead to this. I hope and believe that the funding this provides will benefit your users as your service continues to expand.
Like others however, I must stress that music listeners have for years been.. Well.. Fucked over by big business, so there is a bit of skepticism. That said, in the past last.fm has proved itself to be an extremely conscientious lot of people and has definitely gained my trust. I hope this continues forever!
Marko Ahtisaari
30 May, 23:57
Congratulations!
Russ
31 May, 00:04
Adam: The whole point of a company is to make money. If Last.fm wasn’t making money, we would go bust. The key is to make money without pissing off our users, and that has always been our goal.
As for the subscription thing, we’ll shortly be launching a new subscription service which will offer much better value for money. The current subscription service sucks, I agree with that.
dsrjarman
31 May, 00:06
Congratulations to you all – fantastic news if you’re happy with the sale, and the blog post above is nothing if not optimistic. (Finally a blog… good work.)
Reading the knee-jerk ‘sellout’ comments is depressing, deflating, myopic and attention-seeking. @Andrew: ‘Subscription cancelled. Account deleted’ – give it a break. Would it be OK if the ‘non-profit’ BBC had bought into last.fm, or perhaps a philanthropic Al Gore? Venture capital all the way?
I’d love to know more about why CBS have splashed their cash, but Last.fm has had a great run so far and we’ve all enjoyed the ride. I’m a relative newbie, but I reckon we’ll all be reaping the rewards.
Bring on the new stuff last.fm – we’re waiting to be impressed…
name
31 May, 00:10
thanks but no thanks
no good can come of this
enjoy your money
michael
31 May, 00:37
To the misguided Russ who thinks that just because CBS is not a ‘member’ of the RIAA, that they somehow aren’t friendly with them; CBS is owned by National Amusements . National Amusements owns Viacom . Viacom includes the MTV networks, among other things.
MTV Networks is a member of the RIAA. Anyone who thinks that the Board of Directors of National Amusements doesn’t coordinate business activity between it’s holdings doesn’t understand how corporate conglomerates work. There’s someone (some people) at the top, and they have the final say on anything and everything, plain and simple.
Here’s a nice list of the other things National Amusements and Sumner Redstone (as the majority share holder) control. Please, do some research before forming an opinion on who is really in charge of last.fm now, and, more to the point, where the profits are going.
CBS Radio Network, Free FM, Westwood One, CBS, The CW (co-owned with Time Warner)- Television Production and Distribution: Big Ticket Television, CBS Broadcast Center, CBS Paramount Television, CBS Studio Center , CBS Television City, Spelling Television, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Studios – CBS Owned & Operated Television Stations: KCBS, KCNC, KDKA, KEYE1, KOVR, KPIX, KTVT, KUTV1, KYW, WBBM, WBZ, WCBS, WCCO, WFOR, WJZ, WWJ – CW Owned & Operated Television Stations: KBCW ,KMAX, KSTW, WGNT, WKBD, WLWC1, WPCW, WPSG, WTOG, WTVX1, WUPA
Independent Television Stations: KCAL, KTXA , WSBK Other affiliates: WBFS, WTCN1, WWHB1, WBXI – Cable Television Networks: Showtime Networks, College Sports TV, MountainWest Sports Network – Miscellaneous Assets: CBS Consumer Products, CBS Records, CBS Interactive, CBS Innertube, CBS Outdoor, Simon & Schuster, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, CBS Properties, CBS Home Entertainment, CBS Feature Films, CMT, CMT (Canada), CMT Pure Country, Comedy Central, Logo, MHD, MTV, MTV2, MTV (Canada), MTV Chi, MTV Desi, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV K, MTV Tempo, MTV Tr3́s, mtvU, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite/Nick Jr., Nicktoons Network, Nick GAS, Noggin/The N, Spike TV, TV Land, TV Land (Canada), VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, VH1 Uno – MTV Networks Latin America: MTV Latin America, MTV Brasil (30%), Nickelodeon Latin America, VH1 Brazil, VH1 Latin America – MTV Networks Europe MTV Adria, MTV Base, MTV Central, MTV Classic, MTV Dance, MTV Eesti, MTV Europe, MTV Flux (UK), MTV Italy (49%), MTV Latvija, MTV Lietuva, MTV Norge, MTV Polska, MTV România, MTV Türkiye, MTV UK & Ireland, MTV2 Europe, Nickelodeon UK(100%), Nicktoons UK(100%), Nick Jr. (UK)(100%), Nick Jr. 2, TMF Flanders, TMF Nederland, TMF NL, TMF Party, MTV Brand New, Box Comedy, TMF UK, VH1 UK, VH1 Classic UK, VIVA – MTV Networks Asia Pacific: MTV Asia, MTV Australia, MTV India, MTV Japan, MTV New Zealand, MTV Pakistan, MTV Philippines, MTV Russia, Nickelodeon Australia, Nickelodeon Japan, Nickelodeon South East Asia, Nickelodeon New Zealand, Nick Jr. Australia, TMF Australia, VH1 Australia – Internet services: Atom Entertainment, College Publisher, GameTrailers, iFilm, MTV Overdrive, Neopets, Quizilla, ScrewAttack, Xfire – CMT Films, Comedy Central Records, Harmonix Music Systems, Paramount Comedy – BET Networks: BET, BET J, BET Hip-Hop, BET Gospel – Paramount Motion Pictures Group Paramount Pictures Corporation , Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Vantage/Paramount Classics, Paramount Pictures International, DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks Pictures, Go Fish Pictures, DreamWorks Home Entertainment, DreamWorks Television – MTV-Branded Labels: MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies – Republic Pictures, United International Pictures (100%, with NBC Universal’s Universal Studios), Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Famous Music, Viacom Consumer Products, Viacom International, Inc.
PS The goal of a company is to make money? I know of plenty of companies that operate for decades and compensate their employees handsomely while serving the needs of their patrons and the community. They’re called non-profits.
ikem*!
31 May, 00:38
I love you guys, but what an awful, awful move.
Depressing just how many people on this board want to backslap you guys on becoming just another corporate buy-out.
You should have played the long game, not cashed your chips in early and become just another US acquisition.
1. $250 million? Is that all? You might think: “I was skint before all this, now I’m filthy rich!” For leaders in the space, that is chump change. Like Facebook, you should have turned it down.
2. You are more important than CBS.
Really. Right now. You have bought them a future. Like the other guy said, you could have been CBS. It might have gone tits-up, but remember: AOL bought Time Warner. Would have been you guys buying CBS out in 10 years time.
3. Yahoo! could have bought Google for $1 million in 1998. And look at them now.
4. They’ll eventually trample all over your vision. Really: they will. Unless you take over CBS (never happen), they will just replace you, in time, with some slick team from L.A. Users will migrate, everything will be lost.
roman david
31 May, 00:54
Congratulations! Although I guess I’m wary of you now being a subsidiary of a US corporation, I just have to look at other web 2.0 sites such as Flickr and see how they’ve stayed true to thier original aims after they had been bought out.
I’m certainly not deleting my account for now at least! Keep up the good work!
Ricardo Matsushima Teixeira
31 May, 01:53
I was really thrilled when I read the news today and learned that Last.fm was acquired by one of world’s largest media companies. Last.fm, as someone already pointed out, is worthier than many overvalued Internet companies around.
Last.fm’s commitment to its users and to its users environment, including VERY competent localization teams, is second to none. We don’t see many web 2.0 websites localized for so many countries.
Just make sure that values are kept and profit will just come as a natural result. About being a subsidiary of an US corporation: stay in UK and avoid mean licensing policies! What happened to Pandora was very sad and that can’t happen to Last.fm.
Least, but not Last(.fm), count on me for the advance of Last.fm in Brazil!
Andy
31 May, 02:00
Right now, I’m torn. I can see you guys either shining, or being killed by your new parent company.
If CBS is smart, they’ll let Last.fm’s current team run things and won’t interfere. CBS isn’t strong on the Internet yet, they need to let Last.fm’s people create a good reputation for them.
ben underscore
31 May, 02:03
everyone’s a corporate whore, eh?
Jairus
31 May, 02:26
Thanks for the run – it was good while it lasted. I’m not going to renew my subscriptions or buy any more ad space.
There’s not too many options left now, for artists/labels that want to use independent social networking sites to promote their music. MySpace is News corp, and Last.FM is CBS.
Dan
31 May, 03:05
I was so hoping it would be Apple that bought you.
Good luck to you and to all the scrobblers!
Mazatec
31 May, 03:46
If you can promise your users a few things, it might help. I know that you don’t completely control the direction of the site anymore, but hopefully the Last.fm team held onto a little bit of control during the purchase.
Things that would be nice to know:
1) Will any music be specifically favored in any way over other (perhaps indie label/non-label) music? In search results, recommendations, availability for listening, etc., basically in any way that is different from the status quo.
2) Will any music be excluded from the site?
3) Will any users be excluded from the site? For instance, users in non-US/non-UK countries.
If you can answer no to these three questions, I can say almost for sure that I will be staying. As long as the site remains functional and impartial, I don’t care who owns it.
Pissed-off Scrobbler =]
31 May, 04:35
I’m shell shocked by this, never saw that one coming. At least since you’re mostly open-source, someone can go continue the social music revolution without big businesses screwing people over. For now, I’ll hang onto my last.fm account just to see where this one goes, but I’m thinking the glass is half-empty.
Oh, and good thing that you guys were prepared for that facebook app and a freshman in high school didn’t have to step up for you. Oh wait, you weren’t prepared, and he did it for you. Is this what corporate America’s gonna be like on last?
Mario Aguila
31 May, 05:36
New owner, less functions. Where are my last tracks????
RichardJohn
31 May, 05:46
So, is it still worth applying for that job?
Mario Aguila
31 May, 05:47
Bad news…last.fm, now an american company, will follow the pandora’s destiny….only for americans.
Dave Naker
31 May, 05:49
Hate to see this happen. Big Guys always want to take a good thing and make it something else.
Please take a few minutes to visit our website, learn more about us and register for a FREE Membership.
The website address is:
http://free11.notlong.com
Manu-El
31 May, 07:04
Good luck guys!
:)
And congratulations!
shey
31 May, 07:14
yeah, i’m not so sure how i feel about this.
no. wait, i know. this sucks.
i am not going to cut and run like a lot of these people are speaking of, but i am very saddened by this news.
i understand the need to make money, its the goal of any company, but being bought by an american company who has no other objective than to destroy the minds of the young, is just heartbreaking. (this isn’t a knock on americans…seeing as i am one myself…its just the truth)
and you guys are totally not being paid your worth seeing as $280million is a little less than £142million.
:insert heartbreaking noise here:
milo317
31 May, 07:46
Congrats, and stay the way you are!
geraldine
31 May, 07:52
terrible news.
it was so good to be in a free-corp community so great as last.fm..
and YES you are selling our scrobbles, profiles, links, communities and all we help you to build honestly!
it’s a lot of money ..guess is hard to be independent no?
thanks though.. was really neat till is LAST! this place is going to be so crappy as myspace in 10-9-8…
web -2.0
IzNoGood
31 May, 08:17
I’m truley disappointed at the sell-out, and mourn the loss of yet another free spirit in the internetz. Sure you’ll be able do this and that with the big bucks backing. Though you are ( claim to be ) still at the helm, it won’t be you who’ll set the course in the long run. I won’t congratulate you, it’s not that I care if you could’ve grown to ‘own’ CBS, or whatever. I thought you were different, free. Now you prove yourselves to be just the next corporate asses, who prefer bucks over spirits. Damned shame.
Now excuse me while I go figure out how to remove my subscription, I don’t feel at home anymore.
fredrik
31 May, 09:15
i hate this i hate you sellouts.
as a fellow digger said
‘By the way, this seems to be the new trend; starting up a friendly looking, quasi open source, lean & mean thingy and then, when you have a massive community gathered around your cool app, you slowly force ‘em to kneel and quietly assrape them. Just look at BSplayer and utorrent for example. Or maybe even google for that matter.’
You’re doing this for the money and we all know it (yes the pocketmoney not the ‘oh now we can build a better stronger last.fm!’..).
My account is gonna get cancelled.
Chris Prakoso
31 May, 09:29
Congrats guys ! I read about the buy-out on the Metro paper today :) It’s a really one of those good-feeling story :) Keep up the good work and don’t spend all those millions in the pub :)
validlybemused
31 May, 10:18
Terrible news. Another one down the drain. Best of luck to sites that don’t sell out.
GiraffeCat
31 May, 11:17
Hmm. I kind of wish I’d read this before I extended my subscription. I’m not going to jump ship, but I thought I was contributing towards an independant company. And it turns out I wasn’t.
Crushed
31 May, 12:00
You’ve just lost possibly the greatest opportunity for an independent company to change the face of the music industry for the better. And now we all hate you for it.
I used to adore this place. I’m so bitterly disappointed. I’ll never be able to think of last.fm in the same way again.
Karen
31 May, 12:42
Congratulations guyz
Jack
31 May, 13:31
Congrats Guys!
CBS is a great company and they have a terrific team over at the radio division – this sounds like a perfect fit.
Any thoughts on how the realtionship between Last.fm and CBS Radio is going to take shape?
Ged Carroll
31 May, 13:41
Congratulations, are you still going to support the Mac the way you have in the past? And are you still going to keep it East London or will you move West?
Raquel
31 May, 13:50
Hm I can see both sides of the conversation here, and I am honestly a little worried myself how this will turn out- but only because I love Lastfm so much and I really do not want it ruined.
But unlike others, I will be fair for sure and wait it out and see what happens. You guys deserve that much I think. :)
Emma
31 May, 14:11
Google are probably crying buckets, $1.5 Billion for the useless GooTube™.
Well done, nice to see folks making a success of something that’s actually fun, easy to use, usefull and well executed.
have fun at the Mercedes dealership!!
Victor P.
31 May, 14:39
money? more money? i don`t know how you’ll
improve if you are the best service and offer more than we just need =)
Hannah Donovan
31 May, 14:40
Of course we’ll still support Macs! And um, no… we’re not moving to West London. Most of us live in Hackney so that wouldn’t be very convenient ;-) No plans to go anywhere right now.
Keir
31 May, 14:46
I’m cautious but open-minded. As for subscriptions I don’t think CBS bought last.fm for the subscription revenue, and expect subscriptions to be abolished. For one thing I expect the revenue would plummet, as there must be plenty like me who don’t really use the extra features but subscribed to support the company.
shffl
31 May, 15:05
Interesting…. congrats! I also wish it was Apple (cause I would love to see last.fm features inside iTunes).
James Morgan
31 May, 16:30
Congrats!
Keep up the amazing work.
IMO Best. Site. Ever
Sam
31 May, 16:46
Congrats guys!
I’ve been using Last.fm for what feels like years, and after getting over the huge annoyance of having my username taken two months before I signed up (by someone who doesn’t appear to have ever used their account, no less!), scrobbling has just become a done thing for me – I love being able to go back in time music-wise, and like the feeling that I’m contributing to something even though I’m not actually doing anything.
I first made use of Audioscrobbler before signing up, through Amarok (a music player for Linux/KDE), which integrated similar artists into the player interface.
I’ve not yet subscribed – the Recommendations station does a very good job of playing me music I like – but since they’re under review, I’ll definitely consider it when the changes are announced.
Enjoy your fast cars, exotic holidays, fine wines/expensive champagnes and new Macs (although you seem to have enough of those if the BBC spot was anything to go by – the entire demo was done on a Mac :-D)... BUT please finish the Facebook application before jetting off :-P. Don’t let the cloners grab market share that should be yours – what sort of names are iLike and MOG anyway?! Last.fm and especially Audioscrobbler may be kinda zany names, but at least sound like they have something to do with music…
Sam
Cliff
31 May, 17:10
Sounds womderful. I hope you keep the focus independent for us musicians and artists.
Cheers
Grill
31 May, 17:43
Some people don’t seem to realize that you could never figure out what you were listening to from this site because I can have “Back In Black” tagged as “Hells Bells” and no one could tell except for me. Too bad for those people who deleted their accounts because of the RIAA. Your actions and comments on here just convicted you more than your music profile. LOL. Good luck last.fm and hurry up with that facebook app. :D
Robert
31 May, 17:56
Extremely disappointed, enjoy your money.
Joe
31 May, 18:19
What does that mean for you guys if that anti-internet-radio bill passes in the U.S.?
Now that a U.S. company owns you, won’t that complicate your radio product?
Ali Partovi
31 May, 18:40
Yay! Congrats from everybody at iLike! You absolutely deserved this.
best regards,
Ali Partovi
CEO, iLike inc
Markpud
31 May, 18:47
I was quite shocked to see you all staring at me from the morning newspapers!
I’ve been with AS/Last.fm since almost day 1 and I know how much hard work and effort has gone into it!
Enjoy your success and I hope you keep creative control and don’t “sell ur scrobbles” lol
Asia
31 May, 20:28
I’m probably just reiterating what’s already been said, but as much as you deserve it, I can’t jump up and down and congratulate you just yet. As long as CBS takes good care of you, I’m sure everyone here will be happy. Just PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t let greed take over.
Vincent Verschuren
31 May, 21:54
Wow, I already knew this was going to happen some day. But I have confidence in how the Last.FM team will deal with this. I hope CBS understands that you guys are full with great ideas, and how Last.FM is now is the best example of that. So hopefully CBS dowsn’t want to babysit Last.FM too much. Of course I’m OK if CBS tries to make the service better, and so they suggest it to the Last.FM team too implement it if they feel good about it too.
At least I’m happy a company like CBS bought it, and not some mayor record label.
The last 3 years of AS/Last.fm were great, and I’m looking forward to the future.
meeeearcus
1 June, 01:41
Awesome, I hope this goes well, seems like you guys have your heads screwed on straight. Don’t mind the naysayers!
Lucas / amoyensis
1 June, 02:25
Well, it’s post-hoc, but for what it’s worth… I just don’t know. Seems too good to be true, you know? Big friendly giant CBS comes along and gives 280 million beans for you guys to keep on truckin’.
Maybe it’s my cynical anarchist side coming out, but CBS isn’t some giant bucket of cash and goodwill. They want something out of this, and… as a previous guy mentioned, I’m afraid of subscription prices going up, or the basic thing not being free anymore, or whatever.
Of course maybe that’s all just empty gut feelings. I do have confidence that you guys know what you’re doing and what you’re going into, so… I’ll trust that.
naotakun.
1 June, 02:53
i’m a bit disappointed
good to make your money, good for your tech. bad for the community. I have no intention on becoming part of viacom’s giant web of **** any more than I am already.
congragulations. just dont sell out in the end.
Simon Roy
1 June, 04:52
I feel betrayed, cheated… It better be for the best. One thing for sure, I will buy my subscription on a monthly basis now, just in case it all starts to go down the drain. Time will be the judge…
benodem
1 June, 06:05
National Amusement,very amusing…When MTV was buying its competitor here in Germany,VIVA,a lot of chalk softened words were said about only wanting the best…Soon thereafter the staff got sent home and the program now consists basically of ringtones,ringtone advertisment and consequently viva now is offering mobile services themselves…
But I hope very strong things will go good here,,first radio ever I dig.
And please don t let them do any design,please;there is not many islands left in that vast sea of puke…
grapgrap
1 June, 09:07
Well, there is hope…. There’s always still the chance that Apple or another Internet company will buy CBS.
acb
1 June, 10:58
Given that CBS is one of the founding members of the Copyright Alliance, a group lobbying for perpetual copyright, the elimination of fair use provisions and tougher penalties for copyright violation, and that CBS/Viacom is suing YouTube for a billion dollars, this sounds ominous. (I wonder how useful last.fm stats would be in RIAA/BPI/IFPI prosecutions.)
Tom Tailor
1 June, 15:41
I’m not amused…
Nighthawk
1 June, 16:17
another great site all ready to be pwned :(
Russ
1 June, 16:28
CBS is not the same as Viacom, guys. They are different companies.
CBS are actively promoting their content on YouTube and elsewhere, even as Viacom is suing them into the ground.
fräulein montag
1 June, 16:37
i guess we all knew this day would come. some of us naively bought yearly subscriptions, thinking, if everyone did the same may be MAY BE it could be postponed for another while but no. it is such a sinking feeling that the corporate world has the power to penetrate into everything, surely as long as we value success as much as we do, and we measure it in terms of million dollars and gigabits only, but oh talking and even thinking about it is just exhausting. but then again may be this should be taken as a good sign that it is time to stop scrobbling and start DOING something, and realize there’s already a social music revolution out there, there has always been (may be not in austria, i reckon). i just submitted a question about cancelling yearly subscriptions and am told that a real REAL person will contact me soon, and damn i believed in that reality for a moment and it was really comforting.
Michael Tyznik
1 June, 17:07
Jesus, everyone seems to be wearing tinfoil hats. Congratulations on the purchase. You can do a lot with that kind of funding (and you guys seem to be the kind that will make actual improvements to the site with the funds, unlike everyone over at MySpace). You can tell how much you guys care about the site by the amount of work that seems to be going into improvements constantly. But now maybe you’ll have some extra time/money to get the Musicbrainz link back up. :D
Michael Tyznik
1 June, 17:21
Money does not equal evil. Look at Facebook. They make $30,000,000 a year and they’ve just rolled out the F8 system, which is awesome and took a ton of work.
Hugo
1 June, 18:14
I love last.fm… I hope this is good news!
Chris L'Etoile
1 June, 18:27
I’ve subscribed since joining, back when it was voluntary and got you nothing. I’m not knee-jerk anti-corporate, but I have some concerns:
1) Will independant artists still be able to stream their music, or will CBS shut out / demand money from anyone they don’t own a stake in?
2) Will subscription rates increase, and if so, will this be offset by additional new features?
2) The article in the L.A. Times notes “The minimal advertising on the site, however, will be beefed up.” Will subscribing continue to turn off all ads?
I hope it works out for you.
t
1 June, 18:47
rip
bigsexyshaq
1 June, 19:32
Extremely disappointed, enjoy your money.
OH Dae-Su
1 June, 19:38
CBS is part of the old school copyright cartel that is responsible for unacceptably abusive treatments of new artists and customers to boot.
I used audioscrobbler aka Last.fm to break free of the oligopoly control that the MAFIAA holds on music creation and distribution. Now that the MAFIAA control Last.fm, I can no longer trust that Last.fm will put my interests before the MAFIAA’s. It’s only a hop, skip and a jump away from them doing fishing expeditions to try to guess what music their subscribers have not paid for and prosecute them for it – a process guaranteed to be rife with false positives. It’s also entirely likely that CBS will attempt to bias the system here in favor of their own properties.
Maybe not today, especially while the founders still maintain some level of control, but eventually the temptation to abuse the users’ trust here will be too great for somebody at CBS. I’m leaving before it gets to that point.
cixxxj
1 June, 20:16
Congrats .. but now FASTER SERVEEERS!!!!
spacejunkie
1 June, 20:35
Hmmm – I have read the comments, and have come forward from my initial thoughts on reading the headline – which was a sick to the stomach heart dropping feeling to more a feeling of mere apprehension.
I have been with Last.fm for a long time, and scrobbled from almost every app in Windows and Linux, made donations, recommended it to many, many people as well as putting my music up as a label. You guys do deserve a break..
I am going to keep on listening and scrobbling, and watch carefully to see how things pan out. I will probably re-read the T & C’s for the label set up VERY VERY cautiously, and act accordingly. I will admit having much fear here.
I hope support for platforms other than iTunes and Windows will continue (like Amarok – which is generally a great app anyway), as well as a broad selection of music and discovery of music I like instead of being spoon-fed chart drivel. I have noticed a recent alarming trend of Justin Timberlake and the silly girl with the hips popping up more often in my player even though I thought I had banned them and similar tracks to oblivion many times over – I hope that is not at all related.
Here’s to good luck and to the good times to continue rolling – stay in London, keep it real, don’t ever become as bland as FM radio (which I never listen to any more)...
misha
1 June, 22:01
hope story of last.fm and CBS will not repeat story of Armstrong (FM radio inventor) and RCA.
Pilchard Chops
1 June, 23:11
“its the end of the world as we know It” Downhill all the way, at least I wont have to continue to subscribe
Ganxito
1 June, 23:12
Congratuletions! In Spain we say… from lost to the river (is a joke).
deltalima
2 June, 00:27
Openness and giant corporations don’t go together, and don’t bullshit yourselves into thinking they do. My account is now deleted.
Lance
2 June, 01:31
money is the root of all evil.
jim
2 June, 01:33
don’t sell us out lads :|
but hey go on enjoy the honey moon :)
idkmon
2 June, 05:15
That’s great. But, I remember LiveJournal started turning to crap after they sold out; label me very cautiously optimistic.
babo320
2 June, 06:48
Media organisations don’t have very much of my respect. last.fm had my respect. Now they don’t. Profile deleted.
noteon
2 June, 10:58
Thanks for screwing us Russ. Last.fm seem to forget that we the users got you this big. And now you screw us. Hope you enjoy your bank account fillig up afterall that’s only what matters to you isnt it?
balhambob
2 June, 11:59
Congrats – you saw the gap, worked hard to fill it, now on to the next stage.
Can you do us all a favour and buy www.di.fm? Very talented, serious musos with great programming. They are going to be hit hard by the new US legislation on royalties and no I’m not an employee – just someone who wants to preserve the quality of free online music.
Bon vent!
I DON'T SELL OUT
2 June, 12:53
THEY HAVE ALREADY SOLD OUT. RECORD LABELS NOW HAVE A WAY TO CONTINUE TO LIVE. LAST.FM IS KOWTOWING TO THE BROWN FECAL MATTER EMANATING FROM THE VERY BOWELS OF THE RECORDING INDUSTRY.
Sophi
2 June, 13:16
Screw ‘indieness’ and the ‘death of the social music revolution’, I’m happy for you guys.
Somehow I think most of the people making negative comments are the sort of people who’d jump off a bridge if their favourite band had a number 1 hit… heaven forbid they actually make it big! When Last.fm started, there were people camping on the sodding <b>roof</b> to provide you, the loyal followers, with these services… and now you’re complaining that they’ve screwed you over simply because they’ve been offered a large amount of money to improve themselves for <i>your</i> benefit? Come on, now. Get over yourselves. Delete your profiles and make a big scene, then. I’ll bet you no-one actually cares. After all, you’re just a number now, aren’t you?
To the team: Congratulations. Enjoy the rewards, and show us how much better you can make things.
seedling
2 June, 14:19
OMG! LOL FFS WTF.fm
skeptical and sad
2 June, 16:20
Yay! I love me some corporate control of media! Anything which furthers this makes me happy… This is the STUPIDEST move I have ever read of. Should have at least sold out to a tech company like Google or Yahoo, some non-music/film media company, which wouldn’t have its own plans and history for music/film/TV domination. What on EARTH were/are you thinking. MTV was fun when in started, Myspace was fun when it started, both have gone down significantly. What’s wrong with being a medium sized operation with moderate funding, reach, etc? I was pleased with lastfm just the way it was. I don’t need more commercial music tie ins, I don’t want access to all the music in the world. We have Soulseek etc for that. I liked the limited sphere lastfm existed in—if anyone went to the trouble to upload or license their music to lastfm, that said something. Now, lastfm will become just like itunes, mtv, etc—will have everything and be nothing, have no real musical edge/feel/identity.
BLEH! When will web companies learn to be comfortable with middling success and not have dreams of stupid “world domination” as the lastfm person put it. Plans for “world domination” usually make your company/product somewhat mall-like and identity-less—you can’t please anything and the most interesting companies usually try to please niche audiences and artists who put forth an effort to find and share interesting things, not artists and companies and fans who are after access to everything and pleasing everybody (and ending up with a watered-down identity and consumer base) like MTV or Myspace.
WHY???
skeptical and sad
2 June, 16:55
One more comment:
you had the chance to REALLY make independent music history and you blew it. I can’t believe that I’m reading claims like lastfm will continue to be “independently operated” when you are now owned by CBS. Um, I hope the money soothes your conscience in the future when you realize you just now possibly totally tarnished and frittered away your legacy as forward thinking and interesting—and totally took away what many people had hoped was the promise of Web 2.0 technology to form arts communities not tied totally to excessive profits and large media corporations—and I hope some less gutless Web 2.0 start up comes along to steal your more independent minded music listeners now that you’ve decided to become the online audio equivalent of MTV
Pah
2 June, 18:24
Right, I’m removing all links and widgets from my pages on other sites immediately, why would I give CBS free ads?
Audioscrobbler/Last.fm form me has been about discovering music without being controlled by the major media companies, so you’ve basically lost the trust I had in you.
Chris Wiseman
2 June, 19:42
well done, we are really pleased for you and have made our first attempts at fumbling our way round last.fm, much to learn still for us oldies!
Chris and Nick Wiseman
weltact
2 June, 21:45
this probably is the beginning of the end, but ill stick around for a bit, and give them a benefit of doubt
i do feel very sad that the most important non living thing in my life is being sold to a world that i despise
A Subscriber Who's Fed Up with LAST.FM
2 June, 22:33
Maybe CBS will force you to finally acknowledge your subscribers who have constant trouble with your client and have to sit in limbo without ANY replies from your tech. department. Your customer relations department sucks. Hope CBS fires them all.
And stop saying it’s a small percentage of users who are having this problem. 6000+ is NOT a small percentage. If your staff EVER read their forums they’d see. WTF?
Paulos
3 June, 00:02
I deleted my account. All of the internet is slowly being acquired by the big broadcasting companies, not that it’s a terribly big surprise. Fox owns Myspace. AOL Time Warner took over Singingfish. Now Last.fm is CBS.
Bummer.
qwerty
3 June, 00:38
Audioscrobbler come back!
zerofish9
3 June, 01:05
hmmm….he’s got some good points(doesn’t know anything about CBS obviously:but ok, prob. a youngster)—i just wanted to know if i could stop giving U my $3subscr.now-[since Ur rich$:]—so i can finally have a cup of coOfffeeehH=:>
Just kidding,..my karmic guide would slap the $#!tE outta me if i did that—”@least4 now”...
I just wanted to say kudos to you guys for making your dreams happen! It sounds like Old ManTV.(cbs), is being cool w/Ur—standards—holddd them to it mAn!!
Lastly—-I’m so glad you have a blog now so i can relate this next message to you….are u ready?
THANNNNNK YOUUUU 4 EVERYTHING!!—->> “!”
U’ll never kow how much You’ve changed my life![eXcept when i get biG >i’ll send tickets-we can party like it’s 2012.hmm,& might be].
All The friends & connections & music library i’ve established..daNG!= WaYyyyy beyond the price of that java..I’m pROWDdd to be a subsriber{heyy,new group). When i’m not using your services as much later, the i’ll drop back down to a “user”-[hmm, man, sounds so gluttunous:|| -hA!
SLM
3 June, 01:09
A concern:
Because of licensing laws, Pandora (a US owned company) was forced to restrict it’s service to US listeners only. Now that last.fm has been taken over by a US corporation, is the same going to happen here? Do us UK listeners lose out again?
Matt M.
3 June, 03:01
I am afraid yet hopeful. It was a dream. an adventure.
I believe that all of you who work at last.fm deserve all the cash (if not more) for doing all you’ve done so far.
I also realize how much more you could do with cbs’s financial backing, and I excpect you all to make it better and true to it’s roots. I excpect you to fight for your control and not let users get fed bullshit.
I am afraid of viacom and
If you make bad changes, I will leave.
If you stop supporting the indie style of life, I will leave.
If you get replaced, I will leave.
If service gets flooded with shit, I will leave.
That being said, all of these people are way to polarized on this issue.
Half say that you know suck, and half say congrats!
You deserve what you earn.
Arrawa
3 June, 05:50
Im sad…
sophia
3 June, 07:01
thats sad!
jules
3 June, 14:47
What a shame…
I was just getting excited about all the possibilities….
Now I`m just downhearted…
I`m not quite sure what to do now….
...but my heart is no longer in it.
Again I say what a shame…
... and I thought last.fm was different..
d`oh how daft of me…
J
Nick Parkman
3 June, 19:11
Congrats! Sold to a major company! Now you can spread their mind-and heartless poison too!
Kelly;
3 June, 20:01
Congratulations guys. I hope you’ve got a nice payout for your hard work! :D
Hylian-Demon
3 June, 21:04
For the most part, this doesn’t affect me either way. I’m not a subscriber. I use Last for it’s basic functions: To scrobble my music, to give me one click band information, and to reccomend me other bands. Anyone can see that starting to charge for that would be shooting yourself in the foot, so I’m not worried.
What I am worried about is that whole RIAA thing trying to ban internet radio. Now that you’re owned by a American company, I’m kinda worried. I don’t use the radio much, but it’s always nice to have that option.
Musicman
4 June, 02:07
Does that your going to spend some serious $$$ from the sweet CBS money to employ one or two more people that do nothing else but clean up your user lists from all the racist, homophobic and just plain wrong stuff thats floating around? Awesome! I might consider coming back then…
Yours truly,
a former user who got pissed by the ignorance of the staff when aforementioned things were brought to their attention…but hey, who wants a $208m deal to fall through because of some minor $hit like that…
jack
4 June, 02:08
damn riaa.
sk1bt
4 June, 03:10
well, congratulations! i can’t say you guys don’t deserve it, i remember the panic that ensued when servers went down back in the day and how you busted ass to get things working again.
but i’m really disappointed. a corporation does not spend that much money on something to keep things the way they are. they’re going to make their money back, and we’ll suffer for it. i foresee excessive advertisements, commercials between songs on radio, and subscription fees for things that are now free.
it was amazing while it lasted, and i can only hope i’m proven wrong. good luck!
listen to arabic music
4 June, 08:41
Congrats Last.Fm you changed the way people listen to music
Karen
4 June, 11:24
Congratulations!
MEN-O-DEE
4 June, 21:36
Niceeeeeeeee!!!!!!! You guys deserve it. Keep up the good work. And i really don’t give a G*damn Ass if your service undergoes any changes due to this takeover… that’s life folks. And if your indie ass once might find their music deleted… face it. Life isn’t a free ride you know.
Wishing you good luck,
Men-O-Dee
Parker
4 June, 21:43
I for one, welcome our new robotic CBS overlords. May they reign peacefully o’er with an iron fist.
Koji
5 June, 03:18
THIS IS THE BEST GADGET ON FACEBOOK EVER!
I’m done with internet radio, last・fm has become my only frequency, Kenneth!
Televiper
5 June, 03:56
Wow.. the knee jerk reactions come off as very naive. If you ever worked for a company supported by Venture Capitalists you learn that they are in many ways in charge. Depending on who invested in them they may be owned by major banks, mutual funds, technology funds, etc. I don’t doubt that Last.FM’s management had to justify themselves to some board of directors.
CBS has a very similar business to last.fm’s. They will be much more interested in the site’s long term growth, and various innovations the team wants to implement. CBS bought Last.fm because they saw something the wouldn’t be able to build themselves.
Another scenario is Last.FM decides it needs to generate it’s own revenue without outside investments. That would mean more subscriber fees, and more advertising.
Did you people think this site ran on love?
cristian_vogel
5 June, 12:50
Great news Last Crew!
You know I been with your vision from very early on too… So i hope it can develop in the way we all want, despite involvement from a music industry giant.
1. Do we still own all our rights to music uploaded via the artist and label music manager?
2. Will featured content now begin to play a more important role? How can indie labels get involved in featured content initiatives?
Well done, hope the lunch was lovely!
hemingway
5 June, 15:15
Ok. I cancel my subscription now. You guys have all the money you need now, right?
flatliner
5 June, 18:32
Congratulations to the Last.fm team who has put in countless hours, days, months and more to bring a free product to a fanatical community who is made up of equally involved users …... I hope this allows you to maintain the community spirit and be rewarded for all the effort.
Teledildonix
5 June, 23:58
It’s a good thing i held off paying a single penny during my first couple months, because now that you’ve SOLD OUT you don’t need my money. Congratulations on being just like the rest of the SELLOUTS in these industries.
I bet we’ll see the soul-crushing mediocrity settle in before the end of the year. The Race To The Bottom and the Lowest Common Denominator— victorious as usual.
Angus Hedger
6 June, 02:05
First of, WELL DONE! fireworks and such
God, reading most of that it seems people think that the last.fm guys work for nothing, and do all of this for love?
They do have to live, like all of us, and in this world we live in, how can we do that without money?
I love last.fm, this wont stop me, i have subscribed before, i might again, depends on if i want the extra features, not on who owns it.
There seems to be a lot of junk flying around about “selling out” ect.. a load of tosh..
Can you IMAGINE the bandwidth bill’s for all this.. all the streaming, ect.. wow..
As long as i can see how addicted to one band or such i am, for free, ill be happy =P
I have been scrogging away from 31 Oct 2005, and no plans to stop :D
Keep up the good work, and to everyone who seems to think “ZOMFG they MADE some MONEY there EBILLL runn awaayyy” >_>
Try to THINK before you type? k?
Regards
Veyka/Angus
shey
6 June, 07:54
i think this article says it all about cbs’ intentions
http://www.cbscorporation.com/news/prdetails.php?id=2263
they are somehow going to make this site about watching their shows and listening to their brand of music.
don’t let it happen y’all! stay true to your loyal followers!
wired_birds
6 June, 08:10
http://www.cbscorporation.com/news/prdetails.php?id=1383
Bonnie Molnar
6 June, 11:00
the world of big biz totally has to step back and respect – nay, venerate – the indies who still know how to communicate with real people. Thus the purchase. You are clearly smart enough to hold your own against any bland crap from The Board. They need you so much more than you could ever need them. So…enjoy! Make it the perfect partnership. You don’t need good luck, you’re got the brains.
Teledildonix
6 June, 14:06
This notion that Last.FM will somehow remain “indie” is nonsense.
The basic profit strategies of CBS (a subsidiary of Viacom, one of the participants in the cartels such as the RIAA) depend on things like censorship and reduction of competition.
The great irony here is that Last.FM brands themselves as the “revolution”. Apparently that’s a fancy way of saying “revolves all the way around to $280million, then becomes another Viacom product”.
Take a look at what sort of corporation just bought Last.FM, then try to convince anybody that it’s going to be about a “social music revolution”. Try not to die laughing:
google search: viacom cbs censorship cartel
Russ
6 June, 18:23
CBS is not a subsidiary of Viacom. They split in 2006.
scrubs
6 June, 23:19
Avant un an, Last.fm connaitra une lente chute dans la pub à outrance et le recentrage sur les artistes pourris du top 50…ca se termine toujours de cette façon quand une merde commerciale genre CBS rachète un site de ce type. Et au passage j’encule la RIAA.
Teledildonix
7 June, 03:19
Both CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are still owned by Sumner Redstone’s company, National Amusements.
Sashka78
7 June, 06:00
Yeah, right. And thanks for those ads all over the page.
Jānis
7 June, 08:49
How are those nuts for you then?
saint ymM, phD
8 June, 01:02
“CBS understands the Last.fm vision, the importance we place on putting the listener in charge, the vibrant and vocal community, the obsession with music stats, and our determination to offer every song ever recorded.”
OK, last.fm is sold. And it happened despite fact that no one asked us, the listeners, our opinion-even though we are supposed to be in charge. i am more than a little annoyed by the reduction of the listeners into “music stats obsessed” nerds and the occlusion of what is really being sold here.
Then how should we respond to this sale? My initial response is a loss of desire to scrobble. I just don’t want to scrobble anymore the music that I listen to. I don’t want to do so, because I don’t want my listening habits to be recorded and aggregated and used as an input to a marketing oriented statistical data-base pertaining to the listener preferences of last.fm listeners by the multi-national capitalist corporation. I don’t want my listening activity and the social links that I have established over the year and a half that I have been scrobbling on last.fm to be appropriated, captured, and used for generating surpluses for multi-national capitalism. This journal entry is an attempt at establishing some frames of interpretation in understanding the economics and the politics of this sale.
1. let us begin by establishing what is being sold. sure, the folks at last.fm headquarters have developed a series of nifty softwares and refined the website significantly (in part with the input from the scrobbles themselves). but cbs would have never purchased last.fm if it was not for the music community that has been scrobbling and creating a public sphere within which they can engage in a system of sharing, learning, disseminating, commenting, and experimenting. in other words, the software is one thing, the network and the sociality that have developed and accumulated over the last two years is another thing.
2. In the “Privacy” document-which can accessed from the link at the bottom of the page-the following ominous paragraph can be found:
“We reserve the right to sell or license pseudonymous listening data for commercial use, however we will never sell your personal data that can be traced back to a specific user. We may, for example, license our weekly charts for commercial use. This would not compromise any personal information.”
Thank you, last.fm. They are, of course, not selling our personal information. But that’s never been the point anyways. Because they are interested in selling the charts and the aggregated preference maps of the listening community. This is a very important piece of information for the contemporary marketing technologies that rely more and more on niche-marketing where the commodities are sold by linking them metonymically (“if you liked this, you will also like this”) with each other. In this sense, what is being sold is the promise of a continual flow of knowledge pertaining to the listening habits of the listening community.
3. in other words, the $280 million is essentially a money paid to last.fm software developers because they were successful in harvesting the listening practices of the music community and in constructing an aggregated preference mapping of this public to be sold to interested parties. in other words, the $280 is a GIFT from last.fm community to the last.fm headquarters. yet, it is a gift that the community was not aware of. in a sense, it is a gift that the last.fm stole from the scrobblers. such forms of gifting are usually named differently: EXPLOITATION.
4. of course, other paths could have been taken. last.fm could have used this excellent software to poll the scrobblers and created an awesome participative mechanism. then we could have decided together, democratically, whether this was the best way forward and whether it was worth selling out. consider, for instance, the case of national public radio (npr) in the states. they are not publicly funded (or underfunded) and need money for development, so what do they do? they ask donations from their listeners and get sponsorships. they do not sell the company. you could have initiated a subscription/support campaign to tap into 15 million scrobblers out there. you may have been surprised by the amount that you would generate: if each scrobbler would give $20, you would have raised $300 million and continue to be independent. Note that, not everyone has to give that much. I, for one, would and can easily give $50 per annum sustainer fee if I was sure that last.fm was an independently run system.
5. this is obviously larger than last.fm and CBS and it is yet another moment in which capitalism captures/territorializes non-capitalism. it is yet another instance in which something that emerged on the internet as an independent enterprise-assuming that this was the case—being captured by a multi-national corporation. of course, i could be wrong in assuming that last.fm was an independently run, self-governed cooperative. maybe it was always already a small capitalist firm run by a few owners who also happened to be developers with a number of salaried developers who don’t have much to say or control but are happy with their little capitalist enterprise. if this was the case, then the transition is from small capitalism to big capitalism and not from non-capitalism to capitalism.
6. so what is to be done? well, again, i’ve lost my appetite. if i will remain on last.fm, it will be simply because I value the social links that I have already established on last.fm too much to lose them. but i definitely will not renew my subscription. and the moment a new and independently run platform emerges, i will migrate there (hopefully with my friends). of course, these are individual solutions. what we really need to do is to create and build sustainable platforms where the listeners and developers are in charge together!
mike
8 June, 11:25
mm- not so happy about the fact i just renewed my subscription now which i did to support last.fm NOT CBS
captainpovey
8 June, 23:27
In the words of the great CRASS –
CBS promote the Clash
Aint for revolution it’s just for cash
Bye bye lastfm
Really thought you were something different.
jb
9 June, 18:46
As if companies weren’t already paying attention to the listening statistics available on this website…
vbo
10 June, 01:49
Oh gimme a break. Every time an popular web venture gets bought, people whine about how the big corporate machine is going to make money off their asses.
Consider why you’ve used Last.fm. Was it because it was indie? If the answer is yes, then ok, you have a point. But you’re not married to Last.fm, it’s not like they’ve cheated on you and you have to change your feelings from awe to disgust.
The service is still here, the team is still here and they’re saying there will be no radical change.
So you’re worried they’ll use your data to develop subliminal ways of making you buy their penis enlargement pills. Right. Why did you contribute data to Last.fm? You did so you could get nifty statistics, suggestions and meet people like you – and that’s what you got. That’s what you’re getting. You didn’t contribute to CBS, that’s correct, but you got what you “paid” for. You didn’t do it to save dying kittens, nor to feed the developers – it was for your own self, for you to get what last.fm has to offer. That you gave away 3 dollars a month for privileged access is another thing. Maybe you thought of it as a donation to Last.fm – great, I’m sure the money was appreciated and made further development possible. It’s a gesture of acknowledgement and thumbs up. Get over it, they don’t owe you for life.
Under CBS ownership or indie, Last.fm could still have sold your data. Moreso, any company could have (prolly illegaly, but hey) crawled last.fm and gathered all data they could possibly wish for. The data is public, and you know it.
notaviaconlover
10 June, 07:21
so long and thanks for all the fish.
another one bites the dust, indeed.
(ps, look at the MTV/VIVA deal for the ‘happy’ things to come. suckers all around, they are all completely miserable.)
i hope you donate the money to a decent charity at least to get some karma points, for disappointing so many.
notaviaconlover
10 June, 07:32
pps: russ and others, i assure you very much that sumner, and daughter are very much at the helm of both companies, and own the majority of viacom a stock (not the open to the public viacom b stock crap that is worthless).
this purchase was singularly to show Sumners might against murdoch after smarts from myspace, and an appearance for CBS to be hip.
Sumner calls the shots, and Les has to step to the plate or follow Tom our the door.
ainfo
10 June, 21:11
When visiting Last.fm as I always do, today the page got blocked from loading because one of its advertisers is Beyond the Network America (BTNA). I’m used to thepiratebay and compromised p2p sites being blocked, but Last.fm? Does Last.fm being sold to CBS have anything to do with it?!!!! Last.fm had indieclick advertisers before, but have they changed direction because of the corporate sale?
Did they have BTNA adverts before the sale?
Beyond the network is apparently being blocked by peer-guardian (or moblock for linux) because this corporation does some sketchy anti-p2p stuff:
Beyond the Network on Peer Guardian forums
(http://forums.phoenixlabs.org/t9752-beyond-the-network-america-inc.html)
Sure it’s just advertising, but now CBS (Viacom/MTV under National Amusement) has the most perfect marketing tool there is: direct access to listening habits, entire databases. Being bought by CBS means the death of Last.fm’s independence no matter what they say:
“This deal with CBS gives us a chance to really make Last.fm shine, and gives us more flexibility than other funding options would for doing all the crazy stuff [we’ve] had scribbled on whiteboards for years.”
Get ready for more specious advertising and corporate re-adjustments to the site!
Thank you all for the info, especially saint ymM, phD and Teledildonix.
Russ
10 June, 21:39
ainfo: We haven’t started collaborating with CBS for ads yet, so this is nothing to do with them. And even once we do, the positioning/size/intrusiveness of the ads won’t change. Subscribers will still be able to remove the ads.
ainfo
11 June, 06:19
Russ: Thanks for the info, that’s a little bit relieving. It’s just that you all say that your vision for Last.fm was to let the “listeners be in charge” whereas I don’t think any of the listeners actually feel in charge: I think now a giant corporation is in charge instead of this sweet open-source and useful website for hearing about bands. I believe in what someone above said: if you had really rallied for support, you could easily have made the sum that CBS acquired you for and stayed respectably independent; it’s a paltry sum for a giant like CBS. I love this site that’s why it hurts to see it potentially move in the direction of myspace, which is just plain awful with advertisements. And really, do I think it would be worth it to me ethically to support CBS (the RIAA is an unethical thug, if you didn’t already know that; and the RIAA and Viacom kiss and hold hands) with a subscription to last.fm because I don’t want to see their ads? I don’t support them by buying their products and I won’t be giving them money online either. Your comment, like I said, helped a bit, but I’ll jump onto the first decent open-source last.fm alternative when one emerges. Woah I had no idea that Viacom owned so many tv channels; at the very least I learned who owns who and which sites to support and which to steer clear of! Thank you, it’s been really fun!
Carl
11 June, 17:32
Someone mentioned something above about ‘featured content’. Now that would be a disaster. The recommendation system is based on trust that it is a purely mathematical process, and not subject to any bias from the controllers of the website. Featured content would make people incredibly suspicious and do a hell of a lot of harm to the site.
Martin
12 June, 21:25
I’m just hoping CBS dollars means I won’t have to buffer 10 times per song anymore.
Mortal
13 June, 10:34
Pffffft.
Pfffffffffffft.
I don’t really like this. But I don’t think it’ll harm me either. You guys should’ve gone other ways, but if you really see this as “the only thing left to do”, well, fien. :(
Jon
13 June, 10:56
Congratulations, You guys deserve it!
THE ACT FRANCiS!
13 June, 20:16
Yep. Here we go again.
drew
14 June, 16:20
If this means that last.fm will now be a part of the RIAA, I quit.
And so will others.
Rasmus
15 June, 13:45
My opinion is biased.
One: Great job, you certainly deserve to gain some “reward” for your incredible work you did with building up last.fm. Congrats!
Second: No. I don’t want Viacom or even CBS to know my listening habits. I came here because you were NOT owned by a major company and because you were INDEPENDENT. Additionally, as someone said before, your “About Us”-page really made me trust you.
Anyway, I will stay with you and take a very close look at each change you make. The community here is great and you should keep that in mind.
Ps. Why didn’t you make a survey before the take over? ;)
logan
15 June, 20:56
Thanks, I’ll no longer be scrobbling any tracks, and I’ll be canceling my account.
Congratulations on making a grip of money for yourselves without consulting the community that built up your project.
Don’t you understand? 95% of what made this site cool was that it was an alternative to the big media companies and their record labels. Seems like you would have known your users a bit better, you’ve effectively alienated your core community with this move.
I almost feel bad for CBS. They thought they were buying a vibrant community, and now they get to watch their investment withers before their eyes.
Hope you guys buy something nice with your new cash, though I can’t imagine it will be as cool as what we all had with last.fm.
Goodbye.
le bital
17 June, 06:25
yeah, i do agree with logan, this is possibly the worst move you could ever do. and no, thanks i do not want the cbs to know my listening habits either…, quite simple: let’s pretend last.fm was my girlfriend and then she decided that money can buy anything, so she sold love for a fistful of dollars… then i decided that it is perfect time for us to break up, i’ll keep great moments in mind anyway…
ciao babe…
Lenny_Nero
18 June, 01:17
Well good luck on the new Last.FM, and your now deep pockets, I do understand that very few go into this sort of thing with the idea that they will keep the same as day one regardless, and I do know that more than 99.9% of the people that dont like what you (Last.FM) have done would jump thru bigger hoops far faster for a lot less cash.
I hope things do stay the same, but I dont expect it to, and will not cry if it does not, I will just do the same as I have done before. But even so… well done on keeping the helm… if you really have still got full control ? You made a good deal no matter what others say about the lack of wedge I would be very happy for a small lump for the things I have done …just like all others would.
I hope the DRM monsters dont take over as they want to with every other part of the free web and try to track our every move, but that is the world we are allowing for ourselves.
Fahed
18 June, 15:24
Well done.
goodbye lastfm
19 June, 04:46
not cool
guy
19 June, 09:29
Why am I not surprised that only a week or two after this happens, you’re adding payola tracks to the radio stations? Just because you say the music isn’t payola in the FAQ, doesn’t mean it isn’t. Labels are paying to have their music heard, so I type in that I want to hear an artist similar to the mash-up artist Girl Talk, and I’m listening to fucking Travis and Echo & the Bunnymen? That’s bullshit and it hampers the listening experience.
This has gotta change.
Jonas Woost
19 June, 12:45
Hey ‘guy’,
I understand the confusion but Powerplay is a feature we had on the site for over a year and it enables artists and labels which normally don’t get a lot of airplay to get some exposure on Last.fm and find new fans.
We have never made a secret about this service and the user gets notified when they are being targeted with a Powerplay and can still skip/ban/love/etc. All Powerplays are also always served in a targeted way so you will only get music which fits into your music style.
I’ve actually heard from many people that they have discovered a great band because they have been targeted by a Powerplay, a band which normally would have had that airplay on Last.fm.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Jonas Woost – Head of Music
jonas@last.fm
ricardo2001
19 June, 18:52
Worth reading:
The Big Media Game Has Fewer and Fewer Players
http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/courses/geog100/TPMediaOligop.htm
Notice that the article is from 1999.
Joe Wilson
19 June, 23:54
I’m not for corporate dictators, they are out for the money and don’t care who’s heads they step on along the way. I hope you still have full control, and our personal information isn’t being used for giving those DRM hungry corporate dictators that want to control the whole free internet more of a strangle hold on all media. I will stick beside you as I have for years, but any sign of someone trying to install something with drm on my machine and controlling my stereo, or tv I will be saying CYA...,I also would like to see last.fm remain in UK. I’m in the united states and I have a good idea of how these corporations work.. I also know if there wasent money to be made they wouldn’t of been interested… So CBS isnt like the others interested in destroying Internet Radio? hmmm… Hope you all made the right decision…. Sincerly, Still Lisening..
ricardo2001
20 June, 14:32
More from Robert McChesney:
“The entertainment companies are a handful of massive conglomerates that own four of the five music companies that sell 90 percent of the music in the United States. Those same companies also own all the film studios, all the major TV networks, and pretty much all the TV stations in the ten largest markets. They own all or part of every single commercial cable channel. They look at the teen market as part of this massive empire that they’re colonizing.
You should look at it like the British or the French empires in the nineteenth century. Teens are like Africa. There’s this range that they’re going to take over, and their weaponry is films, music, books, CDs, internet access, clothing, amusement parks, sports teams. That’s all this weaponry they have to make money off of this market, to colonize this market. And that’s exactly how they approach it. So they look at music as just one small part of it. They aren’t music companies; they’re moneymaking companies, and music is a weapon that generates money for them.”
View the whole interview at Frontline in (very recommended):
The merchants of cool
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/interviews/mcchesney.html
Robert McChesney is a media critic and author of Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. He is research professor in the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois
Patrik
21 June, 20:22
Profile deleted. It’s been a good three years. Sorry it had to end like this. But this really is betraying all that we loved about last.fm.
David Que
24 June, 04:17
goodbye last.fm
it was the best music site on the internet while it lasted.
profile to be deleted…
Chris Guest
26 June, 23:35
Congratulations guys, well deserved for getting it right with such a good product and service.
I’ve decided to stick my neck out and blog that I reckon Last.fm is going to be bigger than MySpace by the end of the year.
http://guesto.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/lastfm-set-to-overtake-myspace/
Don’t let me down now!
Mike
28 June, 04:44
I have a very bad feeling about this.
These large companies have a horrid reputation of ruining practically everything that they touch.
You may feel you’re still currently in control of your product, but ask yourself this – how long will that last?
The Romulans
29 June, 05:47
Well I also have mixed feelings, on one hand I think well done you guys do deserve it, this is a great site etc etc.
On the other hand it concerns me how Last.fm might change… but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I am a paying subscriber, I just hope you guys keep it real!
snailgarden
29 June, 14:26
I feel compelled to add myself to the ranks of the disappointed. Life ain’t about getting paid. Life is about music, art, nature, and — perhaps above all — interpersonal relationships. I’m a relative newcomer to last.fm but I’ve come to really dig it — even coming out of my shell to do some light networking.
But, I fear, that if I continue to be active on the site, I’ll feel like I’m being spied on. Sorry to say it, but many of us Americans already feel spied on. Paranoia? Maybe… but it’s where many of us are right now.
Perhaps I’m overreacting. But, at least for now, no scrobbling for me. I’m not quite ready to delete my account… but perhaps that’s next.
Watching from afar…
bored
5 July, 01:19
boring Zzzzzzz …..
SMS.
7 July, 09:49
CBS promote the Clash
Aint for revolution it’s just for cash
-CRASS
Charles Vicle
8 July, 13:31
Fuck.
Tim dobson
8 July, 21:50
Please don’t lose the emphasis on platform independent Free Software (as in freedom). Don’t do DRM if it means i can’t listen to you in amarok with no modifications.
Don’t let some non-techie managers piss you around…
please stay as the hackers/techies company…
You guys could be the google of tomorrow…
please dont turn rubbish… (OR too big)
Pedro
9 July, 16:44
so, after this months, with all the negative response of the users, has any of those comments changed your thoughts about the “sellout”?
ron82
11 July, 15:23
thanks for reaffirming my disbelief in humanity..
fräulein montag
24 July, 18:04
can someone please advise how i can terminate my yearly subscription? i have sent several messages to support already and eventually been told to delete my account but still unresolved if i’ll be reimbursed for the remaining days or not and it has been almost two months now. i am sure this is a pretty straight forward process on your side. and one on my side it is an ethical one. i hope you respect that.
hola_hombre
13 August, 15:37
Great news ! Any plans to start operation in Bangalore India. Thats definitely a viable proposition. Do think about it, and if you are starting operations do post an article about opportunity to work with you guys
Anne
15 August, 13:41
Although this is probably very good news for last.fm, i am a bit afraid as a user that the same will happen as it happened to Pandora: the website is closed to non-US users :-/
How that will work now with the CBS deal? are you sure that you will not experience the same problems as Pandora?
was skeptical and sad but not anymore
25 August, 18:41
Okay I was very, very skeptical
But I think there’s been some improvements and am very happy with the service!
Things seem to work better and there’s still a great (or better?) selection of songs
a subscriber
28 August, 13:13
I hope(d) Last.FM is/was a tool to reform the music industry. Labels are complaining they’re losing control and the control is given back to the user.
Big loser here is the artist who only makes money by performing. Last.FM for me means a way of paying only for music I like, whilst NOT supporting ‘commercial’ artists and the marketing guys behind them.
You guys selling out for a SJ*TLOAD of money (which kinda belongs to the artists, at least partly) to these same marketing guys who I sincerely hate, is not a good thing for me.
I will be watching, closely
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