Since our announcement last Tuesday about starting to charge users €3.00 per month for listening to the radio in countries other than the USA, UK and Germany, we’ve received a lot of feedback. It’s not a decision we’ve made lightly, and I want to explain why we came to this conclusion and answer some common questions.
Last.fm Radio has always been ad supported, which means we sell ads on the site to cover the cost of running the service and paying the music licensing fees. If you’ve spent more than 5 minutes on the site you’ll know that the Last.fm community is international to the extreme – we are made up of people from practically every country in the world. Last.fm is a better place for it.
However, we simply can’t be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service. The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it’s a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships.
We’re listening and we’ve postponed the date on which radio will become a subscription service outside the USA, UK and Germany. In the meantime we’ll be squeezing in some additional improvements based on your requests:
- Gift subscriptions: you’ll be able to buy a subscription for a friend
- Updating developers using our Radio API: third-party apps that stream Last.fm Radio will have full access to the Radio API, so streaming will work provided the user that logs in is a subscriber. (All other APIs remain free/unchanged)
- Investigating alternative payment options. If Paypal sucks in your country, or you don’t have a credit card, don’t despair. Based on feedback so far, we are looking at supporting pay-by-SMS, and possibly some other options. Can’t promise we’ll have support for everyone’s favourite payment system from day one, but we’ll do our best to make it easy for you.
As soon as we’ve completed the upgrades noted above, we’ll move ahead with the transition. Thereafter, radio in the USA, UK and Germany will remain ad-supported, and radio in other countries where it’s not feasible to have an ad-supported service will be moving to a subscription service.
Comments
Robert Andrews
30 March, 14:40
“third-party apps that stream Last.fm Radio will have full access to the Radio API, so streaming will work provided the user that logs in is a subscriber.”
Does this reinstate streaming to third-party mobile clients, for example… ?
Nikolay Vladimirov
30 March, 14:40
Will anything change for current subscribers outside USA/UK/Germany?
I read an answer in some comment for the previous announcement. Can you clarify?
Studio4
30 March, 14:41
First to comment!
james
30 March, 14:45
I hope this cheers some folks up…
RJ
30 March, 14:46
Nothing changes for people in the USA, UK and Germany.
Robert: although the radio API is accessible, clients that identify as mobile devices will have additional restrictions (ie, slightly less content is available). This is due to our licenses special-casing mobile streaming, and the same rules apply to our official mobile apps.
bombadil25
30 March, 14:52
This doesn’t change anything…
Last.fm is going down the drain…
JackuB
30 March, 14:52
Any chances for switching back to free non-subscription radio in future? Or more free-radio countries?
JackuB
closedmouth
30 March, 14:54
Gotta whine about something.
peterpixel
30 March, 14:54
Having read this second explanation, things make a lot more sense. I am luckily not affected (and a subscriber) but it still shitty for those outside of the 3 countries you mentioned.
What I am curious about though: would it theoretically be possible to tailor ads for other big countries or markets (Canada and France springs to mind) so that they could get free radio too?
Christof Damian
30 March, 14:59
What about the podcast of recommended music? Will that be available in the future?
It just contains music free of licensing costs, so it should be cheaper to maintain.
Maybe it would be also possible to stream only the free music to people without a subscription.
I am just using the scrobbler and podcast anyway, so I don’t need the radio stream.
But it would be a shame if the podcast goes.
Cheers
Christof
Xavez
30 March, 14:59
Paying per SMS might become one of the more interesting payment options for counries in which credit cards are not so common ;-). I’m curious!
last_time_here
30 March, 15:00
Nice to see that lastfm is listenening to users. However it would have been better to revisit the economic model.
I’m a bit utopianist but I really hopped that you would follow the wikipedia model ( where users can give money if they want, and in case there is not enough, display a message to ask for donations )
I don’t see any reason why it would not have worked that way…
Mind Booster Noori
30 March, 15:01
<blockquote>“We’re listening and we’ve postponed the date on which radio will become a subscription service outside the USA, UK and Germany.”</blockquote>
No, if you had listen, you wouldn’t postpone the decision, but withdraw it. You’ll have to do more than say “in your country it isn’t feasible to have an ad-supported service”, specially when in my country (Portugal) there are so many ad-supported services, and I bet you’ll find something similar in other countries. What are you saying? That the money you get in your freemium model, plus the one you earn in referral, is so small that doesn’t go into equation, and that people in Portugal click less in your ads than people in US, for instance?
If you want support from your users, you need, at least, to get way more transparent with them.
Stu
30 March, 15:20
The problem with people not wanting to pay €3.00 might be that those people are music crazy kids around the age of 14 or so :D
I can’t think of a grown up person whining about €3.00.
musicgodlything
30 March, 15:25
(All other APIs remain free/unchanged)
What does that mean? If I’m not in the G3, but I use a “certain” third-party app I can stream music for free?
fetzig!
30 March, 15:25
i think you just don’t get it!
radio is free (u know the waves in the air, everybody can hear it)
internet is free and global (all other sucks)
so you are going to make a internet radio not for free and not global.
so i have to look for an alternative.
that just sucks, that sucks hard. i wouldn’t bother, because there are many hard sucking things in the web. but last.fm is great, and had big potential. now its just another service of some douchebags how don’t know how to get money for their penthouse!
if the service wouldn’t have been so cool all those years i wouldn’t whine now like a little baby. but its just to sad.
“Ick kann jar nich soville fressen, wie ick kotzen möchte.”
amzuq
30 March, 15:26
just use proxy! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> http://jayaprakashkv.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-configure-firefox-to-free-proxy.html
becerro
30 March, 15:30
No no, you’re not listening. If you really did, you would be looking for another solution.
As I said in a formar post, this is a music community managed by deaf people.
RJ
30 March, 15:32
Mind Booster: Consider that our costs for music licensing to support the radio service are much higher than a typical ad-supported site. Ads may pay for servers and bandwidth, but making them pay the music licensing fees on top is a different matter altogether.
Flor
30 March, 15:33
It’s not about the money for me (I already subscribe since 3 years ago or so) but the distinction made between people in the UK/US/Germany and “everyone else” feels like a slap in the face.
What last.fm is actually saying is that users outside of those three countries don’t matter enough to them to invest in finding an ad-supported solutions over there. Same service for same costs, no taxation without representation etcetera etcetara
chuwei
30 March, 15:33
- Gift for friends – Alternative ways to pay
wow. just wow.
I understand the decision probably has got more to do with crappy international music licensing than anything else, but it doesn’t make it suck any less.
Paying will simply demonstrate that we agree with the system. I want to see the day in this space when everyone will be treated equally so I guess I’ll have to just leave.
HumanRejection
30 March, 15:34
So, protests did work lol. I [url=http://www.last.fm/user/HumanRejection/journal/2009/03/30/2lx75c_the_last.fm_subscription_decision]look[/url] like a fool now. I still support last.fm in every decision they make. AND GOOD FOR THE GIFT SUBSCRIPTION.
dankine
30 March, 15:34
cheers for the info and the extra stuff. gl :)
Superfly Guy
30 March, 15:35
all music will eventually be free
markusk
30 March, 15:36
“Thereafter, radio in the USA, UK and Germany will remain ad-supported, and radio in other countries where it’s not feasible to have an ad-supported service will be moving to a subscription service.”
so again – no more ads outside US/UK/DE even if one isn’t subscribed?
peddro
30 March, 15:37
I’m allready paying, and I want to keep on doing it…
But!
Does this bring the iPhone/Android app to paying country’s?
Mjascow
30 March, 15:41
I still don’t see why, although income from ads might vary greatly based on geographic location as you put it, the subscription fee can’t be the same for all users.
i.e. why not $2 for all users instead of $3 to one half and free for other half?
Fact remains users are being treated differently purely based on geographic location, which is just silly on a global-scale medium such as the internet.
Shadowstorm
30 March, 15:41
@ Stu: that issue is not about whining. The issue is about selectively ruling out certain countries to pay a so called “access fee” is nothing short of bullshit. I’ll echo the thought that someone else said: I thought last.fm was above nonsensical Internet-boundary shit.
cubus
30 March, 15:41
I think it’s very sad what’s happening to last.fm right now. I understand these are tough times for nobel concepts like last.fm is (same thing happened to http://www.fabchannel.com/ for example.). I have a lot of respect for the brave ones who dare to start such things.
What now I don’t – and REALLY don’t – understand is why you are discriminating your userbase outside the USA, UK and Germany. Every user / listener on last.fm is equal. So, or we all will have to pay, or it will all stay for free.
This decision feels to me as a lack of respect.
Greetings from Belgium.
harleypaul
30 March, 15:42
if you want music for free listen to the radio or other internet radio stations or spotify,im lucky as i live in the uk but i still subscribe,why do we all think we can have music for fuck all
markusk
30 March, 15:42
and.. all this doesn’t change anything of the root cause for all the whining your first announcement triggered – the inequity in it.
make it 1€ worldwide, and all would be fine – taking into account that folks in the “big 3” are more confident in paying online this should give even more bucks than the current plan..
AndreaUrbanFox
30 March, 15:43
cretins- hope u go under
Shadowstorm
30 March, 15:43
Also, thank you very much last.fm staff for listening to the community and updating us on this.
maz
30 March, 15:45
@Christof Damian
I think its been said all along that free downloads are unaffected.
problematique_
30 March, 15:47
I’m on last.fm’s side with this one. Radio is free because music licenses are paid either with tax money, or ad revenue.
I mean, come on guys; you’d rather let the radio die, rather than pay a minuscule amount of money every month?
I got a question though; why just Germany? How come France, Italy, Spain etc. won’t be funded by ads?
You guys are awesome though, don’t let the haters get you down.
...
30 March, 15:48
not only that you weren’t really listening, you are not cool anymore and we don’t trust you… i think i’ll keep using the other service i’ve found.
jagabandhu
30 March, 15:48
As a previous subscriber i’ve seen last.fm go down the tubes since the over haul last year. In beta testing we told you fairly unanimusly that the site would suck but you didn’t listen to us and went ahead launching anyway. Currently my library is screwed up cos you launched auto-corrections without my noticing it. So I decided to not renew my sub till I see things imporove a bit round here. Yesterday I found out second hand by visiting a protest group (!!!) (http://www.last.fm/group/Bring+back+the+free+last.fm) that I will be charged to listen on last.fm even though the service is not great here with constant bad development ideas pushed ahead whilst the bugs never get fixed. And try getting an answer on the forums here! No chance.
pietertothemuze
30 March, 15:50
Richard, these additional measures don’t justify at all your final decision: “As soon as we’ve completed the upgrades noted above, we’ll move ahead with the transition. Thereafter, radio in the USA, UK and Germany will remain ad-supported, and radio in other countries where it’s not feasible to have an ad-supported service will be moving to a subscription service.”
Please read what the group “Equal rights for last.fm members” stands for.
kraymer
30 March, 15:50
huh, it was possible to pay for someone else’s subscription before! (I did it.)
you obviously did listen to folks mentioning some technical issues but what you’re changing still does only help subscribers. (it’s still good that you’ll continue providing other applications with streaming support — on the other hand, it would be a slap to all the developers’ faces to deny access now that they helped spread lastfm so much by implementing the radio everywhere)
i wonder if there’ll be another “revisited” blog post..
Kimiko
30 March, 15:52
Well, I think the trouble people had with this move of Last.fm isn’t so much paying €3, as it is having differences between countries which should be treated equally on the internet.
Can you comment on the alternative of making the Last.fm service subscription-only in all countries, including Germany, the UK and the USA?
BrokenDarkne55
30 March, 15:56
What of group radios?
If one or some users within a group are from USA, UK, Germany, but others are not, will they all be able to access the group radio or just the ones from USA, UK, Germany
jagabandhu
30 March, 15:59
Yes indeed kraymer it was available before! Nothing to add there RJ.
bob sac
30 March, 16:02
now will last.fm actually fix their os x app to properly support all their features like playing an actual playlist you save!
maybe then will paying for your service be worth it.
same with the iphone app. you can’t even play a playlist you created. and for the record, i already pay the $3/m.
devolute
30 March, 16:03
Sounds fair to me.
Excuse my ignorance, but does this mean that my S60 app mobbler is a) screwed or b) not screwed?
Martin
30 March, 16:03
??No no, you’re not listening. If you really did, you would be looking for another solution.
As I said in a formar post, this is a music community managed by deaf people.??
QFT +1
jagabandhu
30 March, 16:08
The two words for the captcha for my last post were “stopping campaign”. Wonder what the words will be this time? “corporate bullshit” perhaps? Or “going under”?
WebCM
30 March, 16:08
All humans are equal on the Earth. If you want us to pay for the radio service, you should NOT select nations that will listen to the radio for free.
We live in XXI century. There should be NO discrimination. There is no fascism, no national socialism in Europe.
Thorn Born Son
30 March, 16:09
Second Kimiko’s question and add to that my question, 99% of my last.fm time is spent with just the streamer. The web ads are not bothering me at all, ergo no incentive to go ad-free. Put the ads in the stream and I will be a subscriber the next day to be free of them.
discordia23
30 March, 16:09
Maybe it would be easier for some people to accept having to pay if the rates were a bit more flexible, so you could maybe listen to 60 songs for €1 per month, 150 for €2, 240 for €3 and so on or something similar.
Brian
30 March, 16:10
Last.fm you didn’t get the point.
You apologize is nice but not so clever!
Many users left your webs-site, I deleted my profile!!
And I’ve found much better network with music called R&R World
http://www.randrworld.com
Oio
30 March, 16:12
Thank you! :) First good decision since year! :P But probably – i’ll buy a subscribtion now.
Usumacinta
30 March, 16:12
I hope 2 things:
-That you change the payment method. Paypal really sucks! (They make you pay to open an account with them, for example, and if you click on the wrong button once you wait 3 days to get a code to validate your account, they charge you again! And since I don’t have an account in the US I won’t get that money returned, grrrr).
In Central America, where I live, the best payment method is credit or international debit cards. We don’t have SMS payments here.
-On the other hand, I hope the subscription improves the service. For example, I sometimes have the impression I only get the same 10 or 20 songs over and over again… from a library of more than 1,200 artists! I have some artist in my library that have only been played once or zero times…
Bilal
30 March, 16:14
Last.fm was my ONLY resort for legal music, but now, and if I choose to pay any amount of money to you, I refuse to give my support to any, and I mean ANY advertisement on my profile page or my radio page.
Will that happen?
mathiasjabs
30 March, 16:14
someone wrote in the last topic and I agree:
“Wow, I’m surprised at all the haters.
c. $6 CAD / mo seems really reasonable for unlimited streaming audio, based on my listening habits. I’ve been surprised that last.fm has been free for so long.
I’ll gladly pay.”
Jakki
30 March, 16:18
Ugh I agree with the people here – I know it is really hard with music fees and licensing and everything, but I just feel its SO rude to just separate the USA/UK/Germany people and leave everyone else to pay for the service.
So much international music makes up part of the lastfm library – its just disrespectful ; not just to the listeners but the artists as well.
Paulo
30 March, 16:25
last.fm has come up with the radio equivalent to shipping costs … nice
lots of free radios out there.
Me
30 March, 16:27
Thank you, but you’re still discriminating us.
Raise Hell:
They are listening to their community? There’s absolutely no change in plan except for the postponement. In fact they are focusing on improving methods so we can PAY them. What a joke. They won’t get my money, and they won’t get my scrobbling data. And honestly, I fucking don’t care about their licensing problems for different countries, because WE ALL are ONE HUGE community. It only seems to be fair that everyone should pay a little bit instead of having most countries in the world paying more. And seriously, does anyone really believe users in US, UK and Germany are clicking more often ads? Absolutely not, I’d even claim the contrary. The more advanced a country is in terms of technology, the more likely it will be that people know about alternative browsers like Firefox with ad-blocking, or desktop firewalls that also block ads.
penas
30 March, 16:29
Shame on you.
Work a little harder to get revenue by adds in other countries.
We wont pay, that’s all.
Hope you get enough feedback to make you think and so doing, keep yourselves alive!
Thanks
Andrea Grandi
30 March, 16:31
I’m not so happy to pay for a service that was free until now, but… if we have to pay because you cannot pay streaming licences, then ALL HAVE TO PAY!
If we all paid 2€/month (including USA, UK and DE) would be better than paying 3€ with the three free countries.
All Last.fm users should be considered in the same way!
If you consider me a B-serie user, then I’ll stop using the service. That’s all!
Lucia
30 March, 16:35
Being able to pay by sms would be great. I hope it will be available for Slovakia, too. Last.Fm is a great service and I would pay for it, but not by PayPal.
Good Luck
COOOCK
30 March, 16:36
#
mathiasjabs you are a brainless twat. it’s not about money, it’s about fuckin’ discrimination. GO DIE LASTFM
criza
30 March, 16:39
If you keep the service free for users in Germany, you have to do the same for the Swiss users.
Don’t you think so?
There’s no big difference between German and Swiss users!!
andrea25
30 March, 16:42
and what about subscribers’ loyalty discount, RJ?
it would be great if last.fm could reward long-time subscribers with discounts.
i mean, it doesn’t seem too fair that if one person buys one month subscription – only one time in his life – he pays 3$; while another person, more loyal to last.fm, if he buys a full year subscription, every year, he still pays 3$ a month.
it would be great to have a subscription plan like the premium zone of rapidshare – the more you subscribe, the less you pay.
AndreaUrbanFox
30 March, 16:44
step up the protests How about the London based Last customers who are against Last latest platitudes and bs meet up outside their HQ just off Old street with placards, megaphones and do a proper demonstration? I`m up for it! Its no good sitting behind our computers and just signing iPetitions. If we make a fuss in front of their offices lots more ppl will take notice of how unfair Last is. We can get the media involved. They would LOVE a few pics to go in their tabloids. That is just 1 of many pro-active things that people could/should do. If you`re not in London, find our if Last has offices in your country and do a demo there. Failing that, contact the media in your country and let them in on the discrimination Last makes and how they ultimately will screw up many independent musicians and customers alike. The media loves a scandal ;)
becerro
30 March, 16:48
@criza There is no difference between users, no matter where theu are from.
Patparazzi
30 March, 16:49
I like the suggestion of Mjascow lower fee but everyone has to pay.
By doing this maybe you won’t need anymore publicity to stay alive and won’t have to deal with all those corporate sharks.
GODwarned
30 March, 16:49
By SMS…YOU MUST DO IT!
zaroastra
30 March, 16:51
Why not leave people without subscription with access only to “recomended” or whatever free music you get your hands on (there are loads of bands trying to promote their music) + publicity, and mandatory subscrition for everyone that wants to hear the rest (us, uk, de included). That way you could go from 3$ month to 1 $month for everyone, in the process you would eliminate the discrimination that is pissing so many people.
george
30 March, 16:54
“Last.fm has always been about making music culture more democratic: everyone listening to music how they want to, when they want to. Without a middle man making your decisions for you.”
http://www.last.fm/about
trolllover
30 March, 16:56
I hope you add more non-indie pop music to the service now. I hate to see my subscription funds ending up with the major companies or artists’ whose music I don’t listen to at all.
Also we need to be able to listen to all our playlists from third-party apps. Make it happen please.
delusionbeta
30 March, 16:56
…
It’s still an incredibly dumb decision.
Why couldn’t you start allowing adverts in the radio stream instead of resorting to charging everyone outside of three countries a monthly subscription?
Hell, you’ll probably get a more positive response if you didn’t exclude the three countries…
Of course, there’s still 48 hours till April 1st…
WildTangent
30 March, 16:56
I would have no problem continuing to pay for last.fm if you applied this new policy globally. We either all pay, or none of us should. Right now, I feel like I’m being discriminated against, and I live barely an hour from the US too. No more subscription money from me, and I’m even considering deleting my account all together.
p
30 March, 16:58
Looks like you are still committed to “playing the right songs to the right people”.
cooock sucks
30 March, 16:59
COOOCK
you need to learn to respect another opinions. brainless are you!!!
PBG
30 March, 17:04
i’m an international user (based in both France and Canada over time) but also involved in the music industry.
I must say that as much as I like the service and use it, their attitude toward people involved in the biz is just lame. I never understood the way they considered us and thought they were shooting in their foot by doing so. they never realized taht in major parts of canada’s market, indie labels are vital and are the ones that could pay for some ads. but since they treated us like shit, who would have paid? For a service not everybody understands at first glance and therefore that need us, the people involved inour markets and niches, to explain it to our fans.
At the time of theses incidents, I was involved with 2 artists on a “major” indie label in Québec. Today, I work for another“major” indie in Québec. Unfortunately, I can’t consider that last.fm actually listens to anybody except themselves.
somtheing else will come up to replace them sooner or later.
moshind
30 March, 17:07
Go to hell anti semites, If all would pay, then it was great and justified, but the “big 3” countries doesn’t have to pay, all others yes, this is not fair, All i assume is that you dont want a user base out of those countries, then you dont have, i’m certainly not going to give a dime as long the discrimination continues, hell, I’m going to cancel my account and find myself a better home the you, assholes.
feeding
30 March, 17:16
It’s good to hear from you, RJ. I never see last.fm as people motivated by racist ideology, and I do understand your need to raise a lot of money.
BUT if licensing cost is the problem, what about loyality-free music uploaded onto last.fm by the artists themselves? Couldn’t we users outside the three juicy areas listen to these independent artists’ tracks as if we listen to the radio, and scrobble? I read a post by Russ in a web services forum where he stated that there is a possibility (not confirmed at all). I hope it will come true, though I’m firmly determined I will never give you my listening data by using Audioscrobble software (it’s gone from my computer) because I have lost all the trust and faith I’ve had in you. If major labels tell you they want more license fees, you would just raise the subscription fee, with a five-day notice. You see, I never trust you and I’m not paying you a penny. That’s what you get from me.
And if the adverts you put in the international sites fail to work, please employ a more effective designer who is experienced with ad-supported services. A general shopping website advert, powered by Google Ad-sense, buried deep down in a song info page, will never work no matter where your targeted area is. We just listen to the track in the player at the top of page, and leave. Nobody will notice that the ad was there.
Good luck, I will never be an active user of your service. So long, and thanks for the fish.
An European
30 March, 17:18
This does not change anything. I’m going to be considered somebody less valuable just because I live outside the mentioned country. I can imagine two solutions:
- remain free for all, or
- everyone should pay
No discrimination is acceptable based on country! If everyone is about to pay, I will as well. If I must, just because I live where I was born, I won’t use your service, because this is not fair.
marmey
30 March, 17:19
This post explain some things but you still don’t see the main problem. People living outside US, UK and DE if they want to listen last.fm radio HAVE TO pay for it and users from these 3 countries only watch adverbs and have CHOICE what they CAN to buy.
James
30 March, 17:21
All these calls of ‘discrimination’ make my blood boil. It belittles the word for one.
You are not discriminated against just because you can’t have what someone else can have. It is like saying I live in Spain and I am discriminated against because I’m not allowed to have Barrack Obama as my President. Or that I’m discriminated against because I can’t use the British National Health Service even though I live in Canada.
It would be lovely if the world was boundaryless, and we were all one big happy family, but that is not how the world is, and Last.fm has to operate within this world. As they have pointed out they need to pay for ever track that gets streamed from this site, and someone has to pay for that, nevermind the cost of staffing, servers, bandwith etc. Music is not free, and nor should it be. How would artists survive and make music if it was? Yes the global superstars can go on world stadium tours, but your average band would never produce any records because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. How would you like to work for 12/18 months, and then be told you wouldn’t be paid for all the efforts you’d put into it?
Last.fm could abandon the advertising model completely and make everyone buy a subscription. But this would probably not be a wise move for a number of reasons:
For one Last.fm needs some countries to try and develop the free/advertising model. If music licensing laws, and advertising revenue improve for the better, Last.fm will be ready to take that model and put it back into other countries. If they dump that model completely and move to a subscription only model, that model dies. The battle is completely lost.
Additionally why should subscribers / CBS / Last.fm or anyone else subsidise the site for people in countries who can’t support the cost through adverts? People use Ad-Block, or browse the site hardly clicking on an ad, yet expect to be fed free music that is tailored specifically to their tastes.
People think Spotify, or some other site is the answer… ‘If they can do it, why can’t Last.fm?’ I don’t know for sure, but I know Spotify (which incidentially is operating a similarly country restricted model) is backed by huge amounts of startup investment money right. That will run out eventually and they will need to monetize the product. They have already said the adverts will continue to increase. They want consumers to move from the free to the monthly subscriptions. The internet world is waking up to the fact that adverts can’t support everything. More and more sites are (and will) following the lead of Pandora and Last.fm
It is a very bad trait for people to ‘want want want’ what other people have, to look with envy and greed at others is a sad state of affairs. People should look at what this site can offer them whether for free or a fee, and decide whether they wish to use it. Not scream like a spoilt child that they want what the other person has.
As a final point… to the Last.fm guys and girls. This site rocks, and always has done. It can’t be easy to read some of the negative comments flying around. If you keep up the good work, and continue to evolve the site I’m certain you’ll continue to have a massive and appreciative fan base. You certainly have my gratitude for creating the best place of the web.
Rui
30 March, 17:22
My plan was to delete my account today.
But since this announcement may plan is…
…to delete my account today.
Discrimination is a crime.
You are operating in the EU and yours fascis…t pricing system is ILLEGAL. Hope you get enough subscriptions to pay the well deserved fine.
I will focus ma attention in Jamendo, at least independent music isn’t nazi.
unfair
30 March, 17:26
It’s inconceivable that last.fm fanboys don’t understand why people are pissed of by this decision. It’s not about the money – It’s about unfair treatment of users!
Anandamide
30 March, 17:28
- if a country outside the G3 brings enough publicity in the future, is there a chance the persons from this country recover a free access to the radio ? Is the G3 extensible, and is it a real economic decision, or an ideologic/strategic one, in other terms ? (of course you won’t answer but let’s try)…
- why haven’t you made different zones, according to the economic standards of living in the different countries? This is not crazy, dreamy or I don’t know what. Even Coca Cola doesn’t sell its bottles at the same price in all countries. That’s the basis of capitalism to adapt its prices to the local markets, to talk with words CBS can understand. And internet changes nothing to that, our wallets are simply not virtuals !
a subscriber from France.
Vladimir Zlokazov
30 March, 17:46
Well this makes more sense than the 1st announcment. At least I believe a bit more that it is the outdated licencing system who’s discriminating us rather than Last.fm.
My 2 cents:
1. SMS-payment is a must-do! PayPal refuses registering my 2 cards in Russia for some reason. Means – I won’t be able to pay. Pay-by-SMS isn’t so difficult to adopt.
2. Maybe limit free users with 30 tracks per month and not in whole? Otherwise many accounts would be dead after listening to those initial 30 free tracks. With monthly limit folks would still come back from time to time and maybe would subscribe one day.
3. Fire your advertisement department in Russia. Those guys don’t worth the chairs they sit on. I often use streaming and see one and the same ad: THE NCAA Championship… No wonder why you can’t cover the costs with ads revenue particularly in my country.
Panzdcigl
30 March, 17:47
I hope that focusing the business only in US ,UK and Germany will not let the quality of music in the rest of the world decrease a lot.Also; asking for a subscribtion in some countries maybe will reduce the number of users and indipendent artists of those countries , so the number of artists scrobbled and so on , decreasing maybe the quality of the entire service offered.
Me as an Italian user and also sometime a subscriber , will have to pay for a service that offer to me an “ENGLISH CENTERED SERVICE”.
What i want to say is that i had to pay for a service that for me as “REST OF THE WORLD USER” maybe will be inferior to the one when it was free???
I hope i’m wrong ,but i need “SOME ANSWERS” from “LAST.FM STAFF” Because this will affect my decision to subscribe or not your service.
P.S Sorry for my poor english…bye.
hdsander
30 March, 17:48
Flor said “the distinction made between people in the UK/US/Germany and “everyone else” feels like a slap in the face.” — that’s it!!!
Assert a one and a half bucks subscription for the whole world. US/UK/Germany have nearly 50% of all users, so it should be possible to halve the fee.
No compromise about that: Treat all users equally!!!
Ingumsky
30 March, 17:50
It doesn’t change anything. There’s the same shit but this time in a coloured bag.
Bart
30 March, 17:55
Hello,
My name is April Fool. I was born several years ago, and my birthday is within two days from the moment of typing this. I welcome you all to join my party.
In the meantime, at the moment, subscriptions are EUR 2,50 per month instead of EUR 3,00 per month. That, or they are USD 3,00 per month instead of EUR 3,00 per month.
“I love it when a plan comes together”
— Kolonel John “Hannibal” Smith
jagabandhu
30 March, 18:10
http://www.last.fm/forum/21717/_/517178
jagabandhu
30 March, 18:17
From www.last.fm/about: Back in the 20th Century, Felix Miller and Martin Stiksel were running an online record label whose mission was to get independent music out to the people who wanted to hear it. A few years later, university student Richard Jones started tracking what he and his friends were listening to on their computers with a project he called Audioscrobbler. Last.fm brought these ideas and desires together. Luckily, these days it’s about letting people choose the music themselves – rather than subjecting the world to Felix’s music taste (or we’d all be listening to Elvis and Japanese surf garage). Last.fm has always been about making music culture more democratic: everyone listening to music how they want to, when they want to. Without a middle man making your decisions for you.
Obviously it’s not about that anymore :(
Babs
30 March, 18:17
So when does it go up from £1.50 to £3 in the UK?
If I had known you were going to postpone, I’d have waited for my current subscription to end so I could set up a recurring one.
I’ve bought one-offs and now I feel messed about. You could have made this announcement sooner.
btw – I don’t see this decision as racist or discriminatory in any way. I don’t see how anyone could.
Robert
30 March, 18:18
UK, USA and Germany not changes?.. why the ppl from others countries have to pay? it’s no clear.. i pay, im subscriber but i don’t like that behaviour!, it seems a kind of discrimination! that sucks!
Discrimination:
Definition: The act of discriminating, distinguishing, or noting and marking differences
jagabandhu
30 March, 18:23
Also fron www.last.fm/about: Sometimes we get nostalgic for the early days. Then we give ourselves a slap around the head and say “Wake up! There are still people who can’t get at the music they want the way they want to. So, back to work…”
Well it seems that now most lastfm users will not “get at the music they want the way they want to”
Vladimir Zlokazov
30 March, 18:31
Folks! Try to look at the situation with the ‘Big3’ countries in another way. They make it free where they can. Would it be nicier to restrict access for more people than less only because it is ‘fair’ and nothing more?
Marc
30 March, 18:37
Still sux, its perfectly possible to set up a localized advertizing scheme. But you need to want to do it. You don’t, that sux.
fusiooon
30 March, 18:38
Cool for me (from UK) :) , crap for everyone else :(
step21
30 March, 18:38
@Thorn Born Son “99% of my time with last.fm is spent with the streamer” (which has no ads)
See, you just justified last.fms move, cause this in effect means they pay for streaming to you, but don’t get ad revenue even if they had ads relevat to your country (which I don’t know)
An European
30 March, 18:47
Vladimir: Yes it would.
I would happily agree to pay a small amount of money if it were used by last.fm to make the necessary payment in other countries lower. Because if we all pay, we all pay less.
Linton
30 March, 18:56
Does this mean that all current third-party radio apps will keep working permanently for subscribers, or will they all need to be rewritten to use the official API in future?
Also, regarding the subscription cost, will the current choice of currencies be kept? If I’m in Britain but, for some strange reason, I would prefer to pay 3 USD than 3 GBP, will I be able to?
delusionbeta
30 March, 18:56
Of course, I’ve forgotten the fact that you’ll break EU law and become liable to a fat fine.
I’ll give this change six months.
winso1983
30 March, 18:58
Tragically, all this mess it’s about the money.
Think about this for a second: how many users from these huge community are from US, UK, and Germany and how many are from the rest of the world?
I think that communities like Last.fm are very rare: just see the reaction that one decision (good or bad, you Last.fm guys know the reasons better that I) provoke in a very short period of time.
Internet has become a very important tool for all the mankind, a unique place where people from all over the world can share their tastes, feelings, and many others things. Personally, I couldn’t find anything better than Last.fm for sharing-music-thoughs.
For the best of the community, please reconsider your decision once again. A lot of people are expecting an intelligent a fair decision for all the parts.
Slovenian
30 March, 19:07
This update doesn’t address my concerns, it just invents new ways of paying for a service which many of us don’t agree with on principle. I stick by my decision to not scrobble anything anymore.
Ambybunny
30 March, 19:16
So… what you are basically saying is you didn’t understand why we are upset. You are presenting us with these new features, like they are a difficult compromise for you, while you probably should have implemented such features anyway. Nothing changes though, the discrimination and division of your sites community continues and you are committed to making a buck out of it. Doesn’t sound good. It seems the protest goes on, then, with added fervour.
Points to ponder about:
1. Licenses, either use them or lose them. – You pay a hand and a leg paying the copyright industry as licensing. You say have the largest catalog of music online, you should then have all the muscle you need to throw them a bone. “Either you ease up with your demands or we stop playing your music. Plenty of free material around to use the collected scrobble data to recommend independent lesser known artists to people in our streams instead of yours.”
2. Want to keep providing streams to all? Demand subscription for everyone wanting to hear licensed music. Provide free music streams to everyone.
3. Even if you make all streams subscriber-only it is more ethical than dividing listeners based on ad-revenues.
See, I didn’t complain about those measly 3 euros. But actually, while I am on the topic of money, I’d like to give you a tip. If you chose any of the above 3, you’d probably make enough money to cover the costs even if the subscription fee was only 1 euros.
Hopefully,
me.
http://www.last.fm/user/Ambybunny/journal/2009/03/30/2ly6uh_my_open_letter_to_last.fm
Marc
30 March, 19:18
And again, I quote from the last.fm about page:
=================================================
Sometimes we get nostalgic for the early days. Then we give ourselves a slap around the head and say “Wake up! There are still people who can’t get at the music they want the way they want to. So, back to work…”
Bob42
30 March, 19:18
Last.fm can’t explain any more than they have.
To do so would be to admit that if you don’t live in the UK, Germany or the US, then Last.fm doesn’t want you.
Of course you won’t pay. That’s OK, because you are not part of the business model.
Don’t feel left out. Once the service has collapsed to just the three remaining countries, the people from UK, Germany and the US will also abandon it in favour of a more international service.
Shame.
Elisabeth87
30 March, 19:21
I wanted to suscribe for a long time now, but I have no credit card. Maybe I will suscribe in the future when it is possible to pay with sms.
But I think it is unfair, that all countries beside UK, USA and D have to pay.
I hope this will be changed in the future.
Javier Pimentel
30 March, 19:27
Unfair is a word that doesn’t describe this decision. No matter your explanations, what you are saying sounds to me like this: I am going to charge you because you are Colombian.
I am evaluating the possibility of leaving Last.Fm for good and I think every other user that has been discriminated by country of origin should do the same. Staying here feels to me like endorsing my own discrimination.
I am not part of a radical anti-globalization group but these are the kind of things that encourage anti-globalization attitudes. You want a global Last.FM but you create distinctions between your users and of course Latin Americans are always part of the less favoured group:
You want them and use all of their data for your charts and for the means of your community, but decide to charge them because you haven’t figured out a way to afford an equal Last.Fm for everybody.
I am really dissapointed.
the big boss
30 March, 19:28
More adds in the UK, Germany and US and no subscription for the rest. Plus p2p. really
Gina
30 March, 19:33
Okay, but you really should add additional payment options to make the subscription available for people who want to subscribe and have no credit card.
BTW.: There are a lot of tracks who are not streamable on Last.Fm yet, since you apparently haven’t got the rights for them yet.You ought to work on that, too. You’ve mentioned you postponed the date for the subscription radio, when will that be?
Errant
30 March, 19:34
Clearly none of the detractors here have ever: – Run a business – Licensed music (and come across the stupidly high fees) – Run any kind of hugely popular community – Ever run any service across multiple countries
As someone who has I sympathise. Business decisions like this never go down well. But they have to be made and Kudos for just getting on with it :)
Life is not free people – live with it ok.
The NMO
30 March, 19:34
Right, Im moving to Germany. Problem solved
lastclient
30 March, 19:36
Have you considered to manage better the advertising in your website? I think this incoming source is being underutilise, because there is few ads and they are not customized to the users.
Please, don’t waste the fact to have million of users. Consider that thousands of them(us) will leave the site and then the opportunity to earn money with them.
Andreas
30 March, 19:41
@RJ:
You wrote in the comment above: “clients that identify as mobile devices will have additional restrictions (ie, slightly less content is available)”, but Russ told us that “we’ve had to remove a significant amount of content from mobile clients due to contractual issues” in this posting: http://www.last.fm/group/Last.fm+for+iPhone+and+iPod+Touch/forum/103852/_/508841/_/8903508
Is this a bad game you are playing with your customers????
Skunk
30 March, 19:44
I’m still convinced that this is just an April’s Fools joke.
Beer NL
30 March, 19:58
Well, back to bittorrent than. Its not that I dont want to pay 3 dollars a month (not worth anything these days anyway) but you probably gonna need a creditcard, which I don’t have. And probably a lot of other people. So i’ll be pirating again if last.fm goes down.
Rob
30 March, 20:02
If I were last fm the FIRST thing I’d do is run adds in the desktop service.
Secondly I’d make deals with companies like e-music so you can get digital downloads – sorry but buying a CD from Amazon just doesn’t cut it for me.
Seems to me like last.fm have lots of revenue generating opportunities, that won’t split/alienate their users as this decision seems to have done
Rick
30 March, 20:03
In my attempts to argue why this rational business decision is so insulting to Last.fm’s non-US/UK/DE users and utterly destructive to the internet in general, I’ve regularly been insulted by those who are under the mistaken assumption that they are privileged to be on the right site of the pay wall.
The last message on my shoutbox reads:
“Whiny cunt. You are achieving so much! “
So this is what Last.fm is becoming.
Yeah, I really want to pay to be a part of that…
Setting the music free (as in freedom, not gratis) will continue to happen, with or without Last.fm. It was nice while it lasted, but there will be others.
PhiloSSof
30 March, 20:09
It`s not fair at all. It`s a discrimination. You said that you can`t get enough money now to pay for bla bla bla… But how it was in the past? What had changed?
You GET money from advertising, don`t you?
___
Let`s see, what had happened. In the course of the years users of the Lastfm (now it`s better to name it lost.fm)FOR FREE helped you to grow up by posting and editing information about different artists and musicians. They do it FOR FREE, and (absolutely justly) use lastfm also FOR FREE. When they loaded a lot of history and biography info`s about artists on lostfm, the radio become really more comfortable and attractive for new users, YOU decided TO ENFORCE them to PAY. Is it FAIR in your opinion??? People gave you necessary information and get back music and it was ideal, but now…. it`s sucks. Capitalism must die!
wanderingcanuck
30 March, 20:13
Thank you for listening to some of us, but ultimately this really doesn’t change much, if anything.
The great thing about the internet is that no one can stop the noise. When one alternative becomes unfeasable, another opportunity opens up for someone else.
Last.fm won’t disappear overnight, and it won’t spin into financial crisis ( hell it may even make a larger profit ) but your userbase will die off and Last.fm will be forgotten in the nooks and crannies of history eventually.
Why is this? Because there are better alternatives. They may not have the glitz or glamour, but the functionality is virtually the same.
Again thank you for listening to what some people had to say, but there are still some pretty substantial hurdles to overcome here. Listen to those other people you chose to ignore and you may be on to something.
Osama
30 March, 20:19
What you can accept from the UK, the first Muslim country in Europe, you better put Hindu, Arab and Black music on your radio, those are your listeners in the UK. Fools
Tim Dobson
30 March, 20:23
I still think it’s very sad and I encourage last.fm to reconsider their decision.
Perhaps see if any of the groups you pay licence fees to have sympathy for your position?
Rui
30 March, 20:26
Have 36€/year to spend on a music service?
Donate it to musicians who published their music on Jamendo for free. Free like free speech and free like free beer.
They deserve more your money than fat arrogant bastards who run the major labels.
The music revolution is still out there, Last.fm just jumped out of that boat.
PhiloSSof
30 March, 20:33
The music revolution is still out there, Last.fm just jumped out of that boat.
+1000000
Krap
30 March, 20:37
@Ambybunny: Amen.
Justus
30 March, 20:38
Why don’t you add an advertisment each time you start the radio. Our let us donate straight to the musician. It’s good that you guys listen. But there is still this CBS guy breathing in your neck, saying you need to get more money. We understand your position.
Murali
30 March, 21:33
I feel sad. But I don’t care how much last.fm charges, it is the one website that has changed my outlook of music. I will be forever indebted to this magnificent service. It was only a matter of time before the losses incurred because of wanting to build a huge database of free fans was outweighed by monetary issues. I feel sad that again the middle men have started talking, that you are not able to provide music transparently. Again the people who don’t deserve money are getting it by leeching it off the fan base that last.fm made over the years.
Svetlana
30 March, 21:41
“I would pay for it, but not by PayPal”.
Same here! PayPal sucks hard. I want subsciption for so long.
Still upset about radio though.
jeromesson
30 March, 21:42
Where is the change, can you tell me?
bojan
30 March, 21:43
payment with SMS would be just great! please work that out!
Nick
30 March, 21:48
No more scrobbling for me then..
I’d be happier about this if the cost was shared with the uk, usa and germany.
I wonder what will be the new last.fm?
mehrzweckraum
30 March, 21:53
if you want to annoy the heck out of last.fm then dont delete your acounts but set up another one and play tag radios like “pop” or “rock” all day long until it isnt free anymore….
or use your existing one with scrobble set to “off”.
happy hours?
30 March, 21:53
There should be available free hours/days weekly/monthly for people who for some reason or other cannot pay their subscription or who are listening to Last.fm just from time to time.
This radio is now losing “light users” who are as important part of the community as are the others keeping the charts up internationally.
I could easily pay my 3 euros monthly as a hooked Last.fm listener, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with my or anybody else’s nationality.
Lena
30 March, 22:06
that’s pity!
you deprive us – whole world – the very best music service of the world…
i love last.fm. it’s my favourite site, but i’ll not pay, because it will kill my delight.
music shall be free. and decline don’t abolish it.
Ernest
30 March, 22:15
This decision affects the countries that the payment is not as cheap as in us,uk or ge, many countries were affected in their currency with this crisis, ex. in Mexico before the crisis 10 pesos = 1 dollar today it is 14 pesos = 1 dollar, this is why many people is complaining because is not only the radio is that all the world have this kind of trouble, i think the decision is not as bad as many said but as i understand… in the internet there is a lot of ways to get money, how many users do you have around the world? if the radio stop many of they will use another service like Pandora, ilike etc, this crisis gives you the opportunity to change this, to find, test, experiment among the solutions to win money with a company like this ex. several times i want to buy a song and you redirect to Amazon, etc why not you sell it with one click, that would be a great idea and you can win that money, anyway my best wishes to lasfm and their users.
Eric Scrobbled Jan '95 - Mar '09
30 March, 22:19
Oh… well I already deleted my account. You’ve only proved that you couldn’t run a bath, let alone a company. Your PR is abysmal.
Emusic seems to value my custom; different business model sure, but rewards for being a longtime member, announcements/pricing changes actually emailed to you, rather than finding out about them on some 3rd party website. It makes me more than happy to support independent labels and artists, and so I won’t be opening a new last.fm, regardless of your decision here. So long, 4 years of scrobblin’, dozens of wiki updates, photo uploads, music advice centre. Enjoy your suit-wearing overlords and the bottom line. I’m sure you’ll have a blast ;)
Alex
30 March, 22:27
Hmm I was ready to invest money to promote some albums via the powerplay campaigns… but since the amount of listeners will drastically decrease… I might review my promotion campaign and move to some other free platforms…
p
30 March, 22:31
Looks like they are still making sure they “have focused on playing the right songs to the right people”. Shame on Last.fm.
Dalvader
30 March, 22:36
May I ask you when do you, approximately, expect the radio will become a subscription service, please?
Thanks.
dj-lb
30 March, 22:38
2 years i’ve been paying for lastfm…not a problem BUT it implies a minimum of SLA. IPhone/Ipod application hasn’t been working correctly (out of content problem) for weeks…really a shame.
Rariteetti
30 March, 22:55
I have to agree with James. (See the long post about half way up from this one.) I would love to see the world being baundryless but the fact is it isn’t.
Also, as James sayd the music is never going to bee free (of charge), and it never should be. Because of that the radio is never free either, not evern when you don’t see the money going in in the form of adds.
I think that the anounsements made could have been better. I did hear about this through Facebook by accident and were quite pissed of about that for the first day. I still think you should create a post that make list/chart of what people get in these different positions (non-subscriber and subscriber in big3 and in other countries). That would make clear the differense between the options people have.
How ever, I definitely support the idea that some limited amounth per month/week/day of streaming would be free for the non-subscribed users in the future too. I think that in future it will be that much harder for you to get new users outside the big3 if the limit is just 30songs total. That would also prevent the lost of “light users” as happy hours? mentioned. I think that would make a huge difference but still the heavystreamers (like yours truely) would subscribe.
And by the way, it’s great you are improving the paying options. I, like many others, don’t want to register to PayPal and since I don’t have a creditcard of my own I had no option to pay a subscription last night when I tried to. (I actually have planned it for ages but being me it always takes long time before I actually get something done.) Especially possibility to pay by textmessage would be highly appreciated!
I, like James, am sincerely thankfull for all the great work the people behind last.fm have done. I was long time a rather casual user (I first registred after Pandora went unuseable outside US but forgot my at some point and did re-register) but slowly my use has increased and I’m seriously in love with this site and all it offerst to me. During the years Last.fm has radically changed my view to music and brought me some of my favourite artists and bands though the numerous radious I’ve listened here. With out your site I propably had never heard about Jay Brannan just to mention one! So thank you for all the work you are doing and I hope you’ll keep on doing this servise even better and hopefully more free someday again.
moonshine26
30 March, 23:03
Well, it surely seems like the middle-men have gotten their teeth deep into last.fm’s throat. Kudos to CBS.
And you know what? It’s not about the damn money. 3 Euros a month ain’t a fortune – it can barely get myself a lousy meal at a fast food. But in this age when nearly everything is digitally available for free (legally or not) the act of actually paying for something has changed its meaning. So you see, it’s no longer about paying to get something, it’s about paying to show your support. I buy CD’s from the artists I love in order to show my support – even though I rip them to my PC and probably never play them again. I don’t have any need for the actual album, as I can easily get it for free, yet I choose to pay to show my support. The same goes for concerts. The same goes for voluntary donations to independent artists.
So you see, money ain’t the issue here. And I’m so damn positive that had last.fm gone into a slightly different direction, sporting actual improvements (there are unresolved issues that date for YEARS and I need not remind them here, everyone knows them) and showing a bit more love to its users, I would have ended up subscribing. Willingly, just to show my support for the great guys that make this all possible.
But when this decision isn’t left solely on me and is pushed down my throat instead… we have a problem. I don’t like it when people push things down my throat. And it just sucks when something you loved, cared about and helped grow just bites back your hand in return. You know what they say about biting the hand that feeds you, right? So it’s only natural to react negatively. Don’t expect people to understand the complex mechanics of things – they had a wonderful toy to play with, now it’s gone. They’re bound to feel angry. Can you blame them?
And I can’t seem to stress this enough: IT’S NOT ABOUT THE DAMN MONEY. Hell, it’s not even the fact that I’m blatantly discriminated against based solely on where I live. But it’s bloody HEARTBREAKING to watch such a beautiful, fresh, modern and clearly revolutionary concept like last.fm used to be go down the drain in such an ugly, distasteful way. You guys were supposed to represent the revolution and, up to a specific point in time, you were just that. But it’s clear that somewhere along the way you lost perspective. This is what’s bothering me and most of the other disgruntled users much more than a 3 Euro fee per month – the fact that last.fm has seemingly turned its back to ALL of the values that made it so great back in the day. You’re not freeing music anymore, you’re burying it.
And you know what else? I don’t really give a tinker’s damn on that licensed music you’re trying so hard to make available to anyone. And I’m positive I’m not alone on this one. There’s no need for another MTV, and there’s hardly any need for yet another lame-ass copy of some generic hit radio station. I want my artists to fuckin’ sing from their hearts, as Bill Hicks used to put it, blessed be his soul. So I would much rather not have access to some of your catalogue, specifically to those artists operating under gigantic labels which claim absurd royalties. They’re not really worthy of my attention anyway, having such a retrograde attitude towards the “social music revolution”. Just let them mind their own businesses, far from our own.
So this is why I urge you, in this final hour, to create a radio exclusively based on free music and to have it freely available for every music lover in this big damned world. It shouldn’t be such a hassle on your end, but it would mean loads to those not-so-few users who still haven’t forgotten about the social music revolution. You obviously have, but that’s ok, we all lose perspective from time to time. It’s not yet too late to get back on track, but the clock is ticking against you.
I’ve laid my account dormant for the time being – waiting for the anger to dissipate and for my head to cool down. It’s almost a relief not scrobbling your tracks, I’ve nearly forgotten how it feels :)
Meanwhile, I’m waiting for that free music radio to be implemented. It’d be a sign of health and lucid thinking coming from you, the first one in a very long while.
Biyu
30 March, 23:04
The music revolution is still out there, Last.fm just jumped out of that boat.
+1000000
Thorn Born Son
30 March, 23:05
@step21 “See, you just justified last.fms move, cause this in effect means they pay for streaming to you, but don’t get ad revenue”
Oh dear, that really tipped the scales, they’re justified… however my point again is that in order to get me paying I need to see added value for me. Are you suggesting that I should submit myself to five minutes daily of online ads for the greater good of last.fm? This is a business not a charity.
A promise of an ad-free web for subscribers is never going to be an incentive, most people filter them out subconsciously anyway.
I also fear that most users start out on the website and then migrate to the streamers. I myself recently migrated from the last.fm player to shell-fm. As a result, revenue from those online ads will slowly dry up and we’ll all be in the same boat in the end, no matter where we came from, unless they start monetising the stream itself.
Jess
30 March, 23:11
“As soon as we’ve completed the upgrades noted above, we’ll move ahead with the transition”
…
so… nothing changes at all then…
shattered_
30 March, 23:12
last.fm has a very intelligent system, I’ll give you that, but it was mostly built with help from us users – we’ve added pictures, we’ve tagged tracks, we’ve added events, we’ve created groups, and so on.. and now that we’ve helped last.fm all the way to the top, we get back stabbed?
i’ve been on last.fm for three years, and this is goodbye – i’m leaving, and i’ll make damn sure to advise everyone i come across to do the same. i was a subscriber for 6 months just because i thought last.fm was really cool and i wanted to support it. then you’ll ask me “if you’ve paid when the radios were free, why not pay it again? it’s only 3 euros1!”
well, i refuse to be a part of this. last.fm got greedy when they’re SO not the only online radio out there. if there’s one thing internet is full of, that’s options.
i’ll be glad to watch last.fm sink while listening to some other website’s radio.
Garmpe
30 March, 23:29
Simple solution: be more like Amazon and other music providers. If you can’t deliver the same service to all countries then only make the service available where you can. You do this already with things like Sonos – I can only use Last.fm on Sonos in the 3 Holy Lands. Don’t make the service available and don’t charge until you can make the service available.
Wendel
30 March, 23:46
I wouldn’t whine about subscription, wasn’t for the fact that last.fm still “sux” when dealing with homonyms.
Like: I’m listening to artist A, then the next one should be D (both are of the same genre), except that the “D” played is an homonym of another genre. I’d expect the client to follow the tags of the musics, not of the artists, so this problem wouldn’t occur…
If I’m not mistaken, the last time this happened to me I was listening to Jpop or Jrock, then it went to play a music by Nightmare, except that it was the wrong one.
If at least last.fm planned to fix that, I would think about subscribing. But I think I read somewhere on the site that this issue wouldn’t never be worked on, so no, I won’t subscribe (at least for now).
G.
30 March, 23:50
There was a really easy way around all these problems: why not charge users from all countries $0.25 or $0.50 a month?
I can’t understand why it’s so hard for Last.fm to understand why there’s so much critique on this move. It’s simply because it’s unfair, and blatantly discriminating.
Last.fm has always been about the worldwide community, a share-all, free-for-all worldwide community. And now you’re throwing it all away, talking about advertisements here and ‘free’ content there. You’re missing the point entirely by segregating user from countries other than the Big Three.
It would have been so easy to raise the costs just a few measely pennies for everyone, but no, you had to single out countries, and break up a once fully coherent community.
If you don’t understand this simple principle, I suggest you quit your job and let me – or anyone here – take yours. Keeping a community together is really not that hard. But Last.fm seems either unwilling or incapable of doing so.
sanaag
30 March, 23:57
It’s good you’re listening. Two points:
1. Geographical restriction of any sort is unfair for a company that was made big by users from the whole world. You wouldn’t consider charging residents of cities that don’t generate enough (ad) revenues, would you? Why then separation on basis of countries?
2. Artists uploaded their music for free. Those outside the big 3 should now pay to listen to their own music, though they don’t receive any royalties. Crazy!
Bottom line: It’s not only about cents. Better communication with and more respect for your most valuable assets (the users) could lead to balanced and acceptable decisions.
G.
31 March, 00:05
“However, we simply can’t be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service. The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it’s a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships.”
I’m sorry, but this is utter drivel. You either let yourself be dictated by geographic restrictions, or you don’t. There’s a way around this, and it’s $0.25 per user worldwide, including users from the Big Three, US/UK/GE.
You only perceive geographical boundaries as a reality if you think from outside the box.
Last.fm simply doesn’t seem willing to do so. If you’re incapable to think of a solution as simple as that, fine, that’s an excuse, but then you should just quit this business.
The “revolution” once implied by Last.fm proves to be false, just like all the other so-called “innovative” web 2.0 companies. And it’s simply because you fall in the same trap every fucking time: you build up something promising (on the ashes of Audiogalaxy nonetheless), and then sell out (to CBS). And Last.fm is a same old, same old company.
What a fucking shame.
Misterdibster
31 March, 01:16
Dear Last.FM,
It must been rough for you lately ever since you announced that you are going to charge users for your radio. I feel your pain but seriously, you could have done this better.
For more than a year now, you’ve been my favourite music website. With your massive library of songs and your rather geniusy music recommendation engine, I thought you were the future of radio after the age of FM. Your music accompanied me when I was in Architecture school and when I was drawing lines in the office and at home.
When you announced in your blog post that you will be charging 3Euros for access to most of your services, the first thing that came to my mind was,“Ok, 3 Euros isn’t that expensive.” I understood that for Last.FM to be sustainable, you would need a business strategy that didn’t just realise on advertising. I also accepted the fact that its about time the world starts paying for what it uses. I equated the monthly subscription fee that you had intended to charge like a radio licensing fee and it wasn’t such a big deal to me.
However, what irks me the most were these lines.
In the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, nothing will change.
In all other countries, listening to Last.fm Radio will soon require a subscription of €3.00 per month.- 24th March, Last.FM Blog
So I’m being discriminated against just because I’m not from US, UK and Germany?! WTF?! Come on, what’s so special about these countries that they do not need to pay for it? And to that, you attempted to clarify it by posting this at another date:
However, we simply can’t be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service. The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it’s a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships- 30th March, Last.FM Blog
Let me be clear about this, I am more than willing to pay for stuff that’s good. And if it is 3euros a month that keeps you from carrying on doing what you need to do, I’m fine. But whose smart idea was it to charge based on geography? My dear friend, its time to re-write that sentence: “The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions IS unfair.
So you are saying that the advertisements served to the rest of the world doesn’t bring you enough money? And that the adverts served to those in the 3 countries are rolling in the dough? Even so, I wonder if this is the best resolution that you can come up with.
Have you considered charging a higher rate for your advertisements so as to cover the additional costs of the ‘others’ ? And what is so bad about charging everyone the same basic flat fee? Or perhaps a tiered subscription service? It seems that what last.fm is actually saying is that users outside of those three countries don’t matter enough to them to find better solutions or a fairer subscription model to the people of the internet. I think this was a complete oversight and this was a bad business decision that didn’t take into consideration the nature of the media landscape that you are working in.
As you would know by now, you’ve got plenty of stick in the forum boards and the comment thread and I don’t think I need to remind you of it. Do think about what all of us the Last.FM community is saying. It’s not that we don’t want to pay you for the good service, it’s about being fair when you implement your business plan. The world is a democratic place and all of us should be treated equally, in this case, the Internet community.
Until you come up with a better explanation, my Last.FM account is going to be dormant. No Scrobbling, No radio, no nothing. You know where to find me when you’ve come up with something better. If not, I’m deleting my account.
Cheers,
Adib / Misterdibster
http://misterdibster.com/blog/2009/03/31/dear-lastfm/
Eric
31 March, 02:16
I have read many comments with growing disbelief.
Why all these pent up replies that the US, Germany and the UK are not having to pay? Is it such great injustice that you need to call it discrimination, compare it to fascism and more of that? My, you must have been tremendously offended to make such a sturdy comparison. Last’fm’s decision must have been a great assault on your wallets and your senses of justice.
Frankly, I don’t care a bit that people in the US, Germany or the UK do not have to pay. What’s the big deal? OK, so then I pay $3 more than they do – so what? I don’t think I will ever notice that they didn’t pay. I guess I’ll just take a cup of tea less, that’s all.
Am I being discriminated against? Well, I guess I have better things to worry about than thinking that I might be. Getting upset about $3 for what is basically a good service is a waste of time.
Does it really bother some of you so much that you need to call people names if they don’t mind paying? Do you honestly think they are ‘mindless twats’ and so on?
It is clear that some of you are very disappointed about the measure, and so am I, but the outrage is beyond proportion.
It is a pity, that’s all.
I’d say pay the amount and get on with your lives. If it is really too much money for you to cough up, then I wonder if you hadn’t rather spend that money on something more valuable to begin with…
Manuel Matheu
31 March, 02:18
Dear Last.fm: I’ve been a happy user since 2007 and this social community it’s in my humble opinion the only one that is useful and the only one that matters, special for music lovers like me. I’ve been supporting this great site by recommending to all of my music lovers friends and so they were reccomending friends as well.
But this awful news it’s make me feel more than sad, disappointed i think it’s the best word that describes it.
In my country, Argentina, €3.00 per month it’s a lot of money, and I glad paid for it if I could, but I think it’s not a matter of money. It’s not only discriminating for third world countries such mine, it’s against all last.fm was standing for, A Truly FREE Social Music Community.
Please in the name of many many people of my country and many others I’m sure, re-think this decision. We refuse to leave a great site like this.
Thanks for reading and sorry for my lame english.
Lili
31 March, 02:38
Well said Misterdibster, Moonshine 26. If we are going to pay, so let all of us pay, Americans, Germans and British along with the rest of the world.
James and Rariteetti, why don’t you guys go learn how to write proper English before vomiting these pompous meaningless hemorrhages of big words? Really fellas…
Barracks are living quarters for personnel on a military post. The president of the States is called Barack Obama. Your neo-liberal discourse is really moving, especially when the economy in the States has showed to the world where it ends.
Lucas Engel
31 March, 03:20
When will April’s Fool message appear?
Marcos Melo Filho
31 March, 03:34
It could be, at least, charged in local money!
Tinosoft89
31 March, 04:20
i’m stay with my account in this site, but after all, you will be ruined with this action.
Raverabbitess
31 March, 04:35
i’m from MX and i thnik €0.75 could be good for ALL country…
say “thanks”:
http://www.randrworld.com/
http://lister.grooveshark.com/
http://mixtape.me/
http://www.mixturtle.com/
http://www.finetune.com/
https://www.spotify.com/
http://www.rockola.fm/
http://www.yes.fm/
http://www.imeem.com/
http://blip.fm/
http://songza.com/
http://www.dizzler.com/
http://www.deezer.com/
http://www.vastfm.com/
http://www.musicovery.com/
http://www.streema.com/
http://www.radioblogclub.com/
http://www.streamzy.com/
http://www.musicmesh.net/
http://mp3realm.org/
http://www.seeqpod.com/
http://www.listengo.com/
http://www.mystrands.com/
http://soundpedia.com/
http://www.maestro.fm/
http://spool.fm/
or… https://www.jondos.de/en/
http://www.torproject.org/index.html
https://tor-proxy.net/
https://torproxy.net/
rates
31 March, 05:12
What about the podcast of recommended music? Will that be available in the future?
kakalto
31 March, 05:33
I understand that ads get more returns in UK, US and Germany, but it doesn’t change the underlying state of affairs emerging around the internet community in general – internet users from smaller (even just different) countries are getting shafted, treated as second rate because they’re not in the big western countries. Which sucks, but I guess it’s not changing any time soon.
Good to hear about the API staying open to 3rd party access, however.
Avinash Meetoo
31 March, 06:03
Like countless people have been saying, most of us understand the cost implications of providing audio streaming and do not really mind paying some money PROVIDED EVERYONE DOES IT (as the Internet is just a global village, isn’t it?)
In one of my comments for the previous post, I said that what seems ideal as far as I am concerned is a quota mechanism:
The radio can be free for, say, 1 hour per day (you decide!) and paying thereafter FOR EVERYONE!
With such a scheme, those who use Last.fm radio SPARINGLY i.e. those DO NOT TAX the Last.fm servers won’t have to pay anything.
There is something that you really need to understand. People like me who live in small and relatively underdeveloped countries have suboptimal Internet connections which, nevertheless, are very costly. It’s impossible for us to listen to Internet radio a lot because (i) the connection is sometimes unreliable and (ii) we generally have monthly data transfer limits. Paying 3 euros per month looks like a bad investment compared to, say, an Italian who will pay the same 3 euros but will have the possibility to listen to the radio ALL DAY LONG IF HE/SHE WANTS TO DO IT (as he/she has a much better Internet connection) and I am not even talking about the Englishman who will not have to do ANY PAYMENT WHATSOEVER.
You really need to come up with something more equitable…
bostok
31 March, 06:44
It’s good to see that last has some sensitivity to this very unpopular set of changes. But it fundamentally changes nothing for international users.
There must be some way to restore parity. I suggest that since international users have some features crippled even after paying the same fee as a US/UK citizen who has paid 3 euros, the international subscription fee outisde the US/UK/De should be reduced slightly. This would make things fairer.
Bad english spoken
31 March, 06:51
Hey lastfm!, i realize you are focus in get money but your service in the last 2 days is having troubles, i am suscriber, so, if you want more money you have to be better too, i wont pay for bad service.. please pay atenttion to the service in these last days.. take of the sign $ of your minds first..! take care of your suscribers because you can loose them
Wogan
31 March, 06:56
Hailing from sunny South Africa.
Last.FM works brilliantly over here, and I wouldn’t hesitate to pay a monthly subscription fee. The only problem – Paypal is a difficulty.
Can you guys look into Moneybookers.com support?
Regards,
NocnikStargazer
31 March, 07:17
This decision doesn’t really change anything in the main problem. Still there are ‘better’ and ‘worse’ users and it’s based only upon the place where they live. And it’s still unfair. I really can understand why we need to start to pay. I can’t understand why some people are going to get more without paying. And yyes, I have read your explanations. They didn’t convince me. If you make everybody pay from the beginning, no matter how much you earn from the ads in their country, there would be much less protests, you would lose much less users and your wouldn’t be damaged so badly.
Still it’s nice to know you noticed our opinion, even though only the part of it. I hope you will find some more fair method of earning. Till then I’m not going to scrobble anything but I might reconsider deleting my account till more is known.
bunker6
31 March, 07:20
One question to last.fm:
Will subscribed users see ads?
One comment to last.fm:
If you guys fail to make payment comfortable you will loose a lot of us.
Current system sucks hard everywhere except US while it is ought to be usable primarily in “the rest of the world”. PayPal rejects many cards issued outside US cause it believes issuing a Visa card in a country such as Russia is a fraud by itself.
No one is going to spend more than five minutes trying to get the money to you.
To cut it short:
If you want ANY subscribers from Russia / USSR and Eastern Europe you HAVE TO accept “Yandex money” or “webmoney” or pay by SMS or something like that.
And a note to the community. I’m amazed with all these talks about “parity” and acts of “protest”. It’s so kiddish and stupid. Boys and girls — noone owes you this service. People have spent a lot of money and their precious life on this service so why the hell do you think they MUST provide it to you free of charge? Cause you so cool? Why?
bakunin
31 March, 07:40
THIS CHANGE NOTHING
I HOPE YOU FUCKING DIE OF SUPERAIDS RICHARD ASSHOLE
fuck you
31 March, 07:48
you break the rules of internet
i’m not going to pay anything
i’m already delete my account
this site is dead to me
lokioki
31 March, 08:10
Proxys here we come !
Justin
31 March, 08:32
This isn’t about money, it never was for me. I can easily afford to subscribe, but I won’t do it as long as the US/UK/DE users get it for free. Make them pay too, and I’ll gladly continue to give you money.
Eric the Red
31 March, 08:35
Everybody pays or nobody pays. It really is that simple.
Scrobz
31 March, 08:41
Does the fact that we pay also mean that we will finally see the iPhone last.fm app in stores all over the world?
kixorz
31 March, 08:48
Everybody or nobody should pay. I’ll cancel my account if you’re going to make distinctions between users.
hawk
31 March, 08:52
It is nice to see that you actually respond to user feedback. However, I am still disappointed – it seems you either don’t get it or you prefer to ignore the point. It’s not the 3EUR/$/whatever fee that makes people annoyed – it’s about equal treatment. I understand you’re not the ones to blame for music licensing schemes and prices, but still you really should have taken into consideration the effect of dividing your users into privileged and non-privileged groups. Most of protesting people seem to agree to pay the subscription so they can keep listening to the radio – but only if everyone is required to do so and everyone gets the same service quality as a subscriber.
I did not change my mind. 3EUR is not a problem for me, but I still don’t feel like paying it only because I live in Poland.
jukey
31 March, 08:56
Beside the unfair thing with the monthly fee (not the fact that there is one) there are a lot of more values you get from the sheep…err customers of the service:
- the best and most complete music listening profiles of all (amazon would still be top of the world for this) – Tons of user generated content. Beside the labels and artists the last.fm users are writing event reminders, wiki entries, ….
As far as I like the service (I was a subscriber for two years) so glad am I because I deleted my account!
What about a new service name: unfair.fm?
m-m
31 March, 08:58
Why do I get perfectly targeted Dutch ads on Last.fm (through Google I suppose) but do I have to start paying because you claim you can’t target ads towards our market? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Harmke
31 March, 09:12
I think this will work against you in the end. You will lose a lot of people listening to Last.fm. It’s not really the 3 euro’s to pay, that’s not that much, but it’s just the fact that you have to pay. There are a lot of alternatives, so you are digging your own grave here. This will be my last time on this site, bye!
notelodigo
31 March, 09:13
Question is: instead of charging the audience, why not charging (more) the labels, the stores, the editors, the online music shops, amazon, etc? Last.fm is a service for them for promoving music, free publicity, aint it?
In addition, if I ever decided to pay for LAST FM … would there be NO ADVERTISEMENT on the web ? I am sceptic on that.
Next question is: why can Google work without user payment? How can my television and my radio work at home without me having to pay to the private channels that I watch?
Simon
31 March, 09:13
It’s april’s fools joke! I’m telling you!
Yanto148
31 March, 09:41
“This isn’t about money, it never was for me. I can easily afford to subscribe, but I won’t do it as long as the US/UK/DE users get it for free. Make them pay too, and I’ll gladly continue to give you money.”
^^ so true. If you wanna make us pay, that’s ok for me. I wanna pay for a great service as last.fm, BUT ONLY IF EVERYONE HAS TO PAY FOR IT!
Discriminating people outside of the UK/US/DE is not fair, it sucks. Screw you guys, this sucks.
Belgian
31 March, 10:16
Agreed with Yanto. This whole ad crap crap is just a bullshit excuse used to discriminate. Guess I’ll be logging in through a VPN in the future. I rather spend my money on something like that, than on a racist organisation like Last.fm
Mind Booster Noori
31 March, 10:26
RJ: If the problem is really those “licensing fees”, it is just because you want it. Each time someone listens to my music on Last.fm, there are no fees you have to pay. The only fees I can suspect you might be talking about is fees that you agreed with major labels or so. If that’s the case, then your sollution is quite simple: filter the results, stop playing music (or play a lot less music) from those artists on the radios.
There are plenty of solutions here, you just have to think about them. You actually can do something great out of it: take those decisions with your community. Instead, what you Last.fm folks are doing is ignoring your community and taking the “easy road”… the road they’ll jump from.
Henrik Ström
31 March, 10:41
This is NOT the way to go. Im a subscriber, but if Last.FM doesnt reconsider; Im out. Thats it.
Lovan
31 March, 10:46
I’ve paid voluntarily for quite some time. But after the announcement to charge for this service I deleted my account as a protest against this decision.
bildungsroman
31 March, 10:51
This two-tiered system is ridiculous – either charge everyone the same, or don’t charge at all! Because chances are, either you will lose users in those countries (especially since the countries where streaming is free are those whose users could most afford to pay), or they will just use proxies and trick the system anyway.
It also ultimately hurts artists based in countries outside of the G3, as they count on the radio to get local listeners that will come to their shows.
Grumbler
31 March, 10:55
Well, it’s good that you reinstate gift offering but this not a novelty. You had this on the past, and I would say that’s a little bit dishonest from your part to present this as something new.
On the other hand, in the beggining only tagged radio was available for non-subscription users. It was last.fm decision to open more to non-subscribers so the incentive to subscribe was a bit less. I would say that going back to streaming only tagged radio and having the personal radio as a subscription model would be a more smarter move than to close all the streaming.
People would sample the service, discover new content (and thus recomend last.fm as a good service to discover new music and events) and eventually subscribe in order to have their own personal radio (or hearing other peoples radio).
Also please bear to mind that a lot of your content is user generated and that a great deal of your business model relies on having the greater amount of users. The more people listen the better your recommendations will be.
Also the more people use the service the better band pages information will be. The more people access your website the more information about events you’re going to have. So it’s in your interest to have a lot of users even if they don’t pay since you get more content.
It’s up to you to know how to generate revenue from that content but I could see a few ideas for that (for example resseling this to mobile portals.. heck, you already have an agreement with Vodafone, why not go further with that?).
So, although I can understand the business rational of your decision (though why as a paid subscriber I have less rights that people in the Uk/US/DE is something that is hard to swallow) from my point of view, this is going to be a shot in the foot since you’re going to lose users and thus your accuracy in terms of recommendations, artist information and events is going to decrease thus decreasing the quality of the service.
jupptenhagen
31 March, 11:07
Last.FM is worth 3 Euro to me, and I would pay – even if I live in Germany. And I would sponsor someone from any spot of this planet who can’t afford to pay.
No problem, we music lovers must stick together – as long as I needn’t pay with credit card or Paypal. Cheers Jupp
gothy
31 March, 11:20
1. It’s good that you’re listening. Not in time, but it’s better later than never.
2. Separation by countries sucks, we know it, you know it – so why?
3. Can’t find enough advertisers? What about using 3rd party ads engines like Adsense for those “problematic” countries? Just for a test for example? For example RUnet’s(Russian-speaking) context ad market in 2008 was about $350M, that’s not much, but there is a lot of such small markets which can generate revenue better than 70%-empty last.fm I guess. Just test it, combine with yours and so on. Research every market, spent time on this. Maybe there are other options.
4. Push the music marginals down, try to explain that they need you and your audience even more. They’re getting money from you, big money I guess :)
If you loose your community – you’ll play less tracks – pay less – they loose their money from air. Don’t think they’ll like it.
5. Show your fans that you still need then, let them play 30-50 tracks a month for free. Wan’t more? Pay, please.
Good luck.
Mr. Unhappy
31 March, 11:34
I subscribed happily when last.fm was free to support your cause. Now you are telling me i HAVE to pay? Your loss. Many, thousands of users will just switch to http://www.spotify.com
So i guess it’s byebye and last.fm oh and about your “reasons why” instead of putting oh so much effort in a new version you should have put it into your advertising department so i would work global. What a fuckup IMO.
“Thank you for the music, the songs we’re singing, thanks for aaaaall the joooy…”
lol
DreadedKilla
31 March, 11:43
What you are doing right now does not change anything but postponing the transition date. It solves nothing. Your name Last.fm fits well with this, as being the last service anyone would choose.
What you are doing is racially discriminating people. Oh, you’re not American, $3 please. You’re not German, $3 please. Your not British, $3 please.
If you are really in trouble with your ads, fix it! Here’s one way: place them so that they are the first thing people see and click. Don’t place them at the end of the page where hardly anyone goes. It’s called a good marketing strategy and you gots none.
Why don’t you be nice and go non-profit? Oh, I forgot, you guys are fat pieces of glutton, greedy for all the money you can get your hands on.
Know corporate social responsibility? You can’t deny you being a corporate, it says really clearly that you guys have lawyers, at the bottom of this page. If you have lawyers, that means you have enough money to pay them, therefore you are a corporate. Corporate social responsibility: a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby businesses would monitor and ensure their adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms.
You are by all means, I admit, are adhering to the laws. But to us, you are making unethical and neo-Nazi choices that are also against international norms. There are four parts to CSR: environment, employees, community and customers.
I don’t care about what you are doing in the environment and employee sections, but they better be better than what you are doing in the community and customer sections.
Ooh, I got Oriental Inferior in my captcha. How do you explain that?
camerashy
31 March, 11:43
Wouldn’t it have been more sensible to charge all the countries? You wouldn’t have had to undergo these long-winded explanations of advertising revenue and streaming costs and licensing and all that AND you’d have got more money. The last.fm users aren’t completely heartless. Everyone here understands the business aspect of it, but they’re just upset because they – understandably – feel stupid shelling out money for a service that their friends receive for free. It’s not the subscription itself that’s a problem, it’s the indignity of it all. It was never your intention, but one can’t help feeling discriminated against.
remington.style
31 March, 11:46
you don’t get it even now?
i am / we are willing to pay
but as long as i get the same features as an US resident, i am willing to pay exactly the same amount as he does
not one cent more
end of line
Mary-ann
31 March, 12:08
Will paid radio include play-on-demand? I think it is only fair that if we are paying we should have access to as many full tracks as USA, UK and germany users are getting for free! I’d gladly pay if it means we get access to play-on-demand.
Adele
31 March, 12:19
Just to clarify a misconception that keeps cropping up. When you pay the subscription fee you are getting the subscription service which is not available to anyone in any country for free.
Christian
31 March, 12:21
Well I´m from Germany and I dont have to pay. But if for me it seems unfair and irrational to demand a charge from other countries. To say it economical, all the people hwo are at last.fm are a surplus for me. If now a lot of people decide to leave lastfm (what i could understand) everybody loses a bis of teh surplus. What´s a social network without people?
For me it is important to get information about new music from different countries via lastfm. If e.g. a lot of people from Poland listen to their favorite band and i see “wow, this band is very popular in Poland – let´s try this” they produces a surplus for me and for lastfm!
If you “force” so many people from so many countries to leave lastfm, we all lose! And after a while, even the “big 3” countries will shrik. Don´t belittle what everybody contributes to lastfm!
Miklos
31 March, 12:24
At the time I’ve to pay, I’ll delete my account. And not because of the amount of the money, but because of the discrimination.
Your recommendation algorithm is based on data scrobbled from all over the world, not from just this 3 countries. At the time you’ve gathered enough, you stop enjoying the result of “our work”? Nice move…
A disappointed user from Hungary :(
Jonas Hartmann
31 March, 12:36
Okay, as I stated in the other post/comment, I will try to express it more clearly now here again:
You offer these core benefits that tightly work togather:
a.) Scrobbeling music you listen OFF of last.fm – on your local itunes and ipod, on winamp and others
b.) Building a community based taste database (called tagging) which allows to socially define where music belongs to and where not – to which one pierce relates and to which it does less.
c.) Offering a RECOMMENDATION streaming service that is FREE OF CHARGE and lets you DISCOVER new artists and music.
If you DO NOT KEEP these CORE IDEAS up and running WORLD WIDE for free you will be DOOMED and people will leave. It is not me that counts here, I am from Germany, I am a subscriber since month, it is those millions and billions of international users. YOU WILL JUST LOSE MOST OF THEM and it is JUST BECAUSE YOU DO NOT OFFER RECOMMENDATION PLAYLISTS. I understand that you cannot offer streaming of all and any track.
I am fine if you cut those down to 30sec. I am fine that you cannot chose to fwd in a track. All those limitations are fine. It is great to have one or two premium type of memberships. I understand that you require to pay your server load and staff costs.
The point is: YOU WILL UTTERLY FAIL if you take away your CORE BIZ from the world. And that core biz does not touch normal streaming, normal playlists, downloadable content and so on. It has nothing to do with that. The CORE BENEFIT of last.fm is what AUDIOGALAXY offered as well. It was NOT very good quality or good things you could download at audiogalaxy it was THE SOCIAL SYSTEM WITH INSTANT RECOMMENDATION. THE INTEGRATED APPROACH OF DISCOVERY. If you read this and want to reply, see me on https://twitter.com/JonasHartmann
p.s. if you want to survive competitors you will have to negotiate to allow recommendation playlists. Its fine if you add “limits” there too. You have to sign up and there is a limit of max 10 tracks per day and max 50 tracks per week – no problem. The point is that you CANNOT DISCOVER MUSIC if you are not a subscriber and you will lose many many users cause of this – You won’t even need “Listen to Madonna’s Radio Station” you will only require and should PUSH “Listen to my Recommendations” – those who do not “scrobble” their data in won’t get something out, but only if they are a subscriber (then they can build up their profile solely on last.fm)
Mary-ann
31 March, 12:56
Adele, I am a subscriber who pays and I know that what I get from the subscription (ability to see recent visitors, play loved tracks radio, tags radio, etc) is not available to anyone in the world for free. What I am talking about is the fact that i have been to England and noticed that when I access my last.fm profile from there they have A LOT of full tracks that i don’t have access to in my country. What I was asking is if when people from other countries like me have to start paying for radio (whereas people from the UK, US and Germany don’t have to) will we be able to have access to the huge full tracks database (play-on-demand feature, from what i’ve understood) that those countries already have access to and will continue to have access to for free? That’s what i meant from my comment. I really do think it is only fair that if we have to start paying for radio then we should have access to as many full tracks as I know at least UK users have access to for free.
Spir
31 March, 13:20
I put music on Last.fm and people can hear our music for free and now they will have to pay to listen to it as a radio?! that’s pretty lame.
ABout us final sentence is :
“Wake up! There are still people who can’t get at the music they want the way they want to. So, back to work…”
Shame on Last.fm!
ANON
31 March, 13:22
LET’S RAID LAST.FM!!!!!!!
RAID THIS FUCKING SITE TO THE GROUND!!!!!!!!
Naoned
31 March, 13:28
Yeah and now that the service have success they ask us to pay. Us who made Last.fm better by our little social work (review, venue, wiki, feedback).
I’m so angry against Last.fm. That’s sucks a lot.
Money money money. What you guys are not enough paid? Don’t count on me for some update on Last.fm At least there are some nice other web app for Music on the web.
Nicolas Maia
31 March, 13:28
Still sucks, you’ve just postponed it.
Atrus
31 March, 13:32
Still not paying two subscriptions just because I live in the wrong country. The only fair solution is to make everyone pay, or no one.
Hox
31 March, 13:35
Very Interesting, Mary-ann.
I think this announce is a lack of respect to Last.FM users. They decided for an old strategy: people get tired soon and give up to strike or complain after a while.
So waiting for a month or two they know that almost everybody will put up with it, and accept their explanation.
I think that in every country there is a way to get AD. I don’t think in italy it’s forbidden put banner on social networks. Not in other countries. I think MAYBE in China or Galapagos there areproblems (in galapagos because iguanas and tortoises doesn’t have money). Excuse the sarcasm, but here we’re not all pimply angst-ridden teenagers. Adults can’t believe these lies about “countries different restriction”…
Come on, Capitalism won everywhere, would you tell us that in every country except USA, UK and Germany there are talibans against banners and royalties? I can’t see a nation where people are not very pleased by money, EXCUSE ME.
Really, YOU ARE KIDDING US.
Flywheel
31 March, 13:46
I’ve always been paying although I don’t listen to the radio stuff on LastFM. I think it was absolutely crazy that a service like LastFM would be free. I’m not rich but 3 euro’s is one beer or espresso.
Leandro
31 March, 13:50
Is it fair for people who do not live in these countries to pay for the site so that Germans and Americans could listen to it for free? (nothing personal with you, americans and germans)
And is it fair for someone like me who wrote a lot of texts on the wiki with no payback and now have it all gone?
It is a shame. We from Brazil are really sorry for that.
I am not going to pay for that. Please, remove all texts I have done and corrected and, off course, remove me too.
Robert
31 March, 13:54
I can’t believe all this hate against LastFM.
hanekomu
31 March, 14:01
So there’s no change; you’ve just postponed it. Your logic is amazing: There are free alternatives now, so we get less market share, so we get less ad revenue, so we have to start charging. Mhm, this is really going to help you to recapture the market share.
I’ve deleted my last.fm account and urge others to do so as well.
Mary-ann
31 March, 14:12
I don’t have last.fm. I love last.fm. I have gladly paid for it with subscriptions and believe me it is not because of the extras I get for it (I don’t even use the tag radios and loved tracks radios) it’s because I know alot of hard work is put into last.fm by the staff and me paying for subscriptions is my way of saying thanks.
I don’t mind if I have to pay for radio, like I said, I will gladly pay. The only think I ask in return is that by paying for radio we will also be able to have play-on-demand like the countries that aren’t paying already do. I think that making us pay for radio and still not giving us access to the amount of full tracks I know at least UK users have for free is really really really wrong and unfair.
Also, I get bombarded with ads from companies in my country in every international social network site I’m registered in, including last.fm, so i’m pretty sure last.fm can work it out if the problem is the ads, given that they already sell ad space in their pages to companies in my country.
This is making everyone very confused so while I support last.fm and I know how annoying it must be to recieve the amount of hate mail they are recieving, could you maybe make a post on the blog, as to avoid confusion, explaining to all users what exactly is the ads limitation in other countries and also, if we will get play-on-demand when we pay?
Thanks and keep up the good work
Mary-ann
31 March, 14:13
Oops! I wrote “I don’t have last.fm” but I meant “I don’t hate last.fm”
sorry, my error!
Gert
31 March, 14:15
WTF? it doesnt change anything, this is a load of Bullsh.. you are really just trying to get us of striking, because you are afraid! But fortunatly we still can read, also between the lines. Put up with some better solutions…PLEASE, do you think we are stupid?
Naoned
31 March, 14:18
@Flywheel oh really? Crazy? And what about all the ads you eat on Last.fm
If there wasn’t ads then I would say that. That’s not even the point. last.fm has no freaking respect for its users who contribute to make it better each day.
I’m deleting my content and my account and will never come back. I feel raped deeply!
ruluk7
31 March, 14:26
Ok, so no scrobbling anymore from me guys… Or are you willing to pay me for scrobbling songs??
Bye Bye, last.fm.
formerly known as Roccaways
31 March, 14:26
True to my word, after reading this post by last.fm and realizing that the olive branch offered only delays the inevitable, I have made the decision to leave this site. The staff have picked the easy targets but have still failed to address the primary complaint posted by many users regarding the original announcement. They are listening to the users only when it is convenient. I suspect I am not the first and I am certain I won’t be the last user to leave over this fiasco. Best of luck to those willing/able to ride this out.
http://www.last.fm/forum/21717/_/517178/17#f8985752
http://www.last.fm/user/roccaways
Riverion
31 March, 14:28
Richard, I’m sorry but I am really really disappointed in you, if all of this goes through. To an outsider it seems that you have abandoned your ideals or you didn’t have any in the first place.
As a business decision it makes sense though. First make all content free so that you can scrobble songs from users, acquire statistics of what they play, have the community create tags and descriptions etc. etc. and then when you have all that and don’t really need the community anymore you have them pay. Good business decision in that it is a very good get rich scheme!
Undoubtedly you will make more money this way or seem more successful in the business or in the eyes of the CBS bosses, but you will have done it at the costs of disappointing (maybe even deceiving) a lot of people. (The reactions you read in the forums are probably only the tip of the iceberg.) Even if what you say about royalties is true, you know there are other ways but you have not tried any of them.
It all seemed so nice but the ideals all turned out to be marketing or were sacrificed for ‘progress’. If this happens you will be nothing more then a copy smart soulless copy of Pandora.
I’m still hoping this is all an April fools joke! I loved the old last.fm a lot
odelia
31 March, 14:31
i am so so sorry to hear this
i live in israel and am connected to lastfm 24/7, i really love this site!
isn’t there a nother way to deal with it?
Winter
31 March, 14:31
Is it possible for you to get into partnership with online music stores that sell music internationally? Most online music stores, including the ones you’re linking to, don’t give me access to download mp3s in my country. However, I’ve bought quite a lot of music that I’ve discovered using your service in other sites, such as ‘eMusic’. Perhaps partnerships with sites like that can help?
maze
31 March, 14:34
The problem is: When people from other countries have to pay, the majority of them will simply stop using last.fm. This means that last.fm will not be global anymore.
Any internet-social-community-stuff-service that is not global will become a niche-product and die on the long run.
And of course the discrimination: I really would pay for this service, if I didnt feel that the rest of the world means shit to the last.fm guys. Paying for a service which is free for americans… yeah right…
(You could at least increase the rights of those who are going to pay…)
I really hope that this business-plan does not work out. If the internet looses its global status, the world would be a bit worse!
last.fm is so great! But I already have the feeling that it died.
PS: I am pretty sure all that happens because the music industry wants more money. I cant tell how much i hate those guys!
silpol
31 March, 15:01
I hope your lawyer(s) understand(s) that in EU (mind you, UK and Germany are part of EU) commercial discrimination of customers might be a breach of law. I mean, charging one part of EU and not charging other part of EU might be serious offence. Ask Microsoft how tough can be EC/EU lawyers hounding yet another corporation on a breach of law ;)
BTW, where and how I can download my history in raw data format (XML?) and how delete my history so your engine won’t use it? Thank you.
criza
31 March, 15:09
@becerro: I wanted to say that we (swiss and germans) can enjoy the same type of advertisement, what is the main reason that they don’t want to continue the free radio streaming for other countries.
ISNTNEEDED
31 March, 15:12
i turned off my scrobbler & erased my scrobbles, tags and profile.
i don’t send you private information and get paid for a service that lifes from my information. – I don’t care a pap for it if it is in future or today.
waka
31 March, 15:12
Goodbye, last.fm, again
http://www.last.fm/group/FREE+IS+FREE
Splover
31 March, 15:17
And why don’t you remove all those ads on non UK, non German & non US country?
Are you kidding me?
This is all bullshit!
NotALFMuseranymore
31 March, 15:38
So nothing changes – you just put some lub on it but will eventuall still stick it in ah?
Well, the community (and especially the ex-last.fm community) will tolerate neither discrimination, nor cunning delays. And especially when you decide to take such actions in the middle of an economic crisis.
Now about the price: €3.00 is A LOT OF MONEY compared to other services we pay. In my country I pay €22.00/month for telephone and ADSL line and services. It gives me connectivity to the whole world (including free music radio services).
NOW WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT LAST.FM IS VALUED AT APPROXIMATELY 13% OF THE FREE INTERNET???
Araken_Starway
31 March, 16:05
Honestly, after the first annoucment, i decided its absolutely worthy and i owe this to Last.fm… so i bought subscribtion anyway…
Pi4noBl4ck
31 March, 16:07
Still no one will pay.
http://pi4nobl4ck.mybrute.com/
Sicass
31 March, 16:16
Thank God ure changing this payment system…. I dont have a PayPal account but will ask a friend to pay my subscription ( heheh of course Ill pay her later )
Sacha.
31 March, 16:23
EUR 3,= per month? To cover the royalty fees?
As I understood well, Last.fm is paying royalties to Sound Exchange?
And as I understood that’s US 0.0018 per track?
If I convert that to Euros that comes down to royalties for listening to 2.199 tracks per month.
So.
For everyone who’s listening about 2.000 tracks through the radio per month, this EUR 3,= is reasonable. For all the others, who only listen to the radio every once in a while (like me), it’s too expensive.
Why not think of something to be able to listen to a certain number of tracks for free? Or buy a certain number of radio-tracks for a certain amount?
And have you ever given it a thought to just have general affiliate programs for other countries? Like Commission Junction? Us non-G3-users wouldn’t mind ordering our concert tickets through your website or click on a pay per click ad. No problem!
And no, I’m not whining about EUR 3,=. It’s just a matter of principal.
phaze2
31 March, 16:29
Just out of curiosity… how much more would subscribers have to pay if we wanted to keep the basic service free in all countries?
KOPIMI
31 March, 16:40
BS. Come on. I can understand Hulu blocking international users, as they host mainly US content. But for LFM to charge non US/UK/DE users for the radio service? COme on, do you lead us to beleieve that Last.fm only has content from those “big three” countries? Because that’s the only way i think that this BS could be justified. I’m not on to bitch about changes to an online service, but when you discriminate against entire countries for their potential for revenue, that really pisses me off.
Regardless of international liscencing issues, by charging non US/UK/DE users, you are inplying that users in those countries are not profitable. Regardless of the support, loyalty, and ad revenue.
“Oh thanks for your years of loyalty ad support. SLAP That’s for not living in the US, UK, or Germany. Now you have to pay us, as you are no longer important enough to invest in an ad-based support. But don’t worry, the ads will still be there.”
If there is going to be a charge, than it should be the same for all users, and not based on the country they live in.
IMHO, content providers are are really shooting themselves in the foot. Last.FM has been one of my best free sources of music that isn’t being stomped on my anti-sharing campaigns, and now what? This?
The internet started out as a free resource, it is free, and it ALWAYS WILL BE FREE. Those who try to believe differently will fail miserably.
jesse
31 March, 17:04
lame.fm
Krak
31 March, 17:07
Pay-by-SMS would do it quite good for me.
Hope it gets implemented.
Daniel
31 March, 17:10
How about making Deals with local ISP’s? With a low fee per User, they could offer a new Service to their Costumer and you get some money without big effort. Even better, the ISP mostly already sell Ad’s. So they re-finance their Cost in no time or you do a Ad-Share.
blackadder
31 March, 17:20
greetings. i might have a suggestion regarding this subcribtion thingy. could you not maybe charge new people joining as from the end of the month and your members that joined before this ( unfortunate ) change keep all “benefits”. seems to me that this proposal could work.Last.fm rocks man!!!!!
famkeZ
31 March, 17:29
The extra explanation helps, nevertheless, I only rarely use the radio, but do enjoy it when I do.. But € 36,- a year seems a tad much for something that I use so rarely. P
Perhaps you can introduce a second option where one pays an x amount and then pays a small amount per track listened on the lastfm radio.. (e.g. € 0,01 or € 0,02 per track or something).. And then get it deducted from the pre paid amount.. (Like pre paid mobile phone subscriptions in a way..) Perhaps worth considering.. That way the people that rarely use the radio now can still listen to it now and then and get their money’s worth that way.. This is a way in which I would probably contritbute to lastfm, as said the € 36,- a year is too much for people that rarely use this service.
jonziepoo
31 March, 17:30
It doesn’t really change much though…
I understand that you don’t make enough money in the other countries, other services such as pandora did the same in the past. I still think it’s a lame move though. Loads of people will leave and you won’t get scrobbling from a lot of interesting countries. This will affect many things…
Many keep saying that we shouldn’t whine so much and that 3 euro is a little sum of money that anyone can pay. Many can’t. Many could but just think it’s not worth the service 33 euro a year for a radio is just too much. We’ll see what happens.
famkeZ
31 March, 17:35
Btw don’t get me wrong, I still think either everybody or nobody should pay, whichever way you decide to implement this..
Mary-ann
31 March, 17:35
I agree with what some users have said:
3€ may not be alot of money to some people here, but it is alot of money to others. Where I come from I can eat a good full lunch with 3€ and there are countries far worse than mine.
That being said, I think last.fm is a wonderful service and I wouldn’t mind paying (as I always have through subscriptions)
Music shouldn’t be free, but music also shouldn’t be free for some and charged for others. I highly agree with the suggestions made by some users that if you lower the fee to 0.25€ or 0.50€ or 1€ euro and make ALL countries pay, including UK, US, and Germany, things would be alot easier, alot better, and alot cheaper for everyone, and you will get all the money you need to pay royalties.
I understand last.fm’s situation, and about the play-on-demand (about which I have written on and on) I understand it is a matter of licencing issues. But last.fm with play-on-demand is the ultimate dream music site (I’d gladly pay 3€ per month for play-on-demand) and from what I’ve understood, we (other countries) will not have play-on-demand, not even when we pay 3€ for the radio. It seems really really really (and I can’t stress how much) unfair that UK, US, and Germany users not only have radio but play-on-demand completely for free, when we will have to pay 3€ just for radio.
Thomas
31 March, 17:38
Guys, I don’t know what you want – 3 Euros for a subscription to the best music playing service I have found (and believe me, I did search a lot)? That’s not a lot. If last.fm were available in my car today, I’d throw away the damn built-in radio and get rid of those 20 minutes of advertising you get on average by listening to normal radio stations here in Germany. I’d pay 5 Euros a month for that – in the meantime I pay my 2,50 a month and enjoy last.fm everywhere at home.
Just my 5 cents.
DenisB
31 March, 17:41
I guess you won’t read this anyway, but I am now hesitant to continually feed you my data after choosing to dump on your non UK/DE/US users like this.
And with Spotify going only one way atm, I guess you’re choosing a bad time for it too.
Yodel
31 March, 18:02
Well, you know, it’s hard to see people paying for streaming radio, as there’s plently of free radio streaming out there. Just see Grooveshark or Deezer, for example.
But there’s plenty of opportunity for last.fm to add features people actually want to pay for: subscriptions for downloads you can keep, for example.
c-hood
31 March, 18:03
don’t just postpone it. abandon this bad idea and I’ll become a subscriber. find a better strategy to solve that licensing issue.
grungemaniac01
31 March, 18:03
Hope someone make a new and better last.fm type community worldwide!!!!. You are killing the music
Ivan Camilo Vásquez
31 March, 18:25
Well, we can just look on the Brightside of things. Now ThePirateBay will look more and more interesting in my country ;)
To all those people calling us cheapos for not paying just 3 Euros: for a lot of people it isn’t really about the fee, it’s about the discrimination. AND, to you, me and lots of people around the world 3 Euros may not be that much, but to a 13 year old kid in Jamaica, probably means a lot.
becerro
31 March, 18:30
I think they’re postponing it only to cold the whole thing.
Dirty trick. It won’t work because the community cares about the site at least as much as the managers do.
If you play dirty, you’re fucked.
phr3aker
31 March, 18:35
Let me get this straight, your are only not charging to the most rich countries?
With 3 USD I can buy brunch, lunch, and meal, in my college, including beverages.
Every day, my local currency worths less and less, so everyday it will be expensier.
I guess there’s only two things to say: Go fuck yourself and I hope that this site dies!
Ivan Camilo Vásquez
31 March, 18:47
If users managed to make Facebook revert it’s terms and conditions, we can make last.fm change this. Just delete your account, delete your scrobblings, and if enough of us do this they will beg us to comeback!
b0rsuk
31 March, 18:53
Ad supported – ok. But you crossed the line for me when you introduced those obnoxious flash video ads which 0) Play sound on a music site !!! 1) play louder than the music 2) trigger each time i move mouse pointer over them, with no way to turn them off.
Those ads made me install flashblock plugin. I’ve never used it before that point.
alan
31 March, 18:54
ok, my shout.
i was under the impression lastfm had about 30 million users in about 200 countries, so when you said you are changing the way radio works in “some parts of the world” you mean about 197 countries.
so, assuming all those users were to stay with lastfm after 1 April and would begin paying for radio, given the resulting increase in revenue is the additional increase in subscription charge really necessary?
and, if advertising does not now cover the cost of free radio service in those 197 countries, can those of us outside the “Big 3” be assured that we will see no advertising ever again when we log-on to our subscription-paid lastfm?
if you are prepared to charge users in 197 countries to listen, why not charge users in UK, USA and Germany too, and vastly reduce your reliance on advertisers; make lastfm largely user-financed? (or would that be far too big a risk to take?; better to keep UK/USA/Germany users sweet and cut your losses in the rest of the countries?)
and what will happen if masses of users leave? what will happen if you can’t actually raise enough revenue in the 197 countries to provide lastfm? how will that eventually affect the UK/US/GErmany users?
does this now mean you will have to abandon the whole initial premise of lastfm as a “free” service; do you intend to drop the word “free” from your marketing and publicity?
the anger at this decision seems to bemuse some commentators here. part of the reason for that anger is the extraordinary loyalty of lastfm users (until now); people have created friendships, networks and alliances around something they are passionate about – music – and feel they have been threatened and attacked, that they will lose what they have created.
there are doubtless many people in the “something-for-nothing” brigade and there may be more than a few who might be a little naive in their understaning of what “free” in this context means. but nonetheless “free” is “free” and now that has gone, with what, a week? ten days notice?
it would have been so much better if the initial announcement had been made a month, two months, prior to beginning the new subscription scheme.
it would have been much better if you had started by explaining to people exactly why lastfm is/was “free”, i.e. who actually pays for it, where the revenue comes from (and goes…a lot of people seem to need continual reminding that the artists they love need to be paid), what the terms of the advertising and licensing agreements are/were, and why the changes had to be made.
(the whole argument that the advertising markets outside UK/USA/Germany are “too tough” really doesn’t wash; are these companies really prepared to give up markets in 197 countries?)
give your users all the information. some of us can read quite long sentences!
don’t announce a week in advance that you plan to charge hundreds of thousands of users if they want to continue using the service.
it’s just a big mess, isn’t it?
not fooled
31 March, 19:01
this is a cheap trick to reduce bad-pub. it shows the protests are having some good effect tho. i will use the site until it charges, and not a moment after. before that time comes, we should try to fuck them up as much as we can ;)
coatl
31 March, 19:30
Its very easy, last.fm is not the only service,so, anyone who wants to pay, go ahead, but is just change a bookmark to stay with online music.
So, thanks for the service, but INTERNET is soooo big. maybe you see yourself as a giants… common mistake between humans.
good bye! thanks!
Pola
31 March, 19:34
alright. The SMS-payment method sounds fair. I hope you’ll keep your word!
jeromesson
31 March, 19:35
I think that if we don’t want to see this new policy spreading on the net, we have to make an example of users’ dissatisfaction. So get yourself into a group that expresses this dissatisfaction and stop scrobbing and viewing lastfm’s ads…
Inna
31 March, 19:48
I am NOt going to pay for something that is FREE for only 3 countries. No matter your reasons, it’s just NOT FAIR.
3 euros for someone in a poor country is a lot of money.
I’m gonna quit my account anyways.
U SUCK HARD!!!
Greg
31 March, 19:50
The net is and will always be a free space! Last.fm filled an empty space, a need, the need for music, free music 24/7. I am grateful for that, thank you!
Still if you wish to change to a subscription model, I will kind fully decline. The issue is not money, 3 euros per month is cheap enough. The issue is freedom. Other companies have taken that road, they know exactly where it leads … someone else will eventually fill the empty space, will meet the need for free music and Last.fm will be forgotten. Better stick to the plan making profit from ads. Find a better way. Charging your listeners is bad practice. Your site will die and when you will finally realize your mistake it will be too late. Your listeners will never return…
marta
31 March, 19:56
This is for Thomas, who said the following:
“Guys, I don’t know what you want – 3 Euros for a subscription to the best music playing service I have found (and believe me, I did search a lot)? That’s not a lot. If last.fm were available in my car today, I’d throw away the damn built-in radio and get rid of those 20 minutes of advertising you get on average by listening to normal radio stations here in Germany. I’d pay 5 Euros a month for that – in the meantime I pay my 2,50 a month and enjoy last.fm everywhere at home.
Just my 5 cents.”
Well, Thomas and lastfm go fuck yourselves.
If 3 or 5 euros is worth paying for ou, in Suth America we pay 3 times more than that. Asshole!
erduprince
31 March, 20:02
guys, i have always been an avid defender of all your policies in the past…but this time you are wrong, plain wrong:
same money for the same service is what it’s all about…no matter what is happening above the heads of your customers…
imagine that at an all-you-can-eat buffet we start charging americans and germans more money than other nationalities…
because…
we found out that on average they eat more than the rest of us…
i’m sure you would agree, innit?
of course we’d charge the english more as well ‘cause they tend to drink more than the rest of us too
you’re treading a treacherous path my friends…
i’m willing to pay whatever you want…but:
same price for the same service…for everybody
it’s entirely up to you (and cbs) to guarantee you can offer the same service…if you can’t: shrink your market or the formula of your service until all your customers find it fair…i said: all
Kamilla
31 March, 20:17
Oh my god.
Do you people think? This is totally unfair! I would still think the same even if it was my country that was getting the radio for free.
When I started to use last.fm I LOVED it. The design was cute, there was alot of music, I tought it was fun to see how my weekly charts would turn out and it was fun to meet new people with the same taste.
Then, you changed the layout. Even though SO many people gave you feedback on why they didnt like it, you still went and used it, you just came with your usual exuses and couldnt care less about what people thought about it when it was beta. This made me hate last.fm .. alot.
But now, youre charging me to listen to music? You’re asking me to pay for what has been free for SO long? You could just ask me to leave last.fm for good. I dont have the money to buy it, im not rich. I already have to use it on other much more nessecary items, and I cant spare that money. And even if I had, over my dead body that I would pay.
You ALWAYS come with this exuses, but it wont change the fact that its just not fair.
Way to go to ruin a good site.
Congratz and bye.
p
31 March, 20:42
“New” Last.fm layout still does indeed suck, and now you are further alienating your users with an unfair subscription policy for the radio.
Mark
31 March, 20:42
Its a shame, i really liked the radio. But i think i will just go to another radio.
jiivendra
31 March, 21:00
This is senseless.
Last FM claimed to be the Social Musical Revolution, Social? They can never again use that slogan.
Besides it´s stupid, because with proxies you can continue to use the services.
By the way, something is not clear, do artists have to pay a subscription too?
Mary-ann
31 March, 21:04
I actually love the new last.fm layout. I was one of the beta testers and i can say that the last.fm team were really really considerate of our opinions while we were beta testing it, they really paid attention to what we wanted and changed alot of things based on our suggestions.
My problem with the last.fm radio subscription is really not that we will have to pay (although of course it is better to have it for free). My main problem is that some countries pay while other coubtries, who get better last.fm services (play-on-demand, like I’ve mention numerous times before) than we ever will after paying, don’t pay. It’s unfair.
See things this way: If you have a magazine and you’ve always sold it on newsstands and suddently you put it up online in PDF for free people won’t give it as much value as they would if it were paid. Because, even if the notion is buried in our unconscious, we always assume that if we pay for something it is better, and if it is free it’s probably not that good. Hence the saying “you get what you pay for”. But now imagine you have a magazine and you put it up online in PDF and some people you allow them to get it for free but others have to pay, and the people who have to pay get a version of the magazine with alot less pages than the magazine the other select group of people is getting for free. No one would want to pay for it.
That’s just my 2 cents.
some user
31 March, 21:09
It’s good that you have the same price model around the globe. I understand you need to charge to cover your costs in most countries, and I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you. WHo needs the radio feature anyway? Music can be had from so many other sources.
Neville
31 March, 21:12
I’m switching to Grooveshark.
_se_bas
31 March, 21:24
Still, this means free music from free independent artists will only be available on radio to PAYING subscribers. This is directly cheating the free independent artists out of their exposure to other users by radio. It is increasing the gap between signed and unsigned artists and goes directly against the spirit of what last.fm once used to stand for.
Payed radio? Fine. But MAINTAIN A FREE RADIO STATION FREE INDEPENDENT ARTISTS.
It is only fair.
j
31 March, 21:28
There wouldn’t be such a problem if the radio would’ve been made subscription service also in Ger, Usa and Uk. I would’ve subscribed – now I won’t.
That seems the most beneficial solution..
I’ll promise I’ll subscribe if everyone has to pay it.
Nineveh
31 March, 22:04
Insensitivity in the middle of a universal financial crisis. That’s what you show. People in the countries you won’t charge, burn their minds every day to find more ways to cut even their basic expenses and you tell them to add even the slightest? It’s so laughable that you consider yourselves irreplaceable. You do deserve every last negative comment you get, even from indifferent users like me. :)
mandrake-rouge
31 March, 22:07
- Gift for friends – Alternative ways to pay
“wow. just wow.
I understand the decision probably has got more to do with crappy international music licensing than anything else, but it doesn’t make it suck any less.
Paying will simply demonstrate that we agree with the system. I want to see the day in this space when everyone will be treated equally so I guess I’ll have to just leave.”
+1 !
nishi_kun (former last.fm account)
31 March, 22:27
Now, as a former user of Last.fm all I can say is: FUCK LAST.FM DOWN TO THE GROUND
Jill
31 March, 22:27
I’m listening to the free radio now and don’t you dare to shut it down like that for me and other people like me!SINCE I’M NOT FROM FUVKING UZA,UKAI AND GOD DAMN GERMSANI!
Fucking racists!
deizi
31 March, 22:30
and i thought last.fm is last.fm w/o paying…
sanjuro
31 March, 22:37
This latest announcement just proves Last.fm is one of the best sites out there, listening to its users like we listen to music, earnestly. If I had money to spend online, buying a subscription here would be one of the first things I’d do. This said, I think you should apply the new terms to every country and perhaps then reduce the fee or some other benefit, otherwise, by making an exception for these 3, you’re just segregating all the others.
riccardo
31 March, 23:09
hi, i’m italian and i’ll not pay for listen songs available for free in another place around internet…
…sorry, but I’ll cancel my lastfm account, I don’t pay 40€ year for this.
USA Germany and UK free listening and the other people pay? for me tish is a “music racism”!!!!
p
31 March, 23:23
Last.fm was called the Social Musical Revolution. It should now change its name to the Social Musical Regime, with the new radio policy.
Adriana
1 April, 01:25
Hi! I have to say that I’m glad about the “Investigating alternative payment options”. and I thank you for an extended explanation on the radio subject. As much as I understand the claims made by people who are against this new policy, all the name calling is uncalled for. Of course I would love to get my radio and all sorts of services for free, but it’s not possible anymore….. and honestly, 3€ isn’t a lot of money, and I live in a third world country.
I also agree that maybe charging all countries would have been more sensible, really, but it’s also true that it wouldn’t change my particular situation. As soon as there is a payment option that I can opt for, You’ll see me here as a subscriber. :)
Dario
1 April, 02:19
I don’t believe you. You will charge for content that we, your users contribute. We tagged songs, we have uploaded and scroblling music, we have created this community and you, stupidos, decided to spit on it.
You are going down and I don’t feel sorry.
Someone else will take the chance.
Mikey
1 April, 03:51
lol @ the people who say things would be different if the UK, Germany and US had to pay too.
All of you making this into a discrimination issue are just reaching for straws. The fact of the matter is that this is problem of money, and it’s not last.fm’s fault, it’s the Labels that overcharge for their licensing rights to their artists. That’s the reason why illegal downloading is so common globally in spite of the existence of places like iTunes and Amazon, because no one is willing to give money to the Labels.
The reason why this isn’t applying to the UK, US and Germany is because their advertising is paying for the licensing in those three countries, but it’s not working for the others. So I rather pay 3 miserable Euros than forcing last.fm to pull a “Veoh” and throw everyone who isn’t from the G3 out of the site.
At least this shows that they care about the users more than they care about the revenues.
hooey
1 April, 03:53
PLEASE support payment via Russian e-currency systems – Webmoney and Yandex.Money. This is the only possible way of internet payments in Russia and ex-USSR.
I was about to uninstall Last.fm, but now there’s hope I will be able to buy the subscription if you just give us a way to do it.
khendar
1 April, 03:56
Gotta love the attitude here:
“I love this site so much that I refuse to pay for it!!”
Being an Aussie, I’m a little pissed off about the decision too, but working in the online services industry, I do understand why it had to be made.
I am curious as to whether this means that users outside of DE/UK/US will not be delivered ads anymore ?
hooey
1 April, 03:59
Two more points:
1. Adding support for Webmoney payments takes about 5 minutes.
2. You are sure to make decent profits if you show Russian targeted ads (Yandex.Direct, a clone of Google AdSense) to Russian users.
Control Freak
1 April, 04:14
It’s not that we don’t want to pay, it is that we don’t have to. When last.fm exclude the majority of their contributors it won’t be long before another similar, sharper, streamlined alternative will appear to fill the gap in the market.
Like many others in disbelief here, I thought last.fm was going to become the Wikipedia for music. Now we have to wait a bit longer for that to happen.
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free
khendar
1 April, 04:48
It’s not that we don’t want to pay, it is that we don’t have to. When last.fm exclude the majority of their contributors it won’t be long before another similar, sharper, streamlined alternative will appear to fill the gap in the market
That is until the new upstart realises that its economically infeasible to offer non-free products and services for zero cost to the consumer and either folds or resorts to charging customers money. Then the whole cycle of whinge, protest, boycott begins again.
Paulo Rená da Silva Santarém
1 April, 06:37
It just does not sound fair for us people who doesn’t live in the big countries.
The alternative is obvious: use another service. If this is what last.fm is looking for, it will get it, and will get it really fast.
I think the users should be the force behind the site, giving support against those who wants to charge for music. Is it that hard to see that there is a lot of people who just will not accept mandatory payment in order to listen to music?
anada
1 April, 06:42
Hey Last.fm :)
I think you’re doing a great job and I am really willing to pay for your services. But and that is a real issue for me: I will only be able to pay by sms, so if you have that option you will have me as your faithful supporter and my money on your account; Thanks for considering this option.
unfair
1 April, 07:01
When Pandora blocked it’s radio in my country at least they gave me a PROPER EXPLANATION and an APOLOGY. Last.fm has failed on both.
Btw. According to Pandora subscribtion model won’t work. Hope it’s not the case with Last.fm.
http://blog.pandora.com/faq/#841
CyberSource
1 April, 08:12
Don’t call it the “Social Music Revolution” anymore but rather the “Commercial Music Revolution”
Eddie303
1 April, 08:43
Still you suck… We still hope, that this is a VERY_WEAK april’s fools joke.
Baris
1 April, 08:51
Ok, April 1st. Time to tell it’s only a joke!
roman pistolato
1 April, 09:05
there’s a lot of words being tossed around about on last.fm’s newly announced policy on fees to be paid outside the countries of usa, uk and germany.
it’s a crap idea…not in asking for the fees to be paid, but in the idea that the usa, uk and germany get a ‘get of jail free’ card.
now, it doesn’t matter what flow chats, pie charts, spread sheets are being presented…nor does it matter that they all might make a perfectly sound argument for enacting the ‘fee’. as they say in politics, ‘perception is everything’…which classifies this as a bone-head move of stupendous proportions.
people around the world will assume they have been discriminated against by virtue of geography.
it doesn’t matter this wasn’t the intention of last.fm, (which i’m sure it wasn’t) that’s how it will be perceived.
my greatest joy with last.fm, was learning about people from all over the world, following their musical tastes.
for me, this was a wonderfully human experience.
i recently came across a young woman from greenland…fragment_juno…her playlists, her avatar picture, were a revelation.
i’ve flown over greenland a hundred times between the usa and europe…always looked down and wondered about it…that large patch of ice and snow in the north atlantic. then, a young lady, in her twenties pops up, listening to the same music as me…it completely changed my head about the world.
and there’s madame goyaresque from capetown…the lady in the hat…an artist, with an artists’ soul. she was the first person i actually contacted through the network.
i’m not a ‘social’ person. i rarely go out, except to the local pub for a few beers at the end of the writing for the day…so it was with some reservation that i even sent her a ‘shout’…
i was afraid madame goyaresque might think me an internet crawling perv.
i was happy to find a warm, and wonderful artist on the other end…probably struggling through the same walls of life and art as me.
i was reading through the comments on the announcement page…some of it was plain vitriol as in “FUCK YOU LAST FM!’…some of it was a resignation to the inevitable tide of internet commercialisation of the internet…and some if it was used by internet bullies to mock others (i really am tired of these types, they really are the cockroaches of the internet)…but one letter that got me between the eyes was from a kid living in mauritius. he has no credit card, nor any method of payment…besides, 3gbp is a lot of money to him…his feelings are somewhat hurt. something that made his island world ‘big’ is being shut down in his life…while ‘the holy three’ continue to get it for free.
last.fm has just told this kid to ‘fuck off’.
for the record, i have no problem ‘paying’ for content…and it was always my intention to become a subscriber when i resettled in switzerland this summer. (like the kid in mauritius, i don’t have that ability from jordan…where internet security is less than zero)
and further for the record, i’m not an ‘all things must be free’ anarchist. i refuse to buy, own, watch or listen to a ‘pirate’ recording of any kind in my home.
(this because i have friends in film and music biz…my own son’s an stage actor on broadway)
i have to say, if this scheme goes through, i’ll be forced to reconsider.
why?
this is a crass decision made by someone with the sensitivity of a gnat.
this is the truth…(based on more than thirty years in broadcasting)…the reason the usa, uk and germany are not being included in the ‘radio fee’ scheme, is because it would lead to an overnight collapse of last.fm’s core demographic, and their advertising dollars would dry up faster than a backwater creek on a summer’s day.
as for the rest of the world…well, last.fm believes they can do without us…and anyone outside ‘the holy three’ who does pay the radio ‘fee’ will be classified as ‘profit’.
what made last.fm so unique, is about to die.
the result…the music profile of last.fm will shift wildly to the tastes of ‘the holy three’…which will be very sad indeed. and, in fact, create a ‘radio station’ i have no real interest in listening to.
no one begrudges last.fm for needing to make a buck. this last year they were forced to lay off twenty or so people…and they are a business.
but they need to rethink this how to go about it…they can’t piss on the rest of the world from a great height, whilst at the same time, kiss the asses of ‘the holy three’ of usa, uk and germany.
Vroobelek
1 April, 09:12
I don’t think you did everything you could to provide good ad revenue in countries other than UK/US/Germany.
I live in Poland and I can’t see any links to big Polish music retailers (say: Empik, Merlin, Rockserwis) with which you could make an agreement. I’m only presented an offer to buy from amazon/7digital. That’s definitely too little and I don’t feel surprised that you don’t earn.
Mary-ann
1 April, 09:37
I still believe, as others have said, that they should lower the fee to 0.50€ and make every country pay. That would balance things out.
I would gladly pay even 5€ a month for it if it meant we also got play-on-demand (even knowing the big countries get it for free). Afterall, music should never be totally free. But 3€ is alot of money for some people and, Im going to repeat myself once again here: paying 3€ to have access to less benefits than the people who don’t pay at all have access to for free is ridiculous and unfair.
That said, while I agree with alot of comments on this page I have to say that all the “fuck you last.fm” and “I hope this site dies” and etc, etc, are totally uncalled for and don’t give us users any credibility. Totally wrong approach.
Jbcarey
1 April, 10:01
The only Question that remains for me is… WHEN will Last.fm go offline for the world?
Jorge Matos
1 April, 10:10
I think the monthly fee is fair and maybe unavoidable. But 3 Euros is too much for people that, just like me, only uses your service less than an hour a day.
You should consider at least 3 types of customers: – light (1 hour/day – 1 Euro) – normal (1-4 hours a day – 2 Euro) – heavy (>4 hours a day).
sachar
1 April, 10:26
If last.fm radio becomes a subscription service will the radio service together with squeezebox work in every country?
text
1 April, 10:36
Sorry I just don’t get what the problem is.
Last FM is not some noble charity, it is a business that has to sustain itself i.e. earn money. Without it there would be no Last FM for anybody.
The users in USA/UK and Germany are in effect are paying for Last FM because ads are served to them. Where do you think the money comes from to pay for those ads ? – from the consumers in the USA/Germany and the UK who buy the products/services of the companies that advertise on Last FM.
If you want to be fair and want equality then answer me this why should the users from USA/Germany and UK subsidise the other countries that cannot be supported by ads ? Why should you be allowed to free load ?
Mary-ann
1 April, 10:46
I totally agree with Jorge Matos!
“You should consider at least 3 types of customers: – light (1 hour/day – 1 Euro) – normal (1-4 hours a day – 2 Euro) – heavy (>4 hours a day).”
That would be a great option!
ventomareiro
1 April, 10:53
Instead of breaking the service, you should make it so people who are not subscribers only listen to music that is CC or in the public domain. You wouldn’t have to pay fees for those songs, folks like me could keep getting to know new music and artists could use that option to promote themselves. Last.fm for non subscribers should become something like Jamendo. What do you think?
Marc
1 April, 11:00
No April Fools joke…
Bugger!
julius
1 April, 11:38
“(…) radio in other countries where it’s not feasible to have an ad-supported service will be moving to a subscription service (…)”
OK. i believe it must be possible to find enough money via adds in AUSTRIA, no!? Also, most of the ads for the german market touch the austrian market as well, so…
last_time_here
1 April, 11:48
I think you did the worst communication you could on that change. You messed up the image of Last.fm, and even if you change your mind, the bad is done.
Maybe you should have done something like this…
Due to financial difficulties, we will stop streaming in some countries. We are working hard to find a solution to this problem and if you have any suggestion please tell us.
And some days after: Good news, we will continue to stream to anyone who is subscriber while we are still looking for a better solution.
You should really hire a communication consultant… Maybe a brillant one can even revert the damage you did.
Here is an exemple of good communication…
In 2006, the website ceased relying solely on donations to fund its expenses and began receiving revenue from other sources. […] . The user response to these changes was overwhelmingly positive, because of the democratic nature of the decision (which was openly proposed and discussed on the website before implementation)
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rateyourmusic
nanapo
1 April, 11:51
“Instead of breaking the service, you should make it so people who are not subscribers only listen to music that is CC or in the public domain. You wouldn’t have to pay fees for those songs, folks like me could keep getting to know new music and artists could use that option to promote themselves.”
Exactly, this was already suggested but Russ (I think) said that they’re not going to do that, not yet, because it’s not a priority for them. And at least partly because people like us aren’t really a marginally important group/there are so few people wanting this option. Which is a shame in my opinion.
Sure there is the cost of the streaming but surely it can’t be that big?
nanapo
1 April, 11:58
Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to say that personally, I’m all for a fee like this, but this hasn’t been thought out that well (for example the light-medium-heavy user system or similar would be great) – someone does need to pay for the licenses and while it is a shame the money from advertising isn’t enough, it is still needed.
(PS. last_time_here has a good point, :D)
Rod
1 April, 12:30
I don’t think that looking for payment options outside the 3 countries will make a difference. We don’t complain about “how” to pay, we complain about “why” we have to pay while the other 3 are still free.
I understand your ads issue outside those 3 countries, but I guess the problem might be solved looking for an international ads aggregator (like adsense premium). Maybe adsense could be the solution just for the “outside” countries.
Now, if you largely depend on amazon (refered links), that would be different and I suggest to look for othe monetization options, like a last.fm site where we could download songs in a pay-per-download basis… Cheers and thanks for listening us as well a we listen last.fm!
Igor
1 April, 12:33
If aditional payment methods appear upcoming change is ok with me. Tahnks for explanation. It’s understanable that although internet is global business often is local. Anyway – pricing of 3euro/month sounds reasonable and if it will help LastFm grow I’s love to pay:)
Thanks for your work LastFm team:)
Adele
1 April, 12:37
@Mary-ann
this is the on-demand service, certain tracks can have the full length to listen to three times, after which the full track is no longer available. The reason this is only offered in those three countries is due to licensing regulations and is not due to last.fm deliberating restricting the service. In the future hopefully they can open up on demand to everyone, but at the moment it’s the licensing authorities that are putting the fly in that ointment.
SurfDude
1 April, 12:52
And again we see the grip of the multinationals on internet tighten even more. First Pandora and now Last.FM.
And all that for music which you only partially can choose, not even on-demand.
I’ll be looking for an other free online radio service. :(
ssag
1 April, 13:16
make it pay — I’ll go away (and take my scrobbles with me).
Mary-ann
1 April, 13:19
@Adele
If that’s the case then I understand completely. But I never did think last.fm had our worst interests in mind. I really do love and support last.fm and I know that even when the decisions are not the best they don’t deliberately want to do people any harm or discriminate them :)
About the people that are saying last.fm should shut down radio services to other countries rather than make other countries pay, I urge the last.fm staff please not to do that! I’d rather pay for last.fm radio than to not be able to have last.fm radio at all.
CBS BUTTFUCK Jr.
1 April, 13:28
You’ll never get me alive, you damn dirty money-hungry apes!
CBS BUTTFUCK Jr.
1 April, 13:32
These Last.FM assholes make more money in a minute, than all of you in a lifetime. FUCK THEM! My 3 euros are worth more than an all day music streaming experience. You know what, I am going to have a drink, the best one I can get for 3 euros, and put my glass up hoping that all of you who own Last.FM die in a horrible bus crash, and your retarded children develop aids. Lick my ass!
Laura
1 April, 13:42
Nobody is going to pay 3 Euros a month. Period. What are you thinking???
Two remarks:
1) Last.Fm has grown big thanks to its LISTENERS
2) Last.Fm is originally based in the UK, which is in EUROPE
FFS why are you now favoring the US?
Shame on you…
Dwarden
1 April, 13:45
i wonder if / (why not) Last.fm contacted artist, music studios and other people involved in music indsustry before announcing this …
i can’t imagine that noone would try help to ‘resolve’ some of the problems for service which helps people ‘encouter’ new music and actually helps music sales …
DetroitSoulJazz
1 April, 13:46
DEMOCRATIZE LAST.FM!
Mr. Jones,
CBS shouldn’t have bought Last.fm if they couldn’t afford it, is my first thought reading your post. My second is, if they claim they need more money, they can raise the fees in richer countries while offering discounts for people who can prove, e.g., with an electronic copy of their tax-return, that they do not earn enough.
But in any case, any corporation “owning” a collective world-project like this should offer formal representation of the users from all countries. Last.fm should be democratized, since it is a movement driven by the people — not by CBS, or not even mainly by last.fm-staff.
The staff is by no means more invaluable than the users. The only party that is completely unnecessary to run this project is CBS, and the main reason they entered the picture was because they “bribed” last.fm staff and originators to let them in. Some of the financial difficulties were probably alleviated in the short run, but not (as we can see now) in the long run.
Democratizing Last.fm is the only viable solution to your financial troubles.
J
1 April, 14:09
I’m ok with paying, and I am currently a subscriptor, but I will NOT renew my subscription if users are treated differently depending on the region they belong to.
While I understand financing may be difficult, Last.fm serves the artists as much as the users, in every country.
Also, if the access conditions are not the same for everybody, overall quality of service won’t meet my expectations.
niebuhr
1 April, 14:20
I agree with some of the earlier posts: if I’m going to pay for a service which is apparently not able to cut it in my country with ad revenues, then it seems logical I should get an ad-free environment in return.
kudlaj
1 April, 14:25
start a donation campaign, it did work for wikipedia! but don’t force the users to pay because nobody will do it if they have to!
I think there should be other ways to finance last.fm. Ask your users and they will answer! a little more communication doesn’t hurt.
Anarchist
1 April, 14:47
Well thanks a lot
.‘Tony Dodd
1 April, 16:14
@niebuhr You do. That – until recently – was the main thing that taking out a subscription would give you, along with your personal radio stations and such. This is still true for all territories, and I’m sure it’s something that won’t change.
xnor
1 April, 16:17
Please someone enlighten me. If last fm cannot afford the licensing fees, how have they operated in the past years? These explanations really don’t seem sincere to me.
I guess it’s time to move on to another music community. Last fm will probably hit rock bottom with this plan anyway.
Tab
1 April, 16:21
Ehrm. It’s April 1st. Isn’t it about time the whole stunt was revealed to be one of those ‘hilarious’ April Fools gimmicks? I’m thinking everyone involved must have had their bit of fun by now..
AristoclesII
1 April, 16:31
I still really hope this is a (rather good) april fool’s joke!
nix
1 April, 16:58
How nice of you last.fm people :)
I’ll move to Spotify now, thanks for the last push, I needed it because I actually liked
<a href=“http://www.i2carts.com”>Sell Digital Products</a>
Trojahn
1 April, 17:10
Now we are talking… Good move!
I’ll be happy to subscribe and give all my support to Last.fm if you guys accept Visa or Mastercard :)
Paypal just don’t accept my cards for some unexplained reason, although I can use them internationally with no problems at all…
Rock on and let’s make Last.fm even better!
Harold
1 April, 17:12
It doesn’t matter how you put it, still looks like people from the smaller economies will have to pay to support people in the bigger economies, wich doesn’t make any sense…
The worst thing is that it almost seem like people would be more willing to pay if it wasn’t for the discrimination.
Still, as other people say, there’s lot of options out there, like Spotify, Imeem, Jamendo… You name it.
Cheers.
erduprince
1 April, 17:18
the one thing that i fear is, that last.fm is actually being “strangled” by cbs…but they’re too proud and therefore afraid to admit it…think last.fm probably already flexed their muscles a bit, but cbs was stronger…
think we should rather fight cbs than last.fm…
Donbasilio
1 April, 17:39
LastFM is great. At least, it was so.
I subscribed every now and then mostly to support them rather for the features (I prefer to get “random” streams and discover stuff rather than listening radios of favorites). And about the ads, there’s adblock.
In the end: I’m going to subscribe if it’s not going to cost more than 10 dollars PER YEAR. It would be fine for me then. Elsewhere, I’ll sadly go away.
Regards
FingerpickingEd
1 April, 17:49
Bye Bye Last.fm
Sebarizzo
1 April, 18:23
You wanna make me pay. I don’t want. Easy, there is nothing much to say. I erase my acount and look for another similar service. See you last.fm. But don’t forget this: WE MAKE YOU.
You lost another user.
User from Argentina.
It's a pity
1 April, 18:25
That’s how it begins – international culture being slowly destroyed by lawyers and copyrights. Music is not about music anymore, but about money.
Ces_VLC
1 April, 18:27
todavía estoy planteándome pagar o no… y cada día tengo más dudas… somos más los que estamos en contra que los que a favor… y sin nosotros Last.fm SE HUNDE. Hagan como Facebook que escuchan a sus usuarios…
M from Romania , Eastern Europe
1 April, 18:37
I`m VERY VERY SAD that Last.fm will no longer be free . You will loose a lot of users for other similar ( but not as good as Last.fm )and free services . YOU MUST FIND ANOTHER SOLUTION TO SUPPORT Last.fm , more ads and more aggressive maybe . Anyway thanks for inventing Last.fm , it was great to listen music with Last.fm . Good luck !!! Bye !!!
Do you care?
1 April, 19:09
Fuck you, fuck your 3 euros, fuck your music, fuck your families, fuck your site, fuck scrobbling, fuck your streaming, fuck your business, fuck your retarded children! YOU WILL NEVER SEE 3 EUROS OUT OF MY POCKET, NOT BECAUSE I CAN’T AFFORD IT, BUT BECAUSE YOU ARE A BUNCH OF RICH ASSHOLES WHO ONLY WANT TO GET RICHER. I WORK FOR MY MONEY, UNLIKE THOSE DUMBASSES WHO THOUGHT ABOUT THIS CRAP YOU ARE TRYING TO PULL HERE. There are other services, if not now, then in the future. Until then, excuse me, my 25 gigs of mp3 music is just about done downloading. Again, FUCK YOU!
Do you care?
1 April, 19:13
And, Richard Jones… I’ll gladly bend you over and buttfuck you until your eyes fall out, FOR FREE!!!
Clara
1 April, 19:20
Paying by SMS would make an excelent solution for me, thank you.
I tried to avoid as much as possible a credit card for some personal reasons and subscribing was really something I wanted to do.
Brian
1 April, 19:35
Does this mean I have to pay three euros a month for having my music up on my personal website, or does it just mean paying to listen?
0anna0
1 April, 20:07
It it very hard to believe that we ALL have to pay. I realy like last.fm! While working on my graduation thesis I listen all day. And I already listened to more than 10.000 songs!!
I am not willing to pay because I indeed believe that there are other solutions. I think there are some serious add-possibilities in the Netherlands too. There are so may Dutch listeners…so please try to work this out!
listener
1 April, 20:12
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/last.fm
If i like buy ads… and need info where peoples come and where is contact info?
Alies
1 April, 20:24
Not fully agree with the desicion (about the 3 countries free, the others pay)
Next to that I would like to say that your desicions didn’t reach every free user outside the other countries!
I was asking around about the mail you sended me. But none I spoke too, confirmed of receiving one. I started to doubt about it. I even started to think it was from someone trying to be funny or a 1 april joke. Apperently it’s not.
please make sure you reach everyone involved before you are about to change a thing like this, next time.
thank you
Carsten
1 April, 20:41
Why does it actually stay free in the US, the UK and Germany of all the countries in the world? I live in Germany (so I’m lucky, kind of, at least for now), but still.
Nymko
1 April, 20:43
Well, CBS bought this thing for a reason.. making money. Do the 3 euros look like a greedy fee? THEY ARE! It is a very greedy fee! After all, CBS CEOs have spoiled kids and wives and mistresses to pamper, or maybe they have those kind of strange philias, like killing kids drowning them on champagne or so.. that ain’t cheap. But, at the end, they are offering a service, you decide to buy it or not.
Unfortunately it’ll affect the poorest or younger (or both) users who can’t afford the fee or don’t have the means to pay it.
Too bad for all of them, for all of us.
A
1 April, 20:45
Is ‘rest of the world’ going to be ad-free?
Music Artist #7,845,166,007
1 April, 20:46
No matter what changes last.fm has made in the past few years (this one I’m 100% against), they still kick myspace music’s tail as far as being a source for new music artists…
Valentim Terra
1 April, 20:46
This is the end of last.fm site!
Nikita
1 April, 22:01
By the time that the radio will go down, I will as well…
Bye Lame.Fm
Mary-ann
1 April, 22:04
Hey,
I didn’t recieve the email informing of the changes to radio either, like it has been mentioned before. You should really try to make it reach everyone next time, maybe make an announcement on the main profile page or something? That would work! I only knew about this because I stumbled accross it in the blog, but I hardly ever come to the blog.
Also, to all the people asking: I’m pretty sure that who pays 3€ for radio will fortunately get to see no ads. I pay 2.50€ for the subscription and I see no ads, so it is only natural that if they make us pay 3€ for radio because ads are not enough tp pay for streaming we won’t see ads anymore, as we are already paying for the profit they would be getting from the ads. So it’s a safe bet to assume the people who pay for radio will have the advantage of not seeing ads.
in_cognitus
1 April, 22:34
Internet Radio Must Be FREE! A Priori!.
zeynep
2 April, 00:08
Before when I subscribed in 2005 , maybe there were ads, I really don’t remember because I ‘ve never seen them go into my face as much as now. No need to talk about this new ugly look of last.fm. But I still liked it here and even from time to time I became a subscriber even after I learned that it became a part of CBS, which only showed that indeed no donation was needed anymore.And now today l heard the news.“today” I learned because I didn’t receieve any mail from last fm on this subject. Now, I don’t believe in it’s sincerity anymore.And apart from being dicriminated by being a user from Turkey,what really pisses me off is seing last fm become another greedy corporate business finance money money money machine.Is this the future of internet? is this the future of free and good will? is this the future of music? Whatever happened to my rock’n roll?
Rayhawk
2 April, 02:25
Looks like I will still stay away from Last.Fm. I am in the USA but I don’t think I can support or use a service that is free for me simply because of where I live.
amorodioamor93
2 April, 02:58
It’s better you put an warning: If you’re not in the right country, GET OUT OF HERE
This is Xenophobia
bosola
2 April, 03:06
I would subscribe if every country would be charged. I’m ready to pay if everyone does. But I’m not going to support USA and UK residents from Hungary, I don’t think I should explain why. Account deleted.
Muuhika
2 April, 04:17
I already deleted my account, I’m presuming many users did hence the postponement. Lastfm you just dont get it subs will not work, the ONLY way Lastfm will stay alive is by making ads pay for the service to stay free. If you can’t do that just shut it down cuz you’re going to have to either way. I’m also hearing that artists are pulling there music from lastfm in DROVES…thanks for screwing a perfectly good idea CBS
gtgt
2 April, 04:25
You should be so disappointed in yourselves. You used us to build your subscriber base. To sell yourselves to advertisers. To sell yourselves to CBS. Now we’re trash. Not worth keeping around because we’re too much trouble.
Go screw yourselves.
Account deleted indeed. I wonder how long it’s going to take before the absence of an international user base (because, let’s be clear, no one’s going to pay for this,) will hurt your company’s valuation. How long, do you figure, before CBS drops you like you’re dropping us because you’re just not relevant without the user base you brought them when they bought you?
Сергей
2 April, 04:53
отсосите, жадные пидоры.
Jm
2 April, 05:02
How arrogant!
Everybody outside those three countries, time to move on to something else! (unless this is an april fools joke!)
jasuarez69
2 April, 06:48
1.- The times of all for free content in internet have never existed. Either you pay one way (ads) or another (subscription. Or did you ever thought that all was for really free?
2.- I’ll gladly pay. The service delivers its value.
mirel
2 April, 06:51
Dear Richard,my friend,
I propose to LastFm to use an universal “discriminatory” rate. This rate, be it 3EU, to be calculated on a country rate related and proportional to the income per capita. So if a French living in France is paying 3EU and the income, coralated to price index is 36000EU, a Slovenian that his income is 18000EU will be paying 1.5EU and a Venezualian(or Brazilian) that his income is 6000EU will be paying 0.5EU, a Moldavian that his income is 1100EU will be paying 0.1EU.
Based on a quick glance on:
http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm
Otherwise a Moldavian will never be able to be a listener of LastFM if he has to pay 3EU=his daily income.
This differential payment system will create the democracy and the universality that is the core of LastFM.
Have a good creative day.
Nico from France
2 April, 07:48
I’m so disappointed by LastFm and I’ve already deleted my account!!
Geroi
2 April, 09:03
i thinks last.fm is the most important site on ze planet. Im from Italy and hell yeah im gonna subscribe anyway
gimbal
2 April, 09:44
I’ve already stopped scrobbling, if last.fm doesn’t back down, I will pollute my charts with hundreds of irrelevant artists and then delete my account so that if they even store my data on their servers, it would be as worthless as shit when they are sold to big corporations.
N1mphorman
2 April, 10:29
Stupid idea. How about other moneymake methods? More ads in free accounts as simple? Bad marketing.
from Russia with Love
Silverishkitten
2 April, 10:58
I think the 3 “improvements” is not even a remotely good thing for use outside of uk/us/de….
Why would it improve things for US, if others can give you a subscription as a gift? That’s not what it’s about.
APIs are mostly for people who have their own radio as I understand it, but it doesn’t fix anything for the general public.
And alternative payments.. Fine.. But that’s only because you want people to pay you. It’s not really a good improvement
Why don’t you invest time in making the site better for subscribers? Why don’t you fix the errors that’s on the site?
Why don’t you add more features that will make subscriptions seem more attractive? Cos as it is now, I don’t find them attractive at all….
Also, I understand that the ads don’t support the other countries enough right now… but why don’t you then make a promise to at least attempt to try and create a better ad-system in those countries? Doesn’t have to happen right now this second. But if you simply give up on it, you give up on us.
I could understand if this was a temporary solution so you wont go broke… But god, hire a better PR-group and actually investigate in what ads to make in the different countries.
Maybe in some time… You can proudly make last.fm free again. But if you don’t try, it will NEVER happen.
I actually wouldn’t mind buying a subscription, knowing that you were actively trying to do something for my country. In fact I’d be happy to support in the way I can.
But this still feels like abandonment on your part. Two of those points that you highlighted as an improvement was only to make it more attractive to give you money. Which I see as greed.
“ * Gift subscriptions: you’ll be able to buy a subscription for a friend
* Updating developers using our Radio API: third-party apps that stream Last.fm Radio will have full access to the Radio API, so streaming will work provided the user that logs in is a subscriber. (All other APIs remain free/unchanged) * Investigating alternative payment options. If Paypal sucks in your country, or you don’t have a credit card, don’t despair. Based on feedback so far, we are looking at supporting pay-by-SMS, and possibly some other options. Can’t promise we’ll have support for everyone’s favourite payment system from day one, but we’ll do our best to make it easy for you. “text
2 April, 11:03
I’ll say it again for those of you that don’t understand basic economics.
Users in the USA/Germany and the UK are paying for Last FM but it is indirectly. The companies that pay Last FM for their ads get make money from the consumers in those countries who buy their products and services.
So maybe I don’t pay last FM 3 euros a month but I do have a Vodafone mobile phone and Vodafone do advertise on Last FM.
Get it now !….or maybe you just don’t want to get it.
Like it or not music is not free, artists have a right to be paid somehow. If you don’t want to pay then get over it and do not listen to music. Although I’ll bet the vast majority of people who are bitching are the ones that illegally download anyway
Won't Pay
2 April, 11:18
I’ll say it on behalf of people who do understand market economics and the internet – people will use some other service (spotify, blip.fm, pandora, or whatever) or they will spoof IP before paying $3 a month for something that is free in the US.
text
2 April, 11:36
@Won’t Pay you just showed that you do not understand – Last FM is not free in the US it’s just paid for by consumers in another way (advertising), just as Pandora is.
You may understand that there are ways of getting music for free to you personally but you don’t seem to understand that Last FM is not a charity and neither are the artists that make music, it is a business and it needs to be paid for. If you want to free load that’s your choice.
Dr. Riveriara
2 April, 11:48
I think you need to tell your users that their is “surprise” a global recession on. They wouldnt know that stuck in their room playing with dolls. You should never think your users are intelligent as the ones posting here it seems have an IQ just above a green dwarf frog from central Tobago. it all makes perfect sense
Anders
2 April, 12:59
I’ve read on Last.Fm that you want to promote free music, and that’s why you promote artists who put up free downloads.
Why don’t you keep doing that: let the free radio play music that has been put up as free downloads. This is a great way for artists and small labels to get their music out there.
Big labels and artist that are mainly concerned with copyright can be featured on the radio people have to pay to listen to.
Let the labels and artist decide weather or not their music should be played for free.
Leo
2 April, 13:16
What about subscribers, do they help cover the cost? can I donate casually? or by flat rate?
Where’s the data to prove this??? No cool charts? I’m still not convinced enough to pay.
Proxies should be able to bypass this restriction, albeit slowly… The angry people are just going to go back to torrents & other P2P, or for the first time, now they have been exposed to this powerful service. Yarr.
The way you have informed everyone is insufficient and I believe that many, many more people will be pissed if you don’t let everyone know properly, like on the home page of everyone’s profile. A better idea would be to improve services for the countries that can’t afford the licensing fees, to tempt us to pay. I’m an Australian user, and I’m very disenchanted by the way you have informed us.
Maybe not everyone cares enough to need the gritty details, but I believe it is good practice to be fair to your customers, and let everyone know the exact reasons, convincingly so, as to why we have to pay for something we have had for free.
M.-
2 April, 13:46
Everytime we say goodbye I die a little…
kily2009
2 April, 14:21
Oh, so nice comment, just come across a better one on multiracialmatch.com
All you guys will enjoy more.
dutchfm
2 April, 14:35
So basically this means: you not giving enough resources to generate an income stream in for example the netherlands is costing you your dutch users. Great job, last.fm
Andrés
2 April, 18:41
I have no problem to pay (In fact, since the beggining I wanted to be a subscriptor) … The problem is that in my country (Chile) To have a credit card and a paypal account is a lot of trouble for an 18 years old guy.
Hopefully there’ll be another way to pay it
Greets!
INDYjones
2 April, 20:12
What about CANADA we are not big enough for ya?!!!!!!!! come on
PISSED
2 April, 20:16
spotify, blip.fm, pandora here I come!!!
A
2 April, 22:44
@text 2 April, 11:03
“So maybe I don’t pay last FM 3 euros a month but I do have a Vodafone mobile phone and Vodafone do advertise on Last FM.”
but why do i have to look at your ads, if they are not for me?
if im not interested in radio i do not need subscription – just interested in info, however with ‘your’ Vodafone as well
mynystry
2 April, 22:51
please rethink this move, cos it will be disastrous for the last.fm community.
if you could make a website worth 280 million in five years it means it wasn’t so bad bussinnes, right?
besides, to pay 3$ maybe cheap for someone from norway… do you know how many hours of work you need to get 3$ in south america, asia or africa?
not fair!
A
2 April, 22:53
ok my last post was maybe bit OT
relevant thing: what about artists with creative-commons/free music?
eirini_kl
2 April, 23:03
I hope you have understood by now that what angered your users the most is: 1. that some users have to pay and others don’t. Whatever the reasons for this, marketing, advertising or whatnot, it looks bad, it feels bad, no one wants to pay for something others have for free and on top of that, with nothing to compensate for it. On the contrary, it seems that the paying users outside of US,UK,DE get less stuff even if they pay for it. And,
2. that many users have devoted time and energy towards improving your website, by posting information etc., all because they believed in a community of free music. Suddenly they are told that all their effort means nothing and if they want to keep the site they put all this effort in they HAVE to pay. Note the word HAVE. If ASKED to, they would probably donate that money and more, but this approach “this is a business, not a charity, so pay up dudes” is understandably offensive to many, and the more devoted to last.fm they were, the angrier they’ll get now.
I’m a new user, but I will be so bold as to make a few suggestions to you. First, discrimination by country is, I can’t stress it enough, OFFENSIVE for most users. It may be marketing criteria, but it is still discrimination. You would do much better if you were to determine subscription by listening hours, that is, up to X hours per week or per month for free, between X and Y hours for a fee, more than Y hours for a bigger fee and so on. That way you won’t lose many users who don’t listen that much and are not willing to pay a monthly or yearly subscription for listening every now and then, and you’d get to keep their feedback. You could also have tracks that can be listened to for free. Not every band exacts royalties, right? Custom advertising for different countries and concert ticket selling through the site could work too.
I recently joined last.fm and I liked what I found here. But let’s face it, on this blog alone I learned of about 50 more similar sites. It’s you that need the users, not vice versa. Your CBS owners must have told you this already: Nobody’s irreplaceable. Think about it.
*business 101*
2 April, 23:08
get a better ad agency instead of alienating half the world
mrlege2
3 April, 01:46
Hey! Come on, Canada is a big country too!
stormchasar
3 April, 02:18
“What now I don’t – and REALLY don’t – understand is why you are discriminating your userbase outside the USA, UK and Germany.”
Jesus… what is it going to take to make people understand that this is necessary to pay licensing fees, and that those countries can be feasibly ad-supported? It’s not hard.
Loki
3 April, 02:35
It’s a shame that so many see last.fm as a ‘radio station’ and very little else. There’s plenty of other Internet radio stations out there! Go on, get lost! >:
Even so, moving from a ‘free’ to a ‘paid’ service has been on the cards since its inception. Why has it taken so long for this ‘paid’ service to be implemented?
I’m one of those of the opinion that there should still be a ‘free’ radio station streaming ‘free’ music (as in, music unrestricted by overzealous, money-grabbing international labels) to countries outside the chosen few, ad-supported – with the option to add commercial music to the mix for a subscription price.
So, what with the lack of payment options, the lack of more than a weeks’ notice, and the price for some countries being higher than others…
Poor show, last.fm. Poor show.
former listener
3 April, 08:05
who ever is posting under the name of ‘text’ continues to miss the point, thought i don’t think he/she really wishes to make a point, other than expressing a condescending contempt for those who do not agree with him/her.
a careful read of all posts reveals 98% are in no way trying to imply music should be free, mr/or ms text, they are only saying there must be a better alternative to the 3 euro scheme that exempts the usa, uk and de.
further reading reveals there are a great many users within those three countries who are signing off last.fm because they have compassion for those around the world who feel slighted by virtue of geography.
yes, yes, we’ve all read many times in posts by mr/ms text (and his ilk), that it’s all because the uk, usa and de are able to support last.fm by advertising.
is it me, or does anyone else feel the brush of ‘let them eat cake’ in that explanation?
look, it’s really very simple, and all the spread sheets showing advertising demographics will not change it.
the true reason the usa, uk, de are being exempted from the scheme is, cbs (the dim-witted bozos who came up with his idea as part of their recently announced plan to aggressively market last.fm to the usa) know the imposition of a 3 euro fee in the usa, uk and de would lead to the overnight collapse of last.fm’s advertising demo.
text is correct in one thing…last.fm is a business, and thanks for clearing for us..we really did think last.fm was a charitable organisation. no, we really and truly did, no kidding)..and so what?
there’s good business sense and bad business sense.
i fail to see where alienating a company’s international marketing base, makes any sense at all.
and in the event anyone think me unfair towards mr/ms text, let me say this…the expressions of violence towards the staff of last.fm, and/or people in the usa, uk and de, are ugly and shameful.
oh, let’s face it…when bullying internet cockroaches (from either side) invade a website, it’s time for the rest of us to leave.
let cbs clean up after them
Frosty
3 April, 08:28
This has been such a great service, so it’s kinda sad to see it go down the drain with such a shortsighted decision on subscription.
I’ve been using this regularly for few years, but I won’t continue if I’m required to pay for it – as if even this is great service, it has flaws which make it not worth the extra payment – even more when internet is full of quality radio stations (those still free ones).
3 euros as money wouldn’t be a big deal, but you don’t seem to understand why this is so painful. Very big portion of your streamed music comes from other than those three mentioned countries, and most likely your userbase too. It’s just plain wrong to treat your users like that. And it’s disrespectful for the artits who’ve been supporting this over the years.
But anyway it’s your business decision, and you’ll propably be uk/us/germany station in the future. I doubt that making everyone make pay a smaller amount would make too much difference, your userbase will go down.
former listener
3 April, 09:53
one more thought, would mr jones advise us as to the purpose of this webpage? will cbs actually take into consideration what is being expressed in these posts, or is this so much internet blather?
simply put: are the users who express their feelings regarding this scheme, in the hope they might convince last.fm to come up with something better, wasting their time and energy?
i, for one, believe the international users deserve the courtesy of truth in answering this one question.
Text
3 April, 11:33
@former listener it sounds to me like your the condescending one because I have the opposite view to those screaming how unfair it all is. Will I continue to post ? most certainly yes because why should I let people like you try to shout down an opposing view and also because I am evidently annoying you.
For Last FM to survive they need a viable business model. They have worked out that they are able to provide a service without subscription to their users in USA/Germany and UK funded by advertising, a pretty common internet business model (If you use Google then in case you were not aware that is their primary business model)
Unfortunately Last FM have obviously also worked out that they are unable to sustain a service in other countries without another source of income, again subscription is a pretty common way of accessing premium content on the internet.
All the comments about other countries being discriminated against is hysteria and if people in the USA/UK and Germany paid a subscription as well as funding Last FM through advertising then that really would be discrimination (regardless of whether you think people in those countries can afford it).
Last FM is not/cannot be some form of communist utopia. The fact of the matter it is a business that employs people, has to pay wages, rent, royalties etc. It’s not about eating cake it is about hard economic reality.
Last FM needs to grow it’s business and a subscription only model is not the best way to quickly add users because it puts people off. (Would you use Google as much if you had to pay a subscription or pay to receive search results ?)
Fundamentally those people that think Last FM is worth the subscription and can afford it will pay it, the rest will leave. Harsh maybe but that’s life I’d like a Ferrari but can’t afford one perhaps I should scream and abuse my local dealership because it is so unfair that they won’t just give me one.
Do the changes leave the Last FM community a poorer place ?, possibly yes but the reality is that or no Last FM at all which really would be a shame.
krusty.ar
3 April, 13:14
Evidently you are absolutely NOT listening, your site is a comunity effort, driven by the data and work of peole around the world, you should be paying people, not the other way around. Cancel this move or many users will go away.
raulmormu
3 April, 14:57
Well, I have to say only one thing: BYE, BYE, LAST.FM. Internet is too big, I will another music web. Be happy, you will keep, your english and american people.
former paid subscriber
3 April, 16:26
RIP racists, RIP Last.fm
ernesto
3 April, 18:28
Guys, ad-revenue is falling, and the cost of licensing music is still very high.
The alternative to this is to set up sales forces in every country and get more ads (and audio ads) tailored to individual markets. This would obviously cost a lot and in a market with falling ad-revenues is unwise.
On the flip side, to all you people deleting accounts – be patient. The music labels are incredibly slow to react and due to the hysteria surrounding Spotify will soon realise that free streaming music can be very effective – so I’m sure many labels will re-address the fee’s charged in the next few years, so that they’re music can reach the music fanatics all around the world.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a temporary decision, while Last.fm wait for labels to put better deals on the table. Which will probably happen in the next few years.
Don’t forget that Last.fm have had to lay off staff as well, they’re not in their ball-pool drinking champagne and laughing at people in Hungary.
steph
3 April, 18:44
Why doesn´t last.fm implement a payable download function, that user could buy songs directly on last.fm, e.g. a download button in the radio player?
Other music communities are starting right now with similar things. Couldn´t this be a option cover some of the costs?
facebook login
3 April, 18:51
ＯＨ ＧＯＤ your blog very hot!
brzeczyk
3 April, 19:46
The whole world pays for the crisis caused by the US. Now we have to pay for not being American, German or British. Bye!
GivemelibertyOR
3 April, 20:48
Two words: Google Adwords.
The EU customer
3 April, 22:25
It’s good you take some additional time to weigh the options. I’m sure you’ll come to conclusion that treating users differently according to origin/country is fundamentally wrong for a global online service. I do not disagree with your decision to start charging a fee for radio. It’s a business and if the ads don’t generate enough revenue, no argument here. What’s wrong is the discrimination of the users non-US-UK-Germany. Epic fail. If everyone must pay – it’s OK.
BTW I’ve uploaded some of my own music to last.fm. And now I should pay for listening while another guy from US gets it free? Way ironic.
pRzeKop
3 April, 23:10
f… it, i wont pay!
there are other free radios.
bye.
Nick
4 April, 00:08
Still no word on when this subscription charge is going to kick in. Is it because CBS havent told you yet? Or are you guys starting to panic just a little bit?
M1ck1
4 April, 00:53
nobody seems to have noticed that there were always exceptions for users from UK, USA or Germany… something related to on-demand play, I don’t exactly remember…
Anyway, I don’t blame last.fm, I am pretty sure the music industry in those 3 biggest markets has just some kind of different contract with them than it has with the rest of the world… it’s a business afterall…
Btw: I’m German, I have 3 albums of my own on this site and I still pay the prescription and have done so for years, because I think last.fm is a real alternative to all the crappy illegal filesharing and music industry DRM crap. If I pay 3 dollars/euro per month, that’s ok to me… kind of like that “culture flatrate” they discussed for a while in France…
Luzian
4 April, 04:57
I love last.fm, but I’m sad to see that it is being transformed from the “social music revolution” to a commercial service that discriminates users based on their location.
I have no trouble myself paying 3€ a month (I’ve been a subscriber for over 2 years), but many people are not in the same situation (students, people in countries with different economic situation, people who only listen occasionally etc.) and will simply stop using it. Which will in turn be a huge loss for the community, for scrobbling stats etc.
Isn’t it weird that people from 3 of the “richest” countries in the world (UK/US/Germany) will get the service for free, while those from “poorer” countries have to pay? Shouldn’t it be the other way round? I always looked at my subscription payment as support for the community, so that people who have less financial possibilities, from other countries etc., can also listen to the radio for free. Where has the “SOCIAL music revolution” been lost? Or as someone else asked, how much more would subscribers have to pay if we wanted to keep the basic service free in all countries?
last.fm was a unique worldwide community, with its main features (similar artists radio etc.) being based on the LARGE number of users submitting scrobbles. now it’s being turned into some (random) paid service, which some can afford but others not. those not in the G3 countries and who aren’t able to or don’t want to pay, will most likely also stop scrobbling. When looking at the flagcounter of some random large group, it seems that only about 30% of the users are from the G3. So last.fm risks losing two thirds of their users and hence scrobbles – which would also be a huge loss in diversity (people in different countries have different music styles, listening habits etc…) and make data less useful. I fear this could be the end of last.fm in the long term…
Don’t shoot yourself in the foot!
Darius cel Tulbure
4 April, 07:56
Richard, this sound more like an excuse than as a real explanation. And that’s because there are tons of advertising networks – including Google AdWords – that can serve ads based on language or geographic location. I’m sure you wouldn’t encounter much problems contracting with them.
It’s not hard to imagine Last.fm displaying ads targeted for the French market, the Chinese market, the Brazilian market, Italian market and so on… It’s the advertising network’s problem to do that. But I assure you it’s not a problem for them – the practice is going on for several years now and it works.
Angelo Miele
4 April, 09:43
I loved Last.fm but the day that this come true and they ask me money for the same service that was free I will delete my accout without doubts
Michael
4 April, 10:17
I’m going to think about dropping my lastfm account (even if I´m living in “free-of-fee-Germany”) if you go ahead with that.
Why?
I’m very much into Spanish/Latin music. Users from Spain/Latin America will disappear if they have to pay for the service. Their input which I appreciate so much will disappear likewise.
Do you know how much is 3 Euros per month for an average person in South America? It´s about 1-2 percent of income. If you would apply this on an average German income this would mean paying 20-40 Euros per month just for listening radio… That´s crazy!
Think about it!
Rob
4 April, 11:23
Hi,
I am living in Germany but I’m going to remove my music from last.fm, when anybody will have to pay for my free music. i will not give you guys my music, when people in third world countrys will have to pay for it. this really sucks.
if you are going to still stream free music from independent musicians in future for the whole world, i will leave my music on last.fm.
Bobby
4 April, 11:35
Everybody go to www.jango.com
Roel, Hengelo (the Netherlands)
4 April, 12:49
I’m a happy user of audioscrobler since 2004 and I’ve been subscripted for some months. The three dollars are practicly nothing, so I don’t care about paying. I am concerned about people leaving last.fm. After all, for a big part last.fm is this big because of the huge amount of users.
I perfectly understand your decission and I really hope users won’t run away. Keep up the good work!
a user
4 April, 14:14
I won’t kill my account just now, since experience teaches that things often don’t come out completely as bad as they sound when announced. However I, too, think it’s unjust that people from the US, the UK and Germany don’t have to pay while others do. Having worked in the publishing business I know that royalties for music are very expensive, but having 95% of the world pay and 5% not just because they happen to reside in one of 3 certain countries is certainly not desirable if you want to keep as many users as possible (customer retention, anyone?).
eu
4 April, 14:53
The last fm is dead.
Alessandro
4 April, 15:27
Short sighted move. Someone already tried this. Look at the FAQs on the Pandora site:
****************
Q: Why not switch to a subscription model/service?
Unfortunately, the market won’t support it. We originally launched Pandora as a subscription-only service, but even at just $3 per month, we had very few people signing up. So it’s clear that this has to be an advertising-supported, free service — as radio has been for decades. ****************
FAQ accessible here:
http://blog.pandora.com/faq/#839
Have a nice decadence.
WebCM
4 April, 17:04
I hope the radio will be free during some periods of time, for example: Christmas (24-26th December), Easter (two days or more) and some other occasions. This practise is done by Gadu-Gadu SA in Poland – we can make calls abroad to ordinary phones. for free :)
Roman
4 April, 18:09
International users are already no longer able to contact Last.fm in our own language like we used to and now we are being told we have to pay just to access the radio. What will happen next? Not a smart move and incredibly poor communication with users who until now were Last.fm fans and militants. The news has made many people unhappy, shocked and really with a different opinion of Last.fm. The ones who cannot afford it are being told to pay or to leave and those from richer countries can continue to enjoy free music. Feeling betrayed, the temptation is obviously to move to a better, free alternative and to hope that Spotify will be the new solution and find cleverer ways of monetizing their business, ways that do not make infuriate users. The whole ‘social music revolution’ motto is going down the drain…
But I guess CBS and socialism do not really go well together! Last.fm, you have sold your soul.
Caio
4 April, 18:24
You know what? I’d pay the three pounds, easy: last.fm is great. But not if Americans don’t have to pay. For one, those fat fucks get everything free and then OBLIVIOUSLY complain when anyone else gets a handout. For two: less non-Americans means PROPORTIONALLY more Americans. I try to avoid Americans on the Internet because they have turned every web site I’ve liked into complaining about black people (“i aint rasist but blak prisidint? thats polidikal crekness gune crazy!!!” etc) and demanding larger “imergrant wals” or filling every fucking discussion forum with debates on partisian politics (inevitably peppered with “I’m not racist but…”) Americans have nothing worthwhile to say. Ever. For that matter, I listen to lots of non-American music and the large non-American body of last.fmers is what makes this site good. If they mainly leave, then all the radio will recommend me is Britney Spears and angsty Heavy Metal. No thanks. I don’t need to pay three pounds to be recommended that because American companies already market that obnoxious shit down the world’s throat as much as they possibly can anyway. In fact I would pay three pounds NOT to hear that bullshit, sorry.
pablo
4 April, 19:24
You are on point Caio. I share what you think 100%
Nunes
4 April, 22:57
Great market decision!
You will have fewer visitors and your internet ads will worth much less. In a few months your revenue will fall. These are the laws of the market.
Kevin
5 April, 02:03
last.fm has just jumped the shark.
Thanks for the last few years guys, looks like it’ll all be over soon.
BenjaminKrauze
5 April, 03:03
The decision taken might seem right concerning the fact that ads are harder to control internationally.
But macroeconomically (and moreover humanistically and socially) this decision is definitely a mistaken one. You won´t charge three of the richest nations in the world, and instead you pretend that every user you could have in developing countries and less developed countries pay a monthly fee.
The discrimination criterion here is absurd: charge more to those who have less. Cause that´s in the end what it is, a discriminative measure. Fair would be, instead, not to charge any country, or in the contrary to charge every country. But still that would also be absurd, that would only establish a straight course to bankruptcy.
So why not instead create a donation system in order to be funded in a fairer way? This also means taking a less aggressive commercial stance, which would enrich the general status of lastfm.
But, hell, I bet it could also be interesting to see this become some case brought to the World Trade Organization´s Dispute Settlement Body, due to breaches of the GATS, by some random country.
ppp
5 April, 04:01
I can live with the idea to pay again for music…
But the big question is: Who gets the benefit?
alvareo
5 April, 04:19
“Gift subscriptions: you’ll be able to buy a subscription for a friend”
Umm…
This has always been available… The fact you skip a step or have a special button for it won’t make the people who are going out, to stay in Last.fm… ¬¬
JunwooChung
5 April, 05:46
I agree that it is hard to make money out of this, but my opinion is that I’d rather listen to ads on the streaming radio than pay 6 dollars a month to listen. Anyway, I’m moving on to Jango!
Dustyrat
5 April, 06:56
Since Last.FM eats free http://music.download.com Last.fm was only place for indy musiciants on the Web to exchange own music… I make all my songs downloadable just for free not for pay for listen to other artist’s music. I don’t want to play with your Royalties service and will close my account.
Music revolution is finished :(
Sincerely Yours –
Vladimir Egorov,
Leader of Dusty Rats group
just me
5 April, 08:47
uhm i haven’t read all the comments so excuse me if someone has said this before… but. i see a lot of people complain about being treated differently and ask for everyone to pay equally. those are people who don’t find it hard to pay the 3 euro but who have a “moral” problem with this. well, you should also consider that 3 euro has greatly different value around the world. what is just a small beer to you can be a full meal for other people, namely the kind of people who spend most of their income on sustainance, too. so much for equality huh? but that’s a completely different story.
anyway. last fm radio is not (only) about getting your music for free. it’s mostly about discovering new music that wouldn’t have had the exposure otherwise. if a subscription will make people go away then the music pool and therefore the discovery rate will drop. and that goes against what this site has stood for. i would pay the 3 eur, but to what purpose if it’ll only provide me with the same music i get on mtv?
and seriously. i find it hard to believe that last.fm can sustain itself on ads in germany and not france? just an example. or the us but not canada? how about australia? japan? brazil? etc. i currently get ads in my native language on every social network i use. and i’m not even living in highly developed country.
preco
5 April, 11:06
D*mn, at least, LISTEN to the people.
1.
The recommendations system is pretty useless and nothing has ever been done to change it. No group recommendations, and personal ones end up wasting space of your inbox.
2.
For €3.0 monthly from thousands of users, why is the stream still only 128kB/s?
Last.fm has hardly been in need of money, ever.
The smell of money from CBS, however, was too good, and there you see.
It’s not ours anymore, we can’t change a bit about it and you are even asking for money.
I wouldn’t mind spending €3 each month but obviously obscure artists and not only them will suffer from the shrinking community.
It’s all too bitter. You can’t pretend to be friends with us anymore, last.fm.
You can still have an office watch-moose. Many of us will now feel like tearing it apart.
Imagetico
5 April, 12:07
#
Imagetico
5 April, 12:00
Iam very sorry with this, because I wil shut down my acount. I really love last FM, but 3 Euros here in Brasil its a lots of money. I can buy a hole meal with it. And after all Lastcbs Fm will lost because they will not have what ist more important which is the USERS DATABASE. and I think the Database my hearing habits worths a lot.
Open your minds , think frontierless.
Mary-ann
5 April, 12:32
Hey,
I LOVE last.fm because some of my favorite bands I came to know them through last.fm. I am a subscriber because i think it is such and amazing service so I want to contribute. But still I’m not happy with this announcement and this is why:
I’ve convinced loads of friends to register on last.fm. Mainly the only way I was able to convince them was to say: “It creates a recommendation radio for you based on the music you listen to! Also, imagine you are at work and you don’t have your ipod with you, if you play your library it’s like having your ipod with you everywhere in the world without actualy having it there with you. How amazing is that?” I am able to convince my friends by saying that, and they absolutely love last.fm and last.fm radio when they register.
The thing is: I pay subscription because I want to: all of the friends I’ve convinced to register on last.fm don’t pay, nor will they ever want to. Which means they will leave and I will never be able to convince other friends to register on last.fm again.
Last.fm will loose alot of valuable users, and the recommendation service’s quality will drop significantly because it is only really good thanks to the data that all users submit daily to last.fm.
Some people really can’t pay 3€ euros a month, luckily I can afford it, but I know alot of people who can’t. Like I’ve said before: you can buy a full good meal with 3€ in my country.
Last.fm should set up a donations service, happy users will donate, just like I have donated with subscriptions for the past months.
Also, I think last.fm’s announcment was not very tactful. You didn’t explain anything to us with the first announcment. You just said “From next week on everyone will pay except, UK, US and Germany” with no explanation whatsoever as to why. Most of us are loyal users who, just like me, have convinced alot of friends to join: we deserved a bit better than that first announcment you made.
That said, I don’t get it why everybody is leaving comments on this post saying “Spotify here I come”. Alot of people are complaining about this announcment and saying Spotify is the way to go now. Well, I just googled spotify and entered the site and the free service is not available in my country. And the monthly fee is 9€ euros!!! I’ll take last.fm anytime, over anything. I’m just worried about the fact that the server will loose it’s quality when it starts loosing all the data of users who are leaving and will continue to leave.
Mary-ann
5 April, 12:36
I meant “I’m just worried about the fact that the SERVICE will loose it’s quality2
not:
“I’m just worried about the fact that the SERVER will loose it’s quality”
My mistake!
pissed of german
5 April, 12:37
Hi.
I have nothing to lose with this, first I’m german, second I don’t stream the radio from last.fm.
But here’s my honest opinion:
For a small project that started some years ago, that grew intensively with support of users, and considering that those users make a huge effort to make last.fm better (such as artist biographys…) Last.fm is being really Unthankfull to their users!
I’m a fair user, but I really hope now that last.fm fucks itself up and gets so much competition with this change that ultimatelly they’ll loose lots and lots and lots of users
preco
5 April, 12:45
You know the FUNNY LIE is that sourcing adverts for countries other than the 3 mentioned is:
You actually have LOCALLY CONTEXTUAL ADVERTS all over last.fm already!
*.doubleclick.net
If I were RJ it would be impossible for me to lie as CBS dictates. Where is your honesty?
I really hope this will fail to pour more money into The Eye, CBS loses a solid source of ad revenue instead and in the end justice will come.
fuck you greed.fm
5 April, 14:35
hope you fucking die richard jones
Marco
5 April, 15:38
Do you know that in EU maybe it is a violation to set different prices for your services?
You can’t make pay EU countries excluding UK and Germany, if you will do that probably the European Commission will knock at your door.
Jari
5 April, 15:46
What Marco says is true. There are EU laws, and one is, that you can’t rank a country higher than the other, so you might have to think about your decision of exluding certain EU countries from it.
felipe8a
5 April, 18:26
Still sucks. Last.fm is supposed to be the “music social revolution”. Why can’t it be like grooveshark? Grooveshark doesn’t even have ads and you can pick any song and play it as many times as you want.
I want last.fm to be the best! Why is it getting worse?
Whongo
5 April, 18:34
I second Mary-Ann’s statement above. I’ve been a paying member for almost 2 years, and with their recent decision, Last.fm got a lot less interesting to me.
They will lose a lot of their user base, which will degrade the recommendation service. But even worse, the recommendations will degrade differentially, with the large user base now being ever more concentrated to the “three holy countries”. As if my musical world wasn’t dominated enough by the US and UK as it is… That’s sad, because discovering new music was what made Last.fm so great.
Still, I understand why they do this. Licensing is tough when the licensors want to play the “geographical game”.
But if licensing fees are really the bogeyman in all of this, then please, Last.fm, just filter out the license-challenged music from the radio streams in the countries where you can’t make ends meet.
That would in fact keep the greatness of Last.fm largely unscathed. And it would allow you to keep growing your user base, even outside the “holy 3”. If you go with simply cutting the radio streams, I fear your user base will slowly start trickling away. And then you’ll die.
yesh
5 April, 18:36
Get iDeal and ill stay, ffs why do i have to pay for shit that used to be free… Guess ill pay as long as i dont need credit card
theDUKE
5 April, 20:01
This SUXX! I say: stick it to THE MAN!!!
desperado
6 April, 00:52
Why don’t you come to your senses? You better Think Twice or better let somebody hit on your head! Before it’s too late.
Claire
6 April, 01:25
Shame on you!
I’ll second what someone just said above:
“you should also consider that 3 euro has greatly different value around the world. what is just a small beer to you can be a full meal for other people, namely the kind of people who spend most of their income on sustainance, too. so much for equality huh? “
Hey guys, think about it!
eu
6 April, 02:38
great idea, and I will delete my account.
AdriaNnLA
6 April, 04:21
Some observations
First —
What Last.fm has tried to say, but seems to have not been understood by so many -- the current model is paying for itself in the US/UK/GermanyThe fact that citizens of countries outside those three will need to pay for a subscription DOES NOT mean that those citizens will be subsidizing listeners from the three named countries. Those countries are already paying for themselves.
I would go so far as to infer from comments made by Last.fm to date, that till now by and large the three named countries have been subsidizing everyone else. Now everyone else will have to start pitching in to cover the costs.
How else can I rationalize my previous inference? The vast majority of subscribers I bump into on this site are from US/UK — its not hard to imagine also, that most click-through sales are generated from these countries.
Second — NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS FREE Simple as that.
Third — I do realize that there will be seeming inequities in some areas due staggering exchange rates, and perhaps Last.fm can come up with a more equitable solution down the road for these; but many of the complaints I’ve seen in this thread and the previous have stated such that 3€ euros / month is equal to something like a ticket to the movies, or a meal?
Rokk Lattanzio
6 April, 05:24
I totally agree with the users who have expressed disdain for the fact that three countries receive preferential treatment… The internet is global and presumably some of the companies advertising on Last.FM offer their goods and services globally (even if they are based in one of the elite 3 nations)
So why not make the subscription fee lower but universal?
J
6 April, 09:03
I agree with Caio above.
ladyrevania
6 April, 09:26
If you want people to pay, EVERYONE SHOULD PAY. Good thing I don’t use last.fm radio. But I’d like to subscribe anyway, IF you enable SMS payment in Poland and make EVERYONE pay. People from US, UK and Germany TOO.
SaKuRaVaAnLoNh
6 April, 10:04
Seriously guys… I’m not telling you that it’s your fault…but users are not silly…
I don’t think anyone’s going to pay for something that for others is completely free…
Not me at least.
It’s a pity anyway, you provided the best online music source on the web.
I’m sorry but like almost all of the users, I’m going to delete my account when the non-free service arrives.
Good luck, you will need it!
Farewell LastFm
Mary-ann
6 April, 10:37
AdriaNnLA,
While you make some good points some of the things you said are not as simple as you implied. You said:
“I find it hard to fathom that if you can afford a computer and a connection to the internet, regardless of where you are (which country you’re hailing from) that you can’t also spare the cost of about one meal per month to enjoy a subscription?”
Luckily, I’m one of the people who can afford a computer and a connection and thus can afford a monthly last.fm fee (and indeed I have been subscribing for one year). But in my country that is not the norm. alot of the friends I’ve convinced to join last.fm don’t have a computer or an internet cnnection, simply because they can’t afford it. That is why they love last.fm so much: They don’t have money for a computer, or cd’s, or an ipod, or internet, but still when they are at work they can listen to the music they love, on last.fm, at work all day.
Moreover, even if they do have computer and internet, alot of my friends are going to take 2 years to pay for their computers as they chose the option at the computer store that enables them to pay a little bit every month. And they scrimp and save to pay for their computers and internet connections. And when I say scrimp and save I mean going to a cheaper supermarket about 20 minutes by foot from their house instead of going to the supermarket right in their street next to their bulding just so that they can save 10 or 20 cents. Those people will not pay 3€ to listen to radio, simply because they can’t. Whle 3€ is probably just about “skipping a meal” for you, to others in otehr countries it is a much more serious matter. The phrase “I cannot have lunch without you this week but I will save money and I will have lunch with you in 2 or 3 weeks” is quite common in my country. Alot of the people in my country have to save money for 2 or 3 weeks to be able to go out with their friends for a 3€ meal at mc donalds. People like that will not pay for last.fm, simply because it is not about “skipping one meal per month” like you said. It is about skipping the only meal they have per month with their friends.
While I am not saying that last.fm should be free, as music has never been free, I’m saying that last.fm could at least come up with a cheaper fee, or start by implementing an optional donations service and see if what people donate cover their cost, and if not then move on to implement a monthly fee, but a bit cheaper than 3€. I don’t see why they can’t keep it at 2.50€ like subscriptions have been until now, while it is not much lower, 0.50 cents does make a difference to alot of people.
Riverion
6 April, 10:43
@AdriaNnLA and everybody that thinks the new payment scheme is ‘fair’
Adrian, good of you to defend Last.fm in the blog comments. You made some of the unspoken reasons why ‘the change’ is happening and you’re probably right.
However, there is one argument that you did not address. A large part of how Last.fm works, works because of the users. They have been tagging, writing, scrobbling, uploading etc. and providing their usage statistics. Without this Last.fm would not be even near what it is now. As a ‘reward’ we got the services of last.fm. Now this deal is changing: last.fm is saying: “you can keep ‘working’ for us and we’ll keep your work, but we’ll no longer give you free music”. Can you understand that quite a lot of us feel cheated? Especially as the motto of last.fm was “Last.fm has always been about making music culture more democratic: everyone listening to music how they want to, when they want to.”
And there are alternatives too, just read the comments above. Last.fm has not even tried to establish advertisement sales team in some of these other areas. They didn’t even try to keep the music free.
(There is something else I am curious about: are most users really from UK/US/DE? I believe that most of the people you bump into are from the US, but that’s predictable because you are from the US and you like music that people in the US like etc. etc. Do you actually know something about the last.fm demographics?)
caprifoi
6 April, 11:58
I have been on strike every since I found out about the subscriptions issue (and switched to www.deezer.com). I feel discriminated against by last.fm even if I understand that cutting the world in two is purely a marketing decision.
However, I feel that this whole last.fm marketing strategy is COMPLETELY INADEQUATE!!!
Why not find other ways of getting people to subscribe? Why not making subscription worth the difference? I suggest for example: – being able to listen to whole albums/ artists. Why deezer.com can do it for free and last.fm won’t, even for subscribers??? What is this 3-times-only limit for listening to a favourite track? – being able to listen to playlists and loved tracks. I mean, now we are free to listen to other people’s playlist. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you create a new account you can listen to your own playlist created in the former account. But why go through such hassle? Just keep this option of listening to playlists for subscribers only. – being able to upload your own mp3s, and listen to them “on the go”. deezer.com offers this possibility and it’s great, it’s cool, it’s like having your library walking around with you! Of course, others should not have access to your mp3s.
For the moment, these are the 3 features I love about deezer.com that last.fm hasn’t yet to offer.
What I like about last.fm is the huge database of good music, the truly inspired choice of recommendations, but most of all – that it has become a WORLDWIDE phenomenon – and social network. I really miss scrobbling (what a pity I had to stop since only recently I got the hang of it) and I would truly subscribe if … last.fm had put it a whole lot differently.
To sum up, I am against dividing the world into “ad-listeners” and “forced subscribers”. If last.fm takes this decision I will delete my account and leave last.fm for good. However, if last.fm re-thinks its whole marketing strategy, and tries to offer more interesting features for subscribers, so that listeners worldwide would feel that subscribing is worth the effort, then… I would truly subscribe.
Varun
6 April, 12:02
People have already started searching for alternatives. I live outside the three countries mentioned, though I don’t listen to the radio much. Last.fm sure is gonna go through some hard times, and rightly so. All the effing best!
titiris
6 April, 12:14
As long as I understand the EC laws, you cant sale anything at a different price to citizens in different countries, so you’ll charge the UK and DE users too?
How do you pay the repeatedly mentioned fee? per song? or per listener?
If you pay per song published, as any broadcast radio, why you don’t keep it free for anyone?
What do you think that Int’l advertisers like Vodafone will do when your free subscribers disappear??? and Movistar in Spain? is a “small” advertiser?
I think that youre simple robbers, sorry for my extreme judgment.
petar
6 April, 14:49
guess what? you guys SUCKS! hard!
i rather keep on subscription of donating a
2eur/month to my fav radio station on inet
www.dnbradio.com
rather than your dirty schemes,
and treating non RICH people as SH
BenjaminKrauze
6 April, 19:48
Hey, I got a little logic dilemma for AdriaNnLA:
Minimum wage in my country is around $3.75 USD for a day of work (8 hours). People have got to find sustenance with that amount of money on a daily basis: $3.75 USD MUST represent 3 complete meals, not to say some of the most basic goods, like clothes or hygiene goods like soap. Of course there are people who´s earnings are above the minimum wage, just as it is in your country. But that is not the general rule, just like in your country. But there is a very determining difference compared with the labor situation of your country. Can you, with what I´ve just wrote, tell what that difference is?
By the way subsidies are not the problem here. But there is discriminatory treatment, taking in mind that three countries are going to be treated differently. The fair action for last.fm to do if they were to give a benefit to users of a determined country (thus other people might be paying, but in general user´s are not doing so directly, and that, regarding direct and concrete payment, is a benefit), would be to extend the benefit to the users of every other country.
Still, ideally in a website which´s motto is “listen to music with internet radio and the largest music catalogue online”, one would expect it would actually be possible. So the least we could expect for last.fm to do is to change their motto, otherwise it would be a marketing practice affected of Dolus (malus or bonus), which might at the end not affect them at all, but would make them liars by definition.
As for the “everything costs” statement, well that´s just way to “American” of you, isn´t it? Maybe the way you consider life and everything that surrounds you in every moment is through money, maybe even your thoughts, or feelings. But I could tell you a couple of things you could do to your mother, for FREE! But I would probably be banned (not that I care much, if subscription becomes mandatory in this site), so I guess I´ll rather save it.
ModelCitizen
6 April, 20:02
Is it that people in the USA, Germany and UK click on ads more? I’m a bit perplexed as to why these three countries get Last.fm free still.
Jonas
6 April, 21:43
Finaly everything ends like Google and Microsoft… It’s a basic law…
erduprince
7 April, 01:07
guys, maybe we’d better teach cbs a little lesson and sue their asses off…
the european union already punished microsoft a couple of years ago…now would be a great time to repeat this with cbs…even wto may be interested…
result: market share going down the drain (just like microsoft)…it’s about time that record companies (together with bankers) lose face…
i’m a subscriber and i’m responsible for myself, not for my country…i want the same rights as other subscribers…no matter how high or low that subscription fee is…
ww1 started for less patriotism than this…
timmy overseas
7 April, 02:04
Maybe Last.fm is regretting rolling over for the music industry a few years back and agreeing to pay their insane licensing costs?? Maybe they wish they had stuck with the other internet radio stations and presented a united front?
What happens to (for example) British people living and traveling overseas?
After several years of providing data and information to this company, it kind of feels like theft – they take all my listening and metadata and then won’t even give me recommendations
I’m glad i still have the option to continue scrobbling – its great to be able to continue supporting your service while not getting any benefits. Thanks for that.
former listener
7 April, 05:33
30 some years ago, there was an instructive moment in marketing goofs when, after more more a hundred years of success, some hair-brained fool thought it a swell idea to change the recipe for Coca-Cola and come out with the ALL NEW COKE. there were corporate roll-outs using pie charts and graphs, there were economic models and explanations, there were forceful corporate statements saying they were going ahead with ALL NEW COKE come hell or high water because it was the only way forward.
well, for those of us old enough to remember, ALL NEW COKE tasted like very old pisswater. consumers rejected it en masse and pepsi sales went through the roof. it only took six months for Coca-Cola to realise ALL NEW COKE was a god-awful idea, and they dumped it (along with the hair-brained fool who thought it up) and went back to THE REAL THING.
here endith the lesson, amen.
chiaroscuro2
7 April, 07:05
I hope last.fm goes under for pulling this garbage. You deserve it.
Shrink125
7 April, 08:52
This whole idea really sucks for all sorts of reasons. I’m a UK resident and a subscriber, now you tell me you are putting up the annual subscription rate by approximately 90% on today’s exchange rate! How the feck do you justify such a huge increase in a recession. Secondly it probably does contravene EU law. Lastly I am with all those who live where 3 Euros/month is a substantial amount of money. You have built your service on the enthusiasm and goodwill of your users & you seem willing to piss it all away in the name of greed, because that is all this is! I am disgusted and will probably end my sub when it expires in 3 months, incidentally you weren’t thinking of breaching your contract with exisiting subscribers who have already paid upfront, or were you? More likely, I will just, with sorrow, cancel my account entirely and find a service which still has some ideals and originality.
cbbacon
7 April, 09:13
How silly of me for thinking that Last.fm had managed to come up with a business model that would allow for its free service. It is obviously not the case and it is very disappointing.
Last.fm was for me not a way to get free music but to discover new music I would then eventually buy. This is a pity and now a shame that both the music industry and Last.fm have not been able to agree on such platform for people who love and pay for music.
I always assumed that radios and recommendations would be funded in one way or another and in agreement with the record companies. It is obviously not the case.
I also find appalling that whilst I will not be able to listen online to the music I already own offline and recommendations, you kindly tell me that I can still “contribute” to the wealth of information (scrobbling, reviews, etc.) that serves Last.fm and the music industry. Don’t count on it!
The whole thing whether intended or not starts smelling like a scam! Get investors, get an audience as large as possible and see if they bite the bait! And I’m pretty sure I don’t even have to blame CBS for it but Last.fm management.
Such a shame of a job well started but not done!
tonyloco
7 April, 09:47
When the service will not be free anymore, i’ll stop scrobbling… Why i have to pay to give my data?
I subscribed too in the past, but i think that will not do it again.
erduprince
7 April, 13:26
Am glad Coca Cola is being brought up here.
This is the mistake CBS is making: old style thinking. Like Coca Cola charges a different price for one coke, depending on the country where it is being served, CBS is trying to implement this policy with their product: music. Note however there is no direct social interaction between a person drinking his coke in China or one in the States.
This no longer works. The year is 2009 and we’re talking about a social network on a global scale. Users share stuff and there’s plenty of interaction going on. If you distinguish between them, merely on a geographical basis (regardless of the money they’re paying as subscribers), you ARE actually destroying the fabric of the social network itself. I’m a subscriber and I want the same rights as any other subscriber.
Old style colonization CBS: divide et impera, all too obvious.
Music Will Always Be Free
7 April, 16:34
We don’t love you anymore, Last.fm. Go away.
Jess
7 April, 22:06
I am still waiting for my e-mail
Jordi
7 April, 23:40
Ok, but I think that if I’m going to pay 3€ monthly for that service, it would be fair to have no ads in my account…
Endoplasmic
8 April, 01:29
The amount of money I’ve spent on concert tickets this year alone because of the whole “this artist sounds like this artist” would blow your minds.
I’m going to keep scrobbling my music because I find that looking at my own data is cool enough. I do like to fire up the last.fm radio though when I hear something new to see what else it can pull off that sounds the same.
Chalk me up as another Canadian that is pissed off to get the shaft :(
Lausianne
8 April, 07:12
I liked Last.FM so much in the past that I would not mind at all paying €3 for it. I’m from Switzerland, for €3 I get little more than a cup of coffee here. A negligible price for what it’s been worth to me. I’d be happy to offer a donation of €30, if that helps, no problem.
But: I cannot support the arbitrary distinction between a few cash-cow advertising countries and the rest of the world, the “low-value countries”. That’s a stupid and antisocial idea.
So I’ll just go away and listen to music elsewhere, if you don’t change your mind. I hope you will.
lastfmsucksonhorsegenitals
8 April, 07:52
ok,so lastfm…when will you pay the users for filling your fucking database with a shitload of data?
Lost in the MIddle East
8 April, 08:58
I should like to say lausianne has made the most insightful comment, that the plan to exclude the United States, UK and Germany while it may make business sense to CBS, is at it’s heart and soul, “ANTISOCIAL” to the rest of the world. I find it rediculous as it is sad that lastfm, which bragged so much about being ‘the music social revolution’, would stoop to something so dumb!
I also think former listener has summed up the entire affair perfectly with the story of of coca-cola changing their recipe years ago. I looked this up in the internet.
Maybe CBS should too.
Dont let the knob hit ya on the way out..
8 April, 09:02
I doubt many of you here are even old enough to remember when internet radio was this close to being history.
Back then the record companies demanded back royalty payments for playing each and every song ever played and then some.
Just because internet radio survived, doesnt mean that the danger of being robbed blind isnt there.
Compare:
$.99/song – itunes
$16.99/cd – store bought
$3/month – unlimited listening
You do the math.
phYr
8 April, 10:26
I can agree with the explanation by Last.FM (and with the post by “Dont let the knob…”).
However, why not abandon the ad model entirely? Have the USA, UK and Germany also pay that 3 dollars per month, so the pain is devided equally.
Perhaps the fee can then be lowered a bit ($2,50) because of the increase in paying population.
zakazane
8 April, 10:28
Available to pay, no problem, because the radio is just and simply great. But will not do it if Americans British and Germans will not have to pay. This is discrimination, and can’t accept it. Explore alternatives, such as lower the price and ask everybody to pay.
Cheers
ame-mila
8 April, 10:46
I’m not gonna pay. No one I know is gonna pay.
Good luck with this.
Bummed-Out
8 April, 11:09
The 3 holy countries already get the best deals in music: they get the best concerts, they get the cd’s cheaper because they’re not imported, they get access to the best music merchandise, above all they get the best concerts, all year round. As if all that is not enough now they get the best deal with last.fm? Last.fm is the one musically related thing where all countries should be equal and have access to the same things…way to go.
Pi Hoo Sun
8 April, 11:30
One word says it all: betrayal…
Ruwiel
8 April, 13:45
mmm, lots of times I skep the songs that come on…why pay for music you dont like?
ermonnezza
8 April, 14:50
So we finally see the effect of selling to CBS. Can’t you guys think of anything smarter? I mean, who decided that every country should be “even” economically? I’ve read above that UK,USA,DE were so far “maintaining” other countries with their ads. If it’s true, what’s wrong with that? And how many users will be affected in practice? Where’s the stats page gone? I’m pretty sure the vast majority of users is from those three countries, so why ask money from a small minority of users from poorer countries?
I’m not against paying in principle. I paid most of the time for the last two years, as I can afford it. I’m against imposing the poorer part of the world a price for something that’s free for the richer. That’s unfair. For example, a mexican who has a job in the US would not pay, one who lives in Mexico would.
So far the most sensible proposal I saw came from user DetroitSoulJazz. There should be a ‘purchase power parity’ fare for everybody.
cadencecity
8 April, 15:42
your not fucking listening. this is bullshit. way to ruin what was one of the best things to happen to music. if you guys dont fix this im going to seriously be so fucking pissed off.
ermonnezza
8 April, 16:20
sorry, my mistake in previous message: there never was a stats page on last.fm.. but you could tell us, how many users are from the 3 magic countries, how many from elsewhere?
former listener
8 April, 18:09
‘don’t let the knob hit ya on the way out’…is someone who perfectly reflects the insensitivity of this affair. he lists the cost of music on itunes, then store bought music, then with the fee to be imposed by last.fm for ‘umlimited listening’. (no, really you all have to back up and read his post, because i’m not making this up) the writer’s carefully constructed list is then followed by the damning pronouncement all those who object to this fee scheme should,‘DO THE MATH!’.
excuse me, but ‘the math’ is thus…rest of the world must pay three euros per month…uk, usa, germany pay zero.
perhaps the writer thought we would miss that, in the sanctimonious brilliance of his reasoning.
once more…the reason the holy three of the usa, uk and de are being exempted from paying the fee is because tens of thousands of users would abandon the service and the very ‘advertising base’ cbs is so busy wanking over, would disappear overnight.
(talk about a wet dream)
this is NOT about money, it is about a perception of callous unfairness being inflicted on good people all around the world who were INVITED into ‘the lastfm music revolution’, and are now being pissed on from a great height.
a sensation about to be bestowed by cbs on whoever came up with this hair-brained scheme for allowing such an unmitigated public relations disaster to happen in the first place
Lost in the MIddle East
8 April, 18:53
I’m sure this is as hard on the staff of Last.FM as many of us. I think we have to remember they have done the work to make things possible to many people around the world. We shouldn’t blame them for the stupidity of CBS.
Imagine what they must feel like having worked so hard to make LAst.Fm work and then reading some of these letters.
We all have to remember they didn’t make this decision, CBS did.
captg
8 April, 20:22
Please normalize the volume on the radio for last.fm. It’s annoying to have a soft song playing and then have a loud song playing. Especially at work! lol
dj-lb
8 April, 20:43
I’m in France, i already pay 3€ and suddenly i discover iphone app is not available anymore in France, even for people who pay…Is it a joke guys ? or do you really want to make everyone in France switch to Deezer ?
noschlager
8 April, 21:08
I gladly subscribed for a couple of years, exactly because I thought last.fm was a great idea and that was what I wanted to support. I also introduced dozens of people to the site, and they became avid users, both paying or not. I discovered tons of new and exciting independent artists, supported and even became friends with some of them.
Well I don’t happen to be lucky enough to live in a chosen country. So now it’s all over. On to the next free web radio service. Too bad, really, too bad…
Sjors
8 April, 23:29
You are trying really hard to lose a lot of goodwill with this discriminating regulations
Bummed-Out
9 April, 01:06
dj-lb, I second you!
I’m from Spain…suddently I don’t have access to the iphone app anymore? It used to be available in 6 countries, and now…surprise surprise! Only available in….you guessed it: UK, US, and Germany!
Honestly, is this a joke?! Wtf is going on here? We have to pay for radio, we have less features than the 3 holy countries, and suddently, voila, we have no iphone app and they still do!? And we have to pay for that??? We have to pay while we give you our music listening data, tag songs, add bios and photos to artist pages, add events, and so on, thus helping your service grow and what do you give us in return? You just take stuff away from us…
Perfect, just perfect, you’ve outdone yourself CBS, congratulations!
Tetsuo
9 April, 03:59
Just so you know, I just deleted my account because apparently if you ain’t white, you ain’t right for last.fm.
Fuck all of you. I understand it’s a business decision, but it’s a fucking stupid one.
Tetsuo
9 April, 04:16
I forgot to mention my key point: The US, UK, and Germany? What, so Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia just aren’t good enough for you? Not a single bloody country in any of four of the damn continents? This would be much more acceptable if it were, say, the UK, US, Brazil, Japan, Australia, and South Africa – at least then one country in each habitable continent would be covered. But apparently, again, if you ain’t white, you ain’t right.
Leia
9 April, 04:32
we simply can’t be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service
Really? You seem to have been doing that pretty successfully so far.
This is clearly just an excuse to squeeze more money out of us. The quality of service hasn’t really improved at all since I joined in 2005. The fact that you keep making the website “prettier” doesn’t count. I get a feeling you guys will be losing money over this instead of making extra because people are more likely to stop using the service all together than pay up.
13hype
9 April, 06:48
Well, I supported last.fm when they were free. Now, I will not update my subscription. The other thing me and my friends noticed, the artists we don’t listen to pop up in our charts. I don’t even have that stuff on my hdd that somehow got scrobbles. If that’s the new last.fm feature to promote artists… well that’s just absolutely uncool.
cheerz
source
9 April, 11:28
There is a lot of interest for Last.fm outside us/uk/de, so how is this decision justifiable? Just business? Yeah, right. The market is there, just go get it!
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2008-social-network-analysis-report/
source
9 April, 11:40
According to Alexa.com Last.fm gets more users from India than Germany and China isn’t that far behind.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/last.fm
source
9 April, 12:05
Also according to Alexa.com about 46% of Last.fm users come from us(30,6%) uk(10,8%) and de(4,5%).
Yeah, it’s great business move to wipe out about 54% of costs (streaming, licensing for those other countries).
But it’s also a big FU to those 54% of Last.fm users. You don’t matter, so pay if you want to play.
ermonnezza (still not scrobbling)
9 April, 12:26
“We all have to remember they didn’t make this decision, CBS did.”
Nothing personal. They decided to join CBS, not us, so it’s their problem. I wish they told us what positive impact did this have on the site, I did not notice any relevant increase of streamable songs in my musical niche. Maybe others did. The only reason I’m still in is the community. But a large part of it will move elsewhere if they have to pay, and especially if the rates are the same for switzerland and zimbabwe.
ermonnezza (still not scrobbling)
9 April, 13:42
I invite you to re-read this:
http://blog.last.fm/2007/05/30/lastfm-acquired-by-cbs
“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.”
“We have more resources at our disposal now, and more clout when it comes to negotiating licensing deals etc.”
“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.”
“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.”
or maybe the music industry is eventually going to change you?
Lost in the MIddle East
9 April, 17:56
I’m afraid Ermonezza doesn’t understand what I was saying. I worked in international broadcasting for sixteen years, all over the Middle East.
I worked with cameramen, editors and producers who have had to endure the decisions of their masters in war zones, when all the corporate types cared about were expense reports. All I was saying was the people who were DOING THE WORK at LAstFm, the people had no effect on the politics and business decisions of CBS, are not to blame. I believe they are suffering and shamed by the actions of their bosses.
As a final note, I call on Richard Jones to stand up and be counted. Are you a man, or a corporate mouse? Talk to the Music Revolution!
ermonnezza (still not scrobbling)
9 April, 18:18
@Lost in the MIddle East: you’re right – I was referring to the people in charge at last.fm who took the decision back then in 2007, not to all the people.
Sorry I misinterpreted your comment.
Aleksandra
9 April, 18:31
Yeah, since you’ve switched to Pay Pal we from Serbia can’t subscribe any more (no Pay Pal here). So please don’t charge anything until you make it possible for us and others like us, to subscribe.
elpta
9 April, 18:40
well, sad about this…as I don’t live in the US, UK or Germany… I will probably say goodbye to lastfm when it happens … and i really don’t want to! Who knows, maybe some other cool site as this will be developed.
JohnnyComeLate
9 April, 18:57
@elpta, I’m sure a new site will be developed and it will probably be what last.fm USED TO BE, SO ALL LAST.FM USERS WILL LEAVE AND GO TO THE NEW SITE!!!!!!
erduprince
10 April, 00:31
I’m afraid the problem could be more serious than some think.
Somebody told me last.fm is almost on the brink of bankruptcy. I can imagine that in those circumstances, one can not have a big mouth against cbs.
That’s why I wonder: How and why did it come this far? Is cbs partly responsible? And so forth…
Anyway, I’ve been trying out numerous other music services during the last few days, and it’s quite clear to me that none of them can be compared to last.fm. True, the sound quality of the stream is sometimes better, but that’s about it. For me all the rest at last.fm (the catalogue!) is absolutely superior.
On the other hand, in this phase, last.fm should not wait too long before making a decision…unfortunately, there’s people leaving the ship, and once they’re gone, it’s twice as difficult getting them back. Moreover, the people that left are having an adverse effect on the ones that are staying…we just feel more lonesome. Last.fm was never merely about people trying to become a dj and looking for an audience…it was also about sincerely learning from other people. Therefore, I would hate it if last.fm decides to become exclusive.
Music can make us all brothers and sisters…it can transcend conflict and lift our spirits…it’s truly a universal language…hope it stays that way.
Therefore, I’d like everybody to have some patience…no doubt last.fm is now trying to negotiate with cbs…I wish them success. Whatever the outcome is, for me it’s fine…but: same price for the same service for every citizen in this world.
PS: Let’s hope that both last.fm and CBS are learning from the mistakes they made.
former listener
10 April, 07:19
the calls for patience and a measure compassion for the worker’s of lastfm are well-written.
as is the call for richard jones to make an appearance. though i’m sure he’s under orders from his corporate masters to only speak when instructed.
i should also like to suggest to those protesting, but still listening, are you playing into the hands of cbs? and whilst i do not judge what you’re doing or wish you any ill will, i ask you to consider that cbs is watching what is happening on this thread very closely. they are reading comments and clicking the names to see how many connect to a still active lastfm accounts. (for example clicking my name goes nowhere, my account was deactivated) at this point cbs may be saying to themselves and their advertisers, ‘look how many of them are complaining, but still listening, ergo: we win.’
friends, switching off is the only thing cbs understands.
Eoin O'Riordan
10 April, 09:22
Hi Guys,
I understand that forces beyond your control are forcing your hand here. It upsets me, but I do understand.
And to them (the music industry) I say that a service like last.fm provides me with a way to experience new music. My local radio station has a playlist that can’t have more than 100-200 songs on it and the majority of those seem to be aimed at the 14-21 female market. I just wouldn’t get to hear new music (I like) without something like last.fm.
So just to help quantify what Last.fm has meant to the music industry, here is a list of the albums that I have bought purely off hearing them on Last.fm.
2 micah p hinson albums (plus 1 gig attended)
1 british sea power (plus 1 gig attended)
1 frightened rabbits (plus 1 gig attended where 1 t-shirt bought)
1 fleet foxes
2 of Montreal (plus 1 gig attended)
1 art brut
1 TV on the Radio
1 Magnetic Fields
1 The National
1 Death Cab for Cutie
1 Suburban Kids with Biblical Names
1 Hot Hot Heat
1 Los Campesinos!
2 The Decemberists
2 the boy least likely to
so roughly 19 albums, 3 gigs and a tshirt! (at a conservative estimate €50 on gigs, €125 on cds)
I am happy to pay for new music as long (as it it not at grossly overflated prices) and I am pretty certain that without last.fm, I wouldn’t have heard of many of these artists. [I used to listen to lauchcast but it certainly didn’t seem to provide the range and accuracy that last.fm provides.]
Hopefully the music industry will relent in it’s desire to remove a service like this by overcharging you, or perhaps their desire is actually to remove this service so people only get to hear the heavily promoted and marketed bland tosh that commercial radio has to play…
Meanwhile, if you do need the money, I assume people will pay as long as they get the same as the people who pay in the other 3 countries (especially – for me – the other EU countries e.g. free play etc.) as well as another payment option rather than paypal.
Good luck in trying to resolve this, personally I don’t think the music industry has the imagination to see that this is a service that works for them and so they will cut off their noses to spite their faces.
Dany
10 April, 12:24
3 euros is a lot of money,
any money is a lot of money in many countries.
Today I feel brazilian even if I’m a fucking italian.
Sayonara last.fm,
I’ll search for something else.
Silent is music too :)
Let's have a poll
10 April, 16:58
POLL: “How do you feel about Last.fm Radio to require subscription (outside of UK/US/DE)?”
VOTE HERE:
http://www.micropoll.com/akira/mpview/574101-157418
Josh
10 April, 18:17
I myself live in the UK and am an avid listener of last.fm
Personally i belive this is absoloutly ridculous, forcing certain people to pay and other get it free based purely on where you live.
An on again off again listener from the UK, the US, or Germany, who maybe listens once a month, and doesn’t buy any albums, somehow doesn’t have to pay for the service, whereas an avid listener from another country, who regularly buys albums, contributes to the site, and fully supports last.fm is forced to pay?
It is absoloutly ridiculous, and i can only assume that the meeting to discuss how to raise funds went something along the lines of:
“We need money!”
“Your right!, lets start charging people!”
“ok, but we’ll lose a lot of our market”
“ok then, we’ll only charge those people where the revenue from ads isn’t bringing us in enough money!”
“Great!”
No consideration of the userbase, no consideration other methods of raising the money, and most infuriatingly, absoloutly no input was allowed in by the last.fm community apart from a torrent of angry comments AFTER the move was announced.
I personally would be glad to pay as well, if it means that internationally, last.fm remains free.
As is, you are charging some and not others based purely on there location.
Charge everyone
or charge no-one.
Do not go half between, because that is simply unacceptable.
Max
11 April, 01:16
Goodbye Last.fm.
AndreaUrbanFox
11 April, 13:13
From: msasg1970@hotmail.com
To: support@last.fm
Subject: FW: 3 important points – FW: CBS owned Last.fm condones Neo-Nazi groups but ban outspoken individuals
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:21:48 +0100
As I received no communication from Last.fm, in view of this senseless ban still being in place and the fact that no refund of my subscription & compensation for the undue stress and suffering which has been imposed on myself I have had no other option as to write to Fox and CBS.
The following is the email sent to Fox which has been duly forwarded to CBS.
I would welcome a reply from yourselves by return before this gather any more momentum
Thanks
Andrea
From: msasg1970@hotmail.com
To: newsmanager@foxnews.com
Subject: 3 important points – FW: CBS owned Last.fm condones Neo-Nazi groups but ban outspoken individuals
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:16:46 +0100
3 things which are relevant to mention about Last.fm
1. Annoys significant proportion of users by implementing unpopular redesign.
2. Annoys users outside US, UK and Germany with new charging structure.
3. Will not tolerate mention of social music network Blip.fm, despite tracks on Blip being able to be scrobbled to Last.
Perhaps they should rebrand themselves as a (National) Social(ist) Music Network. Interesting that they are happy to have YouTube videos embedded on their site. That’s possibly a breach of their own policy re third party sites. The uploading of artist photos to Last.fm is likely to be a breach of copyright of the image, there’s probably more stuff that can be identified by your cleverer friends, but they just spring to mind.
Again, thank you for your time
Andrea
From: msasg1970@hotmail.com
To: newsmanager@foxnews.com
Subject: CBS owned Last.fm condones Neo-Nazi groups but ban outspoken individuals
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:04:59 +0100
To whom it may concern at Fox News
The following is an email sent to Last.fm, a UK based music network owned by CBS.
In this email, which has already been forwarded to the national and local media, you see me appealing against being banned from their site because I happened to suggest to a fellow member that he should try either Spotify or blip.fm. Within minutes of posting that in 1 of their forums I got banned from their site. Alas, this is a site which permits Neo-Nazi groups & forums while hiding behind the freedom of speech act but if/when an individual is outspoken they silence them by imposing a ban. Do also note that even though communication was made with them, no reply has been received. I do think that for a company backed by such a big organisation as CBS should have better practices and standards.
I thank you for your time and hope you deem this remotly relevant to have it investigated further.
Andrea
From: msasg1970@hotmail.com
To: alecempire6666@hotmail.com; aharries@cix.co.uk; dave@joejackwagner.com; editor@blackvelvetmagazine.com; editor@oneweektolive.com; rudi.wutz@gmx.de; muzikjock58@gmail.com; john-g-721@live.com; john-g-721@netzero.net; luke@thelondonpaper.com; m_hawkins@hotmail.co.uk; pirate@burnpillage.com; muzikjock58@aol.com; rookiepaul@gmail.com; music@leapingcatrecords.com; radionowhere@hotmail.com; steffanie@ccs-nc.com; support@last.fm; richsummers@gmail.com; talkback@the-sun.co.uk; torstenkinsella@gmail.com; xerane@hotmail.com
Subject: Last.fm ban those they want to silence
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:36:33 +0100
To the powers that be at Last.fm
I seem to have been wrongly banned from your network. I was checking on my groups when all of a sudden and without warning I received a message to saying I was banned and I should contact support. No warnings nor explanations.
I have never been so badly and unfairly treated
I can only assume you didnt like me suggesting another music network to another one of your customers at your forum or that pointing out your disdain and threatening stance was too close to home for comfort. As it goes this banning if based on that is nothing but proof of what I was saying. You cant silence people by being nasty to them or by banning them. By being nasty and threatening like you have been to me in the past and for that I have emails and screenshots of such instances you only antagonise and by banning me without warning or sound resoaning you will just get the heat turned up by those who believe in freedom of speech and the fact that I have been victimised time and again by your staff.
I would therefore welcome a re-think of this ban which is uncalled for and an apology for the lack of tact in which this has been done. All else failing and you mistakenly stick to this puerile decision I would appreciate having my 6 months subscription money refunded at once to my credit card plus some sort of compensation for the upheaval this is going to cause me, the bands which I represent on Last, all my 700+ friends and all those at all my groups including a group which isnt mine but was created for me The Urban Fox Appreciation Society with 60+ members
This email is being forwarded to several national and regional newspapers and also to loyal friends and bands which use Last.fm. To the later I ask for your support and to not hesitate to express your disgust to Last.fm by emailing support@last.fm. For the media I ask to keep an eye on this and if further info is required do not hesitate to contact me.
Andrea
the artist formerly known on last.fm
11 April, 13:19
Dear Last.fm
The only problem is that you’re claiming to be a social music network. Sounds a bit like Open Source Projects in the programmers world in that way that also listeners could contribute (e.g. their music and were free to choose if they wanted to get a fee or not). I was one of the “free music download” contributors. I’ve withdrawn my tracks because why should I let you get away with 3 Eur/month per user and I’m still in my naïve believe of a social network.
Bye Bye Last.fm
Hope that someone stands-up again with a similar project without getting bought-out one day.
thyroid
11 April, 15:26
ok.
i am using last.fm for a long time now.
I live in the netherlands so i have too pay for last.fm.
Sorry not gonna do this, i get sick of allways have to pay money for something good, for something that is usefull instead of listen to bullshit radio in my country. I found an alternitive, and like it very much, nice site, maby a bit simpel but the atmosphere on that is very good.
For people who are looking for an alternative, check out Blip.FM.
My last words for Last.Fm,
I will withdrawn myself from your site.
The charch off 3 euro sucks in a enviorement of free radio and free waves
MrHobbes
11 April, 19:27
Sorry guys… I can’t pay for last.fm … :( I love it, but I can’t. I’ll miss you.
FelonErika
12 April, 04:39
No, you are not listening.
It’s not that your charging people, it’s that you’re only doing so to people outside the US/UK/Germany. If you’re not going to force everyone to pay, find another alternative. This is coming from somebody in America, too.
Be fair or forget it.
Psi
13 April, 04:32
You should have charged from the beginning then. Waiting until all the users and artists uploaded songs, tagged them for you and other work, THEN charging those same people once you have what you need is almost criminal. To be fair, we were getting a service in return though.
I did suspect this site would go the same way Pandora did once I heard it was purchased by CBS. Old school greed in the music industry does not want to see its cash flow dissappear! These are the same people lobbying to put ridiculously harsh laws into place to protect the money made from music. If only the little guy had such protection!
These are also the same people that put a levy on blank CD and DVD purchases, even though most blank DVDs are used for nothing even related to music.
Sigh. Is there noone that can’t be bought?
rant complain whine.
LastFM WAS a great site. I like many others will just move on to somewhere else.
queue
13 April, 08:37
Vote with your wallets, guys. Online protests are useless. Money is the only language corporations understand.
Morley Tuttle
13 April, 09:33
You are basically saying what EVERY major online music service is saying: that only residents of certain countries can use the service by the terms of your business model, and that the artists in the other countries are SOL as well, again. You can play my music in America, and iTunes can sell it and keep my penny, again. I don’t even want to deal with iTunes. I initially thought I could prevent that by working through LastFM. Simply, Canadians can not sell music to the world online, as with many other countries. Perhaps not motivated by protectionism, but it achieves the same effect.
me
13 April, 11:28
my suggestion is:
make FREE.LAST.FM
only for indipendent (net)labels, free music from free artists for free users!!!
and resolve your musicmanager technical problems of this period!! please!
Canadian
13 April, 13:10
WHAT ABOUT CANADA?!
Me
13 April, 15:54
I have found some substitutions for Last.fm, just in case. Some of them have been mentioned, some not yet. But they exist. And they are friendly. And they are free.
I was so upset because got used to listen to fire.fm while surfing, and tag playing was so comfortable, so started looking for something of the kind. And unexpectedly discovered a lot of great musical services, and they are with radio and community of listeners and artists. I won’t be alone now. The only great thing at last is their huge catalogue. But it stays free, doesn’t it?
Seek and ye shall find. :)
twmia
13 April, 17:10
It seems clear and i hope everyone will understand, that a big Comunity like this and the licenses produces expenses.
But you at lastfm have to think about alternatives, who will give equal chances to all user, like maybe some adfree abo. You already think about some proposals.
It seems you are not realizing, that this plurality of people from all countries on this earth is your second content after the music. Because we all have one theme here without thinking on relgion, nationality or ethnicity, so many people love to be here and love to be here often.
If the many people from this far away countries will disapear, this would be a boring and unnecessary society, like so many other comunities, who come and go, without giving anything useful to anyone.
Also so many musicians from other countries would not get a chance, to try first as a user to get attentions, and this is one of the most interesting part on lastfm.
If there were only US-Americans, english or german here, lastfm would be poorer from content and financial.
With this way maybe I would not have get new friends from Sweden, mexico, france, japan, israel, netherland,italy, switzerland. Some of this people get very important for me.
Maybe there would be people from very different countries if they only got a subscription-access, but they will vanish at the time, because the user from USA, UK or Germany will be more and more.
OK there are nice people in thís three countries too, but the mixture makes the music.
Psi
13 April, 19:07
If you change the business model, change the name… its easier for all.
Thanks for the site up to now!
thinker
13 April, 19:08
I wonder IF when you have to pay for a subscription will you still be subjected to the ads. I would pay that much just to not have to look at the annoying ads…..
ineffabile
13 April, 20:53
Thanks a lot, goodbye :(
Painkiller10
13 April, 23:55
I have to look for an alternative, i refuse to pay for last.fm
KB1OAO
14 April, 03:10
As sad as it is to see Last.fm become a pay service for most countries, I can understand it. An ad-supported business model is tricky to start with, and targeting ads based on products and services available in different countries doesn’t make it easier. On top of that you have to add the different music licensing requirements for different countries.
While I know that it looks like nothing more than discrimination to many, I really don’t think that is what this is about. I don’t see how anyone who looks at this from a business perspective can think that either.
What is really sad is the fact that some people don’t want to pay at all just because they feel that everything on the site should be free. Charging a small fee for access from all countries isn’t that bad of an idea if you ask me. It would help the service to survive and provide a better chance for growth.
not-american
14 April, 11:55
If you hate the foreign community so much, why doesn’t last.fm just ban every foreigner from the site and just call it America-net.
INTERNET SUPERHERO
14 April, 12:26
Why should we pay for a radio that yes, have a lot of good songs, but also alot of broken tracks? I use the radio daily and there is quite a lot of songs that either is without sound or just hacky and jumping through parts.
I’m pretty sure you will charge it soon, but please. Spend the money you get on making last fm better instead of “filling for the ads”. We’re missing QUITE alot of things, such as easy thing clicking on ones country to get to the place-page, and even more important things such as reporting everything from albums to users and groups. Reporting a “wrong video” isn’t enough.
Improve what you have done wrong BEFORE you charge something.
oh, and if you charge radios with songs including free tracks you are just greedy bastards.
Thanks for your time
Patrick
14 April, 13:44
Music’s for you and me
Not the fucking industry
(Lyrics from Biohazard – Business)
It seems like last.fm is getting part of this industry. Too bad… The end of something very nice.
Hechicera
14 April, 15:19
I just renewed my subscription last weekend and I feel really stupid now. I didn’t know about this decision. I found out through a shout left at a song.. Why didn’t you send a mail to inform all users?
Well I’ll probably not renew again after this subscription has ended. Not because I do not want to pay, but the way the payment system is set up. Either charge all or don’t charge at all.
Creative business people would find a solution..trust me..
Mexican Pain
14 April, 16:55
In Mx we say: “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” same conditions for everybody, stop this discrimination! that’s bullshit! that’s not for this XXI century!
En Mexico decimos “O todos rabones o todos coludos”… iguales condiciones para todos, alto a la discriminacion! eso ya es cosa del pasado!.
Phil K
14 April, 17:36
I’m German, and while Im not de facto affected by this, this still means 2 out of 3 neighbours will dissapear and wahtnot, chain reaction, you get the drill, the similar artists feature…everything will move away from an objective “ratio” into statistics with a big fucken “western world flavour” and I dare say its the one that I’d be ashamed of.
Also, the mere fact that I speak German means that my native tongue aint English, which lead to me knowing quite well how it feels to be left out – whatever good or eveil or holocaust whatnot attitude theres behind it. its a loss, too big for my heart.
Fukk this, im out no more money from my end, and an additional “tell everyone they suck” attitude is now stuck in my brain, thanks bye.
Rellik Laires
15 April, 02:18
I loved you the most, Last.fm — but you are now dead. I went on living my life, met Spotify; I’m happy, I’m finally in love again.
bloggita
15 April, 04:23
I am willing to pay, but 3eu/month are so many … 36eu/year! :S
Imeem makes pay 10eu/year
Jani
15 April, 08:53
What a cruell end to a unique community. I made many a good friends here. Raise your pints to the corpse of LAST.FM.
maxximus
15 April, 11:13
Ok, I understand this somewhat. Not agree, but understand. Notorious global recession and notorious greedy music industry around and you can’t change that.
But why so strict and flat scheme??? Why not make it more diversified?
For example:
1. Free Service (totally free) — My Recomendation radio only but without any limitation.
2. Lite Subscription (1-1.5eu) — In short, that is like current free service. Free Service (see above) +Artist/Tag Radio and so on. Blue icon and with ads :)
3. Full Subscription (2.5-3eu) — Like current Subscription. That is, without ads, black icon, ‘discovery’ mode, My Radio and Loved Radio, priority access and so on (http://www.last.fm/help/faq?category=Subscriptions#289).
And that must be universal worlwide scheme! Without some silly geography-based exceptions.
Anyone?
björn
15 April, 13:54
PayPal is not an option IHMO.
Yello
15 April, 17:14
Your explanation is absolutely ridiculous. You get enough data about your users to sell geographically targeted ads, just as so many other websites do!
I used to be your subscriber, but I would never extend my subscription after you did what you did to last.fm last year. Now you force people to subscribe to listen, among other music, to the songs my favourite musicians uploaded to you server after I personally talked them into it (as a great way to spread their music free of charge – how stupid do I feel for that now!).
Last.fm going down the drain.
the artist formerly known on last.fm
15 April, 20:39
Some alternatives on:
http://techie-buzz.com/music-tools/free-online-radio-services-lastfm-alternatives.html
B10M
15 April, 22:18
The road to hell is paved with excuses. You can easily use our IP addresses, thereby channeling advertising appropriate in our countries.
cbrink
16 April, 01:59
What I think some people are forgetting is that radio is NOT free (at least in the US). I used to work at a non-profit radio station in the US. Even at a non-profit station we had to pay for a “blanket” radio license to broadcast music. This fee goes back to the record companies and yes eventually back to the artists. Commercial stations pay this fee with ads. Non-profits have to get donations.
Not to mention with the radio you have no control (other than switching the station) over the bands or music you can listen to. 3USD or 3EUR is not much for extra control, let alone the breadth of content that last.fm offers.
I really don’t know why I am writing this, as I know that audience this message is intended for will ignore it. But what the hell :)
Yello
16 April, 08:22
To cbrink: Do you really think that the people who object don’t know this? “Commercial stations pay this fee with ads.” Yes. Last.fm has been doing this for years and everybody was happy. Then the site was sold, the design and overall “user experience” was changed for the worse, apparently in an attempt to make more space for ads and to attract more “average” users, now the essential part of the service – offering new interesting music from anywhere in the world to anybody who wants to listen – goes away. It’s the owners’ right to make more money of their property, of course, but they shouldn’t call it “improving the service” when they’re actually trying to increase its profitability.
I don’t understand your remark on “extra control”. AFAIK, the subscribers don’t get any extra control over the music they can listen to.
Mary_Ann
16 April, 08:32
I completely agree with maxximus!
Sarah Smith - Halifax, NS
16 April, 12:20
Why is Canada being left off of the free countries list? You can’t possibly be losing that much in Canada. I’ve seen plenty of local ads on my station – there’s no shortage.
If you cancel the free service, I won’t be paying the fee and I’ll stop recommending you to everyone else as I have been. You are not the only one offering this service online and I’ll quickly leave last.fm behind. You do not have a monopoly in your niche and your greed will drive away your audience.
I was actually considering purchasing the entire subscription package and was going to purchase one for my parents and fiance as well, but I don’t appreciate Canada not being treated fairly.
I am severely disappointed in your choice to proceed with this.
SC
16 April, 20:46
If the Ad-supported model did fail worldwide, Last.FM really trust in the same model working in just 3 countries? Really?
I do not think so…
cbrink
17 April, 12:55
to Yello:
Do you really think that the people who object don’t know this? “Commercial stations pay this fee with ads.” Yes. Last.fm has been doing this for years and everybody was happy.
Have you not read the comments here? There are many people that have commented that have a basic misconception of what “free” radio is.
If a 3rd party application is streaming the music and displaying ads – how do you think the music will be paid for?
I don’t understand your remark on “extra control”. AFAIK, the subscribers don’t get any extra control over the music they can listen to.
Because, quite clearly, I was making a comparison with radio and last.fm not subscription last.fm and non-subscription.
Thoric
18 April, 06:11
I have been using Last.fm for quite some time now & decided to subscribe about 8 months ago. I understand the decision to move to a more monthly based subscription model. However what I do not understand is the exclusion of ANYONE in said model! Perhaps someone can explain that one to me. Yes I understand that ad based revenue may sustain things well enough in those countries. Thing is, regardless of what you charge things should be even across the board. This is not a matter of cost, tis one of principle, I will gladly pay a monthly fee on top of what I already forked out. I quite enjoy the service. But why should I pay any extra fees when neighboring American`s don`t need to? All I am trying to say is that I want full equality.
Apache
18 April, 11:58
I realy doubt last.fm or cbs for the matter chooses the prices of licensing.
it’s ifpii and riaa and those sorts you should direct their anger to: they decide the price it costs to play music in specific countries.
The only thing this site can do to stay in business is to agree. At the end of the month bills have to be payed.
Those saying it’s greedy, this is ridiculous because you probably don’t know anything about income and expenses. Please refrain from accusations from which you don’t know anything.
last.fm; i love the service, there is NO OTHER site that offers this service, but I will reconsider using this site if I do feel pressure to pay for it.
Caio
18 April, 13:03
So, question: If you’re not getting add revenue from my country why am I not only getting a big huge banner add FROM MY FUCKING PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT – NOT MERELY CANADIAN BUT SPECIFICALLY REGIONAL GOVERNMENT – ACTUALLY PAYED FOR BY MY LOCAL TAX DOLLARS but also a huge amount of adds pertaining to my specific part of Canada which isn’t even a part with that many people? And why are all the other products I’m being advertised readily available internationally? You lying motherfuckers.
You dishonest fucks. My fucking tax dollars as a British Columbia citizen are paying for your fucking motherfucker caviar and you want my three pounds while Americans go free you stupid fucking cunts? Oh, I’ve screenshotted this and will take it to every paper in BC you dishonest cunt motherfuckers.
And if an American once again complains about the non-existant Canadian welfare program or all the free Canadian handouts I’m holding you to blame you corrupt piecess of shit.
gullymiles
18 April, 18:45
This absolutely sucks.
As many people have said, a major attraction of last.fm is the community. The worldwide community of users, who have spent years scrobbling, writing articles, commenting, recommending — oh and of course building up a whole bunch of user-generated content for last.fm.
I’m in the UK, so I don’t have to pay. But how do you imagine I feel about being part of a “community” that treats over 50% of its members this way? 3 euros / month isn’t a lot to someone in the countries you’re not charging, ironically; but to someone in South America, for example. it’s quite a lot. Of course people from outside UK/DE/US will leave in droves. But of course you know this, you’ve done the maths. Someone is sitting in an office at last.fm, looking at a chart thoughtfully, and saying, you know, we can afford to lose these people, some of them don’t have much money anyway, there’s nothing in it for us to keep them, either they pay up front or screw ‘em. And hey, those middle class Brits and Americans think they are the whole world anyway, so they won’t even notice if the “community” is all just web designers listening to IDM. Right?
I can understand totally why several musicians have said, in your blog comments, that they don’t want to upload their music any more. I don’t blame them. And I don’t see why I should keep scrobbling if this goes ahead. Why should we all be helping you build up a “community” and a whole bunch of valuable data when you’re going to act like this?
Charge everybody, or charge nobody. Be more imaginative about charging models if you have to — based on usage, or whatever. Or, for heavens’ sake, figure out how other large companies manage to make advertiser-supported services pay for themselves. Do google charge people in Brazil or Poland or Canada for their searches because they don’t know how to advertise there?
Renato Ventura
18 April, 19:06
“Regarding the announcement by Last.fm to transform their site into a pay service we believe that this decision needs to be modified in a few points.
We fully understand that in today’s society everything has a cost and that the maintenance of infrastructure and of personnel is one of the ongoing costs that a company has to balance with equivalent earnings.
The focal point of this proposal is based on the fact that many of the artists present on Last.fm actually donate their music, allowing full streaming and/or free downloads. At present the only income to be derived from such a choice is through the payment of royalties, a system recently introduced at Last.fm. Such an income is however purely symbolic, especially for those artists who, not having particularly large numbers of listeners, obtain their real satisfaction simply from sharing their art. Judging from what has been announced, we will find ourselves in a paradoxical situation where such artists, being also users, will find themselves obliged to pay to listen to their own songs! We also need to bear in mind that most paying users will prefer to spend their money listening to big name artists whose music and quality are already known factors rather than using it to discover new artists and new music. This rather defeats the original promise of Last.fm which drove so many of us independent artists to choose Last.fm as the main platform from which to launch our music: the chance to be listened to alongside the big names in international music.
This was your manifest.
Our proposal can be summed up in just a few points:
1 – Tracks that are offered free by their legitimate owners can be listened to in full by everybody: paying users and non-paying users.
2 – Free tracks are those tracks which, apart from being available for full streaming and/or free download, do not create any form of royalties for the author.
3 – Users who are also artists and who offer their tracks for free, as in the preceding point, automatically have the right to listen to an equivalent number of pay tracks as the number of listens that they have received as an artist without paying anything.
We are convinced that Last.fm can in no way consider unreasonable such a request and that their acceptance represents a sign of respect for all those small artists who have contributed to making Last.fm the site that it is today.”
Max
18 April, 19:54
Neo-racism in action ;)
some romanian last.fm user chick
19 April, 17:05
This ain’t fair at all!! So what, from now on we won’t be able to listen our own libraries without paying? And by “own” I really mean “OWN” aka our PERSONAL tunes collection.
Deal with it or you’ll lose a big amount of users!
kot
19 April, 23:55
It’s should be also 1 euro fee for custom avatar.
Watch movies
20 April, 00:16
thanks for sharing
Chris
20 April, 05:43
You know, last.fm while an interesting tool for finding new music always seemed to me to be more about the “look at how cool my music collection is” factor and I know that since I deleted my account I no longer have it in the back of my head that someone is going to see this song that I am listening too. In short last.fm and twitter tend to fuel our narcissistic tendencies and I for one am glad that I am no longer a member.
Jebruso
20 April, 10:56
Deberian reconsiderarlo,podrian perder muchos fieles oyentes como yo.
Francisco
20 April, 13:48
“However, we simply can’t be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service. The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it’s a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships.”
Hey Robert, you’re lying. I live in Chile (at the very end of the world) and google ads -just to give an example; there are many others – works perfectly here, even with local companies. Same thing happens in Argentina, and I guess in the rest of South America.
You have to find another way to justify your greediness.
Jur
20 April, 20:26
No more last.fm for free, will decrease the amount of listeners (european) dramaticly.
Excluding all european countries accept Germany is illegal due to european laws..
This can not be.
ok, you’ll miss a couple a dollars from advertisement-banners. But then again, is that the most important, i’m affraid so.
Never expected, last.fm to do this,
Such a shame!
apedas
20 April, 23:16
Money allways change the people.
I will not pay for your services.
Ask to the groups and artists if they wanna be less listened.
(Fuck you!)
Join here
20 April, 23:38
Join “I will not pay for last.fm services!” group on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76200302617
ehcobdrol
21 April, 11:37
I am afraid that the excuses like this one :
“The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it’s a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships.”
In reality means: “We’re CBS, we own last.fm, but we’re a record company.We can’t go against our “friend” record companies, cause we’re big. If we open the pandora’s box of free music, companies will get angry at us, therefore: pay 3euro you little slave…”
The problem is, they don’t realize pandora’s box is already opened…
Opal
21 April, 20:10
From a Canadian user:
Fuck you guys. Fuck you. HARD. I have more important things than Internet radio to spend my money on, right now – and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Say Something too
21 April, 21:50
Never noticed there even was a last.fm radio, not that I would have tried it if I had… Haven’t listened to any radio in 20 years and haven’t missed it once.
That aside, I sincerely hope that the revenue from any ads served outside the privileged 3 doesn’t end up in the greedy hands of the idiots that run the record industry and pays for site maintenance instead.
It still is a bit like an ice cream van handing out free ice cream to the fat kids and letting the rest pay, but if you can justify it for yourself, fine be me, I don’t like the flavour anyway :p
Bun
22 April, 05:37
Wow, thanks, guys.
See ya.
upset
22 April, 18:25
If you treated users equally, maybe.
But this????
Goodbye from Canada. Forever.
a punch in the face
22 April, 18:34
I don’t like beeing one of “the others”… and I’m so angry about these changes >:( bye from Latvia…
susi
22 April, 18:49
yeah, cool… i live 2 miles away from the German border and now I have to pay 3 € for a service i used six months for free.
Marek
22 April, 19:52
WTF!!! what is that shit about?!!! …..is too bad…you gave the world the freedom to know about foreign music and now…this shit!!! suck a dick U & your 3 dls!!!
Bob Watson
22 April, 20:30
I’m sick of companies that treat Canadians like second class Americans.
Take your radio and stick it up your ass.
I will listen to other internet stations, fuck you very much.
mfrodri
22 April, 20:47
I agree with all the ones that expressed disappointmet, anger, a feeling of discrimination, being treated as 2nd class citizens of the world.
This stupid announcement was made a month ago. You did not notify users, just kept your mouth shut! and today most of us got the “nice” surprise.
You screwed it up big time!
Bye.
Vincent
22 April, 21:19
The day the music died.
Goodbye Last.fm.
Attention
22 April, 22:19
This is ridiculous. it was free before. And 3 countries is still free. This is not fair. You should make it free to everyone again. You will lose a lot of people and repuation.
AlexanderPope
22 April, 23:53
Naturally, I hope, you’ll be removing all non-US, non-UK, and non-German music, or at least charging people to listen to it? Seems fair, don’t you think?
Most of what really annoys me about this has already been said, many times, upthread. But what really gets me is the assumption that non-subscription users have just been freeloading. They haven’t. You’ve been datamining them for everything they’ve got, and so much of the social tagging and folksonomy labour that makes the site work has been donated, free, by users.
But, yeah. this really is the death-knell for last.fm. Yet another cool, independent-for-a-while web site gobbled up and killed by Big Media. Well done, CBS! Feel less threatened, do you? It won’t last, believe me.
murraybiscuit
23 April, 00:18
The media industry really needs to rethink its costing structure into the future. With china, india and developing nations becoming a larger revenue source, you’ve gotta be smart about how you entice consumers who don’t care about intellectual property rights and have bandwidth aplenty for p2p torrents.
Basically, mankind is motivated by 3 basic factors: fear, greed and laziness. So that’s the leveling factor which you need to use to your advantage. Unfortunately the anti-p2p stick isn’t going to work, and the carrot isn’t currently big enough.
The reason that youtube, google, wikipedia, flickr and facebook rule the world is that they offer their core product for free. In my opinion, free uninterrupted worldwide streaming radio is lastfm’s core product. I wonder how many users lastfm picked up when pandora closed its doors to non-US countries? Without free lastfm access, users won’t rush to myspace or yahoo music, they’ll look at illegal alternatives like grooveshark and p2p. So for me, IT IS about the money.
Companies which survive the upcoming media atrophy will reward users who want to do a bit of hard work with a core free service and will charge consumers who want to be lazy / are image conscious above all else / can defer the costs to a client. I think lastfm should be offering streaming music for free and users should pay for recommendations (their greatest differentiator). Make it a no-brainer for the consumer: if the effort to search and download via p2p is more difficult than to click twice in lastfm, I’ll opt for lastfm. If you want to manually construct a playlist you can. If I want lastfm to do it for me, it will cost a small amount.
The issue is really the outdated mentality of the media (music and film) industry. Other industries have moved on: like the way yahoo has structured the flickr pro service. Users pay for added benefits, but the normal joe can still do his basic free functions. Pro users get a nice little badge to stroke their egos and are offered further incentives to spend even more money.
For now, I’ll start looking around at options that give me streaming music for free. If the demand exists, supply will arise. I’m sure lastfm will continue to flourish in a few countries, but it’s going to be diminishing returns.
Good luck.
Andrea, New Zealand
23 April, 01:09
I want to cry actually. Here in NZ we are already paying lots for our connections, I think I’ll stick with my old CDs for now and shop around for alternatives.
ED
23 April, 02:31
Join “I will not pay for last.fm services!” group on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76200302617
Leonis
23 April, 08:09
Bye Bye LastFm…
BettyBoop
23 April, 08:37
I would pay even more than lousy 3 € for last.fm services, but I WON’T pay it untill Germans, Americans and the English don’t have to!!!
I think you have no idea what being international means.
menpols
23 April, 09:32
Oh!Well,it was nice while it lasted,so it’s going to be,“goodbye from him,and it’s goodbye from me“also. :((
-death kat-
23 April, 09:52
It’s a LOT of money.
IMHO.
Conficker
23 April, 10:43
This is racist. One country gets it free and another country has to pay. I always liked last.fm but now I will do everything within my power to stop people from using last.fm. Hell I’m going to write the new conficker that will block last.fm for everyone. I will never pay!
fare(un)well
23 April, 10:52
This makes me really sad.
I thought we all belonged to a global community, now I see even here there are differences. You have disappointed me, and many other users, badly.
Where I live we already pay music and anti-piracy taxes for everything: there is a surplus cost for CDs, radios, computers, internet connections, mp3 players… and none of that money ever gets to the artists. Do you really want us to believe the money we pay to you eventually goes to pay the artist royalties?
I hope someday you’ll realise this is not the way to do it. We will keep listening to our music, and giving our money to the artists we like.
Goodbye forever.
fips
23 April, 10:53
THE KEY is not the 3EUR/month…. which are worth it IMO…
but paying for something others get for “sort of free”??
no thanks, bye bye lastfm
notelodigo
23 April, 11:05
I have been a user of LAST FM since 2005, so I have been scrobbling quite a while and thus contributing to create last fm relational database. I got from last fm a lot of hours of music and they got my help to interconnect music, I created events, managed groups, uploaded pictures, opinions, reviews, recommendations, etc.
So all in all I was giving them a service and they were giving me another.
So now that it seems listeners have to pay for this, I would like Lastfm to understand why many people (including me) are not willing to pay for it (though you have already received numerous feedback from users):
- LAST FM should be a service for the labels and artists, as they play their music, promoting it. Labels should pay (more?) for this.
- LAST FM offers advertising of fashion shops, venues, music stores, etc. These entities should be the ones who pay for the service. This has always been done in television, radio, etc, and worked fine so far. Furthermore, the following questions arises: if I subscribed, would I still see ads?
- It is free in UK, USA and Germany, which means that other ways of financing are possible. If they can not do it any other place different from those, maybe it is just a matter of man power, wrong management or whatever on LAST FM side. This is just a guess, though.
- Users are giving LAST FM the service of sorting out music, interrelating artists, writing reviews, uploading pictures, etc (wiki-kind of work?). Last fm needs our data, our CHARTS, our recommendations, favourites, etc. in order to work fine. Same applies to GOOGLE, Facebook?, Myspace (etc.) and nobody is paying for their service (they found the way to get money in some other ways different from the listeners).
I understand we can not change your company’s economic model and policies, but I think it is fair that you get as much feedback as possible from your “clients”, as that may improve your general service. In addition, I feel that it is fair that I can delete COMPLETELLY my user information from your databases, as I will no longer use your service, as many other users will probably do.
Best regards
StrangeMix
23 April, 11:23
I’m in Norway and I still see ads all over lastfm, so I think it’s disingenuous to claim ad revenue does not support lastfm outside of the UK, US, and Germany. Either remove ads to users outside said countries, or alternatively don’t charge us for a service that others are getting for free. How are you able to make ad revenue in Germany but not in Norway for example?
I would imagine you would be facing much less blow back from the lastfm community if you would take some time to fully and truthfully explain why this decision was made.
Doublewooded
23 April, 12:35
No more free music….The fall of THE Great Empire
Ed
23 April, 13:47
The sense of entitlement here is breathtaking. Free music isn’t a right. And “racism”? Come on.
What’s a few Euros…a cup of latte and a bun? That’s too much to pay for all that you get in return? Then please do go somewhere else. It’s a big world. You won’t be missed.
Incidentally, while most of you whine about your “rights” being violated, nobody considers that other group of individuals, namely: the artists who provide you your precious entertainment. They have rights, too.
Rubin
23 April, 13:51
I can’t begin to tell you how pissed I am. I’ve discovered this as follows (been a subscriber of and on, since 2005): I get an email saying this:
“Your free trial to Last.fm Radio is about to end. If you’re enjoying it, why not
subscribe for only €3.00/month and continue listening to non-stop personalised
radio.”
What the fsck? This is downright insulting, I feel like I’ve installed shareware or some other nagging application that will disable its functions after a certain time! After reading this explanation I feel even more cheated! US, Germany and UK get it for free but I have to pay?
Goodbye last.fm! I would have been happy to buy a subscription from you but not like this.
pixel
23 April, 14:07
you lost me.
thequentino
23 April, 14:20
My subscription will <last> one more month.
There are and other orange trees which make oranges. Greek moto
Kappa-Rho
23 April, 14:27
bye bye last.fm :-(
ala
23 April, 14:56
im from Romania and i subscribed till now,but with this discrimination ill say bb Last Fm and bb acc……its just like other jerks and low minded tells me im gipsy when they have absolutely no ideea who i am
either we all pay or noone pay’s
and gipsyes are in fking India!
Marcin
23 April, 15:09
“Free” music should be for free in Jamendo (and others) too. Let Last.fm be a good community portal for free music. Please allow playing “free” songs for free.
Porni M.
23 April, 15:18
Great, where can i unsubscribe? bye
Someone Far Away
23 April, 17:44
Kill, kill, kill! KILL!!!
Just turned off scrobbler, deleted lastfm application and still enjoying music.
Ouch, i`m free from damned “money-scrobbler”!
Farewell…
eon
23 April, 20:48
Bye last.fm, take care.
greenacre
23 April, 20:52
The issue, as far as I’m concerned is not the €3/month subscription fee. I can afford that, and if that policy was enforced worldwide, I would probably pay up.
The issue is that I, as a listener in Norway have to pay for the service, while users in the US, UK and Germany can listen for free. I will not – on principle – support a service that discriminates against its users based on where they live. And until the payment policy is changed, I have visited last.fm for the last time. Thanks for the memories.
disgruntled
23 April, 22:07
I thought that our relationship was based on love.
You bring me tears. If you want to separate like this, then I want everything that I gave to you back. Namely what songs I like together that has helped you to build your database and service.
It sucks, and I am angry over this decision.
thinker
23 April, 23:24
Here’s a thought — the moment Lastfm sold out to CBS it was doomed. CBS is one of the greatest opponents of FREE internet radio and anything free in general. They are in the business of making money — not giving things away. So, no surprise that they would do away with free internet radio. You can be sure that the decision to keep it free to certain countries was thoroughly researched and the determination based purely on how CBS can make the most money.
They simply think that they can make more money selling their stuff in certain countries and make more money on subscriptions in others.
A tipical non-US, non-UK, non-German citizen who knows how to use a search engine
24 April, 03:27
Goodbye last.fm! Have fun in the US, UK
and Germany. By the way:
http://www.deezer.com/en
http://finetune.com/
http://grooveshark.com/
One door closes, another one opens.
I’m already cheating on you with dezeer
as I type this. Your greed will sink you.
Oh! Poor poor CBS .
Let’s all give them some money!
(Yeah, right!)
entitled, so what?
24 April, 05:03
Ed,
Before i forget: you’re a jerk. You think everybody’s life is like your easy privileged life. But this is gonna end soon, too. Wait for your turn, clown.
Concerned User
24 April, 09:05
Seems the obvious answer would be partner with a better advertising host which DOES KNOW how to target ads to the world Locally. Google does a great job of keeping thing local. So do Yahoo and the other major ad networks!!! – SO the whole idea that you don’t know how to advertise to the rest of the world is just bogus.
If you really wanted to show us listeners what’s going on and solve the problem then give use some data. We would gladly help!!! But you’ve just cut off our hands and left us feeling used and bewildered!
Kiamal
24 April, 18:35
Cleared listening data.
Cleared tagging data.
Deleted account.
Richie
24 April, 22:23
I think they chose the largest amounts of listeners and those countries because they know they’ll lose the rest. So in short, safeguarding. I don’t understand why, nor do I want anything to do with last fm anymore. It sure is dead to me too.
menpols
25 April, 05:10
well,it’s goodbye from them!! and it’s goodbye from me:((
firefytrshithed
25 April, 17:51
I really think you should consider making it add supported in canada… cuz uh… otherwise I am just going to download music for free off the interweb to my hearts content… and say fuck seeing any money go to the artists or there greedy little record lables… scoffs…
…I for one won’t be buying into this… there is no reason this service can’t me add supported in my country…
…and there is certainly no reason I can’t just say “bey-bey last.fm” and get all the music anyway.. without having to pay a dime… its just sad I have to go that route now…
…but thank god I live in a free country
peace
OvalPea
25 April, 18:51
Sad to see the new changes taken place on LastFm but so nice to know so many people expressing this together! I guess until there are alternatives one could always remember each time a track is streamed the royalties go to the artists of our choice and I guess LastFm has perhaps missed out on a great opportunity of partnership with the BBC on projects like this? [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/]BBC music Beta[/url]
TRENT REZNOR
25 April, 23:13
I WILL NEVER PAY, MUSIC IS ART NOT INDUSTRY
VenusAsABoy
25 April, 23:36
Again, I already paid subscriptions to Last.fm but doing it because I’m not in these countries, this I will not do.
So F-U-C-K you!
ou mieux ,venant d’un non anglo-saxon : allez vous faire enculer.
(Latin power)
Mjdimer
26 April, 02:19
To those stating that people should stop whining about a measly 3 euros – it is not the money itself, but the principle of it.
I, as an Australian am very upset by the fact that I am expected to pay for a service when people who live in the US, UK and Germany do not. The internet is a global economy and Last.FM really need to think in ‘Global Digital Economy’ terms and step away from ‘Geographical Traditional Economy’ thinking. I seriously believe this is CBS’ doing. We do not pay for traditional radio here, and I will not use a service that expects me to pay when others are not. If everyone had to pay for the service, then I will return.
It is a pity, as I used Last.fm every day and even got my family onto it. But there are alternatives, and that’s where I’ll go.
Jesse
26 April, 06:49
Can’t say I’m particularly cheerful about this whole pay to play thing.
Last Fm was one of my favourite things on the net but I won’t be paying to use it. Th idea of everyone paying 1 dollar a month or even better get your ads organised in australia. I will gladly view ads and not pay a subscription.
Cheers
rafisuter
26 April, 11:56
Dear Last.fm Team,
I let you know, that you just lost me as a frequent user. I am convinced that others leave as well, since nowadays nobody is willing to pay money for a radio station.
I have to admit that your service is extremely considerable. Therefore I am not pleased to take this step.
Anyway it is easy to find alternatives which offer their services cost-free.
ex-Last.FM-user
rafisuter
mvodak
26 April, 13:57
a good way of discouraging the discovery of new music.
noctambule22
26 April, 15:19
It’s unfortunate that due to this business decision from last.fm, millions of users worldwide are losing access to playlists they spent, in many cases, years to build. Imposing a fee for people to access something they have collaborated in creating is preposterous. So much for the social music revolution.
anna
26 April, 20:43
3£? if that is instead of ads, then that must mean people bought things for 3£ more each month just because they saw the ads in last.fm, i feel very sceptical about that… Perhaps last.fm has been very clever, making the service free for so long to get millions of users and now will make hell of a profit… and loose hell of a lot of users
Marcus
27 April, 04:42
Just deletex my account. Everybody else do the same! Let them DRAIN.
kızılsungur
27 April, 06:59
Only Radio is not free?
felicidad quimica
27 April, 10:09
fuckin’ yuppie! only money$ in your head! i loved this site… even if you stolen my privacy. let it freeeeeeeeeeee like in us,uk and de!
marlies
27 April, 11:56
This is just another typical example of something that is first marketed as being ‘free’ only to have people pay an increasing amount for a service they got used to. Very smart strategy, but I am not buying it. BTW, what makes the British/Germans/Americans so special?
Mihai Martoiu Ticu
27 April, 12:49
Goodby Last FM.
The intention to charge people was there from the start. Don’t lie to us.
so long last fm
27 April, 16:51
One this you should definitely avoid is discrimination: everyone pays or no one, making this move makes people form 195-3 countries in the world very frustrated and feeling like second class citizens of you platform.
Therefor I’ll just say byebye last.fm and hello to the 20+ competitors you have which do not take racist decision. Don’t know if you are aware of it but there is a world outside US…
LOL, PAYING FOR MUSIC.
27 April, 18:07
To be perfectly honest, I’ve never touched the last.fm radio, I only use it for stats and the like.
On top of that, I’m sure most people use firefox, and a collection of addblockers/the Stylish app to block out any adds. I have never seen an add on last.fm, and even if I did, damned if I would click on it.
I have to say though, being from Canada, it’s hard not to go OMFG FUCKING US BASTARDS GETTING SHIT WE DON’T! FUCKERS.
Alas, we have have one of the highest piracy rates per capita; Even my 65 year old mom downloads music. Fuck the music “industry”. When music is about the music once more, I’ll start spending money on things outside of the underground.
Fuck your “profits”.
raymondebot
27 April, 23:36
lots of butt hurt cry babies in here.
angry and disappointed
28 April, 00:00
How dare you do this!
After years of scrobbling 100’s if not 1000’s of songs, and barely actually listening to the service (but loving it when I did) you inform me that I now have to pay? And yet the US and Germany don’t? When I first signed up to this service it wasn’t even available in the United States. They have Pandora. But as a Canadian I now have to pay. I am fortunate that I am not with an ISP that has an upload cap, but many ISP’s in this country do. My ISP does infact throttle my traffic, so I have no doubt been affected re my bandwidth in order to scrobble my library, but I did so gladly in order to improve what I felt was a great service. A service that I now find out certainly didn’t appreciate my contributions to its community.You didn’t even have the decency to inform me ahead of time (via email) that this was something that you planned on doing, and your reason’s why. At least show some respect…You have proven yourselves to be complete douchebags!
Music is free
28 April, 08:31
That’s a pretty crap form of price discrimination. Did you get your advice from an MBA graduate?
Once my free trial expires, goodbye
vasja bond
28 April, 11:43
жадность фраеров погубит
you lost me
You are moving backwards....
28 April, 11:56
I wonder….How many records are(were as it is) bought because of the thrilling new musical worlds people discovered trough Last.fm? Nobody in they’re right mind would buy an album without hearing it first. Last.fam was the place to discover music and AFTER that you might actually buy it. There is something for the industry to think about…. I am signing out for the last time. Goodbuy Last.fm!
swy
28 April, 13:59
you know people listen to music from different countries…
…and lastfm helped in that respect open up new worlds to some..
..but this feels like penning us back into the SMALL predefined worlds of the old music industry era.
Where ALL ARTISTS LOOSE a potential audience/follow on sales because the rigid conservative music industries inability to support them outside their own small predefined worlds.
There has to be a better business model than this to match the more modern global way of thinking/living/moving about and living/working from one country to another.
This will affect negatively at some point uk,us and german people based on this simple preconception that they never move from one location.
GLOBALIZATION – its not a small world
Diederik
28 April, 16:35
I was a person who used last.fm to discover new groups and experience new music styles and I must say that I’m appalled by the discrimination that this kind of marketing strategy implies. Pulling the good old Microsoft trick, but only with a select number of countries, because they don’t click adds as much as we in Belgium do, now that’s just disgusting. I don’t mind the 3 dollar fee thát much, if it gets payable via SMS, but it’s the principle behind it that’s so sickening about this whole affair. Advertising yourself as free, and when you rake in enough members, switching to paid membership, but only for those who are not profitable to you. And I hope that you fired the Marketing guy who oversaw this, because you pissed off thousands of users by pulling something like this. I for one can be scratched from your member-list, because I’m not going anywhere near your site again.
tnahsus
28 April, 19:51
Variable fee depending on the amount of tracks you listen to seems like a good idea. But it should apply to all. By discriminating you lose people from the other countries, you lose their scrobbles which were probably more important to you when you had started with the Audioscrobbler project. I just think there are better ways of doing this.
disapointed
29 April, 18:55
Here is your alternative :
http://libre.fm/
another x-member
30 April, 04:33
As a canadian listener i was really disappointed with lastfm’s decision to become “free for some, pay for everyone else” Its not the cost its the principle. an approach like“everyone or no-one pays” would have been much better and suited who you as a company claim to be. the I’ve been a subscriber and a member for 5 years. I loved lastfm and if you had chosen a better way to share the cost among everyone i’d be renewing my subscription. as it stands Im canceling my account after this note.
I don’t want to be a part of anything that pretends to be something they’re not..
wierd how all this all happened pretty quick after the buyout huh..
Grow up
30 April, 05:49
Hahaha I love all the whiners complaining about their free service which is no longer free. Now, one year of unlimited listening costs about 4 hours at the local McDonalds, or the price of a new radio.
GET A JOB, SERIOUSLY, STOP COMPLAINING. If you’re really that lazy, go apply everywhere you can and show up for a day of paid training, get your money and go home and waste your life listening to music instead of being out there earning a living for yourself. If you earned a living, you wouldn’t be complaining about this MASSIVE SUPER EXPENSIVE SUBRSCRIPTION FEE, OMG I’M GOING TO DELETE MY ACCOUNT THEN POST ON THIS BLOG ABOUT HOW I’M DELETING MY ACCOUNT AND HATE LAST.FM, WHICH WOULD TAKE LONGER THAN IT WOULD FOR ME TO PRINT OUT A RESUME.
Now, I understand there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about this fee, such as people who promote their independent music/artists through services like Last.fm, and by providing free listening can reach a larger audience. But seriously, the bitching needs to stop. Grow up.
hottisx
30 April, 09:51
Hmm. REMOVING comments isn’t the way this should work. How ‘bout satisfying my frustration by giving some good points against my thoughts instead of wiping them under the carpet? Or could it be that I found your weak spot? Hahah.
hottisx
30 April, 09:57
Oh, nothing, sorry. I read the wrong blog. :D
visionsunseen
30 April, 13:01
It’s not about fucking 3 euro.
It’s about abuse of trust.
If you build a community and you act as if it was your property – you cannot be trusted.
Account deleted. Bye.
The_Steppenwolf
30 April, 21:32
Well, last.fm just did the perfect thing to ensure I never, ever give them money of any sort. Well done, guys?
The funny bit is that I have considered subscribing in the past. I just don’t respond well to extortion. Go figure.
dDrumz
1 May, 00:30
If you have poo, fling it now.
shocked
1 May, 01:01
Ed, you’re an idiot.
3 euros is not that much, but why should we pay (and still see advertisements, btw) when the countries where users could afford it, don’t have to pay?
Do you think that all of this negative sentiment is over the charge? Of course not. These arguments are on principle. Why do the US, UK and Germany not have to pay? Can you not see that this is discriminatory?
Last.fm was built on the strength of its community. They have sold out. End of story. It’s not Richard Jones making these decisions, it’s CBS, for sure.
However, if RJ was so concerned about the community he’s established, then why isn’t he on here defending the decision? He;s taking the money and keeping his mouth shut hoping the voices won’t get too loud.
The suits at CBS have decided. They will take what money they can, rape what was once a great community site and to hell with the outcome.
And Ed, you speak of “artists rights” – OK, so was last.fm not a great way for artists to increase their popularity? I wonder how many people discovered a new artist here and then purchased the album, or checked out a live show? I know I certainly have.
You obviously have no understanding about music other than “gee, we could make some money out of these artists!!!” – are you sure you don’t work in a nice shiny CBS office?
If you can’t see the discrimination, open your damn eyes.
Idiot.
Grow up
1 May, 01:03
Wow, abuse of trust, that’s a good one.
A free service suddenly charges a minuscule fee and everyone gets their panties in a bunch.
A government raises taxes, and, you live with it. People pay varying taxes in different states/provinces. Seriously, everyone complaining with this crap about being screwed over, misled, abused, is absolute BULL****. Seriously, go get a life, and a job. It’s people like you that companies want to get rid of anyway.
You do realize, that by closing your account you are lessening the bandwith on their servers and making everyone’s life who isn’t a little b****, much easier. On last.fm, and in every facet of life.
Grow Down
1 May, 08:49
Grow up,
It is more than obvious that you are American!!!
You are so dump that you can’t realize that I don’t want to connect my credit card with all my listening logs!!!
And I wouldn’t pay even 1 cent!
Get out of your hole and get to know any other culture different that MacDonnalds and coca cola!!!
buterflyyy
1 May, 15:36
bardzo lubie wasze radio,nareszcie znalazlam coś ciekawego w internecie i dla mnie!ALE jest wielkie ALE.Ktoś,byćmoże waszym kosztem potraktowal nas jako gorszych sluchaczy,nie wiem dlaczego.Wiele opinii na ten temat jest malo pozytywnych,pachnie trochę rasizmem.No cóż!Biznes jest biznesem,ale dlaczego mam problem z oplaceniem subskrybcji?I to również jest zakazane???Czy w ten sposób robicie naturalną selekcję?Jeszcze w swoje przypuszczenia nie wierzę więc pozdrawiam
Tyron
2 May, 11:09
That sux. I’ve always loved last.fm and recommended it to other people. Now its just another ghey commercial project.
Adam Taylor
2 May, 23:32
Wow, interesting responses.
Firstly, to the last.fm team – great service, really interesting product(s) to develop I’m sure.
To everyone else, first up $3 is hardly anything and secondly, I’m sure the last.fm team are not deliberately discriminating against users from outside the ‘G3’, far from it.
You can say, over and over again, that they need to find a better way to advertise in the other countries but you have to consider that the GDP in other countries (excluding China, India and Japan) is lower, which probably affects the value last.fm can receive for adverts targeted towards users from those countries.
Now it’s impossible to know the running costs of last.fm but without even considering licensing fees their hosting and engineering costs must be astronomical.
If a large percentage of their users are from the UK, US and Germany then charging them and potentially losing some of those users would then mean the advertising revenue they currently get would decrease, and it would probably just be a horrible downward cycle.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, remember? I’m surprised last.fm has lasted free so long as it is. Facebook and Youtube are only free because of the massive investment from Google and Microsoft, and I guess CBS can’t provide the same level of funding.
I’m probably bias because I’m from the UK and I’ve paid before and I love the service but I think if you’re a reasonable person you would see that this is not deliberate discrimination but the consequence of a tough economic climate and the need to implement a more aggressive business model.
I don’t see why given time they could work out deals on a country by country, or regional basis, but it’s obviously not feasible for them to do instantly. They’re hardly out to alienate the rest of the world..
Lumitoro
3 May, 12:34
To Adam Taylor and LastFM team.
LastFM provided a amazing service that I thought that it should be profitable and so the 3€ asked are more than fair (under-priced even), but being a music community, drawing a line separating users breaks the community. I will not pay so that others use my scrobling and information about what I like and what I hear in my pc. So many times I found some tags where just wrong and added my own tag in the hoped that it would be used to improve some one else and my radio experience. Is it fair that free users access the same database as the paying ones? LastFM grown their database fat with all users input and now they are saying that some use it for free and others pay it. No scrobling from me from now on, won’t make a difference just now, but as users leave LastFM the database will go more and more outdated and the service that I consider 3€-plus worthy could be rendered obsolete. Hope it doesn’t happen because I don’t hate them or wish them bad, I just won’t be part off this new ghetto
Boosh
4 May, 08:37
Okay, first of all the discrimination seems very unfair I agree, but to those of you flinging around comparisons to Nazism? I suggest you get a grip. Cos you’re really not helping anyone and I for one find it offensive. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Back to the point in mind, I understand that Last.fm is having its hand forced here somewhat with ad revenues not supporting the site in the vast majority of countries (though not, I’m assuming, the vast majority of users). Obviously they have to do something about this, to suggest the money is going into the pockets of the employers is laughable.
To those people running off to other “free” radio stations out of protest? Good luck finding a site with a library as big or a community so vibrant. I honestly believe that we’ll lose a lot of chaff and hangers on as a result of this. The amount of people saying they’ll see piratebay as a more attractive concept now says it all. A silver lining if you will.
To those who can’t afford the subscription? I do feel sorry for you.
To Last.fm, I’m glad you’ve found a way to do this without those RIDICULOUS Spotify mid-stream adverts. But the discrimination looks horribly unfair. Make it fair for everyone.
soulslave
4 May, 08:42
Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. in every other thing, so why i’m not getting last.fm for free here in PR, like any other U.S citizen?
leonard
4 May, 13:16
I used to listen to Pandora.com,
but it also did something quite similair.
And that’s why I came to Last.fm.
But now I have to find something else..
(And afterwards, I never read or heard anything about Pandora anymore. So goodbye, farewell..)
Th3 mOOnsOUnD V3ktOR
6 May, 13:22
In spite of all te “reasonable” arguments form all sides, we still think it stinks / sucks.
Using a businessplan that includes alienation of certain (geografical) user groups can not be and may not be a succesfull one!
We feel betrayed by Last.fm, and more so, used, because we actively recommended Last.fm to a lot of friends of us.
Kirppu
6 May, 13:35
Bye Bye last.fm
http://techie-buzz.com/music-tools/free-online-radio-services-lastfm-alternatives.html
simple as that.
Also going to try this out on my server.
http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Music_Player_Daemon_Wiki
mfrodri
6 May, 13:35
…and by the way, whatever you said doesn’t seem to be right.
Regarding extending the “free” period, I still get the message your trial expired, please subscribe, so was it extended for a minute?
There are services that do use adds in other countries, France, Canada, even Google adds can be an alternative.
Jau
6 May, 13:48
sorry, but I’ll delete my account right away
R0bert
6 May, 17:04
Someday someone will fuck you up as you just pissed in our face. My account is gone.
Defcon
7 May, 02:33
Countries that don’t support ad-browsing? Are you kidding me? You wana make a service, make it right.
I liked Last.Fm for what it has, no other service can offer the same thing, until now. I’m not wasting 3$ a month for something that was free just because now there are conflicting problems.
These are your problems, not ours, so fix it, or as you can see, you will lose millions of viewers.
Klas-Kristian
7 May, 21:44
Whoever decided this solution is better than making everyone pay for the radio, regardless of home country, advertisement cash or whichever weird arguments you have used aside from that, should be fired.
I don’t often use the F word when posting comments online but this time I really have to.
Fucking stupidity. I hope you lose plenty of subscribers. I for one know I’ll never pay you another penny in my life.
Sentinel69
8 May, 07:53
After not logged in for a while ..geesh what a very unpleasant surprise!!
No money to spend and living in the Netherlands… well it was fun ,time to move to another place.
Ilgaz
8 May, 09:11
There are alternative services/rivals of Paypal. Moneybookers, directly taking money from CC or SMS subscription (GLOBAL please!!) makes sense.
1) Some people doesn’t trust to Paypal
2) Paypal doesn’t trust to some COUNTRIES, discriminating people.
Imagine a Russian greeted with “Sorry, you have to pay to listen but UK/USA people won’t” , he says “Well… OK” and heads to Paypal, Paypal discriminates him too. This is not a theory, it is happening right now. I didn’t hack your systems but it doesn’t take to be a CBS suit to guess it… Or is it?
Antony
8 May, 16:39
Hilarious. What kills me is the pure anger, and the whole “you’re not giving me free stuff so I’m going to go to torrent sites and steal it”. Yet these people claim some sort of moral high ground.
It’s not your company, it’s theirs. What a big surprise, the big faceless corporation doesn’t owe you anything. So delete your account, move on, but please try and relax. As will I, even though I live in the UK.
David
8 May, 22:35
From Australia: booooooo!!!
raymondebot
9 May, 17:28
“Nobody in they’re right mind would buy an album without hearing it first.”
lol, you have no clue what you’re talking about. last.fm would be wise to just get rid of users like you altogether.
Ex user
10 May, 11:06
Bye Buy
An oder EX USER
10 May, 21:08
WTF! you people sould have sent an E-mail with this news to all the users.But you didn’t that mean that you people don’t give a shit about us.
From Colombia boooooo
Sonja
10 May, 21:39
I understand that not everything that comes over the internet can be free. I just don’t understand why people who don’t live in the US, UK or Germany are discriminated. And I am not really happy that last.fm is for this using without consent collected information about the users.
Why isn’t the money from the ads thrown into one pot and used for financing the site all together, no matter from which country people are listening? Or otherwise everybody should pay.
Ilgaz
11 May, 03:26
I got total 2 subscriptions, one for myself and one for our company… What makes me wonder is: Do I pay a single cent to cover “free streaming to USA” costs? How to learn about it? Any finance geeks around?
fredickErased
11 May, 07:26
this is a great way to ensure that people outside of UK,US and Germany will never pay their money for subscribtion again…good job!though i still haven’t lost faith in human brain and i hope you’re not so dumb to do nothing about it
Romain
11 May, 13:12
People don’t say ‘thanks’ when you provide a good service, but as soon as you ask a ‘little’ help from them, they surely know how to protest !
3$ is really nothing compared to the service provided ! Come one ! Stop whining and calling to riot for that !
However, it is true that a wikipedia style (donation model) would have been nicer. At least a try… and if not enough money comes from that way, then switch to the current model.
Елизавета
11 May, 14:22
Thank you very much !!!
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