April 21 update:
We’ve posted an official announcement in response to feedback, check it out here!
—
A few weeks ago, Adrian used this space to introduce music application developers to the next generation of our Scrobbling APIs and ask the question “But does it scrobble?”. Meanwhile, Stefan has been spotted at SXSW and around Last.HQ wearing this t-shirt:
Why the recent fuss over our favourite neologism? Well, scrobbling forms the basis of one of our core missions: helping users make the most of their music listening across a variety of services and platforms by saving it all in one place, their Last.fm profile. We’ve been at this a while and have spent the last seven years working hard on making it more useful to wield a Last.fm profile through features like personalized music recommendations and concert listings, radio streams, a rich API, and different ways to share, reflect, and show off your own music taste as well as that of your friends.
Now, on the eve of receiving our 40 billionth scrobble, we’re ready to start rolling out some changes that focus us even more firmly on this mission. We think it’s more relevant in 2010 than ever before.
The first of these goes live today! But before we fully integrate these new ideas, we’re trying a few out in beta form on our track pages. Here’s a quick look at what’s new — for more detail and to leave feedback, check out this post on our forums.
Closing the loop with partner playlinks
The list of music players and devices that scrobble has been growing steadily since 2003, and we now have over 600 scrobbling partners. One of the coolest things to happen in online music over the last couple years is the emergence of “cloud” services, applications that make it easier than ever before to play whatever you can think of, whenever you want.
As passionate, tech-savvy music fans, Last.fm users are among the first to adopt new music technologies. Accordingly, many of these new services are now adding — or have already added — scrobbling support. Our scrobbling data shows that, for some time now, people have been using multiple music services and devices, then coming back to their Last.fm profiles to answer the question “what should I hear next?” and to see / show off all their listening united in one place.
We think this is great. Today we’re taking the first steps in “closing the loop” and nurturing this usage even further by adding links on our track pages to some of our favourite music services that scrobble.
Example partner links on the new Last.fm track page beta, click for full screenshot
Our beta launch partners for this integration are Spotify (in the UK, France, Spain, and most of Scandinavia), MOG (in the US), and The Hype Machine (worldwide). We’re also working on connecting our users to more great services soon, including We7 (UK), VEVO (US/Canada, and our first 3rd-party video scrobbling partner!), and others.
No two streaming services are alike; they all have different user experiences, geographic restrictions, catalogues and specialisations. We’re starting small today, but our vision is for Last.fm to efficiently connect any user to ALL of the relevant streaming options in their country for every track we know about, as well as being able to personalise listening preferences Last.fm-wide.
Some of our partners
These changes also mean that we are retiring our own on-demand track streaming, which we’ve run for the last two years in the US, UK, and Germany. Consistent with how people have used Last.fm since the early days, engagement with features like user profiles and personalised radio stations has remained much higher than usage of on-demand playback. We feel strongly that we can better fulfill our core mission by instead connecting our users to services in the ecosystem that, unlike us, focus primarily on a jukebox-in-the-sky streaming experience. Similarly, we’ll no longer be hosting music videos ourselves, instead integrating video from Youtube (now in higher quality!) and soon, VEVO.
We believe that this renewed focus on Last.fm as the definitive online home of your music taste and your base for music discovery – regardless of where you listen – will help improve not just our users’ musical lives but the overall online ecosystem as well.
Making scrobbles work harder
Unlike almost any other music service out there, we’re built and curated entirely by you, the music listener. Because of scrobbling, Last.fm knows 40 billion different things about music and that knowledge is growing every day. So as part of the track page beta we’re trying out some new ways of representing that information, on both the global and personal levels.
We’re just getting started with this – now we need your feedback so that we can roll this and related functionality out across the rest of the Last.fm website and beyond.
We want to hear more from you – who you’d like us to partner with, cool new services, data visualisation and feature ideas, and any other thoughts you have about the changes. See you on the forums!
—
Update: To clarify, today’s changes don’t affect Last.fm radio stations at all, just single-track playback on the website. Radio is one of our flagship music discovery features and has long been the most popular way to stream music on Last.fm; we’ll keep improving it in future. Play on!
Comments
Babs
12 April, 15:11
I want that t-shirt.
Thanks for the big update. Lot to take in. One being how sad should we feel about losing on-demand when there are all these new links taking us where we might have gone looking anyway? I know I’ve been using a number of sites for sometime – share the love, spread the cost. Don’t want anyone going broke on my account. On the other hand – end of an era. I’ve been worried about losing on-demand ever since Warners pulled out 2-3 years ago. I figured if you hadn’t introduced premium subscription, you’d have to lose the full track on-demand – too expensive.
One question – what about full track on-demand from independent artists who upload their own stuff? Will that still be full track on-demand? Or will they be directed to upload their music elsewhere?
Not sure how I feel about all the changes yet, need to use them for a few days, see how I go.
James Darling
12 April, 15:17
Brilliant news. Great to see Last.fm getting back to what it’s really really good at, instead of what it’s just good at.
Paul
12 April, 15:23
Not sure if it really is a neologism:
http://blogs.sun.com/plamere/entry/i_scrobble_you_scrobble_we
But no matter. Congrats on the new directions!
Dave
12 April, 15:31
“I want that t-shirt.” Me too!
I’ll give it a go, see how it works out.
Chris
12 April, 15:33
Interesting stuff.
Will those stream links to Spotify, Hype Machine also be available via your API?
IanAR
12 April, 15:40
Gulp! Most of what Babs said, inc. t-shirt wishes.
“… retiring our own on-demand track streaming, which we’ve run for the last two years …” seems an understatement – ‘Full track’ streaming was in place log before that!
I’m happy there’s action to overcome problems associated w/ ‘geographic restrictions’. I hope there will be visibility of international streamable coverage, since many for the folk I share recommendations w/ are overseas (both LastFM users & not).
- Best, Ian Audioscrobbler Addicts
Paradox
12 April, 15:44
On demand playing will be sorely missed.
stopsatgreen
12 April, 15:45
Not a good move for me; I don’t use Spotify, or any service that requires personal details (such as my age) in order to use it. I look forward to seeing how the We7 implementation pans out, but until then will have to find other sources.
Sam
12 April, 15:46
hey, can you make a chart for monthly scrobbles please? thanks!
Heyduk
12 April, 15:56
no more on-demand music on lastfm?
Means that that i can’t play a single track or i can’t play artist/tag/user-radio?
I don’t understand this desicion.
ionas
12 April, 16:02
Really REALLY! bad change for independent and small artists. Esp. if they are more promoting and do not collect royalties. You will force those to go for CD Baby, Soundcloud, Magnatune and TuneCore and thus lose them. That means last.fm as a platform will lose diversity and worth.
Sad times. Really sad. Bad decisions in management.
I loved last.fm as a consumer and producer, now I am not sure anymore. :(
step21
12 April, 16:03
bitspace.at I like it … it’s different in that it only streams music that you upload, but really great.
Mark
12 April, 16:10
I just want to add a “me too!” to the concerns about indie/unsigned artists losing out. I was planning on becoming one shortly!
HodgeStar
12 April, 16:15
can you please clearify what you have retired. the full-on-demand beta are full length preview altogether? thanks.
Tom
12 April, 16:17
The word “scrobble” turns up prominently in John Masefield’s book “The Box Of Delights” – and also in the BBC TV adaptation in the mid-80s, which you can still get on DVD.
It meant “to kidnap” basically – characters who were ‘scrobbled’ were bundled away. I always assumed that audioscrobbler used the word as a tongue-in-cheek reference to bundling up track and play data for use in its app!
Matthew Ogle
12 April, 16:30
Heyduk, HodgeStar:
The change affects single track playback only (both what we called “on demand” and “full-length preview”) — Last.fm radio still streams full-length music as it always has!
We think our radio streams (which have always outweighed our on-demand streams in terms of listenership) are still a great way for indie artists to get their music discovered by the right ears. Artists can also mark tracks as ‘free download’ for extra exposure should they choose.
In the future we’d like to explore ways of working more closely with the Soundclouds of the world as well, as there are some awesome services appearing that focus (unlike us) exclusively on serving indie artists and labels.
Robert
12 April, 16:30
I want last.fm on my Sonos, even in Austria. Pretty please. Scrobbling is useless if I cannot use this data to find new music.
ngv
12 April, 16:32
Again bad news for the smaller artists, many of whom are not available on spotify.
Any progress towards seperating out different artists with the same name which must surely be a popular request?
Kev Moor
12 April, 16:42
1. While you’re working with partners please, please sort something out with Napster. I’m using a 3rd party app to scrobble what I stream from it at the moment. Trouble is, it’s not been developed for some time now and I fear what’s going to happen when the API changes.
2. The main reason I subscribe is so I can play specific tracks when I’ve found them. If you drop this facility there’s a good chance you’ll lose my subscription. I don’t suppose one subscription will make a lot of difference to your revenue but there may be more people out there like me.
Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells
12 April, 16:43
full-track streaming- anything to do with the DEBill?
Anyway this sucks for small-time artists
mp
12 April, 16:45
Unclosing the loop…
Your videos scrobbled, youtube doesn’t. So it doesn’t count.
HodgeStar
12 April, 17:00
@Matthew Ogle: thanks, it’s clear now :/
i won’t demand anything here anymore.
Connar
12 April, 17:05
I think it’s an inevitable no from the users to the unasked question of “Is removing the full track previews a good thing?”
I think we’ll get this back people, they won’t want to lose so many users who use it or finding small unknown bands.
Eugene Gordin
12 April, 17:06
How does one get that shirt? Would love to get one!
Dexter P
12 April, 17:08
Then why not have scrobbling from youtube videos? It’s possible I’d imagine considering that most music videos now give you a buy link to itunes.
Marybeth D'Amico
12 April, 17:09
I have worked hard over the past several years to build my audience via last.fm. This option has now disappeared with the new format. Hard luck for the indie artists.
tj
12 April, 17:16
this is fantastic news! i agree with the above commenter; glad to see that you’re focusing on what you’re really good at instead of wasting resources on things you were only sort-of good at.
i understand some people’s concern about samll artists, and i must admit, that has been one of the best features of last fm for me. HOWEVER, it seems that these smaller artists can still host their mp3s for free download on lastfm, yes? if that’s the case, then all of my fears are assuaged; artists with free dl tracks were generally the only ones that got a hold on me anyway (dear artists, if you want to get to my music-heart, you gotta get somehtin’ in my library that’ll come up from time to time, to remind me that you love me and i love you too! love, tj)
anyway, fantastic; i’m really happy — one of the first good announcements since the acquisation…
P Tetch
12 April, 17:33
There’s no option now for a label or artist to upload their own videos which means that small artists will have eithere no videos or probably irrelevant videos pulled from youtube that just use similar words to the artist name. Users need to be able to control what videos people can see when they come to a page. I had a self-made music video on my page and it’s no longer there. Instead there are no videos and no way to put a video on the page. It’s on youtube but there’s no function to embed it or anything.
This has to be addressed because it’s an obvious shortfall.
SIGURD42
12 April, 17:44
Sounds like some good sensible ideas there. Especially links to listen to tracks elsewhere. Its nice to able to listen in full. Lets get some grooveshark links in there!
minutemade
12 April, 17:52
i got really upset when i realised i couldn’t play a track i played just yesterday. then i couldn’t listen to my playlist.
now that i know what’s going on i’m calmer, but….. well, bummer.
new eras make me yearn for old eras, but moving on is also nice. i ain’t mad.
here’s to last.fm! (y’all ready know what yer doin anyways.)
JohnTMcNeill
12 April, 17:59
I rarely use the Lastfm radio and have “discovered” chunks of fantastic new artists through “human” recommendations. I have found that by simply looking at what people are listening to (people I share musical appreciation with) I get a pretty good selection of “new to me” stuff. Then I listen, tag and stick it in a personal playlist. If you cut out that opportunity for me- I will find it elsewhere. Sorry – that’s why I am here, and that’s what will keep me here. I have spent a lot of time trying to support the music I like- not what some computer thinks I should like. And I don’t even bother with 30 second previews- tells me NOTHING about a six minute track…
Christian
12 April, 18:07
Can i still Listen to last.fm on my squeezebox? That is: my Music, neighbours, recommandations. Can i still Start à Station?
so lame
12 April, 18:08
Booo!
hungerlunger
12 April, 18:11
“These changes also mean that we are retiring our own on-demand track streaming, which we’ve run for the last two years in the US, UK, and Germany.” Thanks… and in Germany we cannot use Spotify and MOG. Plus The Hype Machine is somewhat of an unreliable source, especially for unknown artists… That sucks. Another reason to stay away from last.fm :(
amanda
12 April, 18:20
Awesome you should do a deal with napster as well
CrybKeeper
12 April, 18:52
Guys, I think you just eliminated Germany.
So now, LastFM is just a site for collecting my scrobbles from elsewhere? Ummm, why would I continue to come to LastFM then, or play any track from LastFM? For that matter, why would I enable scrobbling at any of those other websites, since I would have to pay for a subscription at those too?
I’ll just use their radios and playlists and never come back to LastFM, correct?
It would be MUCH simpler to just move to another music website and stay there.
The On-demand BETA, was the core reason, I hung around LastFM, just waiting with anticipation for it to become a fully functional On-Demand service.
Will we ever get a full On-Demand service from LastFM?
KingKev
12 April, 19:13
cool! i’m using spotiseek.com to discover new music… it allows me to drag-n-drop a full playlist straight into spotify instead of playing them one by one. :)
p
12 April, 19:45
Cut full song streaming? You’re becoming a joke Last.fm. Things were great until you sold out to CBS.
Oliver Finney
12 April, 19:50
What a nice surprise to be captured listening to Hot Chip – One Life Stand in that screenshot of the graph.
Miss my playlists, but some Loved Tracks at the side of the profile instead would be great.
juepucta
12 April, 20:17
How does one go about linking accounts? Say, Mog and Last?
-G.
escapings
12 April, 20:23
Not impressed with the new direction, guys. Don’t you care that you’re driving your listeners away?
Maya
12 April, 20:39
Guys, I think you know this was a mistake. You’ve got more unhappy people than happy people. It’s obvious you’re not listening to your listeners. This change isn’t going to get you more subscribers. If anything, you’ll lose them. Bad decision, Last.fm.
Just by word of mouth I got about 8 people to join your site. After all this I don’t expect to be recommending it to anyone in the future. I’m done working for you.
BillStrange
12 April, 20:48
I’m from the USA. Spotify is not available in my country and MOG not ready yet.
WHAT is available then?
Felix Miller
12 April, 21:36
I completely understand pulling the free streaming for performers on major labels, but I am infuriated that unknown Independent bands aren’t allowed to give their listeners free full length songs. As a musician and a listener, I really want the ability to to listen to full tracks if a band wants to share it.
If you are low on money, why not get the indie bands to agree to lower their royalties, I think that a lot of bands would be happy to.
duncanjamessmith
12 April, 22:03
NOW IT’S THE LAST OF FM
What are the best similar sites to what last fm used to be like ?Sites that let you upload all your music and any length track and being able to play a whole album instead of just one track would be good too.
I hate those 30 sec samples they start anywhere even between a lyric.
CHILL2006
12 April, 22:33
Thanks last.fm!!! All my music is free and now I see every bloody track is only a 30sec preview. I think your trying to screw indie artists. Who’s going to listen now????
As I’ve already heard from a load of artists, it sounds like they feel like giving up making music altogether and i don’t blame them one bit.
Nick….indie artist and producer!!
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
12 April, 22:34
“Hey, give us your data for nothing, then we’ll charge you if you want to utilise it in any way.”
Justice at last!
Alan Ralph
12 April, 23:02
I can understand wanting to get out of the licencing issues around making tracks available to stream individually, but I foresee loads of problems with the way you’re going about this. As others have pointed out, not all of the services you’re using are available globally. Also, I’m concerned that some of these may fall by the wayside, due to a combination of funding issues and being squeezed by the big record labels. I’m pleased that the Radio service will continue, for those of us who can still use it, but I have to wonder who long it will be before we see less and less music available to listen to on Radio as the labels throw their weight around and make greater demands… :(
CHILL2006
12 April, 23:41
It’s all just part of the big squeeze to get rid of independent artists. After all, thats what the government and record industry wants!
JohnTMcNeill
12 April, 23:47
One thing we can do- but it is a pain. I know because that’s what I have been doing for 9 months. Place the 30 sec preview that you find (or someone sends you) in a “temporary” playlist- one that you are constantly refining. Once you get over the 45/15 limitation (about 2 days for me) you can start playing it. Leave it going and add as you find new stuff. It eventually pops up and you can “love” it, hate it and toss it, stick it in a more appropriate playlist(s)or just leave it there. Makes pretty good and eclectic playlists. And I often get songs that weren’t even supposed to be previewed- just a nice surprise. I’m mostly worried about the unsigned, independent but EXCELLENT music that I may be losing here. Hope not….
Paul Canning
13 April, 00:45
‘Last.fm kills on-demand streaming, puts on happy face’
http://thenextweb.com/uk/2010/04/12/lastfm-kills-ondemand-streaming-puts-happy-face/
Bullshit walks, money talks. Enjoy your millions guys. Please slap the music industry dinosaurs on the way out on our behalf.
Mike
13 April, 00:57
So what are the advantages of being a Subscriber now? I’m a subscriber because I wanted to play any track I wanted for as many times as I wanted. No I can’t even play a full song? I can play full songs at any of the popular streaming sites(Lala, Grooveshark, Hypem) for free! Why should I continue my subscription? That would be a good way to get more subscribers – being able to play full tracks on demand – like it use to be!
davycreeper
13 April, 01:04
Its heartbreaking if my bands’ music will no longer available as complete songs. I spent a lot of money (for me) on ad campaigns here
bhaeser
13 April, 01:32
Wow, I had compiled an immense list of albums I could listen to on-demand, an planned to start to do it today.
Removing single-track playback? Son, I am disappoint.
bhaeser
13 April, 01:40
There should be an easy way to see if a song is available on The Hype Machine, I don´t want to click on each and every song just to know that.
yasarneyasamaz
13 April, 02:24
It seems I will be using grooveshark from now on,it’s much easier than following nonworking links (because of my location). Last.fm was too good to be true anyway. I couldn’t care less about unnecessary new features,no more full tracks is a HUGE loss.
BlackAle
13 April, 02:55
I guess you’ll be able to lower your subscription costs, now that you’ll be offering less. I occasionally subscribe, though really don’t notice a great deal of difference for (£$€)36/year
Kevin Spencer
13 April, 03:17
last.fm was immensely useful to me before on-demand streaming even existed, it will still remain immensely useful now that on-demand is gone. In the four years I’ve been using last.fm, I’ve discovered more music than I could have ever imagined. That’s not going to change.
And, yeah, I want that t-shirt.
Tiffy
13 April, 03:29
Doesn’t sound bad, but if your an artist does this mean that the artist autmatically gets the scobbles on that “partner” site?
And do you automatically have another profile created when you listen to a said track on the other sites? Or
Does the scobbles go to your last.fm profile only, or both??
Chris Sanders
13 April, 04:21
The breaking up into different areas is a bloody pain, Bucko. Here I am having a torrid on line affair with a married woman in Hungary and now you’ve gone and put us in different hotels – for chrissakes…….
Daniel
13 April, 05:22
One more time (again)
1) What happend with free radio for independient artist (over all the world, not just 3 countries), wich was an idea of long time ago?
2) If you doesn’t want videos hosped on lastfm, you could make a scrobbler for videos embebed in lastfm (not just VEVO). I mean, every Video played on lastfm is scrobbling.
Well, in my case, i don’t use spotfy, MGO or whatever. Im from Colombia. so…
Thanks for read!!. Thanfs for Lastfm!! Congratulations for this great place.
theempathogen
13 April, 05:50
Wow, all of a sudden I desperately hate lastfm. No full-track on-demand listening? How the hell is this supposed to help any of us discover new music if we CAN’T LISTEN TO WHAT THE HELL WE ASK TO LISTEN TO?!?!??!!
You can yammer on about how your streaming radio will help people discover new music, but guess what? They’ll only discover what your track randomizers WANT them to. This is not what we want all the time. I seldom bother with any streaming radio on lastfm, and nearly always go for on-demand tracks. You already limited streams to three plays per track, so what exactly is the problem here?
You see, I get a lot of recommendations from my friends on lastfm for music, and unless that full-track streaming is available, guess what? I can’t follow up on those recommendations, so… wait, isn’t lastfm supposed to be a social networking site based on music?
So HOW IN FRICK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO SOCIALISE MUSICALLY if you DON’T LET US STREAM TRACKS?!!???!?!?!?
Gee, why don’t you just eliminate the ability to friend anyone on the site next, seeing as we can’t refer our friends to music they might like any longer?! You have just defeated the entire purpose of your own site. Bully for you!
Way to shoot yourself in the foot. No wonder so many people have left and are leaving now. At least offer the full-track streaming back to subscribers.
HodgeStar
13 April, 07:09
it won’t work – like the last time when you made t-shirts
The Them
13 April, 08:29
I loved lastfm. Now I hate it.
buggleguts
13 April, 09:26
hmmm….
so now the 3 countries (Germany, US, UK) would see how users from the rest of the world felt when radio became available through subscription only. Nor did we have on-demand tracks to start with : (
Wild Hope
13 April, 09:30
I think this has just screwed the reason for me using LastFM.
What is LastFMs purpose now?
:-(
Attreides
13 April, 09:31
Let’s take a look at the avaiable services:
Spotify (in the UK, France, Spain, and most of Scandinavia),
MOG (in the US)
The Hype Machine (worldwide).
We7 (UK)
VEVO (US/Canada)
So it’s mostly US and UK and NOTHING for Germany (again!), since Hype Machine is only a search engine for blogs, which I doubt is allways legal. Also they have NO albums. So there’s no convinient legal way anymore to check out new music on demand, at least without paying for Napster or similar!
THERE ARE OTHER COUNTRIES besides US and UK, think about that! They HAVE a trillion of music services, thanks to stupid GEMA we don’t!
EPIC FAIL!!!
Thorvald
13 April, 09:35
Not impressed with the recent changes. This sucks.
Why do you want to refer your users to other webservices?
Looks to me like a prostration to the major labels.
Epic fail!
michael
13 April, 09:40
While you disable on demand streaming, I don’t really see any advantage on keeping my last.fm subscription. Recommending friends (also known as music enthusiasts) “full tracks” was one of the best features. As a matter of fact you probably know that services like spotify are not available in Germany (thanks to the almighty GEZ) and I don’t even know any other music streaming service besides that, which makes it quite difficult to stream music. Great news guys :-(
michael
13 April, 09:42
Ah, please substitute GEZ with GEMA on my last comment. Thanks.
stopsatgreen
13 April, 09:54
And another reason not to use Spotify: you’re not supporting the artists
Sigurdór Guðmundsson
13 April, 10:02
I totally second what michael wrote.
30 sec previews are an INSULT!
And Spotify is only available in few countries.
I’ve been proudly telling people and fellow artist to go and sign up @ last.fm and put their music up (preferably for full preview and/or download). I’ve been so persistent and convincing that friends ask if I’m working for you. That will all stop now. :-/
If these recent changes will be the reality then I see no point in keeping my subscription ongoing and I certainly just CAN’T recommend Last.fm anymore…. and that really really really sucks BIG TIME you guys! :-/
Epic fail!
I used to LOVE the site and I’ve been very OK with all the changes you’ve made SO FAR. This is where I put my foot down!
Please PLEASE…! Don’t make this happen!
touchmutton
13 April, 10:28
DISAPPOINTED! I totally agree with theempathogen. What on earth is the point of being able to discover artists on the radio stream and then to be unable to play full tracks worth of their other music? I’m too old to sit and wait ‘til the band’s next number comes up on the radio. Whomsoever was the ‘ideas clerk’ for this particular innovation needs their P45.
Phil Wain
13 April, 11:18
That’s disappointing. Last FM has been a great resource for independent musicians to build community and share our music – meaning full tracks.
Stubbsy67
13 April, 11:44
Last.fm, I’m afraid I have to echo what those before me have already pointed out.
I’ve been using (and loving) the site for nearly 5 years now, clearly before the on-demand listening was introduced. This development, whilst not devastating, can only be viewed as a huge step backwards.
Imagine Google. Imagine if two years down the line from launching their webmail service Gmail, they announced “you know what, Hotmail has got webmail covered pretty well. I think we’ll just focus on our a search engine”. Why are you outsourcing a perfectly functionable service?
You appear to be overlooking that I, and many other Last.fm users, don’t want to sign up to Spotify, Vevo, The Hype Machine or any of the websites you’re pushing. We like Last.fm, and we like a service that expands to its users demands.
Furthermore, in saying “on-demand listening is not as popular as radio plays etc”, you are comparing the service unfairly given its circumstances. What you have essentially done is introduce a service to a sample population (UK, US, Ger), run it as a trial for the duration of it’s life cycle, then withdrawn it for not being a popular as its fellow, fully-implemented services. Well, what did you expect?!
Moreover, as afore mentioned by others, this is devastating news for independant artists trying to make their way on Last.fm. As grand as your Radio system is, its algorithm is based primarily on user tags – something that small, unheard bands don’t happen to have! An entire network of users & artists is wholly dependant on word of mouth recommendations and on-demand listening.
From a personal perspective, this is a critical time for me as a volunteer music PR promoting the unsigned rock band Soulcage, who release their second album on the 23rd of this month. How can I now, with on-demand streaming abolished, suggest suitable listeners to check out Soulcage’s music? I’ll tell you how – by directing them to MySpace. Congratulations Last.fm – you are throwing business away!!
And finally, please stop claiming to be a “people’s website” that listens and responds to the views of it’s users. You’re not! Not anymore. Don’t worry, this doesn’t make you aliens – there are plenty of businesses who don’t give a toss what their users think, and I’m sorry to realise that you’ve become one.
Shaun
OLdSKuul62
13 April, 12:23
I used to look forward to coming home from work every day `Cause I knew I would most likely have cool new tracks to hear from my LFM friends. Every day I felt like a little boy at Christmas waiting to open my presents. This was a wonderful feeling. I loved sending tracks to my friends too ,along with the social networking. When I first Joined LFM I used the “Radio” because I didn`t understand the interface. I was very green with computers. But once I learned to navigate the site I was a very happy camper. Also I have only used the “Radio” once since then , trying to find a specific song by an artist with no Playable tracks . And wouldn`t you know it. I NEVER did find that song ! You have managed to take away with one fell swoop the VERY thing that gave meaning to your existence as a social music networking site I fail to see how streaming from other sites will help me with what was the most important part of your service. I like my friends. I like to share music with them. Not 30 sec insults. There were many bands over the years that have slipped through the cracks so to speak . And my friends would introduce them to me. This was a wonderful experience. And should still be available.I was always telling people about LFM. Now I`ll steer them clear. Because I don`t see anything worth wasting thier time on. Who in hell wants to listen
to 30 sec tracks? I sure don`t. And why bother scrobbleing to a website that I`m not going to spend time at any more ? I think those stats are doing and going to more places than you are saying. I am getting rid of my scrobbler startting today I`ll not be a party to the commercialism that has destroyed Normal radio. Besides that SO CALLED BETTER VIDEO PLAYER ? You never said anything about having to download more software. It does not even show up for me. I`ll stay on to try to maintain my friendships until we find a better way to keep in touch . Then I know I`m gone ! I feel like the kid who`s being punished for doing something that they didn`t do. :( It is heartbreaking to know that there is nothing else out there to go to . This was very special and would have been worth paying for . But now ? I`ll save my money Thanks for making me feel like I just broke up with my girlfriend .I think that like a few shouts above me , you will find that you have shot yourselves in the foot. RIP
themish
13 April, 13:35
When I discovered last.fm the reason to join were the full track previews. What is the reason to stay any longer?
It’s ridiculous.
ruder1
13 April, 13:58
Terrible move for independent artists and users trying to self-discover new music. This surely has to do with the ever evolving music business and royalty collection but it is a sad loss nonetheless and will be the demise of last.fm as we know it (and love it). What bothers me is how this news was sugar coated like it is an inprovement to the service.
23 SECONDS NETLABEL
13 April, 15:23
What about all the small artists out there?
I have no words for this….
Things were great until you sold out to CBS.
Once Again
13 April, 15:44
First was the radios.
Now the only music that I could listen to here, the free tracks offered by the artists for free.
Now… nothing.
You were an amazing site. Now you are mediocre, and getting worse and worse. Suscription now is a kind of joke.
I miss the golden years.
Time to say goodbye.
JB
13 April, 16:17
@stopsatgreen:
High streaming rates is a fantastic tool to stop music innovation. Just as someone mentioned, there is a reason (GEMA) why Germany is left out of the new digital streaming landscape.
CD
13 April, 18:18
I agree with sentiments above. Full track preview is important to the site, as it is the best way for independent artists to promote themselves, and for me to discover new music. I don’t want to sign up with other sites to play tracks, and it will be a long time before independent artists tracks are loaded elsewhere and linked to Last FM. Free downloads earn no money for the artists.
The thing is that in order to be able to play these tracks on the radio, Last FM needs to keep all the tracks on their servers. So you don’t save space by sending the listener to another site. And the smaller independent artists tracks are very unlikely to be playing on the radio, so they are sitting there with low demand – why not allow them to be full track previews so that they get “used” as much as the major artists tracks? Efficient use of storage space!
I am a subscriber and am willing to pay for the service so that Full tracks can be played. Buy more fast servers and charge us. You can provide links to Spotify etc. in addition to the full track play if you want.
Last FM, we adore you so please rethink your decision :-(
clearskies
13 April, 18:46
Not good!
I’m a subscriber and for the reasons above (streaming of certain full tracks) I visit this page on a regular basis. My favourite website in fact! I will still use the site but you need to take on board everything that is mentioned above. You have given very good reasons for subscribers / free users to move on.
I love the recommendations and radio personally and listen to it daily. But Spotify is not available in Ireland at the moment. What good is that to me?
Not good!
Deborah Ramos
13 April, 18:49
I have been a huge supporter of last.fm over the last several years, and as such feel nearly betrayed by this decision. I’ve argued the merits of Last over Pandora until I’m blue in the face, and have introduced so many people to your service. By halting on-demand full song streaming, you’ve just removed one of the most important elements of your website.
Personally, my musical appetite is voracious. There is no way I could afford to download everything I listen to and last.fm has filled that void. You’ve allowed me to check out new artists (mostly suggested by other users) who I’ve then gone on to recommend to other music lovers. 30 second snippets of songs are an insult to anyone who actually listens to music. Asking someone to migrate away from your site to complete their listening experience is simply asking them to walk away – and most will not come back.
I haven’t decided if I want to quit using your site entirely yet because unfortunately the scrobbling and social media aspects of your site are still worthwhile. It will only be a matter of time before other music sites pick up on those elements and you lose your audience entirely.
In one day last.fm has gone from being a nearly complete music listening and tracking tool – to “just another website”.
Poor management decision.
Klangkomplex
13 April, 19:27
VERY bad news for me as an independent artist and producer! You’ve earned not much but some money with my music – can’t understand this decision! I have to think about to delete all my links to last.fm and find something more efficient to promote my catalog…
Club Penguin
13 April, 19:35
I think this sucks for small artists :|
lukas_w
13 April, 19:52
Bad idea. The quality of correlated music will get worse, since people are not choosing individual songs for themselves on your site. Focusing on hits is a mistake, the nice thing you had was a deep streaming catalog.
Still a nice service, but definitely a mistake— I am curious, how old was the person at CBS who demanded this change?
Juparave
13 April, 20:11
What happened to last.fm? It seems that is disappearing little by little. Sad sad times.
Leisy
13 April, 20:22
it’s really sad that you abolished the full streamings… they were very important for me to get to know music, since the recs really tend to give me artists that sound all the same, and, well, like someone already sad, it makes a great side mediocre…
the worst about the new previews is that they’re pretty inconsistent: at some songs it’s the chorus, at some only a verse, so you just made a new feature and even screwed that up o.o…
Simon Phipps
13 April, 20:31
That’s goodbye from me then. Last.FM was THE place I came to when someone said the name of an artist I’d not heard before, to listen to a sample track or two, maybe listen to some related artists. I’d also use it to preview the artists related to my listening history before going elsewhere to buy them. Take that casual browsing of music away and I have no reason to visit. Or to scrobble.
BFF
13 April, 20:35
Really?? LAST.FM was (past tense) great because it was the only large collection one could easily pick and choose from their browser and play full tracks and friends’ playlists. The whole idea for MANY of us was music discovery. We can’t discover anything via the browser this way; 30 second clips bite. I understand that at this stage you most bow to the major labels but the fact that indie artists who want their tracks to be fully played via the browser can’t even do it anymore? This sucks, big time. Screw you guys. It was fun while it lasted.
Mike.
13 April, 21:22
This really is the lowest LastFM could ever stoop. Already artists are leaving. And who cares? Certainly not the boardroom of CBS is it. Nonononono. The fats cats have their cream. So the mice must always suffer. Well not this time CBS. We will battle you on this one. To the bitter end.
ClocklessHours
13 April, 21:28
To echo what my friend Sigurdór Guðmundsson stated above, 30 second previews are an insult. <— THIS SUCKS! You have not only kicked new and unsigned artists off the playing field, they can’t even stand on the sideline.
Spotify is not available everywhere, and even where it is, it’s not always free. US listeners are required to purchase a premium account-this is about $16 per month. And there’s no unsigned artists to listen to, either. Bollocks! MOG is no different, although it’s a bit cheaper.
When my subscription (a gift from a friend, no less) runs out, I’ll be moving on. Last.fm is a lost cause.
Susanne
13 April, 21:44
This takes away the desire for discovering new artists and music when I can’t listen to entire songs. 30 sec pre-listening is not enough.
I don’t want to go to another place to listen. So what is the point to be on lastfm at all??? There is no sense of it all. Just one extra step on the way to hear music, I am curious of. This is going to have a devastating effect on the artists we support too They Need to Have full tracks to be Heard Give Them Back That choice of freedom NOW!!!!
Georg
13 April, 22:06
I have to agree with the sentiment of some here. 90% of the time I spent on last.fm were because I read about an artist and I knew that I could probably find some tracks to listen to on last.fm.
The previews are rarely enough and seldom capture the essence of a song. I’ve stopped buying CDs at (real) shops that only allow those previews because of the same reasons.
In addition to that I’ve got to visit the track pages now to see if there might be a link to another page or not and that opens in yet another tab.
While I appreciate the fact that everyone of your users uses the site for different purposes and everyone has his own “style” to discover new music last.fm was my favorite site to do so but this change has singlehandedly ruined it for me.
As to the music videos – and this is without actually having tested it – I can only hope that you have taken some kind of precaution that the videos are actually available in most of your target countries. When I want to watch a music video on YouTube (even official ones) 90% of the time those videos are “not available in your country”.
I’m excited that you are trying something new and I like that you put the data you collect to good use. The new pages also look great. But as I’ve explained I don’t like one part of that change but I wish you all the best in the future and I’ll be sure to stop by from time to time.
Adam
13 April, 22:20
“no more on-demand music on lastfm?
Means that that i can’t play a single track or i can’t play artist/tag/user-radio?”
I don’t understand this decision either. I think it’s a bad move.
“Again bad news for the smaller artists, many of whom are not available on spotify.” – My feelings exactly.
Not at all happy with the new changes.
gakko
13 April, 22:32
I´ve stopped recommending people to use this site about one year ago. The artists radio are repeating the same songs over and over. I´ll find more surprises in my own CD-collection. Can you give me any reason to stay here? What can you offer people with a serious interest in music? A chat?
oeitje
13 April, 22:42
WANKERS
Orb Gettarr
13 April, 23:01
I’m afraid LastFM and I have reached the end of the road., and oeitje, your opinion does not count. Maybe you only have a 30-second attention span, but most of my listeners happen to like on-demand streaming, so get over yourself. I e-mailed support about it, and they gave me the same stupid claptrap they put on the website- they have no intention of bringing back on-demand streaming, so I’m closing my account as of today- I’ve already made other arrangements. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT AN ALTERNATIVE:
Create your OWN Ning network for free, have your OWN streaming rules, and give the finger to LastFM. Even customize your page exactly the way you want it to appear!
Go here:
http://www.ning.com/main/createyourown?source=atmoworks&xn_token=7p5hqS4BxiizPeXopDnzcWzIdEZwp3rufe9AK0JXs6QHajxAcjn-ycefwermwOyNnJYDlMfDluQ_
Club Penguin Cheats
14 April, 01:01
I don’t think that T-shirt was real. But the big disappointment is discontinuing streaming. Come on.
Allie
14 April, 01:54
Looks great, but the album section is really screwing up in firefox. You can’t see the cover art and everything is squished.
Lydia
14 April, 02:17
Passing the buck to other websites for full length streaming is awful. I have no desire to set up another account and share my information with another website. MOG only has a three day free trial and Spotify isn’t even available in the U.S. Last.fm is pretty much useless if I want to find out more about a specific artist now. 30 second previews are not enough.
username
14 April, 03:19
This is absolutely ridiculous. How on earth are you trying to spin this in a positive light? There’s no way anyone’s going to buy it. At least this happened before I started paying for a subscription, because I was recently considering it. I used the “full tracks” feature all the time to explore new things and to share bands with friends, and it was amazing. Too good to be true, I guess? This one move just sucked all the interactive music-exploring fun out of Last.fm completely. I’ve always been able to listen to internet radio elsewhere, but Last.fm was a much bigger experience than that. Now what is it? What’s the point of even keeping what I listen to scrobbled to my profile if it’s just another internet radio service? I can’t believe this went as far as removing YouTube videos.
I’ve never used any of the outside listening services, but I’m not impressed with what I see. I typed in several small indie bands that I love into the MOG search engine. One of them actually came up (surprise!) but I can’t listen unless I pay for a subscription (after three days, at least). So what now? If I want to listen to anything other than a 30-second clip of a new band I’m interested in I have to pay for a 3rd-party service that doesn’t even include a large portion of what I listen to? Bravo. This is seriously screwing over independent artists who need all the exposure they can get when it comes to getting their music out there. A few of my friends are in bands that fall into this category. They had their full albums up on Last.fm, and they’re certainly not listed on MOG or any of the other sites. I can’t believe I’m going to have to go back to depending on MySpace for full-length new indie music needs. Ugh.
Mark Henning
14 April, 04:01
who ever asked that indie artist might want to consider “lowering” their royalty for streaming is sadly delusional about what last.fm actually pays. It takes around 2000 plays to generate one dollar. that’s right. No one, not even Coldplay, is getting paid here.
Very disappointed that Last.fm has chosen to restrict their services even more. I thought the subscription thing was harsh enough – it damn near arrested all traffic to our bands, but now they’ve really crippled what they’re offering and I fear they will not last out the year.
And a complete shame too. I thoroughly enjoyed this site.
À bientôt.
Aligzandoor
14 April, 04:45
Very nice layout. Thanks for all this, I’ve been using sites – and yeah – if it doesn’t scrobble – it don’t count.
Diana T.
14 April, 06:08
I’m cancelling my subscription.
No point in building nice playlists of quirky music I can’t find elsewhere if they’re only going to disappear.
gingerweir
14 April, 07:50
No point subscribing anymore if I cant play tracks on demand.
The play limit on number of times played was working.
If I’m scrobbled a new track, like it, and want to check it out before buying …..
I’m stymied.
Disappointing !
ER2DEE2
14 April, 07:52
Give me a reason to keep up my subscription.
Regards from unspotified Germany, Rene
Hello
14 April, 08:54
“This is absolutely ridiculous. How on earth are you trying to spin this in a positive light?”
I fully agree, your business development is heading for the wrong direction. Give us back the tracks on demand! Future generations of small artists will thank you and you can keep your credibility as a true music loving service.
Steffi
14 April, 09:34
This Upgrade is like “Melon Yoghurt – Now with whole fruits!”
In Germany we have to struggle a lot with digital rights and music rights and owner rights… I can’t even watch most of the Videos on Youtube cause they belong to Sony, why did you have to do that =/ where has the spirit gone?
last.fm was my source to get to know new music, now i will culturally shrink… ah yey politics!
sosad
14 April, 10:24
i don’t listen to the radio channels, i listen to the music i own – and i don’t care about scrollbing. the only reason i used last.fm was to discover new bands and i did that via on-demand track streaming. it was eventually the only thing i used on last.fm.
last.fm, i think after 3 years we are torn apart…
Nibus
14 April, 12:05
Wow – what a mess! Up to now, last.fm was the easiest way for unsigned artists to upload tracks, get them played and listened to. As an unsigned artist (I’m unlikely ever to get signed, and not sure that I’d want to be) – literally just a guy with a laptop and a microphone – it was great. Easy to upload, do your own promotion, share, recommend – LISTEN. Now you’ve nerfed that for me and thousands of people like me. I’m not bothered about royalties (let’s face it – the royalties I’ve had in 3 years might just buy me a pint of milk), I just want my music out there. Now you’re forcing me to negotiate the maze of aggregator signups, deal with rights and the commercial side of it. Either that or it’s back to the car-crash that is MySpace.
There’s been almost no engagement from you – either in this post or on the epic thread on the forum – which you’ve left your poor mods to deal with. You owe it to your users – without whom you are nothing – to give them a debate. Saying “We’ve done this, deal with it.” and then inviting comments is not debate.
Remember this: http://blog.last.fm/2008/01/23/free-the-music ? Last.fm is about music. Music is for listening. So please let us listen. What did you expect would happen?
mstrflsh
14 April, 12:12
WHAT THE HELL? I didn’t actually realise you’d taken away streaming of songs from within last.fm until yesterday when it became all too difficult to locate the song I wanted. Spotify does not cater for the vast network of tastes last.fm does, A LARGE number of people don’t use spotify due to it’s very limited amount of good music, and the only songs I had available where the popular crap, but where do the independent or smaller bands go now?!
I’ve had last.fm since the very beginning, through the good and bad changes, I’ve stuck being a subscriber but now that it’s just run out I’m worried this will be the end of my time here.
Until you can provide the exact same service you had with the new links to external sites (which is such a pain in the ass, what’s wrong with you guys?) you should leave on-demand in place.
Some new songs I see now I can’t hear anywhere, sort that out before taking any other stupid steps.
Walk before you run Last.fm!
MainiSorri
14 April, 13:24
I am really very sad and very dissapointed. We can only listen to 30 sec tracks now, it is really terrible. I am an independent artist and have uploaded my music here and found lots of listeners and discovered lot of music. I really don’t get this. I have been so happy about Last.fm but now that feeling is long gone. Why are you destroying this site for us? Give us back fulltime previews NOW!!!
Sam
14 April, 13:39
Totally agree with Nibus and mstrflsh above. On-demand playing backed up the radio service, people could hear something and then come back to it. Now they can’t, unless I make my music available for free download. Yes I can link to other services, but this is just unnecessarily complex. Last.fm was my main music posting tool. Will have to review this now. Very disappointed
reihmusic
14 April, 13:50
bad news for the smaller/independent artist. If you ‘re in it for the money, maybe give the smaller/independent artist an option to give up the last.fm royalties in exchange for fulltime previews of their tracks?
(yes I have some tracks online and yes I gave permission for fulltime previews. Would be nice if you notified me beforehand about this change:-(
drewvan
14 April, 13:54
Also VERY disappointed in the decision to eliminate on-demand full tracks. Bad, bad, bad. I’ve bought a LOT of music after first having a chance to really decide whether I like it by listening two or three times to the full tracks. 30-second previews just don’t help. Last.fm is losing it’s appeal. Sadly, I’ll probably go elsewhere…
Liesel_MW
14 April, 14:09
i just posted a comment here, and now it’s vanished… where did it go? :(
Jost aus Soest
14 April, 14:23
Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
:o(
Please tell me only one reason for using last.fm in Germany after this changes!
Shawn
14 April, 14:32
No use complaining you know, Staff’s word is law and they never roll back a change once it’s in place. You’re wasting your breath. I remember the Balkanization change last year, and the new and less accessible website the year before. Tens of thousands complained, but it was useless. You’ll never get the old last.fm back. At least they were slightly more accessible than Facebook last time I looked, now I’m not sure.
Dream Mother Fucking Tek
14 April, 15:11
FUCK YOU LAST FM!!!!!
FUCK YOU IN THE ASS!!!!
WITH A CAST IRON SKILLET FROM DENNY’S!!!!
YOU WORTHLESS SELL OUT FAGGALICIOUS BASTARDS!!!
THIS SITE WILL BE GONE IN THE NEXT YEAR.
WORTHLESS SON’S A BITCHES.
STAFF?
FUCK STAFF…..period.
Liesel_MW
14 April, 15:17
OK, try again…
At first I thought these changes may be good for us Australians, in that we now have quick links to another site where we can play full tracks on demand. However, upon reconsideration (and finding it difficult to set up Scrobbling on the one 3rd party site link available to me here), I have changed my mind.
Why take away from the Subscribing supporters of Last.fm (in Germany, US, and UK) the ability to play full tracks on demand, when instead you can GIVE that ability to those of us who never had it?
It seems to me, that rather than making Last.fm the “definitive online home of [our] music taste and [our] base for music discovery”, you are encouraging listeners to stray from Last.fm and making things more ambiguous.
And you say “regardless of where you listen [this renewed focus on Last.fm] – will help improve not just our users’ musical lives but the overall online ecosystem as well.” Seems like you’re actually just “outsourcing” and creating more complications for your users …and why do we need to improve this so-called “online ecosystem” anyway? Is it in danger lol?
PS “If it doesn’t Scrobble it doesn’t count” …well then why take away Scrobble-able videos and tracks playable in their entirety upon demand? If you give all users that ability, we can Scrobble to our hearts content directly from Last.fm :)
Dream Mother Fucking Tek
14 April, 15:44
sell outs man….
This site doesnt listen to its users…
WE MADE YOU WHAT YOU ARE NOW.
Do you really think this is going to work?
Do you really think after reading the slew of disgruntled comments above that anyone is going to remain a user on this site?
What the hells going on inside your little heads? Anyone else notice how they have not responded to a single comment? Like they know they fucked up and just dont want to deal with it? Answer the questions “staff” Tell us why your deciding to fuck all the independent musicians? Explain your selves. Its the very LEAST you can do at this point. and WHO IN THE HELL…wants to listen to 30 second clips all day???????????????????
The on demand service was the ONLY good thing this site still had. I dont even care about royalties man…I have YET to see a statement anyway. But i didnt complain right? But now…Go fuck yourselves last.fm….straight up. And I mean that from the bottom of my fuckin’ feet.
WaveRider
14 April, 16:12
You killed the platform for new upcoming artists. You turned it into a PUSH CONTENT platform for CBS. Shame on you, you should be really ashamed, you are collaborators helping killing the music on internet for a multinational with a terrible track record on fair business practices!
poopiesrgood
14 April, 17:06
I’m done with last.fm, on demand streaming was THE feature I used here. I guess I’ll go back to streaming from individual band’s myspace pages. The royalty fee’s must have become too great? All those giant Ad’s didn’t cover it? No more hits from me.
Dream Mother Fucking Tek
14 April, 17:25
what royalties?
Im signed up for them and never recieved a single statement. Fuckin bitches
Neverever Records
15 April, 04:04
Full track plays is what made last.fm stand out amongst the others and why we’ve all devoted so much time to our playlists and socializing. I believe you [last.fm] had to bow to the major labels with this, and if that is true — you didn’t have to also screw the indies. I already see droves of people signing up at lala.com instead: now Apple is going to get an even bigger piece of the music industry pie. This will seriously backfire on the record industry as a whole. Terrible. Sod off.
Corey Mwamba
15 April, 08:04
Almost everybody else has said this. But it’s probably worth saying again – this site was about the listener, and by taking away full-length streaming you’ve effectively screwed over the listener.
Musicians need listeners. So you’ve screwed over the musicians.
You don’t care about either set of people, since it’s clear you only care about the scrobbling.
Time to switch off scrobbling then.
atommalac
15 April, 10:02
:(
well, i’ll probably still come by from time to time to check out some recommendations, but last.fm is slowly and surely losing me..
well i guess i don’t even matter because i wasn’t even thinking about subscribing in the first place, but i can’t believe how can you expect subscribers to continue supporting you.
RIP last.fm
Russ Sargeant
15 April, 10:47
People used to be able to play my full-length tracks and now they can no longer do it. As an independent and unsigned artist, that is a BIG issue (at least for my Last.FM listeners). Last.fm was a great platform for me to promote my music and I have been a subscriber (on and off when I could afford it) for years. I wont be renewing my subscription this time round. Just as well there are other communities where I CAN promote my music and interact with fans in the way I used to be able to here. As for your ‘streaming partners’, WE7???? Who uses that? Their vetting service is so slow for submitted tracks that I could literally DIE waiting for them, and Spotify, as good as it is, is slow for unsigned artists such as myself as again the issue is getting my tracks on to there in the first place.
This is a BAD move Last.fm, a very BAD move and shows a complete lack of understanding in how artists are now trying to promote their music online!
michael
15 April, 11:48
Will there be a official last.fm statement on this issue? The discussion in the corresponding forum has now nearly ninety pages full of negative comments and the “silence” on this issue on behalf of last.fm is quite frustrating.
SPEmercury
15 April, 12:12
The newly designed track page looks neat. So much for the positive news.
The rest SUCKS! The decision to drop on-demands streaming is a death blow, first to artists, small labels and indie music fans, and then to you last.fm itself. And you didn’t even bother letting us, the users & content providers know in advance before you pull the plug.
That is nothing but a BETRAYAL of our trust and support.
CBS = slow death by idiocy for last.fm
Fred
15 April, 13:39
Bad move guys
floreste
15 April, 14:06
last.fm better had concentrate on improving scrobbling, because without full-length track play they haven’t got anything else to offer.
Matthew Ogle
15 April, 15:21
Thanks for the feedback everyone, it’s been very helpful! We appreciate you taking the time to offer your thoughts and criticisms.
We’re listening and are already thinking about some new features we can provide specifically to our music manager artists and indies. We’ll have more news in that department soon.
iSkiaPod
15 April, 15:28
I made my view clear in the forums and in my joining the “Bring Back Full Track Streaming” Group, but I’ll add my voice here as well.
I don’t like and don’t want to to rely on partner sites for full track streaming. I already pay subs to Last for this and to avoid advertising. Spotify costs 3 times as much for less content and features than offered by Last. Already I’ve searched for albums I used to listen to here and not found them on Spotify or Hype.
If it’s a matter of cost I’d be happy to pay more to keep the full track feature.
And yes, I would like to see some response from Last to all this feedback.
PS, sorry Matthew, you posted that whilst I was composing this. Look forward to more news then.
xnrat
15 April, 19:06
I am rather disappointed. The services you mentioned as a substitute for on demand full tracks are pretty much worthless to me. Only one of them is available in Germany and I can’t use it directly from the last.fm pages. I would love to say I will take my business elsewhere, but there really isn’t anything else. I’ll probably just won’t continue my subscription. I hate to be the guy who does that, but you broke my heart, Fredo. Wait… Ah, you know what I mean.
Indie Artist
15 April, 19:16
Congratulations: by removing full-track preview screening, you’ve gone from hero to zero overnight! THERE IS NOW LITTLE TO MAKE US WANT TO USE LAST.FM, or maybe that is the whole point. Are you trying to destroy Last.fm from the inside out? You are rendering yourself obsolete, not relevant. “Hey, it’s just like the old Last.fm except with fewer features, especially those that are the drawing point for the site in the first place (e.g. full preview screening)!”
Steve
15 April, 20:13
I agree with many of the comments made regarding the removal of full track preview. I have only recently subscribed to Last.fm and am extremely disappointed, would’nt have bothered if i had known this was going to happen. This change should go down like a lead balloon. I thought the idea was to increase the number of listeners/customers, not to lose them, i think that Last.fm is making a big mistake with this one!
Amir
15 April, 20:59
Without on-demand full tracks, last.fm would be a mistake.
john noxxx
16 April, 00:09
i can only hope all you guys, employed at last.fm, get off this ship as soon as possible. it clearly sinks!
no more listening to single tracks? it this aprils fools day? what is this site about now anyway?
this was one major reason i was comming here. if i need scrobbleing i can use libre.fm as well, without those cbs suckers in the background.
i live in germany:
NO SPOTIFY!!!
MOST YOUTUBE STUFF BANNED!!!
DAMN!! THIS SO HARDLY SUCKS!!!!!!
unhappycamper
16 April, 00:34
Full track playback kaput??? Fools!
Jan Hopmans
16 April, 01:58
I have not read all of the comments above; but something I want to see is the same statistics for scrobbled tracks for loved tracks.
I am not so much interested in what have scrobbled, but I would love to know what tracks other people have loved. On a much bigger scale than now ‘Most loved artist’ and such.
Indie
16 April, 09:09
I am an indie artist and enjoyed listening to my full tracks on last fm. It made me feel proud and my visitors could hear them as well. Now, with the full track playback function disabled, I can of course make all my songs downloadable but it is not the same anymore. I am really disappointed. :(
Mgamerz
16 April, 15:25
I liked the ‘Single Track Listening’ to see how a recommended track sounds. Listening to a 30 second preview sucks, and I know EVERYONE can agree on that. I joined last.fm because I could listen to new songs and see if I liked them. I use the radio, and it’s nice, if I want to have it make a playlist of my music for me. If I want to do any music searching, last.fm is certainly not going to be the site I’ll b going to anymore, nor will I be renewing my subscription ever again.
Thanks for this, lastfm!
ByebyeLast.fm
16 April, 17:12
Getting rid of full streaming tracks wouldn’t be such a big deal if your new partner sites allowed full streaming tracks. Oh wait, they do. What’s that? A catch. You have to pay? So much for free music listening websites. Last.fm has been on a downhill track ever since the buy-out, redesign, and playlist removal (except for paying members). First yahoo radio, then imeem, and now lastfm. Looks like I’ll have to find yet another site on which to listen to music. I hear playlist.com is growing…
Me
16 April, 18:01
To those upset about these changes I have 2 recommendations.
1. Un-install any lastfm software you have and stop visiting the site.
2. Go searching for other music websites and use them instead.
Those 2 things should get the message through to lastfm that we are unhappy with these changes.
Qrobur
16 April, 19:27
As a user the decision to drop full tracks is in turn enough to make me decide there’s no point in being a subscriber.
I feel for the independent and up-and-coming artists who had a way of promoting their music here. That’s gone and this site is more or less useless for them now. Also, that makes this site much less interesting to users like me.
I don’t like being pushed towards sites with poor libraries that charge far more than last.fm to get rid of their intrusive advertising. To take one example, I think Spotify is badly developed, a horrible experience as a free application and far too expensive as a subscription service. It is a thoroughly inadequate alternative to full tracks on last.fm.
This decision transforms last.fm from a really good site into a mediocre one. The radio stations and the statistics simply aren’t worth a subscription.
There’s little doubt I’ll be using this site a lot less. I may even stop using it completely.
abdulqahhar
16 April, 20:34
The only reason I made an account here was to distribute my own music for free. Now it seems like you have taken away that feature, which means I have to figure out how and where to move my music.
The Spirit of Radio
16 April, 20:41
“One likes to believe in the freedom of music,
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity.”
Who cares
16 April, 21:47
This sucks… sell out… what about new bands, new music… U corporate wankers, fuck last.fm, Im cancelling my subscription.. fuckin pricks.
BigE1023
16 April, 23:20
“…has remained much higher than usage of on-demand playback.”
First of all, define “on-demand”. Certainly not using the last.fm radio service, right? I can’t demand to hear “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga and get it, because that doesn’t happen unless you buy the song. I get internet radio licensing, I’ll eventually hear it but I’ll get random other related artists first. Not really “on-demand” per se, in my opinion. And certainly, you can’t mean the thing where I can click “Play (full track)” next to a song title and listen to it ~3 or so times before it reverts to a 30 second preview after that? I don’t consider that on demand either, and I felt that surely that sort of thing was an acceptable compromise (full track? for free? The RIAA surely sent you guys death threats on the hour).
So…what’s this Mog thing? Pay $5 a month to continue being a scrobble prostitute (like I was), gaining an additional artist/play everytime you look up a song you hear about? Come on, I’m not registering with another third party, and I most certainly will not pay. They’re mocking Pandora (and all the other music people) on their “why you shud buy LOL!” page. Eff that, Pandora has given me 1000+ artists/thousands upon thousands of plays. I’ll pay for that kind of mutual love, but not this Mog crap. There’s no mention of being able to save on the world map or using tents to cure status ailments, so it ain’t even a real Mog. Consider that, Last.Fm intern who has to sift through these inane comments! They don’t know what moogles really do! I’m not paying them dick! Hell, if anything this will encourage the more 16-year-old-esque Last.FM users to merely pirate more to get their precious scrobbles! I at least try to buy legally from Amazon .mp3 (don’t worry, I’ve clicked the links on your artist pages to get you some “referral revenue”).
sigh…I also LIKED the player because I figgered it meant more to people who viewed my profile but were unfamiliar with the artist names. Don’t just say “hmm, I wonder what kind of music Georges Bizet makes”, click and HEAR it! But, I never clicked anyone elses players so I doubt they clicked mine/whatever.
Stephanie
17 April, 03:08
Yeah. Not happy with the most recent changes. It’s hard to discover new music when you can’t give it a quick and easy listen to. Like the others have said, these other websites just don’t support smaller artists.
Sure, maybe not every artist wants to have their music available for streaming on the site, but you could at least give them an OPTION.
I don’t use many other music streaming sites. I greatly enjoyed the on-demand aspect of LastFM. Please, PLEASE, bring it back.
Pissedoff
17 April, 05:59
Polite language fails me!
Not only have you taken away the main reason I subscribed by not allowing me to play full tracks, you have invaded my privacy! You now show the whole internet when I am at my PC tuned to your “service”.
Losing the full tracks was actually enough to lose my future patronage but to show everyone I am listening, well you have broken the trust I had that my privacy was important to you.
I set up my profile specifically to prevent others from knowing anything about me. You have defiled my privacy and this is unforgivable!
You won’t be seeing any more income from me for these reasons.
I spent over $2k this year at Amazon purchasing music by artists I discovered using your site. 30 second previews here are not worth my time. I can do that at Amazon. You just made yourself obsolete. Brilliant!
I have yet to read any good reasons for making these changes. I know I’m not the only one that feels the way I do.
INSERT EXPLETIVES HERE!
You can stick your beta, well use your imagination……
Zap
17 April, 18:02
oh, cancelling of on-demand playing is very, very sad.
i hoped lastfm woldn’t become something like this :(
Andrey
17 April, 18:19
oh man.. i think i will cancel my subscription. there is no anything good on this site anymore.
Iain
17 April, 21:31
Looks like the last person to leave switched off on-demand streaming
p
18 April, 01:42
Last.fm is really taking it up the ass from CBS with this move.
Hmph.
18 April, 01:55
Done with Last Fm. Pandora here I come!
aquilani
18 April, 12:58
I never ever had bothered looking at what grooveshark was like. Now, as we are left without the full previews on last.fm, I opened an account there.
EugeneWilder
18 April, 13:40
I just recently joined last.fm, and the reason I was even recommended last.fm in the first place by a friend was because of on demand full track streaming. NOTHING ELSE, not scrobblng, not radio, NOTHING. My friends know what I like, and I like what I know. And know what? YOUR WEB SITE KINDA SUCKS NOW.
fix it please. go back to the way it was before April 12. or I will join the campaign, the fight, and believe me, if you haven’t already noticed ( http://www.last.fm/forum/21717/_/617074 ), there is trouble brewing, practically mutiny.
dukedog
18 April, 15:12
Prostitition in action!!!
But why **** yourself
Are Scrobblers from the Planet Mars?????
Me, I just want to listen to unusual music
and that means all of a track other wise it is pointless. Long live Indie!!
Kaiserlie
18 April, 16:38
It just sucks! For me and also for my band! Reasons are mentioned above a hundred times!
Please do something about it.
snoikey
18 April, 16:49
The removal of on-demand tracks is horrible for people in the UK – half the Youtube vids I click on to listen to a track are copyrighted and we can’t watch them cause of the argument Youtube is having.
You won’t listen to us cause you’ve already made the changes, that’s always how it works. But if you do, bring full tracks back. It’s 2010 – it doesn’t matter how fast a page loads any more, it’s never going to be more than a few seconds! That’s a
reallyrubbish excuse.lhodakblerz
18 April, 18:57
This news means that I will most likely be cancelling my subscription. Lastfm have blown it!
tobyz1
19 April, 04:38
It seems that both here and at the feedback forum site, sentiment is running at least 90% against the abandonment of on-demand full-track streaming.
Have you decided yet when you will restore that streaming?
Fusi0nEncor3
19 April, 13:34
I never really understood last.fm’s reasoning behind this until now, but still the fact that I’m going to have to add my music to a site like CDBaby just so it can get on a service like spotify – JUST so it can be streamed by the masses sucks, and isn’t really worth the hassle to me. It’s not like I’m going to get feedback or the chance to connect with my fans on any of those services that are “streaming only”. The reason why I wanted to upload my music on last.fm in the first place was because it seemed like it was the only popular place that would easily allow me to upload my music, while also avoiding all that licensing crap on other sites. Apparently not, congratulations last.fm you’ve just given all your competitors a potential edge over your website. Maybe the staff here should consider revising it from “New for subscribers: more graphs and visualisations” to “New for subscribers: Less features and artists”
Liesel_MW
19 April, 13:49
“New for subscribers: Less features and artists”
Good one, Fusi0nEncor3!!!
…are you listening to everyone last.fm guys?
And Stefan, why are you smiling so much? …because you’re going to get a pay increase because last.fm is saving so much money by outsourcing… and because now you have less work to do? I’m sure we could all think of some more appropriate words to stick on your t-shirt!!!
Liesel_MW
19 April, 13:54
Here’s one a friend prepared earlier… [30 seconds DON’T count!]
Stefan
19 April, 14:38
:) Liesel_MW, I’m smiling cause one of my team members told a joke in that exact moment that Hannah took the picture. That’s it, nothing sinister about it. :)
TdT32
19 April, 15:36
On-deamnd streaming was the best feature on your site. And you cancelled that? Poor decision.
Babs
19 April, 16:32
It’s less a feedback thread, more a partyline for trolls. The vast majority of users are waiting on further news.
Jeremy Jensen
19 April, 17:12
THIS SUCKS!
LucyVanGiebel
19 April, 17:31
“die nur kühle kalte Konten kannten…”
Always when I find a place that is not so much commercialized it’s a short joy.
This is the beginning of the death of last.fm which was important for unknown artist and people who like to listen to them, a place for creative exchange.
I’m very disappointed, but I’m not surprised. That’s like it always goes.
chazee
19 April, 19:17
I just fell out of love :(
just hope there are other things you can offer us than “oh yeah just go somewhere else if youre in the right country, if not, ooops”
Pissed off
20 April, 07:07
single-track playback
single track playback
single-track playback
single-track playback
single-track playback
single-track playback
bring it back or I am gone
30 second preview is a joke, A chill out song can be 10 – 20 min long. How is 30 sec preview going to help me know if i like the song…..
Vince Millett
20 April, 19:41
The Last FM radio is all a bit rubbish, though, for me…..it always plays the same tunes despite the fact that I’ve scrobbled many thousands of tunes so Last FM should have some clues as to what to play me. I’m likely to unsubscribe if this place becomes just a big database with its current sub-standard radio system. You are trying to force us towards industry-controlled services like Spotify…..which shows that the big record labels are still trying to undermine truly independent music. Shame on Last FM for pandering to it.
Canadian user here
21 April, 00:13
Oh nice, almost a year ago, you decided to discriminate most countries in the world with your bullshit subscriptions, and now you’re removing on-demand streaming which is making subscribing worthless. Good job, my friends, good job. We can now tell that you’re sold out to American corporate fascism and that CBS is pulling the strings.
Rolando Guzman
21 April, 04:00
Last.fm for me Is Dead! no more. a Costumer From Costa Rica
Holly82
21 April, 06:40
What’s wrong with the site? I can’t get acccess.
sina
21 April, 07:24
Oh nice, almost a year ago, you decided to discriminate most countries in the world with your bullshit subscriptions, and now you’re removing on-demand streaming which is making subscribing worthless. Good job, my friends, good job. We can now tell that you’re sold out to American corporate fascism and that CBS is pulling the strings.2
Marina
21 April, 07:35
Is the website gone for good? Love the guy in the picture he’s very cute.
ProfMary
21 April, 07:38
I guess y’all decided to pull the plug on the site rather than read another word of response to your destructive April 12th changes. Well, good. That shows a healthier sense of awareness than the couple of blithe little statements your staff have made to assure us we don’t really have a complaint.
Anon
21 April, 08:17
all I got to say is
http://blog.last.fm/2008/01/23/free-the-music
GFY last.fm Assholes
jez
21 April, 08:23
what have you done ? where’s the site?
are you crazy?
n
21 April, 08:58
hey what’s wrong with your site? I need to do changes for fantasy festival :(
Matthew Ogle
21 April, 12:18
Sorry about the downtime overnight, one of our data centres overheated — you can stay up to date with status.last.fm. Most things should be back to normal now!
Some more official news will come shortly, stay tuned and keep the feedback coming. As usual, some more in-depth discussions (like this one) are happening over in the forums.
phoenyx9
21 April, 18:04
No on demand tracks anymore, the main reason I’m a subscriber. I’ll be cancelling my subscription now, thanks.
So tell me, why am I paying to upload scrobbles of music I own already? Just so my ‘demographic’ music tastes can be used for god knows what? screw that!
jazzlover
22 April, 00:23
On-demand full tracks was only feature I used last.fm for. I could preview a whole track, and if I liked it, go to one of the pay sites, i.e. Amazon, and purchase that track or a whole album. That feature on last.fm sold a ton of music for the recording companies and artists that probably wouldn’t have been sold otherwise.
I agree that your site now just pretty much became worthless, for both music lovers and artists. I won’t be using it anymore—I can get the same 30-second previews on umpteen pay sites. Way to go, knuckleheads.
wiltingplant
22 April, 05:56
Why must you tear the heart out of last.fm? Why?
Ardigone
22 April, 11:00
At least we can say we new last.fm when it was good. This move will kill the site. So sad, you were one of the few good ones left. Enjoy the money, and thank you for (like the person above me said) tearing the heart out of last.fm.
bex
22 April, 11:49
I live in Ireland (you know, that country beside the UK?) And Spotify isn’t available here!
You have no problems taking money off people in different countries for subscriptions, but you clearly couldn’t’ give a *&#$ about any of us! I can’t believe you have taken away the ability to play full tracks!! Hey why don’t you just ban all users that are from anywhere other than the UK and the US from signing up??
you wont get a cent from me in the future, I’ll never subscribe to this site again!!
William
22 April, 17:59
This is a good change. I never cared for the on-demand tracks or the focus on becoming a streaming site. I use last.fm to track my plays and stats, not play music. I already have an iTunes library.
Mark Drifter
22 April, 20:12
This ia all my artist page reads now. There were 2 albums………
Last fm have made changes which, as an independent artist wanting to share my music, I do not agree with. As a result I have had to remove 201 Soundsystem Albums and tracks.
It’s sad that a site that claimed so much to be about the music, obviously is not. They even use these words on the music upload page…
‘’Last.fm provides a unique service for artists and labels, and you maintain complete control over the availability of your tracks, so maybe the question should really be “what have you got to lose?”.
For us it’s about the music, I never uploaded clips of the songs, I uploaded full tracks for people to enjoy and add to their page.
The tracks, in full, are available for streaming at the below sites. Please check us there.
Much respect for all the support.
Peace, Mark.
Korg
23 April, 01:02
Its funny how you ferked yourself up.
Take your time. Stay back. Take another look. Feel it… mistakes are being made.
TimeToAct
23 April, 23:38
Since lastfm has been bought by CBS it became a damn business website.
First move, the radio. Okay, I almost never listened to the lastfm radio, but does it make sense to pay to listen to some new bands?
And now what about this move? A total waste of time. A move that is covered in shit. I mean, what the fuck, I’m an indipendent artist myself, I used to promote myself via the lastfm free preview and free download and now what? I have to upload tracks elsewhere and you know what? I’m from fucking Italy, those websites aren’t available here, the only website available here is The Hype Machine and you know what? You can’t fucking upload anything.
Lastfm is becoming a pile of crap if it goes on moving this way… I’m almost done with this website.
playbox
24 April, 09:06
play time , where did it go
DeauxChvaux
24 April, 20:32
Oh dear. No more Last FM for me :-( Losing the full length preview is a leap back, in my opinion anyway. Not sure what those at the top must be on?
nicko
24 April, 23:34
Ahhhhh. I do like your radios..they should be improved yes..but I’ve discovered tons of music thanks to them.
But I’m really disappointed about the other changes.. I’ve uploaded a lot of tracks here and I didn’t ask for royalties.. I just wanted people to freely listen to my music and download. But now I’ll be lucky if even ONE of my tracks is played in ANY radio.
Hope you are reading these comments!!!!
ca272
26 April, 08:42
hmm. I’m not fond of the changes in the full track playing, some of the tracks you can’t find anywhere else, and this is where I used to come. Since you have stopped the full playing feature, it makes it difficult for those like me to find new music. I don’t suppose you have ever thought about the fact that a lot of those services are graphical, which means those of us using a screen reader because we cannot see won’t be able to use the service.
meicia
26 April, 12:15
30 sec preview..sucks….it’s an insult…and not available download…:-((((
sirensofsong
26 April, 20:50
This was the primary site I would use to listen/discover new music because it gave you a chance to listen to a song in its entirety. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a song after listening to a 30 second preview. It was good while it lasted…
Tartalo
28 April, 11:03
O_o
1) http://blog.last.fm/2007/05/30/lastfm-acquired-by-cbs
2) http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement
3) This
Why did CBS buy Last.fm? To kill it, I guess:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=last.fm%2C+spotify%2C+grooveshark
Freeloading is over
28 April, 17:27
Great move last fm. I might not be popular saying this but its a great decision.
Unsigned artists should remember the fact that they only ever really get 30 secs of listening from any A&R decision maker and that’s enough time.
Signed artists will again be able to actually make money so IT WILL HELP the musical economy as a whole….
More sales = more money = more worthy bands unsigned bands being signed.
I’m all for it.
zane
29 April, 17:44
last.fm/cbs listen closely
go to hell. we helped you build this site and you rip us off. you deleted 3 of my albums and stole over over 60,000 listeners and 192k plays .. i am an indie artist, and so is everyone on my label.. we dont want to be signed to universal, warner bros, or cbs “affilliates”
you are destroying indie music with megalomania of math ..
i am going to sue you, okay ?? class action law suite you changed terms without my agreement or even the consideration of prior warning ..
-zane
[artist]fauxmusica[/artist]
[label]escc9[/label]
Martin Dittus
29 April, 17:59
Zane — as part of the change announced here we removed Free On-Demand playback, but we did not take down any content. If your content was indeed taken down then the best place to investigate this is the labels forum: http://www.last.fm/forum/6666
Also note that we’re going to restore the ability to play promos on Last.fm, see the followup blog post.
dsongsrecords
30 April, 21:37
hay, iam new here on last.fm and i djust release here a song too.The song named: mine heart have finely found.i hope you all listen to mine song.before i leave i waanna thank last.fm to let me put mine song here.thank you last.fm and the rest of the peole, seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.i love you too.beyyyyyyyyyy
don wilson
2 May, 19:04
i hate that you no longer can hear full tracks or even previews of most songs and new artists….sorry to say i’ll be moving on.
Strykke
4 May, 07:51
I didn’t think last.fm was going to sell out. I don’t see the issue in giving us full-track-playback. Would you care to clarify just why you’d do something like that exactly?
I don’t listen to any of this popular music. Where the hell am I supposed to go to hear tracks of bands I potentially might like?
What’s next? Are you going to bring back this “On-Demand” thing but for a price?
I was about to subscribe too. Good thing I didn’t.
blow me last.fm
4 May, 14:36
Well, my subscription lapsed around the same time you were changing the format. And great job at that time BECAUSE I COULDN’T EVEN USE LAST.FM!
Now I have learned you’ve taken away full track playings? WHAT KIND OF FUCKING MORONS ARE YOU? Yet, you allow Youtube videos to be attached to artists pages but won’t let 4 songs from an artist play during an hour and oh btw most of those videos ARE UN-AUTHORIZED BY THE ARTISTS!
Well here’s the bottom line, you want me to subscribe again? Fine, put back the full track previews (dumbest fucking idea from you people yet) Stop with the invasive advertisements and support off site apps for last.fm. That was by far the best thing you had going for you anyway.
btw if I do subscribe again, ya think maybe every month we renew our subscriptions that we could actually have say like 40 on demand playings from the paltry 3 you allow? After all, we are giving you money and you ain’t providing shit in return. Except for your latest fuck up there’s shit all over that.
“Freeloading is over” YOU ARE A FUCKING DOUCHE! The artists aren’t making the money IDIOT it’s the labels! Shut the fuck up, inform your opinion, or just die
zane_
5 May, 03:10
indie artists dont need promos .. we need flv (full length preview) .. most of us arent using itunes, or beatport or any other online music store ..
we want to give our music away for free to people who appreciate the style and composure for the sake of exposure ..
i think alot of us are sorry that we have to speak some rashly, but we like and or love last.fm, and you’re runing it for us .. i love the example matthew used too .. we already know hotchip has a ton of plays and listeners ..
do us a favor and prove us wrong, reinstate full length preview and make us all sorry that we got so angry .. cuz im still angry and anger is not in my nature ..
i think if you are willing to make us all happy we wont have any problem paying 3 dollars for this service .. it was worth it before, but now i think you should be paying indie artists to even bother with the difficulities and headaches that come with the last.fm interface and terms of service ..
over (and if you dont fix it) soon to be out ..
if need be,
i’ll code my own version of last.fm that catters to indie artists and INNOVATIVE music regardless of genre .. cuz last i remember audioscrobbler was open source :DD
i still have a copy of the code around here somewhere ..
you cant piss off the original supporters of last.fm and expect big rewards .. do you know that technology pwns ?? my netlabel has better distro than universal music .. did you know that in 2 months of innactivity (i was on a vipassana meditation) that i distributed over 350,000 records on bit torrent ?? the torrent had 10 albums (ep/lp format) of escc9 material and we had 35,000 peers 35kx10=350k ..
i think if you guys want to do battle, you’re trying to switch to the wrong side .. i think i am speaking for alot of people when i say that we dont want to fight .. we just want last.fm back the way we ALL liked it .. after all, we helped you guys build this site .. cbs thinks they own this shit ?? the weight of the court and a class action law suit would undoubtfully say that this website belongs to last.fm users and subscribers ..
now please, listen very closely to all of us: reinstate flp or we will just code anotehr site and switch services ..
michael
5 May, 18:53
So when are a “couple days” over? Your blog post is now two weeks old and all the “thank you” comments seem to be a bit overhasted.
dmcal
6 May, 12:02
I’m extremely disappointed in the loss of the full-length on demand play. That feature was the number one reason I began to use last.fm, as well as recommending to my friends. It allowed me to try out new artists that I would never have had the chance to before. A 30 second sound bite doesn’t help me decide if I like a 10 minute song or not.
Thanks for nothing, last. fm.
Adrain Longo
6 May, 16:39
If this is truly a forum of free speech then I must say that I don’t like or agree with the changes that have taken place here. There’s nothing wrong with change. But firstly, I didn’t receive any notice or memo about the current switch, and most importantly I do not feel nor think that this company, before making the changes, really cared or showed any concern as to how this could affect their Users. These aren’t just basic alterations, but monumental movements, which affect the way we conduct our daily activities. This is a site for some or most of us who rely on the format here, to share many types of art(video, music, photos). Any and every site, which is made to help artists promote their work, is and should be, a site by the people and for the people. It just doesn’t seem like this is a people’s decision, but rather an unwanted force, coming from those who do not truly care about the users. If it was truly a democratic situation, then all would be pleased. Meaning that some would have things like- full-track listening, or video embeds.. . .
I’m generally a positive guy, but if I had four hands, last.fm would receive four thumbs down for these recent actions. This causes me rethink my position with their company and certainly I feel that I could better promote a more user friendly situation. Boo last.fm
Horrible act. Shame:0(
Last.fm, MAYBE YOU SHOULD CONSIDER WHAT THESE USERS ARE TRYING TO PROMOTE?
Luca
7 May, 04:04
Haha. That shirt is DOPE! I’ve been with Lastfm since 06 and it’s just the best fucking site on the internet. It’s supporting the musical revolution!
Rob
7 May, 20:14
Last one out turns the lights off. See you round Last.fm.
sewa mobil
11 May, 07:43
Is the website gone for good? Love the guy in the picture he’s very cute.
dolon
11 May, 12:31
A NICE BLOG…………..
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j_canuck
14 May, 20:24
I cannot express how disappointed I am that the single track playback has been removed. I am subscriber and will not renew unless this functionality is brought back. I wish I didn’t recommend last.fm to so many people. They are going to be wondering what I was so exicted about. This is very frustrating…
Lu3ke
18 May, 18:36
Oh man, the Play-a-track feature has been killed? That is a serious bummer, and very very disappointing, it was arguably the most useful thing on all of last.fm… certainly the feature that I made the most use of, in terms of sharing things I was listening to with friends on Facebook, etc.
I hope that it comes back soon.
WSC
19 May, 16:21
I had been a big supporter of Last.fm, telling many friends and Indie artists to subscribe. Thanks for making me look like a fool, by changing your FLP. I will be taking my band to another site now. Thanks for the good times, and good luck.
quietsounds
21 May, 08:26
I just wanted to say that for years I never bought into the Pandora craze. I was introduced to Last.fm a year ago and fell in love. It was really nice to have all my music in one place and being able to listen to new artists and songs by them, THEN related artists, if I chose to do so. This recent change of not being able to listen to individual songs has made me leave Last.fm and sign up for Pandora. My songs still scrobble when in iTunes, but I never use your site anymore. I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one who is going elsewhere for their music needs.
CD001
21 May, 13:54
So, without FLP, Last FM will be little more than a data aggregator for other services – in fact, they already are for We7 (We7 radio seems to be powered by Last FM).
So let me get this straight, we provide the data (Scrobbles, tags, loved tracks and so on) which is then pimped out to all and sundry and in return we get… to pay a subscription to ANOTHER site to listen to full length tracks?
Seriously, what’s the point of a Last FM subscription now? So that I don’t get a pause on the Radio after ‘x’ number of tracks? Worth it? I think not – I’ll just move my subscription over to We7 instead then.
There never was much point in a Last FM subscription in reality – but it seemed like a service worth supporting – well, unless you’re going to start paying US for providing the data that YOU are aggregating of course? Thought not.
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