We brought you free-on-demand music in January. Now it’s time for some free video action. We’ve been working with Universal Music Group to provide their awesome catalogue of music videos to the Last.fm community, and we’re excited to announce that as of today you can now access thousands of videos free-on-demand, ranging from new releases, to back catalogue classics like Nirvana.
We’ll be adding new content over the coming weeks, as well as regularly updating with new videos from UMG as they get released. So expect to see more content appearing and catalogue gaps being filled very soon.
Some links to start exploring:
- The only place to start: the first video ever aired on MTV Europe: Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
- Plus many more: Amy Winehouse, U2, DJ Shadow, Kanye West, Queens Of The Stone Age, Duffy, Portishead, Feist, The Roots, The Police, Sonic Youth, Jay-Z etc… etc…
- Oh, and not forgetting Last.fm evangelist and supporter: Shaggy!
Comments
wendig0
17 June, 17:13
“This video is not currently available in your location.”
Did I misbehave?
Will
17 June, 17:28
Will these scrobble as tracks?
Christian Ward
17 June, 17:32
@wendig0, no you’re not misbehaving. Here’s a slice of Winehouse to try.
g s
17 June, 20:17
“This video is not currently available in your location.”
the music industry /still/ doesn’t get it…….this is just so unbelievably ridiculous
Adam
17 June, 22:17
That’s great except that “[t]his video is not currently available in [my] location.” Thank you, last.fm.
empsy
18 June, 01:22
“This video is not currently available in your(my) location.”
This text should not be currently available in your location
Kraymer
18 June, 07:37
I have to agree with g s, it’s indeed rediculous to limit playback to certain country codes (which anybody with using a foreign proxy can circumvent anyway)
:(
ReDeemerZ
18 June, 09:57
“This video is not currently available in your location.”
And for a minute there, when I read the title, i thought I’m going to see some music videos. Maybe some day, eh?
Greg_x7
18 June, 10:08
Oh fer cryin’ out loud! What’s with this “not available in your location” BS? Internet has no borders, so why, why, why can’t I watch a video?
The money are the same everywhere, so if I watch the video from Poland and decide to buy a CD/DVD of the artist, wouldn’t those jackals in RIAA or whatever get their cut anyway?
Stuart
18 June, 14:30
Given that the “Last.fm Community” is so large and some people are cut off from viewing videos. Seems there was a mistake in: “working with Universal Music Group to provide their awesome catalogue of music videos to the Last.fm community”
Might have to reword that to “portions of the Last.fm community”.
Bad form to get people excited about this to only have people cut off. The way the posting reads does not suggest that some content won’t be available to some people. Full disclosure Last.fm.
Tecfan
18 June, 20:09
Oh God record companies never learn. what on earth are they going to gain on blocking videos from COUNTRIES? absolutely nothing, if I haven’t heard the song (seen it in this case), then I definitively won’t buy it.
mr_maxis
18 June, 22:21
Universal Music International Div. Music Videos
“This label doesn’t have any videos yet.”
Something should be done to fix that…
a0me
19 June, 04:04
“This video is not currently available in your location.”
I know this isn’t Last.fm’s fault but I’d really hope that they could do something to change the status quo of the music industry.
MK
19 June, 12:51
Kaput. I wonder if Universal got cold feet?
Jonty
19 June, 14:22
@MK: What is kaput? The videos not being linked on the label page is a bug, we’re working on it.
MK
19 June, 19:30
@Jonty – Seems to work fine now. I was getting a SQL error at one point.
_oao
19 June, 22:23
In which countries are the videos available and when they will be available to the rest of the world? This is a free-on-demand service so what’s the reason of the country restrictions?
There’s another problem: videos previously available in my country like the Gobbledigook video by Sigur Rós are not available anymore…
Europe
20 June, 09:44
Dear last.fm,
YOU SUCK.
Greg_x7
20 June, 10:08
Europe: at first, I wanted to agree with your opinion, but suddenly it occured to me: last.fm would have to try to change the minds of those thick-headed *!%#*!$*^$^&* from the labels. I think it’s still impossible.But a more informative post saying that those videos are only avialable here and here because of this and that wouldn’t kill anyone, would it?
pfr
20 June, 12:17
Record labels need to die for this bullshit they keep pulling. Way to live in the past.
But, last.fm, please disclose where features are available. I’m guessing US and UK?
mdid
20 June, 13:35
Doesn’t work in Japan :(
Christian Ward
20 June, 18:02
Hey guys, licensing music video content on a global scale is a complex and evolving process. We could wait for licensing to catch up to the realities of a global community like Last.fm – or we could get some great videos to you, even if it meant some of them wouldn’t be available everywhere.
We chose to do the latter, and rest assured we’re working hard to try to bring as many music videos to as many countries as possible in the future.
Pdrpdr
20 June, 20:34
You should at least edit this post… I spent 10 minutes trying to find the new videos, but I didnt find anything. Maybe they are not available on south america.
tala
21 June, 12:49
wonderfull topic!..
Ian AR
21 June, 16:33
Please wake me up, when I can embed these somewhere useful (like a journal article), tag them for tag-playback or build play-list.
‘Till then, this seems little competition to YouTube
I dispute the validity of the phrase “awesome catalogue”, but otherwise this looks a promising development.
How may indies add videos to this “level playing field”? – Ian
Adam
22 June, 07:39
I’m certain everybody understands that. And I’m grateful, that unlike many other similar services last.fm actually is available in my country. What has disappointed so many people is the fact that the article (still!) doesn’t reflect that it concerns only a few countries.
Another factor may be that there has already been three improvements to last.fm that are available only in chosen countries: first “Free the Music”, than the Squeezebox support and now this. But that’s not as important. As you may have noticed, there were virtually no strong reactions like this to the previous posts.
I hope you understand that and finally update this article.
Stuart
24 June, 00:09
I’m with Adam. It’s not that you don’t have license in all of possible countries. It’s that the way the article is made, anyone who reads it expects some video love. There is no mention of the limits of the license. That’s what the article needs. We aren’t asking you to work magic, just have full disclosure to prevent unhappy readers ;)
R
24 June, 23:17
Everything takes time to make it to the edge of perfection, which is the closest thing mankind will ever get to I think.
I mean both the article and the availability regarding which countries this works in.
Matt
25 June, 12:26
hmm .. Poland is one of the biggest countries on Last.fm ( we’ve got nearly 125k users ) , so why we can’t watching whatever we want , when , for example someone from Australia ( 44k users ) can do it ?
Last.fm – You suck! I think, buying subscription by polish people is the biggest mistake in the world.
Thats all . Cya !
gwalla
25 June, 16:42
I like Last.FM a lot, but communication has never been their strength.
Antonio
2 July, 22:46
Wonderfull video!
Steve
2 July, 23:09
@Matt, the team here are working hard to get content into all territories, and as you mentioned, countries like poland and germany are some of our biggest markets. We most definitely don’t want to seem like we’re neglecting anyone, because we’re not. These deals unfortunately take time.
gwalla
9 July, 17:21
Steve: I think what people are trying to say is that when you make these announcements you ought to say what section of the userbase they apply to. Phrasing them as if they are universal when they aren’t is misleading. If you’re up front about it, some people will still be disappointed, but most will understand, and there will be less frustration and perception of promises broken.
World
18 July, 04:20
Wonderfull video! Thanks a lot.
soeaja
19 July, 11:44
wow the website layout is amazing :P
Comments are closed for this entry.