On February 15, the radio service built into Last.fm mobile apps and on home entertainment devices will become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature.
Last.fm Radio will remain free on the Last.fm website in the US, UK and Germany and for the US and UK users of Xbox Live and Windows Mobile 7 phones. We’ll also continue to offer radio for free via the Last.fm desktop app.
I want to explain why we’re making some of these changes.
On the Last.fm website an ad-supported, free-to-listeners model is what supports our online radio services in the US, UK and Germany. In other markets and on emerging mobile and home entertainment devices, it is not practical for us to deliver an ad supported radio experience, but instead, we will migrate to what we believe is the highest quality, lowest cost ad-free music service in the world.
We believe our radio -whether it’s a personalised station or artist and tag radio – is the best in the world and we’re proud of the depth and range of our catalogue of music from major labels, indies and unsigned artists. We’re committed to building Last.fm into a bigger service that gives listeners the best music discovery experience anywhere while financially supporting and promoting the artists who make the music we love.
You’ll see that this change brings us in line with other music services that already charge you to listen to music on mobile devices. For the cost of a fancy coffee, a Last.fm monthly subscription allows you to listen to radio across all platforms, on all your devices, and without commercial interruptions.
This change only affects the radio component of Last.fm’s services on mobile and home entertainment devices. Other features of our service — like scrobbling, music and event recommendations, social networking and community forums, and Last.fm’s wiki-based artist information pages — remain free to users worldwide.
You can read more about the devices that will require a subscription here, you can visit our subscriptions page to learn more, and join the conversation on our forums.
Comments
Jack
7 February, 12:45
May as well just get spotify to listen to music on mobile then.
Michael S
7 February, 12:59
Does this mean I’ll finally be able to use the mobile app as subscriber in Austria? Or will it still only be available in GER, UK and US?
Henry
7 February, 12:59
Yeah, if I need to subscribe, I may as well subscribe to something where I can specify what music to listen to. This is a very sad day.
James
7 February, 13:08
It’s been a good run. Thanks for the music but I may aswell get Spotify now. Thanks for staying free as long as you did, times are tough!
PeterB
7 February, 13:10
I never understood Spotifys decision to make the iOS devices pay for what you can get for free on the desktop.
I always preferred Last.fm for this very reason.
Now given the choice between the two paid services I will probably use Spotify.
How about a limit on number of plays or something to differentiate heavy users?
kerush
7 February, 13:10
Just got a mail from you announcing this… Are you suggesting that you want to give away all your customers to pandora? Or perhaps youtube playlists??
It’s completely non sense what you are doing in my opinion.
Scott
7 February, 13:17
I hope they are going to sort out the constant skipping and stopping problems on android before they start charging people money for it!!!!
ben
7 February, 13:21
makes sense, but i’d rather have adverts and keep it free
Mike
7 February, 13:21
So my Sonos is a mobile device in the eyes of Last FM? Very shortsighted IMO and I’ll not be staying.
knapster01
7 February, 13:23
From the FAQ: All Sonos products – Free until mid-summer 2011 for US, UK and Germany; subscription required thereafter.
Alan
7 February, 13:26
Annoying that I only bought my Logitech Squeezbox radio a few months ago then this happens.
Matthew Hawn
7 February, 13:30
“I hope they are going to sort out the constant skipping and stopping problems on android”
Yes, we are tackling this problem and it’s part of an update to the Android client that’s coming out in about a week.
frank
7 February, 13:32
Spotify will be dead soon.
Ray Brown
7 February, 13:35
I’ve been a subscriber for a few years now, and I’ll be a subscriber for years more. Keep up the great work, Last.fm!
The G-Man
7 February, 13:35
I’m a subscriber so it doesn’t matter to me but…
Why not just keep it free but include adverts for non-subscribers?
I’m worried your move would make people go elsewhere and I don’t want last.fm lost market ground when it is superior to spotify et al when it comes to discovering new music.
clockworkplanet
7 February, 13:39
I hate to say it, because I love LastFM, but I’ll go to Spotify now and take their Premium Sub. Sure, it’s more expensive, but I can listen to what I want when I want.
LastFM just isn’t stable enough to be a paid-for product and for me, falls in-between listening to 6Music (which I’ve technically already paid for) or Spotify / iPod. As others have said, LastFM crashes or falls over on my IOS devices too much for me to consider paying for it.
A shame they weren’t able to better monetise my valuable listening/like/social stats to pay for it.
Bupahs
7 February, 13:41
wow… guess its time to find a different app. I know running a service like this costs money but there are other ways. Guess its Pandora for me now
madAndroid
7 February, 13:43
brilliant idea … i’m a subscriber, absolutely adore last.fm – makes sense, nothing for nothing and all that
Travis Bickle
7 February, 13:43
I don’t mind this especially if the money could be used to bring back personalised playlist and personalised tag listening!!!
DealyLama
7 February, 13:43
I appreciate the gesture of 3 months free subscription, but I am never going to pay for internet radio when there are literally thousands of other services out there that are still free or ad-supported.
I pay a subscription for my smartphone, I pay a subscription for my broadband, I’m not paying a subscription for music as well.
T hunt
7 February, 13:47
Not for me thankyou
It crashes at regular intervals
Goodbye
A
7 February, 13:47
Well the app crashes every few songs, also if you use any other app that utilises your 3G, at the end of the day your service and app is not as reliable as competitors, who in their right mind will pay for a weaker service? Bye bye last.fm
Csaggasz
7 February, 13:56
Matthew: plz answer that question, if in this situation the mobile streaming is allowed outside US,UK,GER or not?
Now, Im a subscriber, but i live in hungary, so i have had to use the hacked lastfm client on android for mobile streaming.
i should check it, by allowing it to update to recent normal version, but if its not working, i just waste my time.
im not in worry about using hacked version, cuz i pay the monthly fee, so i expect not to get less for my money, but in this case I always have to use older client version, that has been region unlocked.
Chad
7 February, 13:57
All of the complainers obviously haven’t been doing their part to support the service, so I’m sure it’s no loss to Last.fm. I’ve been a subscriber for years and plan to continue. I hope the extra revenue helps Last.fm improve the service and add more functionality. Keep up the great work!
Stuart
7 February, 14:00
Heavy on light users.
ricoeuse
7 February, 14:00
Typical we build your business model,
you have x listners worth xyz and now you dump us .Is it not best to be upfront say we give you free for 1 year and then we will review
we move on
mmmcmax
7 February, 14:09
money grabbers. I would wish you luck but that will probably cost me as well.
Magnus
7 February, 14:09
I’m already a paying Spotify customer but prefer last.fm as it introduces me to new artists I didn’t know I would like. That’s definitely worth paying £3 per month for. To be honest, I’m impressed it was free as long as it was.
Matt Finch
7 February, 14:10
As much as I love Last fm, I’m not sure I can justify subscribing to something that falls over every ten minutes on my Iphone – I’d just end up throwing myself off London Bridge in frustration!
callum
7 February, 14:12
Get you using the product them bump, hit you where it hurts.
Winamp has an app for Android, you can stream most of the music you would tend to listen anyway. Even better you can zap your music collection over your wifi and use on the move :-)
RIP last.fm wrong move
Goodbye Lastfm
7 February, 14:12
No thanks don’t use it enough to pay warrant paying for it and prefer Spotify anyway.
Uppen Down
7 February, 14:12
Farewell, last.fm
A sad day, and I didn’t think I would ever see last.fm fail, but this is surely the beginning of the end. Or maybe the end was already well begun — unstable service, vaporware ipad app, end of playlists, now this…
I thought that free radio in return for my valuable data via scrobbling and like ratings and so on was a good deal for us both. So sorry that last.fm couldn’t make a go of turning those data into something profitable.
goodbye
funkycoder
7 February, 14:14
Understandable move, there weren’t a lot of reasons to subscribe actually…
Will the restrictions on playlists etc be dialed down a bit then? (As mentioned, the competitors somehow managed to convince the industry…)
Geoffrey McCaleb
7 February, 14:19
I don’t mind this as I’m a paying customer, but I get close to dropping Last.fm every month because of your recent change to drop “loved” radio. Your suggestions radio is nowhere near as good….
Onur
7 February, 14:19
I guess time has come to delete the iPhone app. £3 per month is way too much for this service when there are better services like Grooveshark and Spotify which you can choose whatever you listen at any time, pause, rewind as well as radio.
Tristan
7 February, 14:24
I listen to lastFM on my iphone for maybe an hour a week.
Most of that hour is spent skipping tracks.
And now you ask me to pay for the pleasure of skipping and havign to put up with the app crashing or just freezing?
Erm nah
cya
foolish yphate
7 February, 14:25
…after 1 year: Remember the announcement we made on February 7, 2011 – that’s how we lost 80% of our subscribers… Now, let me explain why….
Laney
7 February, 14:29
“Last.fm Radio will remain free on the Last.fm website in the US, UK and Germany and for the US and UK users of Xbox Live and Windows Mobile 7 phones. We’ll also continue to offer radio for free via the Last.fm desktop app.”
can you explain then: will i or will i not have to subscribe to continue listening to the radio stations on my mac computer?
will i lose all my library and loved tracks?
also, my radio hasnt been working for about a month now, whats going on??!! just loads and loads. i love your service and much prefer it to spotify, would just like all above to be clarified. thanks
Brad
7 February, 14:29
Wow, I find this really surprising. I think the vast majority of users will just switch to one of the other free services.
Fingleberries
7 February, 14:30
Sorry to hear this, and as a result have closed my Last FM account with Immediate effect.
Lesley
7 February, 14:32
Last FM app has never worked properly on my ipod touch,crashes every couple of tracks so I certainly won’t be paying for it. A pity as if it were more reliable I use my docking station to listen to it all day!
Rob
7 February, 14:35
RIP Last.fm. Long live Spotify.
There is absolutely no point in using Last.fm now and this is the final nail in the coffin.
CaptainComedown
7 February, 14:36
An odd decision to make when it’s recently come to light that Spotify’s business model is not working…
I was just yesterday singing the praises of Last.fm, even though all of my friends use Spotify…I guess I will be joining them now. Such a real shame.
You use to be cooooool maaaan!
Badrod
7 February, 14:39
Already subscribe to spotify for sonos and mobile and I can play what they have anytime.
Enjoyed LastFM tag radio stations, but hey, competition blows!
Thanks LastFM, but see you later
Tom
7 February, 14:39
Who would want to pay to listen to stuff chosen by a computer? Out of the two services; Spotify would allow you to listen to what you want.
Guess its going to be spotify now then.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
7 February, 14:43
It’s pretty decent to mention that us awful, awful, immoral free user leeches are still “allowed” to scrobble… I’d love to pay to provide you with listening statistics. It’s like signing up to do volunteer work and getting a bill at the end of it.
Matt
7 February, 14:49
What about mobile computers,where do you draw the line? Please tell me that you aren’t going to allow windows 7 tablets run the service whilst shutting out iPad / Android tablet users.
wf
7 February, 14:51
I will gladly RE-subscribe if you fix the Android App that has been broken and not listenable since last summer. I would also like a customer-service guarantee that you will refund any days (yes, daily rate) for any day the Android app is broken again (Yes, again, you have set the expectation that it will break again!).
Alimace
7 February, 14:52
A true shame that Last.fm has given into this subscriber only lark. I’ve been a loyal listener for near to 5 years now, I’ve installed Last.fm onto any platform you can think of, but I refuse to pay for this service. I just cannot justify the outgoings and shall have to make do without.
R.I.P Last.fm..
David M
7 February, 14:54
So I can still listen to Last FM because i’m in the UK and use a Windows Phone 7 ? (Not Mobile 7, as incorrectly stated in the blog, there’s no such thing as Windows Mobile 7) :o)
Metal Fingers
7 February, 14:54
I expect Lastfm will be monitoring these comments in an expectation that everyone will be “boooo gotta pay cash for a free music service, we are going” But my argument isn’t that but that I didn’t receive any info about the benefits or positives of it now being a compulsory paid service if you want to continue its service on your phone. Aprt from the bugs are gonna be fixed.
The listed benifits are:
I get a black icon and can see who has visited my profile and no adds?? sorry? Are you fuckin kiddin me. That isn’t a £36 annual charge reason to stay loyal to Lastfm. More info on my playlists please, can I play these on the phone, song for song if I did subscribe? Im all for supporting services i love but even if you took £1 a month (you have 40 million users) you were surely get millions and more respect if their is no new or developed features. Lastfm is a great replacement for Pandora and was the yang to Spotifys ying but now Yang just seems out of wack. Sure everyone outside of the US and UK have to subscribe but im sure these users are 40% or less of your total, alienating fast. Please charge less or upgrade functionality and control for users!! asap.
Yours kindly
Matt
Al
7 February, 15:09
I originally signed up back in 2004 because I wanted something that would record my playcounts. Audioscrobbler was great. I never really understood the whole “lets make it a radio thing”.
Sure, people above are saying “there is no point in using LastFM anymore” and if I was a radio user I would tend to agree with them. However, my primary useage is still Audioscrobbling, and until there is another/oss scrobbling option I’ll be sticking around (until you start charging us to Scrobble)
Keir Hardie
7 February, 15:10
I’ve uninstalled my Android app, I’m a light user, and I can stream music from my PC for free with audiogalaxy, not to mention all the radio services available. And I’m someone who has occasionally subscribed in the past to support the service.
Fernando
7 February, 15:15
That made my decision whether to keep the account or not much easier. I am deleting my account and if I want to get a subscription on a music service it will be Spotify. You guys should really think before you act, Last.fm will die because other services are better and cheaper, and I am not sad that you guys are going under because you lot are consistently showing that you don’t care about your customers, whether they pay or not – example? The tag radio fiasco from a couple months back.
Mat
7 February, 15:16
I’m a long time last.fm user… and a would-be loyal paying customer.
However, here ends my love affair with this great service.
I would have taken out the subscription except that –
Maybe you should have released an iPhone app that didn’t crash after 10 minutes of use BEFORE announcing this… yep, then I would have taken out a subscription.
Sadly I only use Last.FM on the iPhone these days since those horrible intrusive ads online, so I guess this means I say goodbye. Quite sad, but I’m sure there’s something else to fill the gap.
B-Man
7 February, 15:18
If you update the iPhone app with features that are available on the site and fix the random crash bug, I’ll consider subscribing.
You need to define the price by the quality of the service, and so far you haven’t really set the bar.
hawk
7 February, 15:19
Well, that was stupid. Uninstalled.
Paul
7 February, 15:22
Last.FM has been great but I’m sorry loyalty to products is a thing of the past. I won’t be paying for Last.FM I’ll just find some other app that let’s me get the same limited functionality and I’ll just simply stop using it. No great shakes it’s not the end of the world.
Joe
7 February, 15:24
I did being wondering when this change would come. I will have to seriously think about whether or not to make the move to pay for the service on my iPhone. However, if I do start paying I’m going to have to insist that
If you can promise me a better iPhone app with these three things, I will repay you by becoming a full member again. I’ve used Last FM since 2004 and I would hate to say goodbye to the service.
Thanks for listening.
Julian
7 February, 15:25
People are whining about having bought a Sonos and now they have to pay for last.fm??? Sure you can afford that tiny amount… at least if your not in debt because of the Sonos.
PAUL HEALY
7 February, 15:26
SORRY LAST.FM BUT A BIG NO NO
xxdesmus
7 February, 15:27
Last.fm is dead.
Pandora is going to destroy what’s left of Last.fm at this point. It’s an unbelievably idiotic move considering that Pandora does free mobile streaming.
I’ve been using Last.fm since 2005 …but this is the last straw. Last.fm is dead.
Alex
7 February, 15:29
“money grabbers. I would wish you luck but that will probably cost me as well.”
How do users expect great services such as Last.fm or Spotify to survive when no-one is willing to pay for them? Ads aren’t a sustainable way to pay for services!
£3 a month isn’t that big of a deal for a great personalised radio service and that’s what I use it for. I value the recommendations, certainly better than those offered by Spotify who charge a tenner to access their services on mobile (obviously I’m aware you can listen to full albums on Spotify).
Gazw1
7 February, 15:32
To be honest, I think I’ll get Spotify if you’re gonna need to pay. Spotify is much better…
I’m leaving the service.
Alex
7 February, 15:37
Been using you since 2005, going to stop using you in 2011. Shame, but I’m not paying for something that I can get better elsewhere.
Between the poor quality of the iPhone app (random crashes, it refusing to buffer when backgrounded on iOS4 etc.) I don’t think it’s worth parting with my money for. I’d rather go somewhere like Spotify where I can pick what I listen to as well as have music suggestions – and an application that doesn’t crash for no apparent reason.
I have no problem’s paying for a service, but one that relies on unreliable, buggy software and offers no real benefits to people paying the monthly fee? No thanks.
Your going to loose a lot of members of this, that much is certain.
euro
7 February, 15:43
Uninstalled. Not worth paying for I’m afraid.
Gordon
7 February, 15:47
All those deleting apps etc., you take the fight to The Man, you!!! That’ll sure show ‘em!!!1
Somebody call the Whaaaambulance.
andy
7 February, 15:50
An unfortunate move on there part, Uninstalled app (regardless of 3 months free) in protest.
mmca22gr
7 February, 15:50
Music services don’t get it after all these years. A free service can’t work. Napster failed and Spotify will go the same way. I even think Facebook will fail once they try to charge people a fee. £3 does not seem like a lot, but for what I get it seems too much.
I use Napster on my Squeezeboxen and get charged £5 a month to stream any song I want. I also get 5 free downloads. I am not really a mobile music user so this service works for me. I can’t see me paying an additional £3 to last.fm. I understand that a free service can’t work but is it not better to get 1m users paying £10 a year than 350k users paying £30 a year?
A tenner a year and I might consider it.
Claudia
7 February, 15:55
This is the biggest mistake ever. I always wanted to stay loyal to lastfm but I’m bitterly disappointed at this decision!
I hope you will change it back. :(
Fludlyt-san
7 February, 15:56
The WP7 app is not completely stable and this may be a limitation of the OS but it would be nice if it scrobbled my tracks played through the main music player (Zune).
However, I do hear some great new music from the radio and do appreciate the free 3 months subscription to see whether it’s worth paying £3 a month. I guess this news isn’t that surprising and may lead some people to start looking elsewhere.
Spotify is a great service but Last.fm is better when it comes to music discovery, community and play stats. In my listening time I have Last.fm and Spotify work together.
For those abondoning Last.fm on your mobiles you can have the best of both worlds on your desktop. There’s a very useful greasemonkey script on the Spotify website (http://bit.ly/hUU1Zb) called ‘Last.fm Spotify Search’ that adds a green note icon next to tracks, albums and artists on the Last.fm website. You then simply click on the green note to search in Spotify and play the music right in Spotify. Works in Chrome and Firefox so don’t abondon them altogether just yet.
Dave
7 February, 15:58
Sorry but just like 99% of other people I think it crashes far too offen too be charging people, so because of this, SO LONG!!!
Eduardo
7 February, 15:59
Bye bye Last fm…
Dave
7 February, 16:02
DΞLΞΓΞD!!!!!
Aaron Toponce
7 February, 16:06
Bummer. I guess it’s time to stop listening to Last.fm. It was a good run, but you’re losing what made it awesome- the community. I guess it’s time to move to Pandora, Radio Paradise, Soma.fm, Spotify, or some other service where they care about the community that powers them.
Remember MySpace? Yeah, they pulled this same sort of garbage, and thus Facebook stole the show, because Facebook built a site around what the community wants, not what is best for their bottom line.
We’ll see how long I stick with you, but pulling the app out from under my feet, when I listen to it on the train, on my way to school, and elsewhere, means it’s going to be hard to find a way to listen to your radio.
Seriously. This sucks.
jak
7 February, 16:07
See ya, same old tosh, rope you in and then make you pay for making them a popular website, hello pandora!
Pete
7 February, 16:10
RIP LastFM, already used spotify more, I guess this is the final farewell
NotaZune
7 February, 16:12
Guess we know where Microsoft is putting some of their cash to promote WinPhone7!
SteveinSoCal
7 February, 16:15
I can’t say that I’ll miss the iOS app – it’s as buggy as shit – and whilst the desktop version is free I’ll use this and the scrobbler.
Note that I’d have no problem with a subscription service if you let me construct my stations 100%. For example I had (not tense) a Bettie Serveert station. What did I get – a station full of Dutch artists. What was the musical criteria there? Nationality? It’s like saying I like U2 and get a station with Planxty and the Bothy Band, because they’re Irish…
Whilst I like (note – not love) last.fm and it has helped me discover new artists (although the ratio to “skip” is still fairly low), if you really want to charge a subscription, you’re going to need a far wider range of tracks and artists, and really sort out station playlists…
I can’t comment on Spotify – seeing as the “Biz” doesn’t appear to want it in the US, Pandora suffers from said Biz’s arcane licensing model and has such a poor choice of artists as to make it no different from the Crap FM radio stations we have here…
Last.fm was – is – fun, but I’m guessing as in reality you’re just part of CBS, you’re as much of the problem as you are the solution…
Stephanie C.
7 February, 16:16
This is a bad idea to mandate a subscription. You chase away any casual listeners. Pandora has it right, no fee for casual listeners and fees for heavier users.
xxdesmus
7 February, 16:16
I hope you and your share holders are ready to watch your membership (and ad revenue) plummet. This is a terrible decision that will destroy a formerly great service.
brian
7 February, 16:17
So (based on xe.com)
US = £22.32 a year
EU = £30.24 a year
UK = £36 :(
Thanks for the efforts up until now I appreciate that you deserve to be paid for your service.. but I feel your expected costs are pitched too high and you will lose alot of subscribers because of this.
So far that reason.. I’m out.
Sorry
Elfez
7 February, 16:21
Yup, I’m off too. Last.fm is nice now and then, but not compelling enough to pay 36 quid a year for, so clearly no loss to last.fm.
BBC Radio 6 does a pretty good job of helping me find new music, so last.fm won’t be overly missed.
Brian
7 February, 16:22
Not sure about this. I do agree that you get to hear Artists you are not aware of. So is this worth the monthly subscription?
In terms of almost everything becoming “pay for”. Time will tell. :-)
Tom
7 February, 16:22
Always loved last.fm and have been a loyal listener for about a year now… unless the option to stream music on demand, spotify, grooveshark, we7 style – what is the point in paying?
Come on last.fm – don’t commit online suicide like this!
Rob
7 February, 16:28
At the top of the page is says it will remain free on windows mobile 7, but on the email I received it says it will b subscribe only.. Which is it??
Otto
7 February, 16:28
I’m puzzled by all the negatives about the iPhone app; it works fine on my iPod Touch 4g and rarely crashes. A sub’s only 10p a day and it’s a good service. I’ll be sticking around for now.
Mxx
7 February, 16:34
So does Last.FM want to be one of the sheep or a groundbreaking service and stand out from the crowd?
Btw, if everybody moves to a set price model, isn’t that price fixing by the industry and illegal?
dongleboob
7 February, 16:37
Goodbye Last.fm, it was fun while it lasted. I’m not going to pay £3 per month for this. My android phone has also has an “old fashioned” fm radio and, guess what, it’s free and BBC radio has no adverts anyway.
Last.fm, due to your unabashed greed, you’ve lost me as a user forever and I’m sure a lot of other users feel the same.
Goodbye.
Tony T
7 February, 16:38
Sorry to hear that it’s becoming a subscription service. I’m an Xbox live subscriber. Guess I’ll ditch the app that crashes and continue to listen via my Xbox. £36 is far too expensive.
Sorry guys.
Mart
7 February, 16:43
Sorry it will be Spotify from now on. More versatile, more stable. Hope this doesn’t mean you guys are struggling? Not sure this is a good move, especially for those listeners who’ve supported you from the early days, but would hate to see you disappear.
Craig
7 February, 16:46
Thanks for the ride – its time for me to get off now.
James Le Masurier
7 February, 16:51
Are you going to restrict access to your service for users accessing your site via 2.2+ Android browsers?
Matt
7 February, 16:57
What a joke, I certainly wont be paying!
Alex
7 February, 16:58
Last ‘I’ll use’ Fm’s Radio.
Shame, really loved the iPhone App (although still no iPad app!), but can’t justify paying for it.
At least you chose a time when everyone has plenty of excess income to spend….oh wait.
Dan
7 February, 16:59
Seeing a lot of complaining on here. Nothing is ever truly free, people. I don’t mind paying a few quid a month (really is the cost of a coffee too!) to be able to listen to this on my phone.
It strikes me as fickle that a lot of people will go elsewhere because they can’t get their /free/ music anymore. Last.fm is not taxpayer-supported, so a comparison to something like 6Music is entirely pointless – it’s like saying ‘well, I already pay for the upkeep of the rail network through my taxes, now I have to pay for a ticket too I’ll just walk!’
Companies have costs, especially where the recording industry is concerned. Simple as that.
Bryan
7 February, 17:05
Dang, just when I started finding the radio service as being useful…
No loss though.. I have my own library of rated songs and pandora. I always wished that last.fm scrobbled pandora though..
Chris
7 February, 17:11
Well, that’s too bad. We had fun, last.fm, but there’s not a chance I’m paying for you.
Carl
7 February, 17:14
Guess it’s back to Pandora for me.
Sunjay
7 February, 17:17
Hi, I be happy to pay if you can sort out the constant skipping of track, this has only been happening during the last few month.
PM
7 February, 17:17
Will the last one out please turn off the lights.
gungh0
7 February, 17:19
As long as its free on the website, then thats what I’ll use. I’m uninstalling my Android app today. I do <3 Last.Fm, but I dont want to subscrive for it.
daydotz
7 February, 17:20
shame its handy to have once it finds a track you want to hear
i wouldn’t be tempted to pay for a random list of songs i may like to hear
Folk Demon
7 February, 17:21
First, I don’t fault CBS/Last.fm for this. It’s really the squeeze from RIAA and everyone who thinks that Internet=free money from other people. I also appreciate the choice to go subscriber than ad-supported, because ad-supported radio is what ruins Pandora/Slacker and what made Sirius so successful.
But what also makes Sirius lose subscribers is to make them pay for mobile service what they normally get for free anywhere else.
All this means for me is that I’ll still scrobble and use my desktop client as I have for the past half decade.
The Internet radio heirarchy now simply shifts to Somafm -> Last.fm -> everything else -> Pandora, which remains a vacuum of suck.
Andy S
7 February, 17:29
Bye bye last.fm.
R.I.P
Sam
7 February, 17:32
This is quite disappointing.
Siorlaio
7 February, 17:34
Last FM you’ve played dangerously. Economic hard times mean people are prioritising their cash, and unfortunately you will be low down the list what with such easy alternatives.
I don’t agree with all these comments saying ‘F you!’ etc, people should show a little gratitude for one of the most revolutionary music sites of the past decade. But as mentioned, it’s highly unlikely your subscription gamble will pay off.
I’m actually hoping we will hear soon that you’re reversing this announcement :-)
Loz
7 February, 17:35
It even crashes when you change the orientation of the screen on an android. Pay?!? haha no, just no.
Griff
7 February, 17:36
You losers.
Just shut down for fuxk sake.
This is the nail in the coffin for Last.fm
Christian Cawley
7 February, 17:36
I’m really disappointed by the Windows Phone 7 angle it makes it a toss-up between paying for Last.fm and Zune Pass.
:(
Argothar
7 February, 17:37
I won’t be using Last.FM any longer in that case.
Goodbye Last.fm
I always use Last.fm on my ipod when I’m at home, I should be allowed to use Last.Fm on wifi in my own home without a subscription.
I like to plug my ipod in to the dock downstairs, my computer is upstairs. When I’m tidying stuff up downstairs it’s the first thing that goes on. Oh well.
mayke
7 February, 17:38
in the era of millions free radio stations you want me to pay for yours just because i got used to it? come on last.fm! that is a bit naive! In your place will come up 3 other new apps sooner rather then later.
…so for that reason ….I AM OUT!
cheers
TheoryJean
7 February, 17:41
I am extremely furious and disapointed at this update.
i joined last.fm in 2005/2006 and it was an amazing place for me. over the years their changes and updates have done nothing but disappoint me. i used to tell all my friends about last.fm and get them to join, then because of the updates i stopped.
when i bought my iphone, i discovered the last.fm app which i told all my friends who have iphones about.
over the years, i got over 60 members to join. they all think that im a sales rep because i do such a great job explaining what last.fm does and how it works and how it is so much better than spotify or pandora or any of those other places…
now, i am done. no longer will i bring business to last.fm.
i know its not a copywrite or legal issue… its just trying to stay competitive, but what made last.fm so great was its freedom. last.fm has lost its heart and soul in the face of big business, and it is quite saddening.
and to think i used to want to work for you guys…
TheoryJean
619 559 6250
skype: TheoryJean
Bye Last.fm, Hello Pandora
7 February, 17:44
I believe Teh Intarnets summed it up best with that classic quote:
“FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!”
J.L.
7 February, 17:46
So 6 years on Last.fm and I’m “rewarded” with 3 months to a streaming service… LOL, well-played folks. So generous of you!
grabhorn
7 February, 17:51
That’s OK. Your service has become increasingly irrelevant anyway. Goodbye, Last.fm
Andrew Madigan
7 February, 17:52
I would happily pay assuming the app were a bit more stable. I’m sure it could be bullet-proofed (make the controls work even before the song starts playing, immediately clear the buffering bar, switch to lower-bitrate automatically if the app keeps having connection speed problems).
However, the e-mail I got about this said there would be a “free” 3 month subscription. I was previously a subscriber and decided to cancel (years ago). As a result, Last.fm has my paypal information. Neither this post or the e-mail gave any assurance that the subscription wouldn’t be auto-renewed for “convenience”. I’m closing my account immediately to avoid surprise charges.
Jason
7 February, 17:53
3 free months is an ok gesture. I appreciate the need to make money, or at the very least to cover licensing fees. But, sell us on it. I have always paid for a monthly subscription to Rhapsody. But what makes paid last.fm better than free Slacker, Pandora, or paid MOG, Napster or Rhapsody? And why on earth would you announce this change prior to releasing a reliable Android app? I can’t listen to 3 songs in a row without and app freeze or song mysteriously skipping before it is over. I hope that you fix the apps and create some unique features over the next 3 months before the free trial ends.
Mattt
7 February, 17:54
Been a casual user since 2006 and, much like the great majority of people here, I am saddened by this news.
As someone else said “times are hard”, financially it is a very bad time to put a decision like this in front of people. I can’t justify spending £36 per year on a service like this, so I won’t. The features you offer don’t justify the cost.
Sorry to say it like this but there are more important things to spend my money on than an internet radio service.
Thanks for everything up to now, good luck with you next 12 months!
C J
7 February, 17:57
HA HA HA HA … Yeah, no thanks.
atknot
7 February, 17:57
The only reason I see in this is CBS demanding their return on investment sooner. Well, probably a good move as an djustment to the current market conditions, bla bla..
But what the hell? your page visits are down to 2009 level; don’t you think it’s partly due to the increasing demand and use of devices and apps?
Thanks for the subscription treat, and good luck with it! You have a loyal customer to support you
BigBroom
7 February, 17:57
Personally, I believe you(last.fm) are going about this in an ass-backwards way.
When free services become paid, there is usually reasoning, such as confidence and positive feedback instilled in the already-existing free client base.
I love the desktop and browser-based last.fm radios, but nobody can deny the last.fm mobile device apps being complete rubbish. I, myself use the Android app, and it is more of the norm for me to get through less than half a song before the app hiccups and skips to the next track than having an even short uninterrupted music experience, regardless of being on my mobile network or wi-fi. I have good friends with iPhones who experience the same thing, so something is not right on the last.fm end.
Just to clarify what gives me the right to say all this- I’ve been a last.fm user since 2006, and have submitted comments on mobile playback issues, which were never acknowledged with any sort of response whatsoever.
Given the grim reality of the current state of your mobile presence
Good luck convincing people you will turn trash into treasure in 90 days.
Good luck convincing people that their money will be worth it when there are plenty of other online music social networks that are free and more stable.
Good luck brainwashing people into thinking this is an ethical business move.
BMcD
7 February, 17:57
Please consider keeping last.fm free and supporting mobile with audio ads.
I love the service (been using it since scrobbler)… but the truth is there are free alternatives that are nearly as good… better in some ways.
I don’t mind ads as long as I don’t have to pay!
Max
7 February, 17:57
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Mog.com. For 5 dollars you can listen to whatever you want whenever you want. It doesn’t seem worth it to pay $3 to not be able to pause, restart, or pick songs when you can get a streaming library of pretty much every song you could want to listen to whenever you want on mog. I’m just a happy customer sick of not being able to control my radio.
Soon to be ex Last.fm user
7 February, 17:59
Wow. This is a pretty sad day for Last.fm. When the service is shut down in a few years time this will be the days the directors look back on and go “Jeez we should have listened to those comments”.
CHannum
7 February, 18:00
I’ll join the chorus saying goodbye to the app and radio. I’ll keep on with my scrobbling as that’s 98% of what I’ve used Last.fm for over the years, but the radio was never anything more than a distraction when I wanted to hear something other than the tens of thousands of songs already in my music library.
Not really sure what your plan is. Pandora, at least for now, is free and offers just as good if not better “hands free” streaming radio, and, in the U.S., if I wanted to pay for streaming music on the go I’d so much rather spring for Rhapsody and get complete control. See, you’re right in that $3 a month isn’t that much, but then what you offer isn’t that much either, and that’s the problem.
Claire
7 February, 18:00
Are last.fm forgetting that it’s down to their hard working members that they even have content for their tag radio anyway? I implore last.fm to have a change of heart, otherwise I’m campaigning to ask the disaffected to join me in removing all their tags.
Xell
7 February, 18:02
I would subscribe if I could get offline access for my device (android). Maybe cache an hours worth?
Pretty disappointed,but oh well! Back to spotify….
Jay
7 February, 18:04
RIP
ble
7 February, 18:04
blergh<img src=”“/>
Mallev
7 February, 18:06
Lol…you could at least fix the app on iOS before expecting people to pay for it….crash crash crash….fail…
How about scrobbling over 3g / wifi too while your at it instead of having to use a jailbroken app.
Its ok when free things suck but paid for things…?
Scott
7 February, 18:07
As a active user since 2004, this is truly disappointing. CBS you have kill Last.FM. <shaking my head>
Claire Cramer
7 February, 18:07
I just received my email with the news and headed over here to get the full story and read people’s reactions. As preposterous as some of the most extreme reactions here seem, I have to admit that I was upset when I read the email. After reflection, I realized that I am less upset about the move to subscription-only service on mobile devices than the offer of three months’ free subscription. I have been a user of Last.fm for nearly five years and have spent a substantial amount of my time fixing venues, inputting events, and generally helping build the music community in my neck of the woods along with some other dedicated Last.fm users. We volunteered our time because we like to organize, love music, and want to expose bands to potential new fans. To be offered a limited subscription trial period was frankly like receiving a spam email trying to scam me into making a subscription. If you receive other angry responses, this might be part of the reason why.
I do find it funny that you would make such an announcement before fixing the bugs that made your Android app nearly impossible to use successfully. I’m on a limited budget and only recently upgraded from my old cell phone to an Android smartphone after months of deliberation. I don’t have money to throw around on extra devices and I certainly don’t have an XBox Live membership. I haven’t decided if I will become a paying subscriber, not because I am offended at the idea of paying for a service, but because I am disappointed at the services you have been providing for the past few years. I remember when I was so pleased that you launched an entire integrated events feature. I can’t remember any recent time that I’ve received big news from you that hasn’t been disappointing.
AhronZombi
7 February, 18:09
Last.fm jumped the shark today
reya276
7 February, 18:10
Oh this sucks, I guess I will no longer be using Last.fm for my music. I might as well get me a Ubuntu One subscription or Listen to Pandora. Very bad of you guys to do this, I know is all about making money but with this move you’ve just lost about 80% of your user base. Good Luck Last.fm, Pandora, Shazam here I come.
Brandon
7 February, 18:10
As a scrobbling service I love last.fm and have for almost 5 years.
I wouldn’t mind paying for the streaming services on a mobile device if some more features were put into it.
But It looks like ill be jumping ship to pandora for streaming to my device…
Will
7 February, 18:14
I guess we’ll need a subscription for Roku as well
Henry
7 February, 18:14
I’ll do you a deal: bring back “loved tracks” radio (for subscribers only), and I’ll subscribe.
trepmal
7 February, 18:17
Major bummer. For the 3 years I was a subscriber I didn’t really get any ‘bonus access’ – a black icon and a few extra charts? nifty, but not worth $3/mo, which is why I ultimately did not renew. I’d happily have bough a t-shirt to show my support – but I can’t seem to do that either.
Subscribers should certainly get exclusive features – but not by taking access away from free users.
And the fact the at 1 year subscription doesn’t get a discount? Seriously… this is one of the few places I can think of where people who commit to a year don’t get a month or 2 free.
Also – I miss my loved tracks radio station.
rickyshitpants
7 February, 18:19
So you didn’t need to charge on the way up but you now need to charge having become well established. Interesting.
“You’ll see that this change brings us in line with other music services that already charge you to listen to music on mobile devices.”
In other words: “others are making cash, we need to, too!”
Way to go Last.fm! Spotify here we come ;)
Bill Essig
7 February, 18:21
Peace out Last.FM
It was good while it lasted.
Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable
7 February, 18:22
Wow, you guys really are doing everything you can think of to make people less likely to use your service, aren’t you? First you get rid of being able to listen to single songs, and now you have to pay to stream to devices?
Kudos! Let me know when the Going Out Of Business sale is!
PatEwing
7 February, 18:22
so it is spotify for me then. Fare thee well last.fm. It has been a good run. I will uninstall my desktop agent as well. I think -as last.fm for mobile devices will remain a relatively small market, because mobile internet companies get rid of their full flat rate plans, you kind of pooped on yourselves. This cow won’t give that much milk.
chudder
7 February, 18:24
After 5+ years and 100,000+ scrobbles, it’s time to say goodbye. Goodbye, and best of luck to you.
Al
7 February, 18:27
I already pay for pandora. Bye last.fm it was a good run.
Harlekin2101
7 February, 18:29
I will never pay 3€ for this!
Ian Hillan
7 February, 18:29
Sorry to see this, but I guess it’s a business decision you’ve been forced to make. I’m afraid I will be looking for an alternative free service – here in the US that’s gonna be Pandora until spotify gets here (soon, so I hear). Thanks for the great service til now, and good luck.
Dave the Rave
7 February, 18:30
LastFM will now lose many of its customers, some of whom will move to Spotify (I’m already a proud owner of Sonos S5 with Premium Spoify account and use LastFM. Spotify should buy LastFM and integrate some of LastFM’s cool functionality, like Tag Radio and scrobbling for Sonos and mobiles etc.
EVERYONE WINS :-)
mazzy12345
7 February, 18:32
Well considering the app doesn’t scrobble on my Galaxy S device and last.fm hasn’t done anything about it, I definitely won’t be paying for it. Couldn’t they have just made it free with ads? Such a disappointment.
boo
7 February, 18:33
always recc’d last over pandora and the like – i guess i’ll be switching.
Ricardo
7 February, 18:33
I’m done too.
Tom
7 February, 18:33
I don’t use last.fm radio enough to warrant paying for it. It’s a shame because I love using last.fm to discover new music and to receive recommendations from others, but this may just end my use of last.fm altogether. Ghetto move I say, as I will just use other internet radio services that offer similar options of choosing music.
Thank you very much CBS for extending your greed onto last.fm now too.
netzwerg80
7 February, 18:33
I did consider getting a subscription – But you support only paypal which i’m trying to keep away from as far as possible. This “Bank” is – in my opinion – not trustworthy.
Once you’ve established an alternative way of getting money to you, I might reconsider.
Rhys
7 February, 18:35
Don’t blame you for charging for your service. Things cost money to run.
Do blame you for slowly making the service worse and worse. Ala, no single songs. The crappy Android client.
Think its time to setup an Ampache server or Ubuntu One. Good luck, it was good while it lasted. Who knows, maybe you will fit into enough consumers lives that they won’t care and you can survive.
Ian
7 February, 18:35
I love the fact that so many people on here think that they DESERVE free stuff, so many assumptions made about how the service will be in the future based on the way it is now with so many people not paying for it.
It was free, now it is not, so be grateful for the fact that someone with talent and imagination wrote and recorded songs and you got to enjoy them at no charge! Do you expect your local supermarket to dish out free loo paper, spot cream and chicken wings so long as you listen to a few ads every 10 minutes or so? I am guessing you don’t.
iNerd
7 February, 18:36
I’ve been a user of the then Audioscrobbler and now last.fm for coming up to 7 years now and I’ve seen you undergo a fair few changes in that time. I’m starting to think it’s time I quit. In that time interlopers have appeared and for the most part you’ve still been pretty good in the face of the competition.
Currently now though I’m struck with how unnecessary Last.fm is becoming to me, if I want a specific track there’s Grooveshark or Spotify (albeit spotify has horrifically annoying ads to the non-subscriber) and for radio any number of services. I had hoped that Last.fm would remain good for this on mobile devices, as with the lack of an ability to search for something specific it was usually mood music or a chance at new artists with the suggested music stream.
Now as I’m not really in a position where I want to pay for more subscriptions it’s either stay at last.fm or try somewhere else that will ultimately let me play what I want alongside a radio or give up on the lot. I’m trending towards forgetting it all.
asha
7 February, 18:36
Pandora playlists are awful and the us doesn’t give us spotify. Last.fm you’ve got my business always and forever. 3 dollars a month is a wonderful bargain for hours of enjoyment each month.
k
7 February, 18:37
there’s no way the majority of people with last.fm apps are going to pay for it. I already have Pandora and I’ll check out spotify, too. Maybe if the service was better, it’d be worth it. but with other free services out there, it’s not.
Mike
7 February, 18:38
Looks like spotify has won on this count. The last fm app was ok but it doesn’t compare to spotify or we7. When it worked things were good but there are quite allot that needs doing before it will be something close to considering paying for. For a start gauging what I liked was not the apps strong point but it was ok, i for some reason never got adds on anything apart from xbox when it didn’t work well at all anyway so thanks for the scrobbling on so many other free radio platforms.
Shane
7 February, 18:39
It was nice knowing you. The main reason I listened to last.fm at all despite it’s frequent crashes was the fact that it was on the X-box 360, my android phone, my iPad, and my desktop pc. I guess I’ll be switching to Pandora now. I used to own a subscription but the features weren’t worth the extra money. They should have just gone ad-supported and kept their customer base.
L8R
7 February, 18:40
Bye bye, dummies. Didja notice your competition’s price is $0.00?
Ken
7 February, 18:40
Bye bye Last.fm
Eugene Byun
7 February, 18:40
Goodbye Last.fm. It was great while it lasted. I’ll be over at Hype Machine if you need me.
Chad
7 February, 18:42
I think you may have misjudged your market; I wish you luck, but I won’t be subscribing to any service at any price until I can specify specific tracks in whatever order and frequency I like…
I tend towards the more obscure sounds anyhow (and was mightily annoyed when eMusic “improved” their catalog by adding more popular artists (and, effectively, also raising their rates)), so this is not a huge loss for me—but I would have a good listen to your customers (and potential customers) here were I last.fm—the three months of subscription for free doesn’t seem to be making you (m)any friends.
Edouard
7 February, 18:42
RIP Last.fm money looters !
RIP CBS dirty business !
Ryan
7 February, 18:43
This is unacceptable. Check out my profile ‘chicagofog’
I’ve been such a huge advocate for last.fm and this is the second major blow to the service. I have to move on. Too bad. You guys really disappointed w/ this one. I’m just going to stream my own content for free to my Droid with Subsonic. Wow. I can’t believe the last .fm widget that has been on my home screen simce Nov of 09 will be gone. This really, really sucks guys. Total WTF.
Trevor
7 February, 18:44
Sad to see what was an excellent service descending to the depths of obscurity. If your mobile platform worked correctly then I may pay for it. Just this morning I was streaming last.fm on my car ride to work (completely covered by 4g) and less than 50% of the songs played until completed, and I was thinking “boy I am glad that I don’t pay for this spotty service.” Ironically I revived the email that I would have to begin paying in three months when I got to work. Sorry, was a subscriber long ago and never could see the benefit of it other than supporting a great service which at the time was just a start up. Now I would not be caught dead lining CBS pockets for poor streaming service.
Blubber
7 February, 18:44
Wrong Way – RIP last.fm
don't get it
7 February, 18:44
You state:” it is not practical for us to deliver an ad supported radio experience”.
Why not? Others do it.
bizzo
7 February, 18:46
Bye bye last, knew this would happen when the company was sold off a while back…
James
7 February, 18:46
Pointless being a member now, so closed my account.
Andrew
7 February, 18:48
It has been said several hundred times before and it will continue to be said for the sole reason that it is 100% true…
Spotify is better. It can pause, skip tracks, create playlists, download music for when you’re outside 3G range, has more music, doesn’t crash the whole time, doesn’t play the same half dozen bands like last.fm.
Sorry Last.fm, the fantastic amount of data I give, not to mention a site littered with advertising for the same bands the app tries to cram down my throat (coincidence?) should be more than enough for the pretty poor service.
ak brown
7 February, 18:48
I love Last.fm and I think this service is definitely worth a monthly fee, but I choose not to support the business practices of the RIAA.
I don’t care to listen to any artists affiliated with the big four record labels (or direct subsidiaries), and I’m more than willing to have all such artists eliminated from my listening choices if only I could be guaranteed that I would not be supporting the RIAA with my paid subscription.
Too bad there is not a “Last.fm – Indie” option.
Justin
7 February, 18:48
I surprised at all this feedback. $3/month to be able to listen to unlimited music on my android/xbox/pc? I have zero problem paying for a service that I use on a daily basis.
Man, everybody wants something for nothin.
My only feedback is to add a discount if you pay for a full year upfront.
Spankendorf
7 February, 18:49
Hello Pandora!!
Sven
7 February, 18:50
What a pitty, good bye last.fm
last.fm was a symbiosis for a time. I tell you what I’m listening to so that you`re able to build your library of musical taste relations and I can listen to a personlized radio station. If you want to build premium services on top, go ahead. I use the iphone via Wifi on my hifi amplifier at home so if you cut this, I’ll barely use last.fm and scrobble any more.
Farewell, we had a good time together.
Scott Holmes
7 February, 18:52
Looks like its time to move to pandora, I am very disappointed in this decision as I have always been pleased with your service.
M101dream
7 February, 18:53
Have you gone MAD…or GREEDY last fm this really disappointing. I will not be subscribing to any fees because you seem to censored all my scrolled music so it is not worth a charge you will lose massive about of customers BIG MISTAKE .
Adrian
7 February, 18:53
Sorry to hear that. I will not be continuing with Last.fm—not because I refuse to pay for music though. I am a Rhapsody subscriber, and it has a radio feature which I like less than Last.fm. But I won’t be paying for two music services and Rhapsody offers a lot more than Last.fm.
Rob
7 February, 18:54
What a shame. I enjoyed using your service, but I shan’t be paying for it.
Looks like your other users are voting with their virtual feet.
RIP Last.fm.
Karen
7 February, 18:55
I was disappointed when I read your email as I sometimes listen on my iPhone. My first thought was that you’d lose listeners to Spotify and comments here seem to confirm that. The iPhone last.fm experience is different to the website and when it works it’s good. I have found the streaming service on the iPhone to be unsatisfactory much of the time though, as songs often either skip or stop – so wouldn’t want to pay for it as it is.
Cory
7 February, 18:58
Truly a sad day,I have been faithful supporter since 2005 and enjoyed your service greatly. However, seeing that your going to charge “automatically” I have no choice but to cancel my service today. I’m glad you sent this notification. I would hate to hear those who didn’t get it are going to be very angry when they receive the bill. What happened to your TOS? I guess it doesn’t matter to us, but I’m sure it must matter to you.
Goodbye, last.fm
Should have gone with Pandora in the first place.
Jason
7 February, 18:58
Guess I’ll be uninstalling my iPhone app…
So long last.fm…
cythrawl
7 February, 18:58
Bye bye Last fm. Uninstalling android and windows apps now.. ill find my free radio elsewhere.. don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of my life..
Ted
7 February, 18:58
Why would I subscribe to your service? It’s not worth it – and I haven’t even checked out the price. Good Luck.
Brian
7 February, 19:00
Never going to happen. The last.fm app SUCKS and skips and is garbage. I would NEVER pay to use it on my android device. I’d rather pay slacker and pandora who’s apps actually work. If you are going to change, please FIX the garbage app!
Michael
7 February, 19:00
BYE BYE!
Aaron Smith
7 February, 19:01
I used to use Last.Fm all the time. I would have probably paid for it if it was more stable. The desktop application lately has been horrible. I just uninstalled the desktop app, and now I’m uninstalling the mobile app. It used to work great until the last 3 or 4 months. Skipping, not loading, freezing up, force closing, all just contributed to me not wanting to use it anymore. This announcement just made me go uninstall that too. I’m not going to pay for something that hardly ever works.
Randy
7 February, 19:02
I am afraid I don’t use it on my Xbox 360 or phone enough to justify even $36 a year. I liked your service, but I will just go with one of the many other free services.
I am not the target audience for a pay service. I already have to many 3-5 dollar a month services pecking away at my bank account.
Farewell Lastfm
Lee Swain
7 February, 19:03
LOL, I doubt it.
Love Last.fm but there is no way in hell I am going to pay for the radio service. Great as it is, there are better free choices, and always will be.
This is a very bad discussion on Last.FM’s part. There has to be much better way’s to profit from your service. How about ad’s in the app?
Sorry but as long as I can use the radio for free on my computer and I can scrobble my tracks, I’ll love Last.FM. But the mobile App is dead to me.
andy
7 February, 19:03
you do what you need to do and we do what we have to do. good luck with 40-55% less users.
Dan
7 February, 19:03
ouch, this is the death of last.fm
Dean
7 February, 19:05
Bad step Last FM. His this been thought about properly? You will lose allot of customers and well most of your customers. There are other free stations out there why pay for a service you can get for free from other sites.
What you should do is add a pay system and call it FM PRO, add more features and make songs available for download. While still running the free service. You wont lose customers you would gain paying customers.
The music industry is changing but companies don’t seem to be grasping whats happening.
If you want anymore advice please get intouch: rfd6records@gmail.com
Jesse
7 February, 19:05
My relatives and coworkers have been using Pandora for a while now. This seems like a great time to switch and see what all the fuss is about.
By the way, whoever told you this change “brings us in line with other music services that already charge you to listen to music on mobile devices” needs to be fired ASAP. Basing your decisions on faulty market research is a recipe for disaster.
Icemanfiveoh
7 February, 19:11
It’s a shame that this had to happen. I will not subscribe for the extra content. I guess i will have to go to pandora or something else. Prepare for a mass exodus from your site…
Slowmac
7 February, 19:12
Looks like I’ll free up some space on my iPhone by deleting your crash happy app. I like Pandora’s service better anyway. (Listening to Pandora as I type this.)
xXattwXx
7 February, 19:14
Bummer. I had really been leaning toward the Last.fm Android app over Pandora here lately, but not enough to pay for it. I appreciate the free 3 month subscription offer, but if I can’t listen from my phone for free, the app will be deleted and I will use Pandora exclusively. I rarely ever listen from my pc anymore, so it’s unfortunate, but my account will largely sit unused. Glad to hear that the service through Xbox Live will remain unchanged, as that will probably be the only time I stream anymore :(
metoo
7 February, 19:14
Bunnies, bitches…I’m out; account closed. RIP
sasha
7 February, 19:19
I just took a look at the subscription page. “A prestigious black icon”? Are you serious? That’s supposed to make people want to pay you? Especially since the mobile app is so unreliable…
Yeah, I think this is it with last.fm for me.
Geoff
7 February, 19:22
Guess its time to switch.
Ever since CBS bought this site, features have been removed. Now it looks like MSFT just plopped some money down for exclusivity.
Last.fm – for the good of corporations and not the users who provide us countless marketing data
The radio service is backwards looking data a.k.a not useful for sales but useful to try and get people to use Win 7 Mobile and XBOX. Scrobbling is forward looking data that allows CBS to find out what types of listeners listen to up and coming bands.
I thought this was coming when CBS initially bought the group (2007?). Left Last.fm then, but found that changes were relatively minor.
Time for Pandora and hope to use Spotify soon (US)
Russ
7 February, 19:23
Boo…I guess I will just have to go back to Pandora as much as that pains me to say. Why not just put ads in the app. It’s been fun last.fm, my Droid will miss you.
sam
7 February, 19:24
big. mistake.
Daniel Spiewak
7 February, 19:27
I would probably be willing to pay for the subscription (it really isn’t that expensive) except for the fact that the mobile app is absolutely atrocious. I understand that a near-rewrite is currently in development. Even assuming that the update will fix all of the issues with crashing, freezing and insanely limited catalogue, the time for this announcement is after the update’s release, not before. As it stands, I look at Last.fm on my iPhone, and I see literally no reason to pay for it.
I love the service, and I would certainly pay for a subscription to that service, but the iOS app doesn’t deliver said service. So, I can understand why you made this business decision, but you need to put the work in to make mobile access a worthwhile feature before you start charging, not after.
carl
7 February, 19:28
This is disappointing, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I’ve been using Last.FM as the radio counterpart to the play-on-demand of Grooveshark (which I’m paying for) on Android, but I guess I’ll have to use Grooveshark for both now.
I am a bit disturbed by the recent trend of mobile service cash-ins for free desktop services, but that’s not your fault specifically.
Pete
7 February, 19:30
Sad SAD news, Last.FM may make a fair bit of cash in the short term but it will then dwindle and die – a real shame. After the free subscription I will not really use Last.fm anymore, time to go back to .M3Us :-(
Paul
7 February, 19:34
Just as I was recommending last.fm to friends to use on their Androids this happens..
Sorry but app uninstalled already. Gutted
notaxes
7 February, 19:35
good luck getting new listers. i thought the idea was last fm is free like fm radio is free.
Early Adopter
7 February, 19:37
First you take away the capability to listen with certain programs (i.e. earlier versions of Amarok), and now you are making people pay for the shotty mobile service you offer (your app is almost useless for iPhone & Android). You should just end the service as a whole and save me the time of having to go to your site to delete my account (which I am doing as soon as I submit this post).
Joe
7 February, 19:38
I have loved your service and have used it for many many years. I will be abandoning this service due to the new fees built into streaming on mobile devices. I’d urge you all to reconsider seeing as how the apps are not very reliable on the mobile platforms to begin with. I have had numerous issues with the program becoming unresponsive and many issues just trying to listen to music let alone a complete song. Charging for a product that just doesn’t work will bring Last.fm to its knees I am sure. Thank you for the years of enjoyment and good bye.
Mo
7 February, 19:42
This sucks balls …
Jose
7 February, 19:42
I have just deleted my account. Pandora is free. Slacker radio is free. Spotify is free. Good Luck, last.fm.
Warren
7 February, 19:42
Lol. What a waste. Luckily I have Xbox Live Gold, a Windows Phone 7 and am from the UK. Though I doubt Last.fm will be around much longer for me to use. Who would have thought the worst one would be the first to charge?
Rob Malon
7 February, 19:42
I’m a very light user with other options. This service was nice because I discovered so many bands I’d never heard of. I used it for that reason only. Just a matter of time before the desktop app goes to subscriber only I assume. I’ll start looking for alternatives now and switch platforms. Great idea pre 2011. Losing respect with all the back peddling of features.
Cricketw
7 February, 19:44
The amount of complain on this comment line is staggering. People, the bottom line is the simple fact that Last.fm has a bottom line. Streaming a bazillion songs to multiple platforms with high uptime is already a costly task. Ad in staff salaries, development costs and the inevitable HUGE chuck of money that the RIAA (groups of the like) will demand for use of the content and you’ll see why anyone in this business will have to find a way to make money SOMEHOW. You think those servers are free? Do you think that ad revenue is going to be all that high if people build a million apps/browser addons that ONLY show the music and not the ads? What about the Internet radio and other misc. devices that do that same? One can mention Spotify and other services; but they tend to be strong in European countries where the music industry’s monetization (licensing) systems are MUCH more centralized—ergo, manageable. The US music market is probably more akin to the mafia when it comes to working out what their “fair share” is. Last.fm, like all of the other stream services are just that—a service—a company—not a publicly funded utility. They have to pay the bills, people. Half of these comments have a tone as if you’re owed something. The best argument I read was from a guy who’d put in a lot of time to clean up data and fill out the events sections. This guy was a contributor. He has a valid gripe to feel a bit burned; but most people on this thread at simply takers that are pissed the that free well has run dry. How long do you think any startup can stretch venture capital? Somehow, somewhere people have come to expect that everything on the Internet should be free nevermind how much work has to go into delivering it. The people at Last.fm and any other service that you use need to put food on the table and put their kids through college just like you do. They offer a compettive price for the service they offer. If you don’t feel that the service you recieve is good enough, do like some have done and OFFER SUGGESTIONS on how to keep it free and REPORT BUGS so they have a chance to give you want you want. HELP instead of bashing them.
Just, whatever you do, ask yourself how long you’d work fulltime for free if your buisness was not making the revenue it needed to to be indefiently sustanable as a 100% free service. We’re still getting a lot at no charge. Be grateful and support a great idea—maybe we can put our heads together and help them out. They’ve given us a lot.
-Cricketw (a realistic user with a free account on Last.fm)
Warren
7 February, 19:44
That’s unfortunate. I understand the need to make $. But with the competition out there, my knee-jerk reaction is the end of LastFM. That sux.
jayteemo
7 February, 19:45
I assume you will soon find out, but do you believe that users find the service you offer on mobile devices to be worthy a subscription?
To me it is certainly not.
I understand you have to pay the bills… good luck.
Fah King Pohny
7 February, 19:45
So if we listen via the mobile app, is a commercial license (for business or public premises / institutions) included?
Scoob
7 February, 19:45
Guess i will be checking out slacker more now. thanks.
ObiWanU
7 February, 19:45
incredibly, we have made Lastfm what it is and this is the reward.
Maybe you should try Donation first.
Subscription? NO THANKS
Dr Gonzo
7 February, 19:45
a sad day
:_(
jayja
7 February, 19:47
bin gespannt ob sich das rechnen wird – ich steige aus und prognostiziere den anfang vom ende
VvDingovV
7 February, 19:48
I’ve enjoyed your service. Thank you for providing it for free for as long as you did. I’ll move onto Pandora now.
tin
7 February, 19:49
I like the handy…
“Delete entire account for user”
… button on the Data tab. DONE!
“You’ve successfully deleted your Last.fm account”
-I’ve got Pandora on my TiVo & Squeezebox; much more convenient. And I can subscribe either piece of hardware to just about any stream I can find.
-I’ve also got a Home Theater PC. I seldom use XBL for anything but game play. It’s far from my “media center”.
Not to mention, none of these services do more than incrementally add color and fringe referrals to my existing core of local owned music. I don’t ‘rent’ music. I buy it. And if I buy it online, then it’s only in non-DRM formats.
I plan to continue listening to my current library when I’m an old fogey. I’ll be damned if I’ll still be re-paying to listen to music I bought decades earlier in vinyl, cassette, cd, mp3 or even ‘holographic storage’.
Easiest decision of the day for me.
Jason K.
7 February, 19:50
In case you are keeping track – I’ll also be closing my account now. Used it on my Sonos and iOS devices. While Last.fm is a good service, I don’t feel compelled to pay to continue to use it. Good luck to you….
lady_mars
7 February, 19:51
one of the most appreciated features of last.fm was the feature of independence (of last.fm). now, it looks like you are part of the corporate world and getting commercial is I believe the next logical step, right? a very disappointing final touch for a 4 year dedicated user. good luck anyways. or maybe rip.
neil
7 February, 19:53
Time to say Good Bye to Last.fm. Thanks for the good music, but I will go with Sky.fm in the future.
pissedintexas
7 February, 19:53
Ok so offer it free so we can build your service for you basically? Your system wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for early adopters such as myself contributing tags, artist photos, scrobbles (which for those of you who don’t know last.fm uses these to group music on their radios to determine tastes), artist descriptions, etc to build your database. And now you just leave us with our dicks in the dirt? Shame on you last.fm. uninstalling…
Arturo
7 February, 19:55
Big mistake.
I used and liked last.fm for many years. Can’t remember how many right now.
I loved it when I could play it on my android free. One of the only reasons I didn’t pay for spotify was that I could still listen to my music free from any device using last.fm.
I think it is a mistake. A wrong business plan.
Bryan
7 February, 19:55
Not paying either….Sorry I am a casual listener, and its not worth $36 for the year for the few times a month that I listen.
ALLLGooD
7 February, 19:55
Let me be one of the many who bid last.fm a fond farewell. I will gladly use up my free 3 month trial.
It’s like the summer before freshman year of university. The end is near, let’s enjoy the time we have left, but in the end the break up is the best thing for this relationship.
Bobcat Arts
7 February, 19:56
Will it still be free for my laptop/pc feed? So no Last.fm on my droid anymore? You had two streams of ads to put in my eyeballs. Now you’ll only get one. If that.
I know times are tough, but I don’t buy fancy coffees for the same reason. :(
Keep up the good work as best you can. We all are.
DK
7 February, 19:57
Say goodbye to last.fm. This announcement = death. I did love you so. :(
Youngunn
7 February, 19:58
I’m not staying. This feels like a bait and switch to me… get people to love the service then charge for it. Thanks.
Regis
7 February, 20:00
Bye last.fm! I’ve loved your service but I can’t imagine paying for music when there are so many other free or ad-supported ways to access music from all over the world.
Dae
7 February, 20:02
This is a horrible move. The reason I listen to Last FM over all the others out there was the fact that it was free (with ads) and that it gave me independence to listen. Now that I wont be able to listen, like I was, via my car or work. I have no point in listening now. If I want paid radio, I’ll go somewhere else that lets me specify what I want and gives me better line ups tuned to that artist.
cdrquaalude
7 February, 20:03
selling out? This sucks
S!
7 February, 20:03
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. A significant amount of last.fm’s appeal has vapourised with this decision.
Really not worth the money considering the alternatives that are available.
Bad move Last.fm… Bad move!
Slyst
7 February, 20:04
Boooooooo!!
amondray
7 February, 20:09
I’m sure you knew these kinds of comments were coming, but I’ll be switching to Pandora. 40 hours/month for free is better than nothing for free, even if I do prefer your service. It’s been great, but I’ll see you guys around. Bye last.fm.
oldtrancer
7 February, 20:10
I have been very happy using Last.fm on my squeezebox since 2006. It is with regret that your email has prompted me to close my account. I suppose the only certainty in life is change!
BackToPandora
7 February, 20:11
Just deleted my account (not that you care).
If you expect me to pay money for your service then let me pick and choose the music I’d like to listen.
To charge for what basically amounts to “a dude’s winamp on shuffle”, with all it’s inevitable highs and lows, is a bit asinine.
I won’t say good luck to you because I hope this endeavor leaves you flat on your faces.
BH
7 February, 20:11
I don’t think asking for a sub is out of order especially at £3 a month but for my money I’d like a higher quality stream @ 320 Kbps and expect to see development of the app with new features.
Cythrawl
7 February, 20:13
Now removed apps, deleted my account.. Pandora also lost me as a customer when they instigated the 40hr per month limit.
I don’t mind ad’s every 10 mins or so, I am sure that revenue stream alone would keep you going and be able to do it for free. But you didn’t even ask your users which would be better, you just went ahead and did it..
Oh well, I’ll wait for the headlines saying you’ve gone under due to mass migration from your service.
back to free (and always HAS been free) Shoutcast, yes it doesn’t predict or keep tabs on your listening style, but you know what?
I don’t have to pay for it…. or be MADE to pay for it…
Richard
7 February, 20:15
No Problem. Take Winamp, Shoutcast Plugin and DynDNS and you are done. For free For ever.
Ryan
7 February, 20:15
I’m sorry to hear such news. Last.fm had me for a long time because of a fantastic interface and decent streaming. I have just taken the plunge into using mobile device streaming and it’s been pretty awesome.
Hearing this news definitely bums me out. I will be jumping ship just like thousands of others. Pandora is what everyone talks about anyway, but I just thought I could be one of those that stays true to last.fm…
Noooot anymore I’m not.
Aroddo
7 February, 20:17
In that case: F.U.C.K you and good bye.
At least it’s easy to delete your account.
April
7 February, 20:18
@Jack: is spotify any good?
Ovy
7 February, 20:18
Oh last.fm, how I adore the scrobbling and personalization! But why, good heavens, would I pay you for what many other services give me for free? I sincerely hope you rethink this. You will kill last.fm off as a proper competitor for Pandora and Slacker. I was rooting for you, but now there’s no way I can ever recommend you to friends, at least as a smartphone radio station. They will always ask me the same thing, “why should I pay them?”
xenologue
7 February, 20:19
My dear Last.fm people,
Thanks for a great service that has allowed me to find a lot of great music since I first found it in 2006. Because I have been spending more time away from my computer than at my computer, lately I have been using only my Android phone to listen. Unfortunately, I do not have the resources to pay for a service, so I will be listening to other online music and podcasts instead. It would be great if you could make it work to put more ads on the app so that I could still use the service. I am saddened that you have made this decision, but I do appreciate the notification.
fluXXXion
7 February, 20:28
Reminds me a little bit of MTV.
1€/month would be okay, 3€ isn’t – thnaks and goodbye…
felix
7 February, 20:29
been a faithful scrobbler and ardent advocate for last.fm for 6-7 years now, just like many above…
I never moved on to other services when all my friends got tired of the bs at last.fm… Just wanted to keep scrobbling and contributing to the community in hopes of finding better more obscure music that I hadn’t yet heard — last.fm was my way of keeping my ear to the ground.
but now it’s over, isn’t it. we could see this day coming the moment CBS entered the picture. they have to have their $$$ to keep their moribund media empire from flatlining. so extortion’s the name of the game. all our scrobbles are belong to them.
all good things, eh? I hope the door hits you over and over and over as we all go out.
namaste.
Nick
7 February, 20:30
FACT: I would rather listen to advertisements than pay. Not giving Android users that option is going to put you behind Pandora.
Stupid business decision.
Twotoad
7 February, 20:31
Uninstalling all last.fm products now. Screw you guys.
Sasha
7 February, 20:32
a couple of things:
1.) i hope that, if the android last.fm app is now going to cost money, you will spend a bit more money on its development so that it doesn’t crash every fifteen minutes or so.
2.) you guys are seriously limiting your competitiveness against pandora. i like last.fm because it generally does a better job of selecting music that i like, but i’m not really willing to pay for a subscription in order to have to babysit the player just a little bit less. (i only use services like this on my phone anyway, so the browser player doesn’t mean much to me.) i’d much rather just hear an ad every five songs or something like that. that’s not a big deal.
Starjump
7 February, 20:32
The idea of Lastfm was brilliant, music lovers sharing and exploring together.
Building a community.
We were contributors NOT customers.
The music industry is fighting to keep ahead of piracy and every £ or $ someone can afford to spend should go directly towards the artists.
Lastfm introduced unknown or small bands to a wider audience, putting a price tag on it now cuts down the important level of exposure they receive and also takes a percentage of money out of the pocket of potential record buyers.
Big business and corporations raping the artist again.
So…I’m removing my own music from the site – I’ve never been paid for it being there and maybe I dont have a great deal of listeners but its not something as an independent musician I want to be associated with.
I share it freely and I’d like that to continue. I will find another home.
I dont really use lastfm on anything other than my android phone so my scrobbles will go too.
I’m just a drop in the ocean but I’m not the only one and 1000 people leaving playing a couple of hundred tracks a week…
Its not the cost or the charge itself – For me it goes against the concept of what I thought the ideals and beliefs of the creators of this site.
Music for the masses…
Doctordeere
7 February, 20:33
I don’t mind paying for a service that’s worth paying for. Unfortunately, last.fm doesn’t meet that requirement.
Account deleted.
iPhone app deleted.
AMF
Efbrazil
7 February, 20:34
I would sign up for $10 per year, but this is too expensive. A shame, i like the service and want to support it, but you’re being greedy on your pricing.
Jason
7 February, 20:36
Well prepare for your app to be uninstalled in massive droves. I know I will be uninstalling it immediately.
Gerd
7 February, 20:40
I wonder, who will be your successor in playing free music in worldwideweb. I do pay for music but I wouldn’t pay for radio, even personalized radio.
TomFarcie
7 February, 20:41
OK, that’s fine, I understand I would be willing to pay up a small fee to continue the privilege of streaming tracks, but the last.fm app doesn’t work well at all on my device (EVO, 2.2, in San Francisco) so I might just drop the app altogether.
Not sure if it’s on your end or simply that the network can’t handle that kind of traffic but either way, the user experience isn’t good. Songs never finish, in fact, in some neighborhoods, the app won’t work at all.
Oh well, it was good while it lasted. Thanks for letting us know and keep up the good work, guys!
Jindo Fox
7 February, 20:41
Dumbest idea since Walter Mondale ran for president on the platform of the importance of raising taxes.
Sivart Luap
7 February, 20:44
If I could listen to any song in my library at any time, have custom playlists, and listen to whole albums I wouldn’t mind paying double the subscription fee. I have a big enough memory card on my phone to not need a subscription, but I’ll still use the web and desktop player.
Riptide9
7 February, 20:54
Stupid!!!!! I am a daily Last.fm listener but as of right now I am uninstalling from all 3 of my android phones and will never listen on my xbox or pc again. Your greed has cost you yet another listener. See ya!!!
Scott
7 February, 20:55
CBS ruined Yahoo LaunchCast Radio too. They removed features I loved, and I was a PAYING customer of Yahoo LaunchCast. I left Yahoo radio and cancelled my paying monthly subscription after CBS did that. Now they got a hold of last.fm. Sigh.
Quite frankly, Last.fm’s mobile offering is not good enough to be a paid service. Crashes all the time, music pauses and sometimes skips even though I was listening to it. The Loved station is gone. I won’t be paying or even using you ad supported service much anymore.
I was willing to pay $3.95 per month for Yahoo! LaunchCast customized station that played the songs I said I liked with some new suggestions thrown in there. CBS killed it but still wanted me to pay them? For less access to the music I love?
With CBS at the helm, it truly will be RIP Last.fm. I expect CBS to shut Last.fm down in a few years since it did not meet revenue expectations.
Matthew David Miller
7 February, 20:56
Corporate Rock Whores!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time to find a new app!
I praised this site and turned a lot of my friends on to this wonderful resource.your weak and fell for the almighty dollar.
Ross
7 February, 20:59
@BackToPandora “A dude’s winamp on shuffle”.
That analogy hardly applies. They’re charging for the mobile streaming. All website/desktop radio players are still free right?
Cee Lo Whiteoak
7 February, 21:02
“Well you’re screwing around with a service I love,
And I’m like
Forget You
Oh the change in my pocket isn’t enough
So I’m like
Forget You
And forget CBS too
Well if I was richer,
I’d still be with ya,
Well ain’t that some $#it
(Ain’t that some $#it)
With a pain in my chest I still wish you the best
With a
Forget you.
Oo oo oooh!
Well I’m sorry, this is the end of the party,
But somehow it seems you just don’t care.
I can play on Xbox, but not mobile Safari?
Now that to me don’t seem real fair”
Vic
7 February, 21:02
I think it sucks that you have to subscribe to use the ipod app, and if a free version with ads was made available it would not be satisfying. I do however enjoy the free three month subscription. I don’t plan to renew it or anything, but three months of free service is pretty cool, so thanks for that, last.fm!
J B
7 February, 21:03
And yet, somehow Angry Birds is making money like crazy by having an ad supported free Android app… hmmmmm. Where’s the disconnect here, last.fm?
jatmada
7 February, 21:04
It’s a shame but why should you give us something for nothing? Recent outages made me realise how addicted to scrobbling data I really am!
My Squeezeboxes would not be the same without last.fm and the excellent SomaFM. I’ll subscribe when the time comes. I hope the extra income will allow you to further develop the service and doesn’t go straight into the RIAA’s pockets.
Good luck and keep the great work.
Andreas
7 February, 21:05
This is a sad day. I loved the service but I’ll leave.
Z
7 February, 21:06
Well it’s time to move on. I only really use Last.fm on my Android phone now so I will have to move onto Pandora or Slacker. I also use Audiogalaxy so I can’t see myself paying for an app monthly that doesn’t work half the time.
This goes against what I thought last.fm stood for. Music for everyone. Music for the masses.
w0rkbench
7 February, 21:07
aye no wonder you wouldnt fix the iOS app. for shame last.fm
Lucas
7 February, 21:07
So my last.fm service is mediocre, and the music selection is lacking, and you are telling me you are going to charge me for such a joke? That would be why I am now installing Last.fm and continuing using my lovely Pandora app.
Drew
7 February, 21:09
Just canceled my account. Goodbye, last.fm!
Ignacio Nova
7 February, 21:09
Dudes, as long as I’ll still be able to pour over the statistics of what I listen to I’ll be cool. That sort of data has proven invaluable to my directions as a music hunter & your folks’ sweet sweet algorythms have turned me on to more stuff I love than any other online source. So, unfortunate announcement, but plenty to be happy about. Love & luck.
Lordboofy
7 February, 21:12
How many people kick those who made them? It seems to be a common theme now. How much money do you think we all have. EVERYONE is trying to charge for the same sh**.
Money, Money Money…Keep it.
Britpop Singh
7 February, 21:13
When you have to start coming out with phrases such as “In other markets and on emerging mobile and home entertainment devices, it is not practical for us to deliver an ad supported radio experience”, it’s pretty clear that the original motivation and hope has all gone. It’s now a business rather than a labour of love. Hardly surprising, but a shame nonetheless. Farewell, last.fm.
Graham
7 February, 21:15
Yeah, I’m not going to start paying for something that’s been free for years. I love Last.fm, but seriously? How many subscriptions does one need to have to listen to music? One for my phone, then extra for the data plan, and now even more for music? There are plenty of other android apps that work equally well if not better. The biggest thing I’ll lose is my channels, been building those up for years. A lot of low profile people had some really good music on there, oh well. Sorry to see Last.fm go the way of the rest of the music industry..
David
7 February, 21:18
Freedom of choice. I choose not to pay. Let me know when you change your mind.
justnice980
7 February, 21:20
fuck you guys. fuck you very much. looks like i’m going to stop using last.fm now. it’s too bad. i’ve really enjoyed using it all these years. much more so than any other service out there. thanks for ruining it for me.
sanguinetangox
7 February, 21:22
I’m deeply disturbed by this…
1) i think we are being rushed into a decision. this is on short notice.
2) i would personally prefer to have commercials or some sort of advertisement opposed to paying a monthly fee.
3) even a reasonable yearly fee would feel better than this monthly fee.
4) i have always preferred lastfm to pandora, but unfortunately, the services you are asking us to pay for aren’t much different than pandoras.
best of luck to you at last.fm.
grecian2007
7 February, 21:25
Agree with those who baulk at paying for an last.fm Android App that’s annoyingly unstable even in Central London (in contrast to Spotify app.) But to me this is just a further degradation of the service that began last November with the withdrawal of loved tracks and personal playlists for subscribers. What’s going next?
Jonathan
7 February, 21:28
I subscribe to spotify in order to use the mobile app however as others have mentioned it does not do recommendations. I use LastFm to find new stuff on Spotify. What we really need is a tie up between them as I personally dont think LastFM has enough value on it’s own to justify my £3 on top of the £10 per month I pay for Spotify.
enkydu
7 February, 21:33
OMG! Reading all this crying about subscription is ridiculous.
People OUTSIDE US, UK, Germany have to pay for Last.fm radio avaliable only on Last.fm website. Last.fm apps aren’t avaliable for us. So we have to pay for black icon, no Ads and radio stations on website. Without subscription, we get nothing.
People IN THE UK, US and Germany had until now all radios for free + you got free mobile apps with Last.fm stations too.
You just need to pay only 3 $,€,£ and you can choose your currency. So if you are inteligent, you choose cheap $ and save a lot of money. For year subscription it is just 36$ = 26.43€ or 22.29 £. Is it too much? I don’t think so.
Evan
7 February, 21:34
I strongly agree with Metal Fingers post below.
There is nothing wrong with charging users for a good service. However, it’s simply not worth it, because the service has never quite been good. The android app is riddled with problems and I barely use it as it is. Why would I pay for this.
Make it kick ass and I’ll pay for it!!!!
Joseph
7 February, 21:34
I’m sorry but this is fucking ridiculous. You people do realize this is only $3 a month right? Do people really have this anarchy, everything free socialist mindset when it comes to the internet. (I’m not against socialism) I think that they are trying to balance well with making money and providing their services. A lot of these comments just reek of naivety and entitlement. One way or another people will have to pay for music someway, somehow. Grow up!!!
xX MK Ultra Xx
7 February, 21:35
I’d rather put up with an ad or two than pay for a service that Pandora provides for free on iPhone. I like the service, and will continue to listen online, but the app is getting the boot.
JM Kelly
7 February, 21:35
I have repeated a statement from above. I can not say it any better.
I appreciate the gesture of 3 months free subscription, but I am never going to pay for internet radio when there are literally thousands of other services out there that are still free or ad-supported.
I pay a subscription for my smartphone, I pay a subscription for my broadband, I’m not paying a subscription for music as well.
Larry
7 February, 21:37
Kiss my ass last.fm, Downloading Pandora as I type this.
Shannon
7 February, 21:40
Unfortunately, I too will stop using your service. I have been a faithful scrobbler since 2004 and the days of Audioscrobbler.com and I feel that what you are doing is unfair. Not only is the application buggy, but I can just as easily get the same, or better, service from Pandora.
If you’re honestly having money troubles, CHARGE people for the app for their phones. With a one-time fee, people are more likely to bite the bullet. What you’re asking people to do, become subscribers for a product they already receive for free, is crazy.
Lord Ringer
7 February, 21:42
No loss for me. I don’t even use LastFM on my IPad. I listen to Pandora instead. Not willing to pay for a subscription. Oh well – bye LastFm.
Jimmy
7 February, 21:43
Goodbye Last.FM, hello Pandora.
elizabeth_duran10
7 February, 21:47
Good Bye last.fm because I am not paying for your services.
KrazyRick
7 February, 21:53
I WILL NEVER LISTEN AGAIN. GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK. I HAVE NO PLANS TO PAY FOR IT. I WILL USE THAT ITUNES MORE OFTEN NOW AND DOWLOAD MORE MUSIC TO MY ITOUCH.
lbarz
7 February, 21:53
Last.FM was one of the first apps I installed on my Android phone. It’s a good service but lately has been really spotty when connecting my phone using 3g or 4g. Constantly disconnecting. I am not going to pay for this service when Pandora offers basically the same service fore free and with more reliability.
SuperDuperSmartGuy
7 February, 21:53
Paywall FTL
Pandora FTW
Anonymous
7 February, 21:53
Not paying for a service that I can easily get with existing applications for free or with very minimal ads (which i don’t mind if they’re spread out).
Big mistake.
Fionn
7 February, 21:53
Another poor showing from a site that fails to capitalise on its basic good idea.
iPod Scrobbler has turned to shit, may as well destroy the app too. And keep ignoring people’s requests for friend searching. I mean, we’re all moving to Spotify and Pandora now anyway.
I’m just deleting the app. Nobody needs it THAT much. Podcasts are a much better option anyway.
Already the middle of the end for last.fm.
Gordon Wilson
7 February, 21:55
I’d just like to say thank you for the email, the 3 months is a nice touch.
I’ll keep last.fm, purely to track my own listening habits but I don’t think I’ll be picking up a subscription for the site again after all the changes.
No Loved Tracks radio, that was a bad move, regardless of how few people used it.
The lack of desktop client updates across each platform, despite the problems they were having.
The android app, multiple updates later is still dreadful and I just wouldn’t risk opening it to check an artist incase it made my device hang, never mind paying for the radio service.
Personal playlists was another one, that’s ridiculous it took a long time to make those!
So what I’m trying to say is, it was a fun ride Last.fm.
In the beginning it was a raunchy love affair, I couldn’t get enough and years later I can’t look you in the eye anymore.
Dave
7 February, 21:56
Pandora it is then….
Satu
7 February, 21:57
I hate to leave another angry, upset comment but I will anyway. I’ve long preferred last.fm to pandora, and i JUST started using it on my android (and was loving it), so I am deeply disappointed at the news. There are enough decent free alternatives to stream music on smart phones that it’s not compelling enough to pay for a subscription. You just lost a fan.
John Michael L.
7 February, 21:58
Gee, thanks for selling out… It don’t make sense to pay for something that’s free on a desktop / laptop. What idiocy. Very disappointing…
JL
7 February, 22:00
People pay more to tip the waiter, who just brings them their overpriced mediocre dinner, than they do to music/artists
tell me when was the last time the waiter saved/changed your life?
geeklibrarian
7 February, 22:02
I guess I find the lack of choices the most disturbing. I just read that
“Pandora, for example, decided to add commercials to its free radio streams two years ago, and non-subscribers are limited to 40 hours of music per month. Those who reach the 40-hour limit can pay $0.99 for unlimited music for the rest of the calendar month, or pay $36 per year (which translates to $3 per month) for a subscription that comes with unlimited music, no ads, and higher quality streams.”
Not sure why ad-insertion isn’t an option on the mobile platform, can’t be all that difficult…
Given that I already pay for di.fm, I’m really not willing to pay for a second music streaming service.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!
miles_t
7 February, 22:03
People will pay for value. As it stands there is no real value in paying £3 a month for the mobile version.
Like a lot have said, the removal of functionality followed by this news is really disappointing.
it seems that in US pandora will prosper from it and in UK spotify will.
You will be left with a reference site with peoples scrobble data, which will then be shut down by the CBS arseholes.
sunfire08
7 February, 22:05
I have last.fm on my xbox live that i pay for. Now i have to pay for another subcription for mobile, thats crazy.
Bones in Atlanta
7 February, 22:07
I’m not going to whine and cry about “selling out” or greed, to do so is infantile. But there are many free streaming audio services out there. If Last.fm wishes to be a pay service and succeed, it’s necessary for Last.fm to be superior to even the best of them. Which, sadly, it isn’t.
Account deleted, application removed.
Goodbye Last.fm
Jan Scott
7 February, 22:09
Too expensive for what you are offering especially when we in the UK have to pay more than anyone else.
So like everyone else I’m gone. I barely use the iTouch apps and only used the Android one to scrobble but will not risk getting charged for my general account.
Last FM was great when it was UK based, let the greedy US corporates get it and see what happens.
So how did the music industry make money from my use of Last FM? Well I discovered a new artist and guess what – I bought their music. Yes BOUGHT it,
No more. Will not risk you taking my money. And no one is ever going to bother to resub EVERY bloody month.
HoHoHo
7 February, 22:11
all you fuckers need to stop whining and pay up. you’re all such pathetic brats. “waaaaah, they’re charging me for being a parasite. Life is so unfair. I hope Last.fm will collapse because a few hundred commenters threaten to remove their business (I use that term loosely). And, honestly, I won’t just comment that I am leaving but secretly come crawling back because I am actually spineless but quite enjoy a good tantrum.”
Hilarious.
anyoneuser
7 February, 22:11
Goodbye last.fm. I’m going back to Pandora, which is unfortunate because I always thought that y’all had better music discovery.
I’ll have to stop recommending your service, too.
Oh, your Android app is garbage: freezes, crashes, and cannot properly buffer tracks (even over 3G or WiFi). I will never pay for such a thing.
Kate
7 February, 22:12
Even though I have been using Last.fm for 6+ years, I am NOT that keen into paying a subscription fee JUST to play it on my phone…
I chose Last.fm OVER Pandora due to the fact Last.fm had a much better interface, the music selection on radio stations was much better, and with the times, had a free app for me to take with me where ever I went… In all honesty, that was the FIRST “fun” app I got for my Droid…
And now this?
I agree with JM Kelly… why would I want to pay more money for a radio subscription? If that was something I really TRULY wanted, I would get Sirius/XM Radio…
Looks like I have three months to make up my mind, eh?
starenka
7 February, 22:12
Listen to yourselves. We (non US, UK, GER) pay for this for years (either via web or clients). Is 3E THAT much? BTW: Does this imply the mobile app FINALLY allows me (as a subscriber) to listen radios?
earendil1979
7 February, 22:12
sad to go… if you allowed me to specify exactly what songs I want to listen to I might consider subscribing…
Devin
7 February, 22:14
As a long time non-sub user (for like years) im letting you know personally, im deleting my account. Ill get another radio app. Also xbox users (like me) are gonna b pissed.
Jeff
7 February, 22:14
Hmmm… I had a paid subscription for ohh… roughly a month. I paid for one back in November so that I could stream my loved tracks, only to learn that only days later that feature was going to be removed.
Now you’re wanting people to pay for services that are already free? Eff that, man.
What’s next? Are you going to demand payment for the “privilege” of being able to scrobble? That’s pretty much all that I even use last.fm for these days, but I figure you’ll find some way to get my money from me, won’t you?
Good thing that I have a gigantic iPod and terabytes of storage on my home LAN, because I anticipate that I will be doing a lot more downloading and a lot less last.fm streaming. Way to commit suicide, guys. Nice knowing you.
ckgreenman
7 February, 22:14
I guess this means I’ll be uninstalling the last.fm app from my Droid.
So long last.MF
eric
7 February, 22:19
I will uninstall and move one! Real last FM
hotcorrado169
7 February, 22:19
The fact that it doesn’t actually play from all of the tracks in my music library means it isn’t worth using if I have to pay for it. Since has been free it has been ok that it plays a lot of the same tracks over and over again. If I am going to pay I might as well go back to using my XMradio and get the free internet streaming that comes with it.
Robert
7 February, 22:26
I’m mostly a website listener at my desk but my advice would have been to announce some fantastic new features if you are going paid subscriber only. That makes people feel like they are getting some improvements for their money.
Announcing that the SAME THING you’re already getting for FREE (including the frequent crashes) is now going to COST YOU money is a great way to run off a lot of potential subscribers IMO.
I do enjoy your product though, I find a lot of groups I wouldn’t have found without it. Best of luck!
afbrenckl
7 February, 22:28
This is so not fair to us last.fm you are going to loose so many customers now because we can’t listen to it for free and none of us have that much money to spend for anyways and you should keep it free forever.
Peter
7 February, 22:31
I have been using Last.FM for almost 5 years now.
I jumped at the mobile apps as soon as they were available, and spent ALOT of time showing my “simpler” Pandora using IPHONE friends the joys and wonders of mobile scrobbling services. In fact i was turning friends onto the website the week after i started to use it.
Now’a days i cant even remember the last time i turned a new user to your website, but until recently showing iphone and android users the mobile app proved VERY successful… for you (what benefit do i have to recommending your service?)
Message received Last.fm: you dont want my help, you dont need my help… you dont even want me to listen it would seem
By the way; “you will find this brings us in line with our competitors” does not motivate me to pay for your service, DEFERINTIATE! dont offer me the same garbage as everyone else with a bow on it… wait where is the bow?
Recomendation: OPTIONS!
how are people supposed to try the mobile app? free version! even a very limited, very ad supported version will at least give you guys the opportunity to alienate your fans…. this is just silly.
you must understand the growing trend in mobile computing, other wise why would you destroy your customer base and alienate new customers
If i am going to pay for last.fm mobile, include some social element to it… or the ability to control what i am listening to… or something new at all…
will last.fm make it into my budget? you figure it out…
I will be looking for new services now, 3 months of “free” service is hardly a thank-you for years of loyal listening and support.
Can we still be friends…? whats that? not a priority?
Good luck with your new fans… wherever they are.
gayathri
7 February, 22:38
thanks, i just deleted last.fm on android and iphone
Nelson
7 February, 22:43
haha
Russell66
7 February, 22:44
I’m a loyal last.fm user but have never paid, and if I ever get one of the devices that this is affected by, I probably won’t pay for the service. I am, however, open to becoming a subscriber, even though the benefit isn’t high. I understand that you guys have to do this, and it’s unfortunate for everyone. I really hope that this isn’t the beginning of the end of last.fm because I love tracking my plays (my primary use of the website).
bgee
7 February, 22:44
I might consider subscribing since I’ve been a fan of the service since 2004 and I really do enjoy the new Mix Radio station for discovery. But at the current rate at which other features are being taken away, I’m not sure it would be a smart purchase.
I understand you have a business to run, but this is disappointing.
Martin
7 February, 22:45
The last.fm Adroid app is not stable enough to encourage me to pay for it. Actually, the last.fm app crashes regularly and is the most unstable app in the market. I will uninstall it.
if agunloye
7 February, 22:51
Thank you for letting me know that I can uninstall your app from my phone why the hell would would I pay to not choose what I listen to when Pandora does the same dam thing for free I’m sorry that your to good for commercials all the sudden but ur not the only game in town
Nastradamus
7 February, 22:54
I have one question!!!: The email i received said “In taking this decision, we have given a lot of thought to how this impacts some of our early adopters and long-time users like you. We truly appreciate what you have meant to our growth and success, and offer you the following as a token of our thanks;
A free 3 month subscription to Last.fm”
I really focused on the LONG TIME USERs part, who here got more than 3 months? ive been using last.fm since 2006 and i have more than 55k scrobbed songs and i only got 3 months? really? or was this just a generic email sent to everyone? is that how last.fm really feels about the early adopters and long time users?
Adrian
7 February, 22:54
I hardly use my iPhone app anymore. It either crashes all the time, or more likely, since I have a 3G and cant background, it never stays open for more than one song anyway. I haven’t tried in a while, but the desktop app never did work right for me on my Ubuntu machine.
Sad, because I like your service, but I’ve never used it much.
Mel
7 February, 22:55
Back in the day, Last.fm was a great site. But too many questionable changes to the place means I only use it to find new artists thesedays. So for me, paying a subscription would be like having to pay to enter a shop just to look around. Sorry, but lately I’ve found blip.fm and spotify far more useful in that respect.
dazcon5
7 February, 22:56
To all you freeloaders have a nice day we will miss you. I have been using this service for years and at this price seems cheap to me. Long live last.fm!
Please however make improvements to the android app! You should be seeing my subscription monies soon
David G
7 February, 23:00
Time to switch to Free Pandora then. See ya Last.FM!
Horst
7 February, 23:02
Does this at least mean that people outside of your so-called core-market finally get the mobile app (when being subscribers) which other people got for free previously? I live in Austria, pay for quite some time my monthly fee, and didn’t get the option of listening to Last.fm on the go …
dercorn
7 February, 23:05
I am german, but i am really confused about that. I got the mail too, but in the FAQ it says it remains free.
Will the Android app be free too?
If not, I will move to Spotify too. Really bad, i used last.fm for years now.
StAlphonzo
7 February, 23:06
All you people whining about not getting FREE music any longer need to get a job and a life. I have no problem paying for LastFM. Between LastFM, Pandora, Radio Paradise and Rhapsody I still pay less for music, per year than I ever did prior to Internet streams.
This stuff costs money. Artists still need to get paid. Servers still need to be built and configured. Bandwidth needs to be paid for.
You people are unreal. The entitlement generation at it’s pathetic finest.
Stephanie C.
7 February, 23:06
Some additional thoughts:
I checked xe.com for conversion rates and people not from the US are getting bent over. And I don’t listen enough to pay $36 a year, like I said earlier. I don’t think this is a fair way to do things at all. Why make casual listeners pay? I could see demanding a subscription perhaps if I streamed almost 24/7 or something. And it’s even worse for EU and UK customers. You think peoope are going to pay the equivalent of $48-$58 a year if they only stream a few times a week?
And you’re also asking for problems. You demand subscriptions and how long before some people take advantage since they now have to pay. Then stream so much, the quality may be degraded for others.
You really need to rethink this. Like I said earlier, once again look at Pandora’s model. It’s not perfect but it’s a lot fairer than demanding subscriptions from everyone, even casual listeners. I’m going to also look at Slacker’s model, I believe they also don’t charge casual listeners.
Scott C
7 February, 23:08
Well to be honest, If I have to pay, I’m going to pay for spotify, as I can play all my playlists and choose what I want to, plus there app is like a zillion times better.
K Stuart
7 February, 23:10
Like many others, I will probably not be subscribing. It is too bad you decided to do this, I think you will lose many clients.
TE
7 February, 23:12
I’ve been a paying subscriber for a long time, from Norway. However, I do not get Last.fm on my cell phones, on my xbox or anything… Are you going to fix that?
I already pay for subscriptions to both Spotify and WIMP (local competitor, with good music recommendations and a slightly different library – worse apps than Spotify). Last.fm , however, has given me really low value for money for years now as I don’t get access to the music on devices where I listed to music. If this is not fixed, I will not renew my subscription.
basscasey
7 February, 23:14
I hate to say it but for the small amount of time I listen to mobile streaming music I will be going BACK to Pandora. The quality of the last.fm android app is appalling and pretty much un-listenable anyway. I imagine that will get better and all, but sorry…there are other (free) venues.
You’re losing a long time user. I listen to and scrobble/love my music 7+ hours a day via itunes at work to get new music on my mobile (for my commute home) and at home (pretty rarely) and can’t stream last.fm on the office network. As you can see I just don’t use it enough to justify paying for (which I admit is fairly cheap…still not worth it for the quality of product) so unfortunately goodby last.fm.
I’ll be taking you up on the free 3 months, curious to see if the quality changes, and then all apps (desktop and mobile) and account will be removed!
Gray
7 February, 23:15
how do you delete lastfm from my droid? It continues to show up in my applications.
That One Dude
7 February, 23:18
Well I never use Last.fm on my iOS device anyways, so no big deal here. As long as I can continue to Scrobble from everywhere I listen and still use the desktop client for free, no big deal. I can just use Pandora Mobile if I need to.
Jason Smith
7 February, 23:22
I have no problem paying the fee as long as: the app is free, the Android bugs are fixed, and a consistent quality is kept.
PatEwing
7 February, 23:25
Just testing http://www.aupeo.com/ as an alternative since spotify is not yet available in Germany. Seems fine so far. Maybe I would have gone for a subscription had you (re)included the “loved tracks” station.
nadiah_x
7 February, 23:30
Quite upset by this, but if you made the app better (such as being able to choose songs or at least have a ‘loved tracks radio’) then I would certainly consider paying the subscription.
Brett
7 February, 23:31
Yes, a sad day. There are too many other alternatives, including subscription services like Rhapsoidy and Napster, that let you download music along with having radio stations. You lose. I’m deleting the app on my phone and Touch today.
Devin Kammer
7 February, 23:32
At this point I’m going to use that free 3 month subscription they gave me but after that I probably won’t be back unless this gets changed, which I highly doubt will happen. Never the less I’m very disappointed at this decision.
Nicole
7 February, 23:33
It’s sad that even the few things in life that are actually free are being swallowed up by greed. I would have thought that the ads were more than enough to sustain the service of a station that relies so heavily on member participation. The ads and the skipping, we took all in stride, knowing that at least it was free…however, now that there is additionally, a fee attached, I feel many of us will have to say, “Goodbye, LastFM. We’ve clearly just grown apart.” Bye the way, I don’t drink fancy coffee.
Pete
7 February, 23:39
SO LONG Last.fm
We supported you, praised you, and promoted you, and this is how you treat us?
App removed, membership deleted
Time ToGo
7 February, 23:40
User-base out of the window! really LastFM is not that great, never did it play anything that I asked of it.
Convenient? Maybe but so is a ton of other free music radio.
See yah! closing my account, you can keep your free 3 months. Like most things it was ok while it lasted.
Matt
7 February, 23:42
See ya at pandora! Hate to leave but you did it to yourself. I dont care if the website will still be free. Pandora is totally free. Bookmark changed.
Peace!
moody_mage
7 February, 23:44
Shame – as mentioned numerous times if you actually got the iPhone app to work without crashing all the damned time then you might have a leg to stand on when you come with your collection bowl out. As it stands you are asking to be paid for a flawed product which is nonsensical (in case you weren’t aware the iPhone 3G will play approximately 4 songs before crashing the iPhone each and every time which makes the app pointless).
There are several threads about which garner little interest or response from the staff which speaks volumes.
Reading these comments it looks like the Android and Windows 7 apps are also unstable. This is unacceptable for free apps, let alone subscription based apps.
Good luck.
Creckzel
7 February, 23:46
After thinking this through for a while, I realized that even those of us who have absolutely no problem paying for the service will be negatively effected by this change. The whole point of Last.fm is to collect data from hundreds of thousands (even millions) of users, and use it to form links between artists and songs. This fundamental function will be drastically reduced once all of these changes come into play. Sure, there will be those people who will continue to scrobble their tracks, but many others will quit, realizing that they really get nothing out of the deal except for a history of their music listening (Which, IMO, is still pretty cool).
I’m not complaining about the change; US$36 is a fair price for an internet radio service like this (Although I WOULD like to see some additional functionality added in the future). However, the thousands of people who are leaving the service will impact us paying customers, in that there will be less scrobbles, and less data to find close musical matches.
So, instead of complaining, and not adding solutions, I will say that I have NEVER seen or heard an ad on my Android mobile device (Maybe it’s a bug?…or maybe it’s a closely guarded secret, and I’ll be getting a lot of hate mail for this o.O). Either way, if the issue is money, then increase the ads. The adverts on the site are incredibly sparse, more sparse than any other free site of this nature. I mean, whenever you click a button on Pandora, it automatically displays a full-page ad across the background; in the short time that I’ve been here, I haven’t seen Last.fm do anything similar to that. Ad revenue is low because the amount of adverts on the site and on mobile devices is low. Unlike the rest of the world, I don’t mind seeing an ad every now and then; it’s how services like this stay free.
If an admin at Last.fm headquarters is reading this, please take it into account. Thanks for listening, and providing me great music to listen to :)
A customer who WILL happily pay for this service,
Creckzel
Cobbler
7 February, 23:47
Hmmmmm, I don’t know what to say. I hate to have to pay a subscription fee for this service. I absolutely love Last.FM I wondered over to Pandora and they suck as far as artists in the genre’s I like, no selection at all. My Android app does indeed crash quite a bit so no real loss there unless it gets fixed. I can’t tell you how much business I’ve have given Amazon.com, buying new artists I been turned on too. Could you not get the big boys like Amazon and iTunes to kick in for as much money as we all send them? I’m getting tapped out here too. Seems like every time you turn around someone wants into my pocket. Oh well I’ll enjoy it for the next three months anyway. Man this BITES! Very Sad.
rob
7 February, 23:49
the Android app won’t be missed. it’s been completely broken since day one anyway.
Harry Law
7 February, 23:50
There goes my favorite and most used app on android, not to mention the only one I consistently recommend to my friends with smartphones
Best of luck to last.fm, I’d like to see you succeed with whatever you’re trying for, but I think this could be a death blow
Oh, and the service better get better if you want to charge, or you’ll really be in trouble
LitreofFarva84
7 February, 23:53
In all fairness, you guys can get bent since you are asking to pay for a subscriptionfor internet radio. There are plenty other internet radio apps that DO NOT charge for their effing service. I have gotten shotty service on my Samsung Epic 4G most of the time anyways. I appreciate the lame 3 month offer but I’ll definitely be using a different service.
erin.
7 February, 23:56
why is this message not highlighted on the last.fm main page? i found out about this only because someone specifically told me about it, and i still had to scour your main site page to find the tiny, tiny link to your blog, buried among small print at the very bottom. what. a. pain. why exactly is your blog buried in very small text at the bottom of the main site page if you’re going to make announcements like this to your users here? do you not care about quality of service to such a great degree that informing us directly about major changes like this is out of your bandwidth? i can’t believe i’m saying this, but despite being an early adopter and frequent user of your site, i’m actually considering switching to ping because of this. you can’t just make major changes and not inform your users.
Soren
7 February, 23:56
Welp..looks like its back to the cowon during my commute. Thank you for at least not making the whole service subscription based (for now). I knew this day would come at some point. You don’t get this popular and not start looking at maximizing profit.
corradoman
7 February, 23:57
Cheerio. Won’t be staying.
Jim
7 February, 23:58
Uninstalled! Back to Pandora for me.
King Sluggo
7 February, 23:58
Pandora it is. I’ll miss my friends from all over the world.
michael
8 February, 00:03
thank you for all your service for the past few years! was great to have you all the time during the day but I will not pay £3! somehow it’s just wrong and way too much. sorry
Taty
8 February, 00:07
Not paying…..good bye last fm….
James
8 February, 00:08
I think this is a very bad move that will just drive people away from Last.fm. I’ve already uninstalled the app from my phone because of this announcement. The service is free on the web — why can’t the mobile app also provide free streaming audio? If ads are the problem, I would suggest looking into adding them into the mobile app. I know that Android at least has this, and bunches of free apps use it. Another possibility is to do what Pandora does and limit the amount of streaming free members get to 40 hours per month or something. Surely there’s a better alternative than making everyone pay for a mobile app when they can use the web version for free. Please reconsider your decision.
TinySpeaker
8 February, 00:10
Thank you for the music. It was fun.
Goodbye last.fm.
Matt
8 February, 00:12
I think you just shot yourselves in the foot.
At least you could give us a little background or explanation as to why you felt this decision was necissary.
More than just “it brings us in line with everyone else”. Give us a back story guys.
Anyway, I’m disappointed. If you guys had given more detail I may have stayed, but as it is I’m gunna leave. It’s a sad day. I really liked Last.FM too.
Dave C.
8 February, 00:17
While I think $3/mo is actually more than reasonable for your great service, I just feel like there’s too much competition in this market for “let’s get on board with what everyone else is doing” to be a good strategy. You guys should be looking to break new ground, not jump on a bandwagon.
Grooveshark has a V-day deal, $20/year. I jumped on that.
aero26
8 February, 00:18
I appreciate the parting gift as I think that had you guys been brash enough to just cut us off, I might have dropped Last.fm altogether. I assume this is out of necessity tatyher than greed. Some will pay. Some won’t. What you’ve undoubtedly done however is sold out the top of the mobile market to Pandora, myself included. Even with new users, a subscription is like a repellant and a free trail is bound to be abused. Not liking this too much but I’m sure you guys weren’t expecting celebration here.
David
8 February, 00:26
Granted I am sad because I too will no longer use last.fm. But what I do not understand is everyone complaining about shotty service and this and that… if it is so bad why did you stay?
Yes, Last.FM is going to lose a lot of “customers” because of this… but the people leaving are the people that were not paying for it anyways so it does not affect Last.FM at all.
So yes I am sad to see you go Last.FM I will be switching services. But I don’t understand why you don’t have an ad-version and a paid ad-free-version… I mean right?
theultimateplu
8 February, 00:27
Thanks for the gift! Very much appreciated last.fm. I don’t use the radio that much anyway, but appreciate the chance to be able to keep using it when I need to, and when my free subscription runs out I may subscribe again!
I do think a /free/ music radio of the calibre of last.fm does deserve a subscription fee, it’s brilliant for parties or just chilling out on one’s lonesome. Hope to see more good updates soon :)
Larry Mac
8 February, 00:27
So an allegedly fixed Android client is coming in “about a week”, which means the 14th, and you want to start charging on the 15th? Given the state of the Android app today, I can’t imagine paying for something without knowing that it actually works.
Tony Paternite
8 February, 00:33
Woooowwwwww.
I wonder if Last.fm changes their mind after reading the backlash of comments on here. A 95% negative response rate is not good. There are so many easier ways for them to make a few extra bucks without pissing off their loyal fanbase. How about a freemium model where you pay for extra features?
I’ve been a long time user of Last.fm and have loved it to death; enough to even pay for it. Their tag radio is amazing and can’t be found anywhere else. However, their iPhone app crashing all the time and the only update made to it over the last 12 months was that it now stops the music after removing the headphone jack! It’s not even optimized for the iPhone 4 retina display! Asking us to pay for a service they barely even support is plain crazy.
http://www.last.fm/subscribe
What you get:
“Recent visitors to your profile” – Why do I care?
“A prestigious black icon” – D’Oh boy!! You got to be kidding me.
“New! Access to our VIP zone with more charts, graphs and the latest from the Last.fm Labs” – This hasn’t been updated in ages from what I see.
I’d love to stay loyal to Last.fm but I better see some great new features in exchange for paying for it. Paying for an unsupported iPhone app that always crashes is not going happen. Sadly, not using the radio may throw off my entire Last.fm experience. Maybe I’ll look into Spotify as well.
Tony
fonejacker77
8 February, 00:34
I never subscribed to we7 because of last.fm. I’d rather pay for we7 and choose all the artists, albums, compilations than pay for randomness I can get from a regular radio station for free. Mostly I use it at home on ipod touch or android connected to wifi and hooked up to my sound system or while in bed/bath.
Isn’t there a way that you can keep it free over wifi on mobile devices????? If not you probably won’t see me often after the 3 month free trial.
p.s. I’ve had no issues with the apps on ipod touch or android x10 mini pro 2.1
will be a sad day for music streaming coming soon.
Paul Johnson
8 February, 00:36
It’s not that hard to splice in an ad every now and then on Android. I can’t help but to think that this deal not affecting Windows Phone users amounts to payola.
lkliev
8 February, 00:38
Dear lastfm,
Thank you for the notification about your business changes. I am able to make a decision that is best for me, my music listening, and my finances.
It’s been a pleasure, but I have to go now. Just last month, I tried a feature other than scrobbling music I already own. I enjoyed it, but found that the music only was a sample, or cut out on my Android.
It makes no sense for me to stay, begin a subscription and be charged for music I already own.
Best of luck to you
Android app uninstalled; I’ll delete my account and everything that goes with it now.
Aaron M
8 February, 00:39
I saw it coming…
“CBS Buys Last.FM, an Online Radio Site – New York Times
May 31, 2007 … CBS said the $280 million deal will allow the service to continue to operate as an independent unit.”
you suck
8 February, 00:44
yeah way to go and take a big steaming dump on the chests of all the people who made you just to make a buck! have fun going under all because you want to be greedy. uninstalling and forgetting as I type.
Dave
8 February, 00:48
Well I guess this is it. I can still listen on xbox live. But come to think of it. I never really listened on my iPhone, I enjoy pandora much more. Oh well good luck to you last.fm.
josh
8 February, 00:50
take your 3 month trial and shove it up your arse
Jason
8 February, 00:53
I have been using Last.fm for quite a while and recommended it to all my friends. It looks like I will be switching to Pandora now. The Last.fm apps on both iOS and Android are way too buggy and constantly crashing. Sorry, but I can’t pay for that. The Pandora app is much more reliable but I stuck with you guys because I liked your service. It makes me very sad to hear this. Pandora or Slacker get a new user.
mxcl
8 February, 00:54
I’ve never seen such a bunch of cheapskate losers as the users of Last.fm. You’re lucky you get any kind of service whatsoever you filthy, disgusting lumps of horse shit.
— sickened.
Victor
8 February, 01:00
Might as well ditch last.fm for good and switch to GROOVESHARK!
joshua
8 February, 01:00
take your 3 month trial and shove it up your arse
Sean
8 February, 01:01
Hmm, I guess I’m done scrobbling, then.
I’m not against paying for good services, but literally the only reason I use the last.fm app is for Winamp to scrobble through it. It’d be nice if such a tiny feature stayed free, but alas.
Singh is King
8 February, 01:02
You won’t make it without me! lol
papi_churro
8 February, 01:03
Will the phone stream be updated? Less breakups mid-song and a ‘pause’ feature?
MB
8 February, 01:03
Thanks for the notification. I’ve been needing to clear out some apps on my iPhone anyway, so now I know one app that can go. It sounds like you have now joined the group of companies that “just don’t get it” when it comes to mobile. Good luck with that.
shane
8 February, 01:04
will not pay a dime …plenty of free music out there-
Solrac da pinoy
8 February, 01:06
Dissapointed about this news. I have stuck with the freeze ups on Android devices. I have my stations finally set up to play all the right tunes.
I hate to say it, but I will be heading elsewhere for online music… This has not come to the point where the quality is worth paying for yet.
Let us know if Last.Fm changes its mind and offers a paid ad-free version and keeps the ad-version…
sad day for music, indeed…
Paul
8 February, 01:13
Nail in the coffin
RIP Last.fm
Bye Bye – Pandora here we come
Dan
8 February, 01:15
Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. But, unfortunately, I will be also joining Spotify. I will still use Last.fm to find new music, but I don’t see the point subscribing to radio when I can listen to anything I want in any order I want using Spotify.
Sad it had to come to this!
H.
8 February, 01:20
I must be a really odd person, because I don’t get what you’re all so upset about. Most likely because I never listen to music on my mobile devices. I use last.fm because I love the statistics, the meta data, and the suggestions. I subscribed so I would be able to listen to my library on my computer (being a non-US/UK/GER user). These days I have no mp3 library any more. After my desktop PC crashed I never bothered to rebuild my music library, I only listen to Last.fm radio and I’m quite happy with that.
A lot of people mention Spotify, but I can’t stand them. Their selection is sub-par if you like anything outside of mainstream and they don’t offer the same level of user interaction Last.fm does. I say you’re crazy to choose Spotify over Last.fm.
Now I just hope that this isn’t the beginning of the end of Last.fm as a whole, because I would really hate to see you go altogether. =(
maromi-kun
8 February, 01:28
If I read the subscription page and this correctly, I have until December 31, 2011 at 11:59PM to enjoy free streaming on Windows Phone 7?
I’ll decide whether to subscribe just for mobile radio after the 3 months. Anyways the times I use last.fm is on my desktop/laptop.
I wish a ad-based app would be introduced for the people that refuse to pay.
JL
8 February, 01:31
you spoiled fucking cunts
listen to 36 new songs you haven’t heard on last.fm while paying for subscription?
you got your year’s subscription’s worth ($36 a year/$1 a song)
Orville
8 February, 01:32
Since there will be a monthly fee, will the audio quality be improved? I chose LastFM over pandora because of quality and it comes with Ubuntu but, if I have to pay, I might as well go back (damn it).
sugarpants
8 February, 01:35
I was actually a happy subscriber till they started to remove things…the big one for me was the loved tracks playlist. If I’m paying, why take things AWAY?
I was hoping the update was to let us know paying will get you more; not just the already demoted version we already have.
I’d be more than happy to become a subscriber again if they started giving options BACK instead of taking them away.
:(
Irene Marie
8 February, 01:51
As Spotify is not available in the US, I don’t think you’ll lose that many of your customers overseas. Well, there is Pandora, but, personally, I strongly dislike it.
I have only used my last.fm app on my Android a handful of times, and never had any problems with playing songs. I think I will use the trial to consider subscribing if it’s possible to play my Droid/last.fm via the USB input in my car (especially now that my iPod has kicked the bucket).
Matt
8 February, 01:59
Lolz. Goodbye
Bob
8 February, 02:01
This is the most retarded decisions ever. What’s the real reason, no one will pay you guys for ads anymore? This just differentiated Last.fm from all other music streaming sites, in a BAD way. Why do you think your service was so popular?
You say that this will be on par with other pay-for services….well guess why so many ppl used Last.fm……? Because it WASN’T on par with pay-for services…ie, free!
Burn in a fire, Pandora/Audio Galaxy FTW
Nate
8 February, 02:03
Plenty of other sites that do it better for less. Do what you gotta do, but you lost my support.
Ryan
8 February, 02:12
As someone who has supported you since January 2004 I am surprised and disappointed by this decision. I will continue to use your radio service on my laptop as I have for years but the usefulness of your service has now greatly diminished to me. I will no longer be able to enthusiastically support your service to my friends, who mostly use Spotify and Pandora.
I am VERY afraid that you will lose a lot of membership over this, and as your user base decreases, so too will the quality of your recommendations. By its very design your service lives and dies by its community.
endote
8 February, 02:17
This what happens when previously amazing sites get bought out by media companies like CBS.
Removing the loved tracks lost me as a subscriber. Now I use the site literally to catalogue what I listen to.
I don’t even use a media device, but it just adds more evidence as to why last.fm is going nowhere but downhill.
Alex
8 February, 02:19
I have paid for a couple services just so I can get it on my phone. I wouldn’t mind having some recommended radio on my phone. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad decision. But I have a BlackBerry, so this doesn’t entice me as there is no last.fm support on BlackBerry devices.
Pandora Lover
8 February, 02:31
May I piggyback on all the other comments that mirror the sentiments of go fuck yourself. Pandora, you’re up! And so ended the last.fm
Cyrano
8 February, 02:39
Do I get a “pause” button for $3 a month?
I understand trying to find a way to monetize your service. I don’t think a subscription model is it.
I’d sooner listen to ads in between every half hour of songs.
sincerely
8 February, 02:43
That’s too bad, I’m back to streaming my own.
Deleting the applications now, I will not be back.
snowman
8 February, 02:46
Just too bad. Thanks for the past several years—it has been real. Goodbye.
Classy D.
8 February, 02:46
That’s too bad. I am willing to pay Rdio for being able to choose what I listen to, but I am not paying for radio. Sorry, LastFM, bad move.
helpforthemasses
8 February, 02:48
I want to delete my account, how do I do that?
Should you wish to permanently delete your account, you can do this on the “Data” tab in your settings.
From here, make sure you enter your password correctly, and confirm that you want to delete your account.
Cynizmo
8 February, 03:02
As much as I tried, I just could not get the music I liked to play on LastFM but I kept you around, hoping, I guess, that you’d get better – and to have another option than Pandora. Grooveshark was also a favorite but only on the desktop. Thank you for helping me to make up my mind to FINALLY delete your app from my iPhone.
Michael
8 February, 03:07
I wont pay for somthing that should be free, unless you can do into a database and pick the exact songs you want to listen to, then it’s not worth it one bit.
seatbelt47
8 February, 03:13
Last.fm is like that teenage child that continues to do stupid things to piss you off but you still try to love them and hope that in the end they will learn from their mistakes and start making better decisions.
Just hate it
8 February, 03:20
Complete horse hockey!
bobby
8 February, 03:23
I will no longer be using last.fm
zewnten
8 February, 03:24
Guess ill start using Pandora. Oh well
Justin G
8 February, 03:31
Last.fm is a great service and is great for the Internet! The idea of Scrobbling is way ahead of its time. The data collected by this service is quite valuable. I would gladly pay my $36 /year to contribute to a service like this one. Keep up the amazing work!
zGabrielz
8 February, 03:36
Why should we pay for songs that are censored? We can’t even change our user names, pick the songs.
Also, Last.fm should find some way to charge mobile service providers since they are charging users for data.
asshole
8 February, 03:44
U SUCK! F.O.A.D
Anonymous
8 February, 03:48
You’re customers (yes, we are your customers) are telling you something. That something might be that you’ve made a mistake.
You wanted social media, you got social media.
Aji
8 February, 04:01
I really enjoy last.fm and am considering the subscription, if the service is going to improve with it and I am given more control over what I am listening to e.g. the ability to pause and rewind, playlists and such.
The absence of this always bothered me, but I was willing to overlook it for a free service.
I am not an expert on your business model by far, and am sure that you guys spent a lot of time thinking this through. But perhaps there a lite vs. premium version would make sense. Lite having little control, heavily ad supported like Pandora, and the premium offering real bang-for-the-buck.
$ 3 per month is affordable, and I don’t envy you guys for getting a lot of heat from people who expect everything for free at this point.
...
8 February, 04:15
You can shove your damn service, I will stick with Pandora for free.
douche
8 February, 04:19
uninstalling and deleting all accounts now.
Tyler
8 February, 04:42
the only reason why i use last.fm on android is cause it came with my xbox live subscription, and i didnt want to have multiple radio streaming services. Even then i use it only when i forget my zune, which is usually only like once or twice a month. its not worth paying for a subscription when i only use a couple hours a month, sorry, but i’ll stick with plain old radio when that happens
pvoid
8 February, 04:46
Back to Pandora it is, then!
abbieb
8 February, 04:49
I don’t understand why you think you need to charge with all uses on devices. I told a lot of people to change over to your service from Pandora but now I will be deleting your app and advising all those who I told to switch over to revert back to Pandora. At least they offer all their services for free, even if there is a time limit. The way you’re doing this is terrible.
sanguinetangox
8 February, 04:52
check out libre.fm people. you can scrobble there, even import your last.fm listening habits with a little work.
peace out last.fm
dammitCBS
8 February, 05:01
I am about 99% sure I will not subscribe. The only things that could sway me are:
1. If I am overwhelmingly amazed by the premium member experience
2. If I can be assured that support and apps for devices like android will be cleaned up and work well. The Android app is terrible, so I always use another service on my mobile, such as Pandora.
3. If my theoretical improved Android app is created, it actually gives me a reason to use it instead of Pandora.
Andrew
8 February, 05:17
Bye!
canyousayBADMOVE??
8 February, 05:18
not smart. i WAS a devoted fan and subscriber for 3 years now and i’ll PROBABLY continue to listen to you guys, but i know that i (and i’m pretty sure alot of people as well) mainly use the apps rather than the site itself. so we’ll see just how long it takes for you to lose ALL your customers. :-/
David Garner
8 February, 05:29
Well it was nice while it lasted, looks like I’ll be moving on to one of the many other free radio services out there. And to think, I’ve been promoting your app and website to family and friends for along time. I’ll be leaving both, regardless if the website remains free.
iOS ads would be the smart way to go, not a subscription model. The people have spoken, it’s your move to make a wise decision before folks start jumping ship. In today’s age of competitive apps, there is no need to go far to find the next lastfm.
good luck
8 February, 06:03
No way will I suscribe. The system is just not stable enough to pay for….As it is I can hardly listen to last.fm on me EVO. Way to many song changes…
Good luck last.fm
bassbottles
8 February, 06:07
This makes me very sad. I literally just downloaded the last.fm app hours ago and thought it was awesome. It was like having access to my entire iTunes library on my phone without it taking up 20 gb. I’m not going to pay a subscription for that, though.
Why not just use ads instead? I don’t understand how phones are different from the computer app in this respect.
I guess I will have to regrettably delete the app and go back to Pandora.
Cody
8 February, 06:20
The way I was introduced to Last.fm was I heard on the radio, “Last.fm is like Pandora on steroids.” It was absolutely true but its not so much of a difference that I would ever pay for it, especially being a teenager and having to ask my parents to put it on their credit card. I’ll still use it on the computer but the ipod app is gone.
Thanks for the new music, I guess its back to Pandora :(
steve
8 February, 06:28
When I read, how many users will not subscribe, then there won’t be any community anymore.
So why should I subscribe for something, that will die in a few months??
I think, this was the wrong decision.
Good bye!
death097
8 February, 07:16
What a bad choice, I will just use winamp. Good luck last.fm
Jose
8 February, 07:27
Much props & respect to the team @ Last.fm. I completely understand the need to move in this direction and I appreciate all of the great free radio that I’ve enjoyed through Last.fm. I will continue to use website as I greatly enjoy the wider selection of indie, comedy, and unheard of music that you have.
I will enjoy my 3 free months to the fullest and then have to regretfully bow out of the smartphone game.
All you nay-sayers need to get off your high horses and stop thinking that you deserve the world handed to you on a platter for nothing. It takes a lot of time & money to things & Last.fm has given you a great thing for quite some time. Appreciate it!
Keep up the good work Last.fm. I hope that this decision isn’t a final straw in the hay bail game.
Thomas
8 February, 07:33
I’m a lightweight user using last.fm radio for an hour or two every few weeks on my Squeezebox radios. When I bought those Squeezeboxes, I didn’t even know about last.fm radio – this was a nice free addon. However, the boxes were not originally bought to use the service.
No way I’ll be paying an amount of 36 EUR per year. Wrong move, last.fm.
Steffen
8 February, 07:39
You should’ve first fixed the iPhone app and then ask for money. Good bye.
-ST-
8 February, 07:41
Keep up the good work Last.FM
necaremus
8 February, 07:41
i do think, that this is the wrong way to go.
i love the “free” aspects of the web.
don’t try to force something to be better than it can be? ya, know?
if it fails, it just fails. don’t try to make it a “premium” feature.
is money the problem?
if money is the problem, there are more ways to get money, than just the “force” to use your opportunity as a “premium” feature.
is there no possibility to somehow get it done without these stupid force?
why don’t just try a good “donating” system first? this seems to kinda work for other “organizations” as well…^^
if it fails, it fails. but why not try it this way first?
maybe there are people, who wanna pay for the very good service last.fm gives us the opportunitie to use? maybe that even is enough?^^
maybe… just try to be “a bit tricky” in getting people to donate? :3
like “we wount give you the “top 10%” of music we think is best fit for you, based on our analysing system… until you donate :3”
that would be… well, tricky :D
but this is just one idea, ya, know?
why do you have to be fix on this idea of the “premium” account? why don’t you just
“add the opportunitie of a ‘premium account’” to the exsisting system? :3
maybe it is enought, to let it work, maybe not.
just my 2 cent
dku
8 February, 07:42
The only interesting feature will be removed — no point in using last.fm any longer.
Bye bye!
lq
8 February, 07:44
I am relieved.
I didn’t think the ad-free experience on mobile devices could be sustained without some kind of subscription.
I’ve been very happy with last.fm and was worried that it would be ruined by audio ads inserted into the stream.
The subscription fee is a small price to pay for music without a commercial payload. Yeah, it used to be free, but how could that be sustained?
very upset
8 February, 07:48
This is terrible. I listen to 98 percent of my music through my last.fm app on iphone. As a college student, it’s going to be very difficult to swing this. I’ve had the app for over a year, and I use it every single day. I would much rather put up with ads than find away to pay for this, and I’m about to start looking other options in terms of music apps.
adjolt
8 February, 07:49
While I understand your need to charge for last.fm, you lose me when you compare the monthly “cost of a fancy coffee” as a way of saying it doesn’t cost much.
By comparing it to another overpriced luxury your give me the motivation to really consider if the mobile last.fm is nice-to-have or essential.
Ralf
8 February, 07:50
LAME!
goodbye
8 February, 07:52
last fm was ok. but it did not convince me that much that i would be willing to pay a single cent for it.
Jitesh Mistry
8 February, 07:54
Just thought I’d say goodbye last.fm in response to your move. I’ve just deleted my accounts and elected to move on and settle for using Spotify on my PC and MP3s on my Android.
Mark Tisdale
8 February, 07:57
I probably wouldn’t subscribe anyway, but I moved to the sticks last year and my data is rarely fast enough to use the iPhone app anyway.
If I was going to subscribe to music away from my PC, it would be SiriusXm instead. At least that doesn’t depend on my cell phone.
Adios Last.fm – been nice.
Mark
8 February, 08:07
Oh well. Good while it lasted. I will give it 6 months and then declining users will lead to a loss of advertising revenue and AOL will pick up the company for a fraction of the price which the current owners paid for it.
I have always been a huge fan of Spotify and only use last.fm occasionally. This move now strengthens Spotify’s position and therefore helps to guarantee it’s future, which can only be a good thing.
Bye!
James
8 February, 08:17
Well I’ve just uninstalled my Android app. There are so many ways of listening to free streaming music that I don’t need to pay £3/month for the privelege.
Josh
8 February, 08:31
Sigh…looks like I will be uninstalling my android app and making more use out of my pandora app. If the xbox live app does not stay free I will stop using all together.
seb.
8 February, 08:52
I’m using Last.fm since years an I love it every day! But 3€/month is too much … sorry. This is really sad and probably a big mistake. I hope Last.fm will not disappear from the scene.
Good luck!
ijh
8 February, 09:08
Long time last.fm user since Pandora became US only. Won’t be paying for a mobile service – especially not £3/month! As has been said above I’d rather get Spotify where I get to choose what I listen to…
Peter
8 February, 09:13
Just curious, as the above doesn’t concern me being a subscriber (and loving) it anyway: are we ever going to be able to find/invite our friends through Gmail addresses/Facebook etc?
It’s really annoying I only randomly stumble upon friends using Last.fm. Mostly sheer chance.
ivan_llaisdy
8 February, 09:14
Dear Sir or Madam
The iPhone app is not stable. I’ll pay for it if/when it becomes stable.
When I started listening to last.fm a few years ago it was because it had the best international coverage. Maybe it still does have. I’ll look again.
I hope this idiotic decision has been forced on you by your owners at EMI and is not a sign of culture changes inside last.fm. That would be very disturbing.
Yours
Ivan Uemlianin
Lithium Spade
8 February, 09:35
I honestly don’t understand the problem here. £3 a month is less than I spend in a day on cigarettes, less than a bus fare, less than a cod and chips.
I live independently, doing full time education and part time work to support myself, and even I can justify £3 to spend on a service that has always provided me with not only new and interesting music but also forgotten classic after forgotten classic. If the price of listening to Passion Play by Night Ranger on my phone is £3 a month, then that’s something i’m more than willing to pay for.
Yes, there are places out there where I can listen to the same music for free. But for the seamless experience Last.fm has given me, on my PC or on Android, I think these guys deserve at least a bit of loyalty. I’m a long time user but i’m seriously considering subscribing right now, rather than taking my free 3 months, just because of all the pathetic whining in this comments section.
(Not to generalize. Some people have made very valid points. But there is an awful lot of “I DELETED ALL MEMORY OF YOU FROM MY BRAIN BECAUSE YOU SAID MONEY” going on around here)
Whilst i’m writing this overly long, soon to be scrolled past post – to the people at Last.fm – there are some improvements that would be nice to have – i would like to be able to construct my own playlists, even if it’s not a function I personally would use much. Fix up the Android app (I may never have had a problem with it, but pretty much everyone else has) and maybe chuck a couple of other bonuses our way and people might start to see it as a good deal. Maybe at £3 a month we could get early access to new songs, or something along those lines.
Anyway, this post has gone on long enough. I will be paying for a subscription and I hope that this comments section is just another example of the silent majority at work.
jj
8 February, 09:45
Last.fm is a great service. But are you choosing the right way forward for mobile devices?
No-one knows exactly how online music is going to play out. What last.fm has is a different take on how I may want to enjoy music – in particular, by taking me beyond my own library.
Online, you’re ad-supported. So surely the most natural thing for us users is that you’d leave us the choice of free and ad-supported or pay and ad-free for our mobiles?
Nothing’s free. And I’m not entitled to anything from you. But just as I was beginning to think last.fm would be my first choice everywhere, you’re taking away the place you stood out from the crowd.
Technohippy
8 February, 09:54
Um guess you hit a nerve there!
I love what last.fm has brought to my music listening.
got to say though, please stop messing with your core services. last years removal of on demand streaming from the website and its subsequent revival after listening to the users show that you listen to the users.
if you want to monetise without damaging your user base you need to expand on your existing services.
For example, your free streaming and scrobbling services are what attract and keep people. don’t touch them, they are great.
as well as offering links to amazon 7digital etc… sell the music yourself and reap the rewards
charge for your apps, not a sub, people will happily take a one off payment over a long term sub as the app market has shown.
there are many ways to monetise the service without damaging your user base and messing with the core service.
CarlCocks
8 February, 10:15
This is a decision I can’t understand, use commercial to finance the streams for free users. But with the stream will go the whole sense of Last.fm.
I will stop using Last.fm immedeately after the three month free subscription; during this time I’ll use the stream all day and night, to make traffic and I reactivate my Firefox Adblock.
Goodbye my love!
bonkers
8 February, 10:15
it’s never worked properly anyway so this is the nail in the coffin anyway.
d_a_n_d_u
8 February, 10:17
Yet an other seppuku decision from last.fm. I wonder how much can it take.
Kirpus69
8 February, 10:38
If this means that you are planning to offer a better subscription service – fine with me.
But get busy!
competition_commission
8 February, 10:50
Any service which introduces handset apartheid (free service okay for certain handsets but suspended for others), will not only upset it’s users, but may draw the attention of the competition authorities.
Hoping the EU takes a good look at the recent financial agreement with Microsoft, to see if there has been some financial incentive to blocking the free service only on competing handsets.
Taking a company over is one thing, attempting to disrupt partnering with competing platforms, is another thing entirely.
Thomas
8 February, 10:51
:-( Very, very sad, I will not continue Last FM on my devices, too much money ($50 a year in Germany)!!! Hope many users will go away and LASTFM gives up their plan …
jzillmer44
8 February, 10:52
Looks like its back to Pandora untill I find a new radio app. No way will I pay a subscription fee for any radio app.
Natt39
8 February, 10:55
Sorry guys… I can understand why you’re doing it but if I’m gonna pay I’m going to use a less buggy service
It was a good idea while it lasted
Jules
8 February, 10:55
this really sucks
Ole Andersen
8 February, 11:17
So… Who is paying for the XBOX/Windowsphone listening?
Please dont say, that android and apple users are now paying so that Windows users can have it free???
hawkse
8 February, 11:39
Wow, smart move! I can’t even get the client on my iPhone since I’m not in one of your preferred markets.
Looks like I’m finally going to save a few bucks and stop subscribing. I listen less and less to the radio since the stuff that’s on there is mostly quite crappy.
Jens
8 February, 12:07
I will deinstall now.
PrincessWilly
8 February, 12:07
You really dropped the ball on this one guys. The correct solution would have been to include ads, both on the client itself, and, when using the widget player, in audio format. I will definitely not be paying for a service however, that I can get for free elsewhere. I liked Last.fm over Pandora, but not enough to have to pay for it. What I Would pay for, is a service that is more free of bugs. For there are many many bugs on the android version of Last.fm. From songs skipping for no apparent reason, to its apparent refusal to buffer instead of cutting out every two seconds. One thing that Would bring me back would be the ability to actually Choose what you’re listening to, ala spotify. This doesn’t appear to ever happen though. You seem to cling to the idea that you can give me the music I want all the time, when it’s always painstakingly obvious you can’t.
Either way you’ve just alienated more than half your audience. Those that don’t have iPhones and Androids will at least now see what money grubbers you are. As a previous posted said, I’d wish you luck, but you’d probably charge me for it.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
alatha
8 February, 12:08
I would think you would want to make sure the bugs were out of the system before switching to a paid-only service. The android app is so buggy that it really is unusable. I am a light user and it wouldn’t be cost effective for me at this time. I have removed the app from my phone and will go back to Pandora, even though I really preferred Last.fm.
Bryan Perryman
8 February, 12:09
Thanks for the email, but even though I’m a long time user I will no longer continue to be. This trend of giving something away for free, then charging for it is ridiculous. Last.fm is no longer of value to me. Deleting the app after I type this.
haraldlfm
8 February, 12:09
Well, not a big loss. The quality of the Lastfm radio became worse and worse during last months, e.g. plenty of pop and spanish rap junk on my Nightwish radio.
If Lastfm would have offered to continue their Title On Demand service for subscribers, I would have considered to pay for it. But not for this poor radio ‘service’ which I have very rarely used during last weeks.
Albert
8 February, 12:10
Does this means the iPhone, iPod touch and Android apps are going to be available outside the UK, US and Germany?
Nick
8 February, 12:11
Over the last few months I have been on the fence with Pandora vs Last.fm; you’ve made my decision very easy.
Starting right now I will uninstall Last.fm from the following devices: roku (x2), HTC EVO, and 3 computers.
G-Robot
8 February, 12:17
This is really gay.
leducjjr
8 February, 12:18
Lithium Spade, couldn’t agree more. Well said, and I’m one of the now-not-so-silent ones.
I’m fortunate in that I’ve a Sony X10 which has never had issues with the last.fm app.
I’ve also had a most enjoyable pair of round-trip drives in my truck this weekend streaming my fav last.fm stations to the truck radio via Bluetooth.
The drive time in total this weekend was about 16 hours – including commercial-free, crystal-clear radio. Listening to stations that would never have made the “satellite radio” XFM market (no, really, Otis Redding radio? Devo radio? And how about Black Flag radio? No they won’t set one up, I asked, hehe).
Yep, worth the 3-spot a month. No worries here.
ez
8 February, 12:27
i hope Google buys last.fm’s database with all the users’ scrobbles history dating back to the beginning of the service and after that last.fm should just shut down for good.
David B.
8 February, 12:28
Well, I started to give Last.fm a chance and I guess this will make up my mind. I’ll be a full time Pandora listener. Their interface is much better in my opinion. When will these companies learn that people won’t pay money for these types of services in most all cases. There are just too many other options.
ham
8 February, 12:31
Too bad, I was really digging it over Pandora.
High Q
8 February, 12:32
As for pay for listen, keep it! Too many other good free services out there.
Bu bye
punkgs
8 February, 12:32
honestly,.. cmon, i tried to listen to it on the desktop recently and it didnt work, how do u expect me to pay now?
plus with all those important features that getting downgraded….
i remember those days when pandora was available in uk….
Fail
8 February, 12:33
It crashes on the iPod Touch often.
Lauren
8 February, 12:43
That’s fine I use pandora anyway. Lastfm plays the SAME 5 songs over and over again.
Hurrah!
8 February, 12:46
Hey, I just had a thought. All of you lot are throwing your toys out of the pram and leaving to shit up another service … that means Last.fm should load quicker and work more smoothly for the rest of us.
Nice one, guys! :D
Andy Roberts
8 February, 12:48
I would consider paying for it if it didn’t crash so much on my iPhone.
Tarkowsky
8 February, 12:48
since I had trouble with paypal using it with ebay, I will never again go for it. They are so unprofessionel, that it hurts.
On their german website, they did not even give a hint, that you have to dial the code for gb with the given support telefon number.
So with this I feel very sorry, not to be able to pay directly with my credit card. What I do not understand is, why I should use paypal and you still need my credit card details. something is wrong here.
John
8 February, 12:53
Judging from the comments, you’re going to lose a lot more money from loss of subscribers. I’m not sure what you are thnking, but this is a bad idea. I’ll be deleting my account on Febuary 15th if you don’t change your mind.
Mike
8 February, 12:54
YOU HAVE LOST YET ANOTHER LISTENER. YOU CANNOT CHARGE FOR A SERVICE THAT CRASHES SO OFTEN. IDIOTS.
Nate
8 February, 12:56
goodbye last.fm and thanks for all the fish
Mobile User
8 February, 12:56
I thought I found a great service, Anything Microsoft supports on their XBOX falls apart. Guess it’s back to PANDORA for 40 hours… You Guys lost another one after the three months trial… YOU SUCK
Ron
8 February, 12:59
not a solution for “light-users”.
through with it. farewell…
Doug
8 February, 13:01
Over and out.
Jason
8 February, 13:04
Sorry, I don’t use Last.fm enough to justify £3/month. I think you’ll be turning away a lot of casual listeners like myself.
dawid
8 February, 13:09
I see your point – and I’m happy to pay the £3 (even if I’m already a Spotify Premium user) – but am afraid you simply may not be ready for this move – there are neverending problems with streaming, lots of randomness, application stopping, starting, playing wrong station etc. And streaming takes too long (the silence between songs takes sometimes forever!).
Please look into that and prove you are worth it and ready for it.
You have only 3 weeks left.
Good luck.
Jasper j.
8 February, 13:15
Not going to pay for my Android just so windows users can ride free
smh
8 February, 13:18
it was nice knowing ya Last.fm i prefered you over Pandora but now i will be leaving ya. =’(
Josh
8 February, 13:20
I have really enjoyed your services over the last few months, but not enough to pay the price you are asking. I’ll miss the charts and listening info gathered from scrobbling, but I have more than enough music of my own to offset this loss.
I just don’t understand why you can’t allow advertising to offset your operations cost. It is obvious by looking at the comments here that you are going to lose tons of listeners that made you what you are in the first place. This is a bad move, IMO.
Thanks for the service while I used it, but I won’t be subscribing. It’s just now worth it.
andy c
8 February, 13:25
i’m off. spotify for me. much rather have my own playlist. such a shame guys.
i_says
8 February, 13:26
I was planning on using last.fm a lot on my phone.
but then I found that you guys don’t support Canada… or most countries, really.
now you’re charging money. Even if I was able to, I’d have to pay. All the mobile platforms support adds. I don’t think many people would be upset with a small add on their app.
Paul
8 February, 13:28
I already pay for Satellite radio on my Droid, I saw nothing in the few months I used Last.fm (on and off – mostly off due to sound quality) to warrant paying for the service.
App deleted, R.I.P. last.fm.
DP
8 February, 13:32
Bummer – Back to Pandora for my mobile. Better app quality anyway.
Al
8 February, 13:41
What drew me to last.fm from Pandora was its lack of limits on skipped songs. I wouldn’t mind paying a nominal fee for a useful music service. But not one that crashes as constantly as last.fm.
russ
8 February, 13:50
I will be uninstalling this app on the 15th and going to Pandora. Ads is one thing but I will not be paying for your service when the songs won’t even play all the way through. I dont know what’s going in @ last.fm but you all Need to get your Shit together
Aaron Toponce
8 February, 14:04
It’s slightly troubling when authors of posts don’t interact with their comments. It would be nice to see some sort of feedback- anything, about this issue. Clearly, a lot of people are upset, and yet Matthew Hawn and Last.fm remain silent, minus a post here or there. Very troubling indeed.
Weirdna
8 February, 14:05
Sounds like the backlash is on, we all realise Last.FM has to make money as servers cost but is this the right route, did you do your research?
Will still use last.fm but not the radio app anymore, although £3 seems good value for money. I just think the choice and functionality is better on spotify, but keep in touch.
CC
8 February, 14:11
Boy did you guys blow it. So long and F-U!
Jake smith
8 February, 14:12
Goodbye Last.fm I will not be paying for a monthly subscription to your service. Ad supported would be one thing. I guess I’ll be putting Pandora back on my phone. Thanks for a great service too bad your wrecking it by deciding to charge mobile users for it.
John
8 February, 14:24
Been a short time listener using my G2 Droid and have enjoyed it it on the drive to work as local radio sucks. Its a good service and has value but the delivery system sucks and either freezes, skips or force closes far too often to pinch my pockets in this time of economic downturn.
Good luck with your ventures with MS and its a bummer you were bought by CBS who is a major part of why radio in general sucks balls.
Uninstalling and won’t be back, you can give my 3 months to someone else.
toothpaste
8 February, 14:29
1. Scrobbling should be relatively live, at times it takes up to a few hours for me to see updates. hmmmmmm?
2. Streaming music to my android phone is infuriating beyond words. Constant crashes, pauses and non-responsiveness. Mind you I have tested the streaming on various phones and last.fm sucks on them all.
Now I know that you “limeys” are used to paying for shitty food and drinking shitty beer, but if I am to pay for a product/service it has to work flawlessly. Period. I don’t waste my time and money on garbage.
Depending on the size of the last.fm community using streaming to their mobile devices, last.fm might have a massive exodus. To gain a few dollars is short sighted when clearly the response has been negative with only a few supporting posts. You will lose more than you gain. This could be the beginning of the end for your nice office and drinking sessions. That’s it perhaps, the last.fm employees have an alcohol bill we have to pay, or maybe your in house cook/chef?
Joe
8 February, 14:31
Well today is a sad day for me. I loved the free last.FM app. I use it all day. Now I have to pay to use it on my cellphone. There gos my day.
You suck
8 February, 14:34
What a bunch of crap. Your service is not the best in the world, and even if it was I wouldn’t pay for something like this that has free competition. Learn to support your model with ads or subscriptions for advanced support. It’s not our fault you suck at learning how to make money off something like this that could easily be profitable without a subscription. I will certainly not be wasting money on your service and I hope you go under in a month (I wouldn’t be surprised if you did). Thanks for stealing years worth of my listening history and thanks for giving us the option of a data export (luckily I was able to write a script that scraped it all, IN YOUR FACE jerks). Goodbye Last, hello alternative (Pandora?)
Holly Golightly
8 February, 14:34
As a communist, I only use what is free and if that requires advertisements, then I find an ad-blocker. I am sorry, but the golden rule for me is “free” and that is that. You paralyzed your own name brand. Why can’t you just remain free forever? Do away with this paid capitalistic crap. Nobody enjoys advertisements anyways. What a shame to lose your mobile service… Because that is pretty much the only way I listen to music through you guys. You guys could have been the free alternative against these capitalistic pigs. Make users feel proud to use your service. For free! I just do not understand why you decided to do this in the first place and why now? Sigh, what a huge let-down. I have been enjoying it for a year. I shall IXquick my way into finding another free alternative for radio. Goodbye.
chc
8 February, 14:35
Who’s the genius behind this idea? Really, you shouldn’t let your dog make business decisions for your company.
Michael Julian
8 February, 14:36
Back to Pandora for me as well. I could put up with the lock ups for free but don’t think I am willing to pay. Did you think about ads? It sounds like you are trying the easy way out because selling ads is hard work.
Jack Hughes
8 February, 14:39
Yeah, I’m pretty much never gonna use Last.fm ever again. If I’m gonna pay for something, I’m gonna pay for something I can choose the songs I want to listen to.
I will never pay for a service that was once free.
Way to lose customers last.fm. Way to alienate the people that will now turn to other providers that don’t try and monetize their customer relations.
Kel
8 February, 14:46
Last.fm, I thought we had something special. That is possibly the worst Valentine’s Day present ever!
Shawn Rodriguez
8 February, 14:50
I love last.fm but not excited about paying for it. If i have to pay for it I hope it will continue to do the great job that it’s done for me.
JD
8 February, 14:54
Not enough music that I like on here to pay for. Uninstalled. Good luck last.fm
mizake
8 February, 14:55
I’ve been with you guys since 2006. Sad to see it end this way, but goodbye. You are making a very bad choice.
JMK
8 February, 14:59
This a real bummer. Last.fm was a superior service before this change. It’s a shame that Pandora found a way to at least give users a monthly hour limit before charging a subscription fee and Last.fm could not.
Reading between the lines though it’s clear this was a contract decision with Microsoft if XBox and Windows Mobile 7 devices will still receive free radio without a subscription. Talk about isolating your users. This is going to hurt Last.fm. Users helped make the product what it is today. Won’t be the case in the future when their user numbers fall off the charts…
Obsidian_Dawn
8 February, 14:59
Thanks for the free subscription, but no thanks, as has been mentioned before the android app falls over way too much for me to consider paying for it..
I’ve put up with the ads on the web version, and the care-bear thing but this is a bit much.
Sorry but I’ll be on Spotify. :(
Mike M
8 February, 15:00
I will definitely get rid of my last.fm app now. There is absolutely no reason to have it if I’m going to be required to pay.
Stark_International
8 February, 15:00
It’s all been said already – goodbye last.fm. Your timing is wonderful as well – right after you finally resolved your big service outage.
Metalinjex
8 February, 15:05
When if you dont have a iPod Touch or an iPhone? Are you screwed? can I not continue to use the website for radio listening?
Metalinjex, USA
NJL
8 February, 15:06
No thanks, LastFM. I’m not paying for yet another subscription. I’m moving on to other services. You might as well cancel my account.
rivi5val
8 February, 15:11
First you have censored all the music I have scrobbled then you take away all the loved tracks I saved NOW you want me to 36 UK pounds you are seriously mad or your not good at business NO way am I going to pay you a penny.
grocerystoreboy69420
8 February, 15:14
LoL I already set my browser to non-mobile mode and use the website for streaming (because it works better than the app for me). Guess it’s business as usual.
mrush336
8 February, 15:15
thanks for keeping it free as long as you did. But i wont buy a subscription. And I dont think many other people will either. You guys just commited Fincial suicide if you ask me. Im going to uninstall the app now and go with a free ad supported. Times are hard for everybody rite now and I cant afford to spend any extra money on any nonessentials. Oh well goodbye……
kat
8 February, 15:18
Nope, wont pay for radio.
halber_mensch
8 February, 15:19
I’m uninstalling last.fm from my android phone right now. I was considering upgrading to a 2GB plan just so I could listen to last.fm on the go, but I’m not going to pay an extra subscription fee on top of the exorbitant cost of a data plan. Way to suck it, last.fm
Wm. Josiah Erikson
8 February, 15:20
The last.fm mobile app on my Droid 2 never worked for me anyway. It would just randomly stop playing in the middle of songs and skip to another one. I have switched to Pandora, even though I don’t actually like it as well. I’m definitely not going to pay for the service when I can get it for free elsewhere!
Morgan
8 February, 15:20
First of all. Cant see it happening. Audio quality isnt there and the mobile apps arent high enough quality.
Second, why is WinMob still going to get it free? No mobile devices should mean no mobile devices.
Third, why is Sonos and Sqeezebox considered mobile devices
Fourth. Why is it $3 £3 or 3 EURO?
At current rates
£3 = £3
$3 = £1.86
3 EURO = £2.54
I hope your short sited, money grabbing scheme fails you.
notpaying
8 February, 15:27
u suck
John
8 February, 15:33
Thanks for the free subscription starting on February 15th. Guess I’ll be canceling my last.fm account on May 14th.
I truly liked last.fm better than any other service, but I’m not going to pay for it. (*see hundreds of reasons above) Does anyone pay for broadcast radio? Or for broadcast network TV? No. Would they? No. We will continue to find the content that is put out there for free and we’ll deal with the advertisements. Cable networks are running scared because a massive shift is coming to streaming video online. Consumers are getting smarter. We realize the scam of “subscription services”.
Thanks, but I’m done if you start charging. By the way, how many of your broke, high-school-aged listeners, living at home with minimum wage summer jobs will want to sign up for a subscription to an online radio service? None? That’s what I thought. Goodbye last.fm
Kenson Martz
8 February, 15:34
Same as ben and others: I would rather have ADs and be able to listen on my Android 2.1 device. Unless you do this I will be switching to Pandora or Grooveshark (or “spotify” as others are saying)
Voidths
8 February, 15:38
Pay for streaming music that only plays part of a song and skips to the next and repeats the same songs over and over and over again? I think not. TuneIn Radio and PowerAmp is all I need. Bye Last.fm
Music Lover Sad about Last.Fm
8 February, 15:46
FAIL.
And I quote “LastFM just isn’t stable enough to be a paid-for product..”
I second that.
Looking for new app.
Good bye.
iPhone user
8 February, 15:47
OK, so that’s one less app on my iPhone then…
George Sampson
8 February, 15:51
I’m VERY disappointed in you Last.fm! I will not be paying for service and moving on to Pandora for my music. I can understand paying a one-time fee for the app on my iPhone/iPad, limiting usage (like Pandora), or receiving ads, but I will not pay $3/month. So upset!
Aroddo
8 February, 15:53
But HEY!
I got a FREE 3-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION !!!!
you know where you can stick it, no?
Buddha
8 February, 15:54
Sad but true…it’s all been said,the lights are on but no one is listening…
Last.fm = FailAroddo
8 February, 16:00
Hang on, I just noticed:
WHY DOES WINDOWS-7 MOBILE STAY FREE ????
Have you done any conspirative deals with microsoft in order to help them promote their shitty mobile-OS?
How many millions are they paying you for that one?
doc
8 February, 16:03
If I were a really heavy user, I suppose 3 bones a month might be worth it, but I use last.fm generally to scope out new music and concert dates. That I can do on the net or through other services for free. At worst, I can use Pandora’s ad-driven 36 hours a month.
Ah, well. It was fun while it lasted, last.fm.
Aroddo
8 February, 16:06
oh, lookie there:
> Microsoft has agreed to subsidise the costs so that users who listen using their Xbox or Windows Phone 7 handset will still be able to do so for free.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12381887
I guess Microsoft will be able to afford the $150/month in the years to come
Jayden
8 February, 16:10
Not so thrilled about the changes, but Last FM is still better than Spotify.
mac
8 February, 16:19
sad sad day… will be removing last.fm from my iphone now…
lynnv
8 February, 16:21
welp looks like i’m going to look for something else.
greedy jerks.
Claire
8 February, 16:29
So now it’s quite clear that Lame.FM won’t have a change of heart because Microsoft have paid for exclusivity, just as I suspected. Should have jumped ship when CBS took over. Sell outs.
Raul
8 February, 16:31
Ah let me think?!?!?!??!? NO Thanks. Not paying radio
Chris
8 February, 16:31
Pandora it is then, thanks for helping me save room on my iphone.
Taylor Corn
8 February, 16:34
Fix the ANDROID app for 2.2 FROYO and I will stay a member. Otherwise no go.
daniel
8 February, 16:40
Sincerely I think that people complain a lot. Spotify is more expensive that Lastfm and the lastfm’s catalogue is more complete. And $E3… you guys drink every week more than $E10 in alcohol… be serious. If you don’t want pay for this, listen the radio stations from FM stations with programation accord to the DJ tastes or download the music to your mobile phone.
VrtcllyChllnhd03
8 February, 16:51
Pandora has a free app that works consistently, di.fm has a free app that works just as well. Both have free subscriptions and premium subscriptions. Why can’t Last.fm do this too? As others have said, Last.fm crashes too much, we have to skip a lot of songs, and even then, on 3G, most of the time, the songs skip/pause constantly. Why would I want to pay for that, when I barely use the app anyways, because of its poor accessibility? I’ll stick to Pandora and DI.fm. There are other ways of making a station like this work, you just aren’t going about it in the right way. I’m not the only one saying this is a poor decision and I’m not the only one saying you’re not worth the money you’re asking for. This many people can’t be wrong. Dead radio station walking.
tmusic
8 February, 17:05
bye bye. I will not accept your new ideas about making money.
just deleted the app from iPhone and iPad.
(AND from my desktop as well. I just will not use last.fm any longer in any forms on any computer.)
Justin
8 February, 17:12
I liked it ! But with times being what they are I have to say no more!!!!
Tom
8 February, 17:22
Well its been said many times above but, stuttering & switching songplay on android, the incredible LACK of material from the artist chosen as a percentage of actual material that plays and now I can only listen if I subscribe? Please… you’re joking right?
Keep The Net Free
8 February, 17:22
:*(
So long my far, far superior freind. I hope Pandora will take me back after our affair.
John
8 February, 17:24
Goodbye Last.fm!
StAlphonzo
8 February, 17:25
I see the entitlement generation is still grousing. What a bunch of friggin’ wankers.
We don’t get Spotify in the US. I subscribe to Rhapsody and Pandora and will subscribe to LastFM in a few months. I find there are distinct differences between music played on Pandora and LastFM and for me this is well worth the cost of 2 freaking CD’s. For instance, when I build a station around Jamiroquai on LastFM, I’m introduced to a ton of great bands we don’t often hear in the US. That same station on Pandora plays mostly Motown. Well, Motown is great but not what I’m looking for.
I hope all you losers have jobs or do you still live with mommy and daddy?
v8dreaming
8 February, 17:31
“Last.fm Radio will remain free on the Last.fm website in the US, UK and Germany and for the US and UK users of Xbox Live and Windows Mobile 7 phones. We’ll also continue to offer radio for free via the Last.fm desktop app.”
Free for Windows Mobile 7 phones, but not android, which far outnumbers WM7? That makes no sense at all. Haven’t you learned from other’s mistakes that exclusivity deals never work in the long run? Even Apple has seen the error of their ways. I hope the money you get from Microsoft makes up for the loss in revenue from people leaving. Actually, I don’t.
I don’t use this service enough to pay. I’ll go back to Pandora, Slacker, TuneIn Radio, Jam11 or any other number of free radio services before paying to listen to the radio.
This is a major fail on your part Lastfm.
stoneworrior
8 February, 17:32
Always crashes on my phone in the middle of a run. Pandora doesn’t and I dont have to pay for it. The only cool thing about your app is I was able to post what I was listening to on facebook, that is not worth paying for. Deleting your crappy app now, goodbye forever
Dingo
8 February, 17:37
As a music fan, I think it’s sad that a generation raised on peer-to-peer networks (Napster, etc) has come to not only expect but demand that music is free. How do they expect their favorite artists and providers like Last.fm to make a living?!
I love Last.fm and will gladly pay to continue using the service on my Droid X because no other music service allows me to scrobble like Last.fm.
Thanks for the great work!
Richard
8 February, 17:46
Congratulations for opening up your announcement to a blog – it takes some guts to do that.
As an intermittent Sonos and iPhone user of LastFM I’m really disappointed – I’ve found loads of good artists over the years that I would never have come across otherwise. It really has been a great way to discover new bands.
Presumably the cut you make out of ads and people buying music direct off your site isn’t enough but signing up for an occasional user like me isn’t really an option so I’ll probably not be joining.
But I must say it’s disappointing to see people who have made use of your services over the years now becoming abusive – I don’t think anyone deserves that sort of treatment. You have to make the call as you see it – it’s your busines after all – so it’s a shame some people can’t get over it.
Larsen
8 February, 17:47
That all sounds reasonable, but not I’m hearing last.fm on my iPhone so often and frequent, that a subscription would make sense.
:-(
Bryan
8 February, 17:51
This change in this policy is premature. I would have no issue with subscription if streaming to portable devices were reliable. In my case, with the Android application it is not. It still skips and has buffering issues, even on one the more advance hardware smart phones. With the indentation of smart phones and tablets, deployment of 4-generation data service, improvements in device operating systems, I would think Last.fm would fine-tune the service before expecting subscriptions. Uninstalling. Will re-evaluated in a year or so, should Last.fm resolve the reliability issues.
Adam H.
8 February, 17:56
Dingo – Radio has always been free. Just because we change the means in which we listen to it doesn’t mean we should be charged for it.
No big deal. I’ll just listen to music somewhere else. Not that I used last.fm that often, but it was nice to have.
When there are so many other apps available for free, why would they even consider charging for their service? Now I’ll have more room on my Droid to download a different app that doesn’t charge me.
Manuel Piranda
8 February, 17:57
I love last.fm. To bad you all haven’t made any major site changes in FOREVER and are now shooting yourselves in the foot. I used to tell all my friends about the site. Now I’m going to have a real hard time doing so. Why would anyone choose this over another site. Ask yourselves that?
Tim
8 February, 18:01
So dissapointed. Your service has been loads of fun but I would never pay for it. I need more control over what gets played if I’m going to pay.
mallflower
8 February, 18:02
oh lawdy, whats the most important – library still stands on stupid unconceptional bases, all of us are still experiencing mispelled or totally non-sense scrobbles. and all you do after all the years of these problems is turning another part of last.fm to paid service. you are ridiculous, i laugh at you .. level of your services is acceptable only for free. anyone who pays is brainless. but thats the way you like it, nah? ;))
Cai
8 February, 18:05
If your going to make it a premium feature on mobile phones make it a premium feature on windows 7 phones to, it is only fair.
Kaptspaulding
8 February, 18:08
In 2002, when last.fm was still an unknown, I signed up for my first account and loved it. A radio station centered around the listener. I’ve put it on phones, tvs, consoles, computers, and anything that would accept it (and some that wouldn’t). Trynig to extort the loyal listener has got to be the stupidest marketing idea I’ve ever heard. Last.fm was a place that good music could be delivered wherever you were with no interruption or station i.d. Now it’s another gulttonous corporation trying to milk the public for a better bottom line.
It’s sad to see a good idea go the way of the mini-disc or beta-max(sorry Sony). Have fun in obscurity and see you in hell!
lord_nougat
8 February, 18:10
Well, thanks for letting us know about this change, Last.fm!
Now I’ll have to take back all those nice things I said and uninstall. You guys were the best for quite awhile there, but I guess selling out is called selling out for a reason.
Mark M
8 February, 18:26
I’m torn on this … I love last.fm as a means to scrobble stuff and see what I’m listening to (I know that no-one else cares but it keeps me amused) … yes this will continue to be free, for now.
I also love using last.fm as a music discovery tool and have lost count of how much I have spent on CD’s and downloads of artists I discovered via Last.fm that I would never have heard of otherwise. But I only ever investigated new music via last.fm sporadically and at times when nothing else seemed appropriate to listen to at the time … this would have been a few times a month but those sessions could have made me explore 6 or 8 artists and buy the same or more CD’s / downloads.
Am I willing to pay £3 a month for the ability to be able to go and search out new music? Possible, I subscribe to Q and NME in print to effectively do the same I guess … am I likely to? probably not … I might explore Napster instead as I can at least then listen to the stuff Q & NME tell me is worth listening to.
But I have to say that my life would be worse off without Mono, Explosions in the Sky, Kevin Devine, Manchester Orchestra, The Radio Dept, Air Formation, Malory etc whom I would never have experienced without Last.fm
I think the record companies should be funding last.fm to encourage people like me to find new sources of listening and therefore create new sources of revenue … now that’s a business model !!!
X-Loyal Listener
8 February, 18:41
Goodbye Last.FM. Thank you for the free service. After convincing my friends to use Last.FM, I will not be recommending your service any longer.
Subscription-only service on mobile devices is a very bad business move. Sad day indeed as Last.FM slips into obsolescence and Pandora becomes the dominant last free radio service.
opetheric
8 February, 18:50
Well the stream is rather poor sounding anyway. I switched to pandora. It has a few ads but the sound is much better. Charging for this service it has to improve vastly for me to consider that.
Jim Z
8 February, 18:51
Bye Bye! I’m deleting the app NOW! Greed is the end of all good ideas!
Cardboard
8 February, 19:03
Well, I’m definitely not overjoyed by this news. My friend got me started using this program about 2 years or so ago. I mainly just use the Last.Fm app on my Android. Yeah, the program is buggy as heck for me, but I never complained because I’m getting what I paid for (nothing). But now these guys want to charge us for buggy software; they won’t be touching my pockets.
I don’t think I’ll delete my account just yet though; maybe the suits in charge of Last.Fm will change their minds in the future, and/or get their buggy software fixed for mobile devices. Right now though, I don’t see justifying paying to have just the current features (which they’ve taken some good ones away). Money’s too tight for me to continue using the app after the 3 months are up. Money is tight for a lot of people. I hate how some people are talking about how $36 a year isn’t much money, and anyone should be able to pay that tiny bit of money. $36 is a LOT of money for some people; especially when you’ve been unemployed/underemployed a long time, or facing foreclosure/homelessness, or have to skip meals to save money to pay your phone bill, etc, literally EVERY PENNY counts for some people!
With that said, I’m not going to bash Last.Fm for making their decision (like some people feel the need to. Nothing wrong with that, do what works for you), but simply, I won’t be sticking around after the grace period expires. Thanks for the memories, it was fun while it lasted. I don’t know what website I’ll go to from here. I hate how Corporate America (or Corporate World) needs to put their hands into everything society does. It always goes downhill, just look at the music and food industries for example.
P.S. – Like some earlier posters said, I don’t drink fancy coffee. Lol, I can’t stand when people use the expression “about the same cost as your daily cup of coffee”, implying everybody drinks it. I don’t drink coffee.
Lynx3r
8 February, 19:06
I listen to LAST.FM all the time on my computer and on my Droid. Looks like it’s time to find something else.
steve
8 February, 19:06
No problem with the $3 / month as the service and large variety of indie / obscure EBM bands… much more variety than pandora.
But – if im going to pay im definitely going to be calling for a refund when i get the all too common error message..
“Sorry our servers are busy at the moment please try later…”
So hope you have thought this through and provide a way to credit customers who aren’t getting what they are paying for… (not being able to connect, etc..)
Alex
8 February, 19:10
Not worth the money, go screw yourselves LastFM. Account deleted.
Bree
8 February, 19:19
That is very disappointing news. Your product does not stand out above the many other services out there for me to pay a premium for it. Charge the advertisers. I use your product solely on my Droid, and downloaded it simply because you had a more diverse genome than Pandora. Back to Pandora I go.
Sincerely,
One Very Disappointed PREVIOUS Customer
Anonymous
8 February, 19:23
This is bullcrap, I’m not paying for LastFM on my Android, especially if Windows Phone users still get it for free.
Also, you’re not the best in the world and it’s a good idea to keep hyperbole to yourself. I guess I’m just going to use Pandora from now on.
notpaying
8 February, 19:25
may your penis drop off and be eaten by durt squirrels
Hawgwild1717
8 February, 19:28
Boner boner boner boner, durt squirrels durt squirrels swiffer pewt.
durt squirrel
8 February, 19:39
My boots are really cute. This service is not for paid hawg1717.
Kay welovedlastfm
8 February, 19:46
I guess you have less than 3 months left to get the app for ios4/iphone4 to work without crashing/etc.(see comments above) and to make it a more usable and user-friendly piece of art. And if the other want their fare share of ex-last.fm users I am sure they’ll use those 3 months wisely.
Get to work last.fmers, the end is nigh
Bill
8 February, 19:46
Ehhh … couldn’t you just support the iPhone and iPad versions of the app with Apple’s iAd service … which seems to be a verifiable success (see “Apple, Campbell’s fund study saying iAd beats TV” at http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/11/02/03/ad.networks.first.effectiveness.report/#ixzz1DOl0fojl ), and why isn’t the Windows Phone 7 and XBOX 360 included in the list of home and mobile devices that have to pay?
Anonymous
8 February, 19:58
Easy problem to fix. I simply deleted the Last.fm app from my Android phone today after reading this blog and simply switched back to Pandora.
Makes no sense that you are going to charge Android users yet Windows phone users continue to get the service for free.
Good luck with your new business plan. Your going to need it.
Fuck last fm
8 February, 19:59
I love last.fm, especially for listening to metal music, because you have such a selection of bands most haven’t heard of….but now I’ll gladly go back to my iPod/Pandora/spotify instead of paying to listen to the music I can gladly find elsewhere for free. If you were to offer some awesome special feature for subscribing I would stay, but it seems like it’ll be the same skipping/ crashing bs as before…thanks but no thanks- good luck continuing to grow. You had a great run
lastfmhaternow
8 February, 20:10
Horrible…you just got greedy and part of the corporate world now. I will no longer use last.fm for my mobile.
Pandora ;)
8 February, 20:15
BOOO. Looks like I’m deleting Last.fm from my Droid. I’d much rather look at ads than pay a monthly fee, I don’t care how “small” it is. Monthly fees add up, and it appears that certain phones are being singled out, and with no clear benefit for the charges.
What a crappy thing to do. Good luck with that. Even if you return to being a free service, I won’t be back.
muzikman2787
8 February, 20:20
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE
I have been a member of last.fm for about 7 years now… and for SEVEN years I have been building up my profile, teaching last.fm what i do and dont like. I have come to trust it over any of the new predecessors, and what do I get for all my support? my 7 years of undying devotion to last.fm? a lousy 3 month free subscription.
LAST.FM… you need to re think this, you need to adapt a new method of profit. This cannot be too difficult in the digital age we live in, and honestly it is cowardly to begin charging all your beloved fans.
I WILL BE SWITCHING TO ANOTHER RADIO PROVIDER… FOR FREE!!!!!
edo
8 February, 20:23
sounds like you just gave everyone a reason to switch to Pandora or Spotify. Don’t you realize that changes like this only alienate your customer base, you know the ones your company depends on to stay afloat.
Ryan Smith
8 February, 20:23
Not cool!
The application on Droid X is a huge pain to use in the first place. It’s very glitchy and lacks some major functionality as it is. For instance, my recently played list stopped updating and I can’t pause songs; it wasn’t even an option in the controls. Not to mention that it force closes almost every time I use it!
It’s definitely not worth paying for without some MAJOR upgrades and redevelopment…. I only put up with it because it was free!
Time to find another provider!
Fabi
8 February, 20:41
I’ll delete my last.fm account as soon as of February 15th. You guys scrobbled my music database for more than two years and got my personal info and now you want me to pay to listen to your radio stations on my phone? No way.
I also don’t understand why German customers will be f*cked up again (British customers will be even more).
It is
3 US$
or3€ -or-
3£-
why?
3 US$ is 2,19€ or 1,86£. I’m not gonna pay more than people in the US just because I live in Europe, got a different currency and higher VAT (which is 19% here).
Bye.
Paul Jacobs
8 February, 20:57
Bye, Bye, Bye Last.FM —- It wuz nice listening to you!
Beachboy63
8 February, 20:58
Well I have a 50 minute commute each way to work. I have thoughly enjoyed the service, even though it was “Glitchey” What a bummer! If I am paying I will use another service. To bad Last FM, you are making a bad business decision!
woolybully
8 February, 21:11
Hoo boy… Don’t you know the higher-ups at Pandora and Spotify are giggling like schoolgirls! Is there a Vegas betting line on how soon last.fm goes totally tits-up? I need me a piece of that.
Brian
8 February, 21:45
Fix the Android app and I will buy. I have to many glitches and from time to time I have to take the battery out of the phone.
No way will I pay for my phone to glitch and freeze…
A formerly satisfied listener
8 February, 21:46
Well guess that’s the end of that. I am not paying for CRAP until you fix all, and I mean, ALL of the bugs on the iPhone app. I have hourly crashes, half the features don’t work, can’t view comments, etc. Unless you want to make the app better, it’s just not worth it to me.
And anyway, is it likely that the average listener is going to pay you for what we were getting for free when money is this tight? I don’t think so.
I’m disappointed that you guys made this decision.
Murky
8 February, 22:07
Uninstalled, recommended SPOTIFY to all my friends, will not be back.
Shove this new subscription up your ass.
Spotify here I come.
Bryan
8 February, 22:44
While I don’t like paying for radio (especially when alternatives are available), Last.fm is in business to make money, and you can’t blame them for needing to do so. Everyone got comfortable with the free service, but it was provided for free, so I see no basis for bashing them.
That being said, I will not subscribe — not out of anger — but just because I simply don’t use it that often to begin with. It was defintiely nice to have though.
Ally
8 February, 22:47
I must admit you give a superb service and I enjoy your format very much but there are many other ways to get my music radio. Looks like Spotofy will get used double time now. A huge thanks for the servive you have given me. Drop me another email if you become free again I for one will sign up again.
drian-A aka Adrian
8 February, 22:48
I was a big supporter via word of mouth. I even have an artist profile up here & boasted to everyone I knew who used Pandora about how much better it is/was. I don’t have a computer due to theft & got an Android to be able to check emails & what not. I pay the same rate as a non smart phone via a discount through my job, bit I am a single father who lives check to check. $3 is just a cup of coffee, but I make my coffee at home.
I also get dropped service at home so I don’t listen there (pandora, calls, web, i live by big trees), but in my car I get dropped last.fm service. In my car my average trip is 10 mins. That’s about 2 songs each way if a song doesn’t skip. I usually just listen to my ipod anyway to save the battery.
Also, I wish there was an “un-ban” or recently played feature on my phone. I’ve been drying many times & the song skips before I can “love” it or I’ll accidentally hit “ban”. Other times I have “love“ed a song when it starts but then it breaks down & comes back in & I don’t like it’s ending(mostly electronica stuff).
I WOULD RATHER OPT FOR SOME ADS HERE & THERE THAN PAY FOR SOMETHING I RARELY USE ANYMORE.
And to think, I wanted to look into if you folks had t-shirts, stickers or other swag available.
Oh well.
laserluke
8 February, 23:03
What? Really?
I thought when you first started last.fm was supposed to revolutionize free music.
And like others said, your app really isn’t even that great.
Shame, you had so much potential..
-daniel-
8 February, 23:06
All these people saying “Bye Last.fm, I’m off to Spotify!” Are you stupid? They charge over 3x more to listen to music per month on your mobile device and they do COMPLETELY different music-related things. Last.fm clearly NEED to make money to pay the labels. The morons saying “CBS has ruined Last.fm”- get over it. iPod, iPad, Android apps etc all existed AFTER CBS acquired it. You are lucky you got it for free at all. These comments make confirm to me that Last.fm users are no-longer the intelligent cool kids. They are winging bitches. Lots of love, a scrobbler.
Joey
8 February, 23:26
This is a very disappointing change. I would much rather see an ad-supported mobile version. I guess it’s time to delete my last.fm app.
And what’s with supporting only Windows Mobile 7 Phones for free users? That’s devicism :(
Dingo
9 February, 00:46
Adam H. – Last.fm is much more than just radio. No radio station, whether terrestrial or net-based, plays music chosen exclusively from YOUR music library. Not Pandora (which I gladly pay for to remove ads and listen for more than 30 hours per month), not satellite radio (which isn’t free)… but Last.fm does.
This policy change could be risky on Last.fm’s part, but it won’t matter one bit to users like me, who appreciate the service and are willing to pay for it. Three bucks a month?! Come on! I already pay that much to Pandora and just a few bucks more for MOG (which scrobbles my tunes to Last.fm, which then become part of my library.)
Sure, there are other services out there that are free, but don’t expect them to be free forever. (I’ve tried them all and Last.fm is exceptional in many ways.) Those other music services will need to pay their bills at some point, and when they do, they’ll either burden you with ads, charge you a modest fee, or both.
I’ve been a Last.fm user since July 2006 and have played almost 10,000 songs via the service. I’m happy to pay $3 a month and I’ll bet I’m not alone.
For those who still want Last.fm to be free, it is, just not on your mobile devices after May 15.
Long live Last.fm!
DII$
9 February, 00:52
Very dumb move last.fm. I’m literally the only reason all of my friends use your website instead of Pandora. Good job, now I look like an idiot. I hate Pandora too, but you’ve driven me away.
past user
9 February, 01:22
I think the good news is that you wont be needing as much bandwidth to stream, considering the majority of people will be switching to free alternatives. Way to go rape the money tree.
bostonteaparty
9 February, 01:28
people at last.fm are so full of themselves. “we believe our radio is the best in the world?” do you even bother to look at the thousands of bug reports you receive? do even you acknowledge the fact we the listeners made you? do you relaize there are radio stations much smaller than you streaming audio day in and day out? why not ask for donations if the money is that important. your shit stinks and you know it. with 3 measly bucks a month, youll be making millions off of us. people should refuse paying a cent unless they want to see themselves one day paying for every single “service” they get online. especially radio. this is only the beginning…
Brad
9 February, 01:33
There are other ways last.fm could have done this. Personally I think they should have made it ad-supported like on xbox or their website and remove ads for subscribers.they probably would have made more money that way since they would keep all the people not willng to pay… that said there is no way in hell I’m paying for a service that skips constantly and can’t fibd ebough songs to keep your station going(it always gives me a not enough song credits message). I’m sorry last.FM but I won’t be paying for this and I’m sure my friends and family will be uninstalling ounce they catch word of this. Also I read the posts I bet tht ounce this takes effect you will probably lose at least 90% of your userss
Anonymous
9 February, 01:44
Still no response from the powers that be.
Silence is golden.
They’re either ignoring us or they’re having a heated debate internally about whether this was a good idea.
Robert Flannigan
9 February, 02:32
Why would I subscribe when the Pandora and Slacker apps are both free? Not to mention apps that can stream my own music collection over the Internet?
Gyurme Chökyong
9 February, 02:52
you know what, CBS? FUCK YOU! IM OUT!!!!!
StAlphonzo
9 February, 03:18
Truly astounding at the vitriol coming out of you pathetic douchebags.
I keep coming back because it’s like watching train wreck of precisely what is wrong with people in this world right now.
YOU.
Many folks are providing constructive criticism and explaining why they will not subscribe. That’s fine.
But an overwhelming majority are beyond rude. As if someone OWES THEM FREE FUCKING MUSIC.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU JACKASSES?
Maybe it’s time you move out of mommy and daddy’s basement and get a real job.
Elvis
9 February, 03:29
This is unfortunate, I preferred last.fm over pandora or slacker radio, but it appears I will have to search for a new service now. I was hoping they would be the “netflix” of streaming music but it appears they may be the “blockbuster” with this silly tactic.
The Core
9 February, 03:42
Due to this change my use of last.fm will decrease but I do still enjoy the services on my xbox and will continue to use it there. But you will not be getting a subscription from me for my use of this on my iphone.
Olaoru
9 February, 03:46
I am not sure how you THINK you are going to make money. last.fm is a decent app but it is not worth paying for given that you have others out there that are free or at least have levels of access the allows for free streaming. In this economy people are looking for ways to decrease the amount of money going out of their pockets. I think you would have done better by getting sponsorship like Pandora. So I will continue to enjoy it but look for another free app.
Nel
9 February, 04:04
Just shooting yourself in the foot in this increasingly heavy competition of online radio. I for one will not pay for a subscription to listen on my mobile device when I can listen to Pandora for free. Or just pay a little bit more and listen to Rhapsody. Really don’t care as long as you keep your Scrobbling for free, although wouldn’t be surprised if sometime in the future that will be a premium service.
jomacsr
9 February, 04:08
I just found out about your web site and loved. My son turned me on to Last.fm on my phone and I just started enjoying your service. Based on the sites that your users have been mentioning I will look at other options and perhaps remove you from my phone app.
gurdonark
9 February, 04:34
Dear last.fm:
I place a high value on the audioscrobbler.
I subscribed to the service even before this new door prize was offered. Thus, the change will not affect me, as I intend to keep subscribing. I’ve enjoyed listening to last.fm through a droid app.
I release music under Creative Commons licenses, and listen to a lot of netlabel and self-released music. If the economics permit, it would be wonderful to see a separate app which permits one to stream this kind of music for free, just as one can stream it from the site.
It’s hard for me to blame any user who wishes not to pay for something formerly free. Such users can, as they offer to do,
choose other services.
For me, though, last.fm as a good way to listen to lots of great Creative Commons music in one easy location has really won me over to your service. This change will not drive me away.
best, robert
george
9 February, 05:51
Thanks alot i can not afford to pay you guys suck for doing this go to hell
Marcel
9 February, 06:47
Like most other posters, I’ll be saying goodby to lastfm and sticking to my paid-for spotify account. With Spotify I can download whatever I choose mix into my own playlist. Beats lastfm hands down. Shame lastfm couldn’t see this obvious flaw with their new approach and develop a more effective business model that worked with how their users would tend to use music download services on their mobile devices. Your free service model actually complimented how people use these services. Was in fact your USP.
One way or another, you should have found a way to overcome limitations of delivering advertising on mobile platform. I’m sure your users would have preferred to get adds, even if it meant using a little bit more of their data allocation. You should at least make this an option for users in addition to the subscription mode. In the very least you should have consulted with your users before taking this decision.
So, I’ll be removing lastfm from my phone today and putting all my eggs in the spotify basket.
Marcel
Andy
9 February, 09:20
Would prefer ads and even interrupted music as I don’t use it enough to make a subscription worth while, and only use it on mobile for convenience so I don’t have to have laptop hooked up to speakers. Would be nice if you gave us the choice!
Hogdaddy
9 February, 10:51
I used to subscribe to Last FM but stopped to doing so because I found £3per month unworkable with my low paid job and the way things are now. If it were £1.50p per month including the adds I would sign up again tomorrow.
Hogdaddy
9 February, 11:05
Add on to my last message….My wife listens to Jango which is also free but not as good. So I may well switch over to there unless you do a major rethink,turn around or reduce your subs. I used to be with Pandorra until they did the same and have never been back since.
What ever you decide THANK YOU for an excellent service.
shmoula
9 February, 11:25
I don’t understand where is difference between this and previous state – I had to pay to listen radio on desktop app, mobile app (android) doesn’t work for me, because I’m not from anyone of that ‘overlord’ countries. So I’ll remain paying and no change, cool.
Tom
9 February, 11:38
Did you ever think that the user has to have an internet connection at all times?
This is why I moved to Spotify a year ago. offline palylists.
Steve
9 February, 12:01
Big mistake. No doubt there are plenty of spotify comments on here and rightly so.
Why would i listen to lastfm now? i do wonder what their revenue will be since adverts will reduce (due to low subs) and customers paying will be minimal.
This is quite a sell out, but who truely wouldn’t do the same??
DonPyles
9 February, 12:35
Thats a shame its not the best music was ok but its kinda sad now I can listen to music on my xbox soon. Guess ill just use slacker radio and Pandora for my android. Its a shame when a company gets on Microsofts xbox thinks they can charge people even more. We pay for the smartphone on the line we pay for the xbox live and now radio stations. I will use it till it end thanks for nothing.
PSYCOJOHNO
9 February, 12:52
Hiya last fm and if everyone else is in agreement with me then you will do what I have done.email,blog, facebook,twitter, sms ect…everyone else.A copy of this. Think about it apps, phones, tv ect…Are and will improve. There is even streaming tv apps for your phone if you look hard enough. Yes 300 channels plus free. At the moment but soon they will want money.That’s all they think about.how to squeeze every last pound out of you. You work hard sweat blood and sometimes tears. So really they want your blood and sweat blood but you keep the tears and sometimes scares.for what people like last fm.people that can’t keep there word. Not even in writing and we except all there terms, policies ect..ect… Giving them access to our email ect……well I am going to keep your 3 month Thankyou for making us so big and probably rich aid pak. Then I will delete all my last fm apps pc’s,xbox’s, phones ect… And that of my family.The rest of my family and friends will surely follow. I hope Whoever reads this does the same.Turn the tables the last you hear of them fm. Power to the people. Legal blah blah. Just because I Think, I write what I say.Also hope and pray.So can everyone else that has the ability to understand it. So no reasonal blame can be laid upon my good nature for letting people know what I Think or surely Facebook ect.. Would be at blame for thier asking what people think then broadcasting it. Take this written format for ending my last fm accounts.When and only when my free three tiny months. Or last fm will be seen as victimization for voicing my opinion after sending me an email asking me to. So I take no legal responsibility for any one else’s actions like people copy me and last fm go bust for thier own greed.My user name is Psycojohno for closure of my account at the end of my free service and I will search for more apps to replace them and then eventual those apps will probably be replaced by something bigger and more wonderfull things in the future. Also if people continued to stick together and do this all prices will fall..The same legal garden apply.also very sorry about the spelling. Contact me if you wish I will try and write back psycojohno@yahoo.co.uk
best regards Psycojohno Ps was that a legal threat at the bottom of the page to stop us saying what we think.remember you asked for my comments that’s all I have done. I hope peopleare still strong and hard enough to copy me.
Lost FM
9 February, 13:56
Fairly mad rant there by psycojohno (clue in the name obviously) however for a more sombre comment:
It is sad that LastFM is changing from free to subscription. I must have told 30 to 40 people about how good this ‘free’ service has been to me and my musical taste – tailoring ‘radio’ to what I want to hear and then looking for new and exciting music I probably would not have come into contact with prior to LastFM.
The email from LastFM (thanks but screw you, we’re going subscription)was a kick in the teeth…I’ll be moving to one of the many alternatives (there are many…not just Spotify.
A real shame… the free model should have and could have worked… the easier route is to change the small guys rather than seek either higher advert fees or reduce licensing costs).
Bye Bye Last FM…Hi Hi spotify (maybe)
Justa Comment
9 February, 14:10
Switched of scrobbling, don’t see why my listening characteristics need to support lastfm’s business model. I will not pay for a subscription. I just don’t think lastfm is that great. I’ll watch how this develops. In the end, its all about business and making choices. That’s true for lastfm as well as for myself.
PSYCOJOHNO
9 February, 14:21
Hiya Last fm just a quick note. Is th e word limey as you wrote it at the bottom of this blog ilegal under the racist laws of this once Great nation like other racist terminology. I am British gentle and Proud. Again because of the British gentlemen alleged legal team with Big Mistakes like that. This is my opinion and comments on your blog and not to be used as defensive or attacking purposes in a legal court of law. Where I will have no further comment. Again Thankyou for allowing me to comment on your blog and inviting me to do so. Best regards to our future Psycojohno
Martin
9 February, 14:25
I saw this coming and wondered when last.fm would switch to this model (and even expected the comments which followed) but even though it can be seen as a low point, it is the best move for last.fm
Currently not subscribed to either last.fm or spotify, £3 for a set playlist of tracks you like and more, compared to £10 of many track 50% you wouldn’t listen to isn’t that bad of a deal. £120 or £36
Those saying this is the end of last.fm though, realy? Last.fm without radio is still a service it was first made for. Scrobbling, and thats what everyone came for. And a great one aswell.
And money making? last.fm are still offering a amazing free service, in my opinion better than a free spotify account. You pay, you get more and that’s how everything works.
£3 isn’t squeezing every last pound out of everyone. Last.fm are getting this perfectly right at the right time, as long as they continue to improve there service.
Last.fm listening algorithms ftw.
Last.fm user (maybe soon subscriber) always :)
p.s microsoft are paying on the xbox/windowsphone front, so last.fm have looked at other options.
Humph rey
9 February, 15:33
Only been listening for the last 3 weeks, and thought it was too good to be true. Oh well, I guess Ill go back to using fluidnation, thats a free service, and rather nice music.
There are plenty of other great free services out there!
Garrett
9 February, 15:43
I’ve been using your scrobbling service since the MediaMonkey add-on and promoted your data services to many of my friends. I already pay for Netflix, Hulu, and various magazines. Another paid subscription is disappointing, especially from a service that I thought would never sell out. It shouldn’t matter what I use to stream my radio. I won’t be paying for your service. Farewell.
dbs_rj_br
9 February, 16:18
Unfortunately the Last.Fm for iPhone doesnt work very well, it freezes every one or two musics played.
Will the quality of the app be improved?
What’s the point of paying for something that doesn’t work properly?
One other thing, the advertising system is quite annoying and buggy as well, first because it repeats the bloody same advertise the whole day … and lastly because sometimes it loads the advertise in the middle of a music.
So get this opportunity and feedback to improve yourselves as one of the pioneer in this market.
Bennett
9 February, 16:24
Got the email and very sorry to hear, after years of being a faithful supporter it seems as though I will be using alternate programs.
Jason
9 February, 16:40
Why charge for something that there are 100 free alternatives for? last.fm service isn’t even that great, and the radios aren’t as dynamic as half the alternatives out there.
Epic fail, last.fm
dan zapix
9 February, 16:54
Last.fm already sucks in that the music matching is horrible. Music genres are poorly structured.
Now you want money for it?
Last.fm uninstalled and pandora installed.
Jeff Karlson
9 February, 17:09
I’m glad I came here to see others’ comments. I was going to head back to the buggy Pandora on my mobile device, but instead I will try Spotify. I, too, feel that if I am going to subscribe to a service, it should be something I don’t mind paying for. Thanks for the enjoyment, Last.FM, and I’m sorry this is coming to an end.
adrian
9 February, 17:24
This was sad news – I deleted my profile and removed the plugin from my Squeezebox server. From a classical music listeners view last.fm was of questionable value anyway.
Daniel
9 February, 17:29
Ok, so first you used people to get a lot of valuable data. Then suddenly it got paid for people outside UK, USA, Germany. Yeah, 3 bucks is nothing, but that was RACIST.
now you decided to milk Britons, Americans and Germans too, lol
btw, even though I pay, last.fm android app doesn’t work properly, it crashes and lags all the time. (my Internet connection is decent)
It is time for me to copy all my data to spotify. I can choose tracks there and the paid version works perfectly.
SadXBoyfriend
9 February, 17:52
I gave you a lot of valuable data, you gave me hours of internet radio, and some great new bands… But it’s just not going to work out between us Last.fm. You just want to take and take and honestly there are too many options out there for me. I feel so used. Good luck I will miss you.
What?
9 February, 18:04
So windows phones will get last fm for free but not iPhone? The fuck!?
Jesse
9 February, 19:07
@Dingo: “No radio station, whether terrestrial or net-based, plays music chosen exclusively from YOUR music library.”
If you own a smartphone or an MP3 player, you can already carry your music library anywhere you go. That way you can also choose from your entire library, not just the subset that Last.fm has added, and you can choose specific songs.
I like Last.fm because it plays music I don’t already have.
“Those other music services will need to pay their bills at some point, and when they do, they’ll either burden you with ads, charge you a modest fee, or both.”
Burden me with ads? YES, PLEASE!
The Xbox 360 version already plays ads, which I think is a fine compromise for unlimited free streaming (and it doesn’t even have Mix Radio). Too bad Last.fm decided not to give mobile users that option.
Disgruntled User
9 February, 19:08
Guess I’ll be deleting my account….
Bob
9 February, 19:14
As an occasional use free app i could put up with the constant track skipping the random crashes etc etc
but now there is a subs charge I might as well find one that actually works instead.
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Lastfm
Marc
9 February, 19:35
I have left last.fm as a result of this change and am now using Pandora.
Bye.
hobi
9 February, 20:06
RIP, last.fm
what a sad day :(
Matt
9 February, 20:37
Seriously people, it’s just your mobile apps and some home theater. I usually use Last.fm radio on my desktop or XBOX Live. I qwas concerned this affected me, but it didn’t. Last.fm kicks the crap out of any other service (far better than Pandora.) Will be staying for good.
Axe
9 February, 20:40
…you dig your own grave with this decision.
Goodbye, last.fm
Scott
9 February, 22:25
So now you make the people pay for getting to you where you are?. how does that make sense. How about you only charge new customers then. WE MADE YOU!!!
i can pretty much agree with everyone else here.. i’ll take a 30 second ad over paying 3-4 dollars a month for this.. youre gonna lose money in the long run with not having ads and no customers. No ONE is going to pay for this when they can get other apps and sites for free.
Your loss Last.fm….your loss
Aaron Toponce
9 February, 22:45
Last.fm continues to sit silent amid retorts on this move. Not interesting in reaching out to your community? I guess that much is obvious.
toothpaste
9 February, 23:25
December 11, 2005 I joined last.fm.
Since then last.fm has 154672 tracks that I have played in their database. My personal tastes, listening habits, who my friends are, who their friends are, my neighbors, musical compatibility are just a few parameters that last.fm have collected. A mountain of information that can be parsed in endless ways. This must be a mathematicians dream come true.
I love to scrobble, stats, graphs, wow…it’s looking at my music obsession in an almost tangible way. I find it interesting to see how my musical tastes appear not to change on a daily basis, but have changed over the past 5 years. “nothings changed, but everything is different”.
I have recommended last.fm to all my friends, coworkers, internet friends, installed it on my computer (home, work) and even set it up for my mom. I have the Android app installed on a few devices, scrobbling stats back to last.fm. My role is the IT/engineer of my family, using Last.fm because it was setup very quickly without too much time consumed on building a custom solutions. This is the very reason I recommended Last.fm to everyone I know. Many people recommended you to everyone they know, that is the reason you became this popular.
I have built an eco system around your site and the features it provides me. In turn, you have me to look at your ads, my personal information concerning music and my email so I can create a profile (user: toothpastes). But most importantly, you have a massive data set from ALL OF US that you can R&D algorithms for. How are recommendations made? We helped you build a site with our community support, forum interaction and scrobbling. You in turn have taken away features or as in the case of the Android app, released an app that’s lacking in stability and features. Is this the way to treat a loyal user?
I’m disappointed that my scrobbling has all been in vain. Why should I scrobble so that you can more easily cross-reference music, when I have to pay you for radio consisting of my tracks? I’m doing all the hard work and now you want to charge me for working for you???
Last.fm your decision making has ended the moment that contract was signed. You should have been loyal to us, like we were to you. There had to be another way, than to charge us.
You suck.
toothpaste
9 February, 23:35
That’s over 51,124,736,313 tracks scrobbled since 2003.
About 398,804 years of music in total.
WE DID THIS!!!!!!
You still suck.
sanguinetangox
10 February, 01:17
Toothpaste has a WONDERFUL point. You should be paying US for our statistics. Don’t expect us to pay for your apps so you can gather our statistical information.
Murky
10 February, 02:09
FUCK LAST FM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO SPOTIFY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
crass
10 February, 02:53
do they owe us the music?
of course they do, of course they do
do they owe us the music?
of course they #$%*ing do
Acai Fit Plus
10 February, 04:11
its a fantastic blog and i love this and it is very written.
morrissey
10 February, 05:21
really dude? really?
what a huge dissapointment.
last fm will dissapear in a few years.
goodbye.
elo
10 February, 05:43
Sad to see this go. Picked it up on my android because I loved the app on my xbox. It was nice while it lasted, but it looks like I’m going to have to get my music fix somewhere else. I can barely pay for all the other subscription stuff between my phone and data plan, xbox live, and internet, I just cant afford one more subscription for stuff I can get free with short ads somewhere else. Good luck last.fm, but I’m sure you are about to see a good bit of your user base dry up.
Tony
10 February, 05:58
This is a poor decision… your number one goal should be to be the most popular music service. Up til now you and pandora have been neck and neck. This will have adverse effects.
Nicholas Tuck
10 February, 06:23
I would almost be happy to have a ‘premium account’ for the low price if the apps worked well. Unfortunately the android app (Droid) skips and can’t connect sooooo frequently. The desktop app (windows 7) will skip very slightly, though finishing the song, but problems I never have with the pandora flash app.
You guys really need to shine your apps in the next two months to get people to stay. We love what you are trying to do and the idea of scrobbling, but you really need a nice system before you can expect anyone to stick around. Right now you are one of three internet radio’s people use; switching whenever the current one is failing.
Shine your apps and make it the only one we use.
Greg Rawlings
10 February, 08:20
As a long time user for years I knew this day would come but will not be subcribing as..
1. It does crash after very 5/6 songs on my IPhone
2. There is still no feature to pause, rewind
3. The rates do not encourage loyalty i,e there should at least be a sliding scale
£3 for 1 month but better value for 6 or 12 months.
If all the above were addressed I would stay but sadly today will be my LAST.fm
Lukas Michalek
10 February, 09:11
you need to improve the app before you start charging for it…
have loved it on my android phone for as long as i have had it… but once that 3 month subscription is over… I’m done
Paul Newbery
10 February, 11:25
It doesn’t seem that there is too much support for this move to charge for the service, does it? I wonder if those in charge at @LASTFM will pay any attention to the thousands of adverse comments here. I somehow doubt it.
For my part, I think that £3 (GBP) per month is too much to pay for the service as it stands. Somewhere between 50 pence to an absolute max of £1 might just be acceptable if the app was more reliable.
As it is, I won’t be subscribing thanks.
FalouDakar
10 February, 12:25
Sry, ich verstehe nicht alles, mein Englisch ist nicht so gut.
Wenn ich es richtig verstanden habe, soll ich nach 3 monaten für last.fm bezahlen. Ist das so?
Wenn es so ist muss ich leider in zukunft auf last.fm verzichten. Was wirklich schade währe.
Das heist ich werde alle Profil daten hier in FB und Iphone löschen.
Wenn mir das jemand bitte erklären kann, was es mit dem 3 monate kostenlos abo auf sich hat, bitte an FalouDakar hier in last.fm
Wenn hier Geld verlangt wird, wir es hier bald zu ende sein.
Das währe schade.
Gruß
Rolf
Andrew Coleman
10 February, 12:28
Seems to me that the reason for doing this is so the top brass can get more money.
I might as well just listen to music on my iPod Touch then.
As a listed artist on Last.FM too, this is doubly hurtful, the reason I came to Last.FM is for exposure, now you’re telling people they can only listen to my music if they give you guys who only care about money.
Mind you, looking at your comment below about “stiff-lipped Limeys without any sense of humour”, it seems to me that Last.FM is ran by xenophobic capitilistic Americans anyhow, in short, the scum of th Earth.
J
10 February, 13:18
Must be time for the I Hate LastFM Facebook page or some other site like that! Turn around this decision people!
Destiny Hooks
10 February, 13:22
Well thank you for staying Free as long as you did. Because of that feature I stopped going to Pandora, but I guess I have to go back to Pandora or to find another website. I’m sorry I don’t have a credit card to pay you guys every month if I did I would because $3 is cheap. I will stay on here until my free trial is up. Congratulations on you guys success..!! :-)
taung
10 February, 13:24
Thanks Last Fm….
Thanks to you I now know
Grooveshark is superb.
Spotify
10 February, 13:51
To Last Fm
Thanks for the FREE advert guys, we are getting record breaking new logs in’s and subscribers.
Spotify ;)
Pyrofallout
10 February, 16:04
I paid for premium until my favorites radio was taken away. I won’t be paying to use Last.fm on my phone. Hell Last.fm STILL hasn’t added retina support to their app. They want us to pay to use the app they can’t even keep up to date? FWIW I have chosen to go with Pandora premium. See ya Last.fm, it was fun while it lasted.
-Former Last.fm Listener/Subscriber
TAT
10 February, 16:24
I’m in a 2G area and I do my best to support the artists by playing last.fm as much as I can, but it constantly chokes and has to rebuffer. I’m sorry, but I can’t pay for a service that has problems buffering. I’d be better off playing tunes stored on my phone. I’ve always been a huge fan of last.fm; For the reasons it’s not like Pandora. I feel taking away things that customers are used to hurts that customer base. Pandora buffers better, but the ads are annoying. Pandora doesn’t give starting artists as much of a chance, and if I wanted to listen to plain radio music I’d do just that. I think there are other better ways you can continue to make revenue with.
NOLAtritriagain
10 February, 18:26
I too am a long time user and scrobbler and pro-LastFM guy, telling everyone how good it was. Worried that CBS would screw it up, but they didn’t…
until now.
Mobile never worked for me – used too much juice, required pw while driving and dropped/bad stream, so perhaps it isn’t too bad for me.
But it is BAD in concept.
Reconsider, Mubarek did.
robey
10 February, 21:11
Mobile app sucks, there are other alternatives, hate CBS for doing this…“Hey lets purchase online services and apply our our online profit models and plunder the internet” – CBS exec at Last.fm acquisition.
3 months free is an insult for to many reasons to list here.
I’d rather stick a hot soldering iron in my than pay CBS for a subscription…
Tschorno
10 February, 21:50
The banner ads are normally quite interesting or relevent to my tastes so I would prefer to hear creatively produced ad than pay – check out an old nike promo produced by mowax to see what I mean
http://5magazine.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/nike-air-promotional-by-mo-wax/I do love last.fm but the service to mobile devices could be a bit tighter
Silver
10 February, 23:07
I really like last.fm but I guess I will go back to Pandora since it is still free. So sad, so sad. :(
Cam
10 February, 23:52
So long last.fm, hello Pandora.
komacrew
11 February, 00:15
RIP last.fm
a nice to have, but to expensive to live in competition with Pandora, Spotify, deewer, napster, simplify and many more. I hope for a change of that stupid decision in a few weeks/month when the paid revenue is under the now ad sponsored revenue. But if then all scrobbled libraries are gone last.fm will loose everything…
Kris
11 February, 02:13
I am afraid this is a very bad idea for you last fm. You want to charge mobile users for what is essentially a buggy service. And to be honest anyone with a bit of know how will just listen via the browser on thier mobile rather than your app.
kenji
11 February, 09:39
Well despite the fact that we’ll have to pay now (which sucks.) I’ll probably still stick with last.fm since their radio plays hip hop tracks I can only find on vinyl. Not to mention they actually have good underground hip hop.
zorro
11 February, 10:57
Yeah…clearly a good business proposition. On reading through the posts you should be raking in about £15.00 per calendar month…..hahaha….If you are all quiet, that noise in the distance that you can hear is the Last FM management shitting themselves.
zorro
TonyMacProds
11 February, 13:37
last.fm app crashes out on my itouch (3rd gen 32gb) after about 4-5 songs…not exactly great, would pay for it if they sorted this out, but if not I’ll just listen to my own music
Geoff
11 February, 15:02
I’ll be wiping the app off my iphone and so will everyone else I know. Stupid move in my opinion. I’ve personally spend hundreds of pounds on gig tickets that I became aware of through the app. That revenue is now going to go elsewhere.
Its been great but. Goodbye.
Daniel Maclean
11 February, 15:30
Will still use Last.FM to track what i’m listening to. This isn’t really a big deal for me anyway, the mobile app isn’t that good and has stability issue’s, plus if i’m going to pay for music on the go, much prefer to be able to select the track and not have to stream it every time I want to listen to it, the guys at Spotify will get my money for these features, but since i’ve never paid for Last.FM, this won’t affect me anyway.
Thanks Guys!
Гильдия мастеров Пермь
11 February, 15:37
+ 1
Гильдия мастеров, Пермь – домашний мастер, муж на час, жена на час, вызов мастера на дом в Перми. Ремонт и отделка помещений. Permmaster.ru
Alex
11 February, 15:46
Guys, you have to try TRAXX FM, they propose 20 style of Music,great programmation, go on www.traxx.fm or download the free TRAXX FM iPhone App, easy to use, this is what I like with TRAXX FM !
Nomadicone
12 February, 03:44
It was fun while it lasted. People won’t pay for something they got for free, you need to add value. CBS have been slowly sucking the life out of last.fm since they bought it. So i’m (sadly) guessing it’s the end of the line for last.fm, pity.
saftundKraft
12 February, 07:50
Last.fm has helped me discover a lot of bands, has given me great radio service, and has sponsored a lot of tours I have attended. Last.fm gives me great service, which I am happy to pay for.
I hope it won’t lose business over this, as I don’t mind ad-supported service, but I support your choice.
Anonymous
12 February, 15:48
Just deinstalled it from my Android Phone.
mezurashiai
12 February, 17:45
I just downloaded Spotify to see what the fuss has been about and if it’s any better. Sorry, but it is a LOT better.
You’re good as a free service but not good enough to pay £36 for – every year.
So long Last.FM.
a german ex-user
13 February, 17:55
Deinstalled it on the Android and sold the squeezebox. Bye-bye bye-bye and good luck.
Anon
13 February, 21:27
Well, Last.fm, it was fun, but I am afraid I cannot justify paying for an otherwise free service just for the ability to listen over my iPod touch. As a result, I will be closing my Last.fm account, effective immediately. I am sure I am not alone. Last.fm, you have made a crucial mistake, and your competition thanks you.
Goodbye.
Jim
14 February, 09:26
Yup, appreciate the service so far, but that’s it for me. Spotify or Pandora for me.
Why’d you not consult customers before making a big ol’ decision like this?
Saddened in NC
14 February, 15:44
It really saddens me that LastFM is going this route. I already have LastFM on my Xbox Gold Account, now I’m being asked to pay for the use on my phone? As much as I love to listen to the mix of music that comes across, I’m not going to pay for a service (no matter how miniscule the fee) when there are several other FREE services with which to listen to music. Especially considering, as so many before have mentioned, the fact that the service crashes and has to be restarted frequently…. Coupled with the fact that you cannot listen to JUST the artist you want, JUST the song you want or that you cannot Pause/Rewind a song. LastFM is great for what it is…. A free, random song engine… potentially exposing Millions of listeners to new artists that they may not already be familiar with. But definitely NOT a pay App. To many shortcomings. Maybe someone at LastFM should consider pitching the idea to the Record Labels that for a small fee, LastFM will include tracks from the Labels’ Artists, thereby getting them additional exposure and potentially New Fans/Purchasers of Albums. ??????? Otherwise, Advertising is a better arrangement for LastFM. Wish you all the best
Shane
14 February, 18:02
Would have been happy with Spotify-type adverts but can’t justify £3 a month (for starters) for my occasional use. Have now removed the app from my phone.
Caius
14 February, 18:23
I’d much rather have ads and keep it free, I may as well get spotify for my ipod. I think you are making a mistake because you will lose a lot of customers to spotify and similar services. :( Thanks anyway so far…
Joshua
14 February, 23:21
I may consider paying if the bugs get fixed on the iphone. If they don’t fix a most of the bugs before users have to pay I really do not see this working well at all.
Also what am I paying for now? So basically I’ll be charged $3 for something i already had for free? I mean the features really are not compelling at all other then being able to use the broken service that already is on the iphone.
Bradley
15 February, 05:14
Sweet. That was the wrong decision. See ya later. Off to Pandora now. Bye.
Robin
15 February, 10:28
I read on the Dutch website Tweakers: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/72481/last-punt-fm-radio-breidt-betaalde-diensten-uit-update.html that you will also make the app available in the Netherlands (Benelux) as of today (15th of February) however I can’t find it in the Apple iTunes app store (yet). I hope it will be available later today when it is the 15th in the United States :)
I would be willing to pay 3 euro per month when I can discover new artist and tracks. I tried Spotify but that is 10 euro per month and doesn’t have a smartradio (discover) feature which Last.fm has.
Unfortunately we still have boundaries per country to listen to online and mobile stream services such as Last.fm, Pandora, Slacker, Spotify, Deezer and Grooveshark.
Disappointed
15 February, 11:45
Fail
bebna
15 February, 12:00
Now, if i subscribe u, can i listen to the Artist i want, or will i only hear similar Artists from the Artist’s Radio?
If i want to hear Gorillaz, than i want to hear Gorillaz and some times similiar Artists and not similiar Artists and sometimes Gorillaz.
I will not pay if i can hear only “similiar Artists and sometimes my choosen Artist” – Radio Stations.
Cathy
15 February, 12:18
I just had a look at Spotify, as it’s being mentioned so much. As I understand it, Mobile Music is a Premium Feature, i.e. it costs money there as well. So what is different? I can not actually see how much it would cost there, as the Premium feature is not available for me in Germany.
I mostly listen to Last.FM on my PC at home, so the issue of a subscription isn’t one for me anyhow. I have subscribed on and off over the years and tried out other services. So far I have not found another service that I liked as much as Last.FM. I don’t want to have to mess around with having to create playlists to get to hear what I like. I like the way Last.FM finds new music for me and will even consider subscribing. There is a lot of buffering happening on my iPhone though…
mrockstarr
15 February, 12:43
I will definitely not pay 36,- € per year to listen to music on my mobile phone. Even if I had a high-speed internet connection everywhere I went, it would still be 31,- € too much.
For that money I can buy 2 SD-cards, fill them up with music and listen to them in much better quality, whenever I want to.
I consider this to be a very poor and even pathetic decision.
Jon
15 February, 12:56
I will be deleting my android mobile app and be switching to another free radio service. I will continue to scrobble tracks online but that’s it. Hopefully you won’t decide to charge me for my online account to scrobble music in the near future.
Sarah S
15 February, 13:17
And yet another member will be looking elsewhere for music llistening pleasure…FYI : the ads never bothered me. …. See what being greedy gets ya?
sbs
15 February, 13:53
Hello Pandora
Brooks Knight
15 February, 13:57
I will have to find another free streaming music app or hack around the restrictions.
I am not going to pay for such a great service that has been free.
Matt Haff
15 February, 14:30
Question: WIll iTunes scrobbing still work if I don’t have a paid subscription?
Comment: I would rather hear advertising like Pandora and keep last.fm free.
Alex
15 February, 15:27
Between the previous hits to the indie musicians and now this, I guess it’s time to quit Last.fm. Been using your service since 2004, shame that’s gonna have to stop.
If you need money, offer new, great services that you aren’t currently offering for free. Taking away free services is only going to hurt your business.
ksbeattie
15 February, 16:52
Seems like it’s just a matter of time before last.fm removes every last piece of its service and expects us to directly pay for “the best nothing in the world”.
cmaddex
15 February, 16:55
honestly I would rather have commercials on my phone and be able to listen to last.fm for free on it than pay for it. btw I hate commercials. This is just like if they started to charge you to use facebook, nobody would use facebook if that happened. I guess I’ll go ahead and cancel my account now.
Kai Schmidt
15 February, 17:06
Hi,
To me last.fm simply isn’t important enough to pay for it. I simply started using last.fm ‘because’ the new Onkyo reciever I bought supports it and I thought it is a nice concept. Still: Don’t use it that much. You know, someone said: “There are people who request and use products for free even if it’s not worth one cent to them.” Now that’s an exaggaration. last.fm is far from being worthless, but then again far from being useful enough to pay for … especially if I can still listen to music for ‘free’. (Which is also relative … we’ve got “Rundfunkgebühren” here in Germany. A tax for media usage anyone owning a electronic device produced post-stoneage has to pay.)
Now hypothetically speaking: If I’d be paying for a service like last.fm on my Onkyo the ‘least’ I’d expect would be:
- losless audio compression
- significant control over what I hear (like: single titles)
- expansion on ‘detail’ features … which might be an issue of my Onkyo’s control concept not supporting them but still … it’s an issue
- did I mention losless audio compression? ;)
Tim Rockwell
15 February, 17:23
Wish I had known this a few weeks ago as I JUST got an Android phone and the main reason was so I could cancel my XM Radio and use Last FM on my phone. This is a bunch of crap.
i can't sleep
15 February, 17:51
Twas fun…but in 3 months when my free subscription runs out im using pandora on my phone(or whatever company will let me listen for free; there will always be at least 1). I understand the move but for college students like me who prefer free things, it’s annoying.
Mike
15 February, 17:55
Well, I find myself listening to many different sources on my 3 different squeezebox platforms. Out of 50 odd stations I listen to only 3 which are derived from last.fm. I still have 47 others. I guess your business model was flawed with inserting advertisements to non premium subscribers. Its your business and I guess we all understand that it costs money to produce.
I think you must look at how you provide content with the fee based service otherwise others like Spotify we eat your lunch.
So Long & Good Luck. I enjoyed it while it lasted.
Tinear43
15 February, 18:17
I’d rather not get something I was told would be free then get charged. At least Hearts of Space tells you up what you do and do not pay for. I understand times are tough and you may be OK leaving this bad taste in my mouth. So I’m sure you’ll understand when I cancel and delete my app.
Alan
15 February, 18:27
Statement: “it is not practical for us to deliver an ad supported radio experience”
Translation: “we failed to monetize our services by attracting the advertisers that were necessary to keep this service free, so we are going to pass the buck to our users”. “we know that three quarters of our listeners will leave, but our revenue will increase…. at least in the short term”
Conclusion: Last.fm by this time next year may not exist as it does today if they continue down the subscription path. When they start offering lifetime memberships, that’s when you will know that the ship is sinking. The business model that they are moving to may improve their bottom line in the short term and make their “APP” business profitable in the “now”. But if they don’t embrace the “app” listeners as their emerging market, then they are missing out on an opportunity to grow and dominate the market.
I love your services, but I am simply not going to pay a subscription. I will however happily support companies that advertise on your apps….
Mütze
15 February, 18:45
The reality will be sad an d cruel for last.fm.
Sorry – no money!
Zehmi
15 February, 18:59
In return I´ve – removed the client from my laptop – removed the application from my squeezebox – deleted my account
It´s a shame, but I don´t pay for a subscription! Sorry, guys no money from me!
Romina
15 February, 19:07
This makes me sad because I’ve used last.fm for years. I think the subscription fee is reasonable for me personally with how much I use the radio, but the most appealing feature of last.fm for me was the social aspect and comparing music tastes with my friends. I know that my friends will not pay a sub fee and thus I lose the primary reason I’ve stayed loyal to last.fm over pandora and spotify. I feel that a lot of people have good marketing suggestions throughout these comments and I hope last.fm listens.
ragonni
15 February, 19:42
I’m a subscriber for a couple of years now and I’ve been a Last.fm addict ever since. I even convinced a couple of friends to migrate to Squeezebox because of the Last.fm integration. But suddenly I cannot get any Last.fm music out of my squeezbox anymore…
It’s really a shame! I want my money back.
PS: I live in Belgium.
Brian
15 February, 20:23
When services like Pandora and Grooveshark exist, I’m surprised you’re making this move, as I’m sure a lot of people, like myself, will just move to using those radio services instead of paying for this one.
I used to only use last.fm to track my music listening on my desktop/android, and only recently (this month) started using your radio service. So to find out I have to pay for it now, as a poor college student, is a letdown.
Well, I wish you guys luck, hopefully this move won’t kill your business.
john
15 February, 21:09
Price is too high for too little control of what’s offered as premium service. Mobile radio should stay free but with ads is ok not against fees if had pause n playback of specific tracks. Lastfm your mistake in.understanding how past models failed is off base. Go a la cart with features to make premium subscriptions about the subscribers choice for functionallity on mobile apps.keep slimmed down basic radio & scrobbles free for statistics. If not the hole you are creating will just get filled by a newer smarter model that’s Capitalizing off your hard work & lastfm’s thunder will be stolen. Please answer this internally where does the money come from and where is it going? Is it proportional in the pockets of whom? Love u lastfm don’t throw your life away
Hotpocket
15 February, 21:32
Well I preferred this over Pandora and many other sites, but since I can’t use it on my phone anymore for free I won’t be using it at all. This change is really stupid and along with many others I hate it. Well goodbye last.fm you lost another listener so keep on adding up the millions of people who will no longer listen to your station.
Chris
15 February, 21:46
Well I just started using the Android Last.fm app as I was introduced to Last.fm on my Xbox. Well forget that. I will not pay to be a Last.fm subscriber. I already pay Microsoft for the Xbox Live service and they in turn work out a deal with you to get Last.fm for Xbox Live subscribers. I will not let you double dip from me. Goodbye Last.fm on my Android. A SAD DAY INDEED!
Chris
15 February, 21:52
You are dumb. No one is going to pay you for access on their mobile devices when better services exist.
DigiCowboy
15 February, 22:14
Pandora’s scrobbling works better anyway and is still free ….
Thanks, good luck and goodbye!
Chloe
15 February, 22:22
Will this just disable the last.fm radio option, or will it also disable syncing? I don’t mind the radio going because there are other apps for that, but it is nice to have an automatic sync for my music on my phone.
I love Last.fm, and although this change is truly disappointing, it is also understandable. Clearly you are going to lose a lot of users, but I guess you are also going to gain a lot of subscriptions. However, I am still debating this.
All I know is that I have recommended just about everyone I know to Last.fm and have sent a lot of people your way. I don’t think I will be able to do that anymore because it seems like you are no longer in it to provide a beautifully organized and easy listening experience, but rather for profit. You are now just like any other music site out there- sold out.
mighty mouse
15 February, 22:51
Why does my profile say im a “subscriber” when I’d have to be an idiot to pay you anything? is it to fool people into thinking subscribing isn’t such a bad idea? I know i receive 3 months free but after – I’m out like last.fm
shgeman
16 February, 00:01
I guess i’ll be using Pandora then.
Roger Witte
16 February, 00:19
Since it is now a ‘paid for’ item how about a bit more TLC for the mobile web site.
However, I still love last.fm and m.last.fm and reckon it is very cheap.
Bababooey
16 February, 01:25
How can you charge when Last.fm crashes regularly on the iphone/ipad (where is an iPad app?)??
ceptor
16 February, 03:15
Does this three month free offer you are giving me mean that I get a credit since I’m already a subscriber? Oh and also, can you make the iPhone app not crash after three songs? thnx.
Ripped off
16 February, 06:01
If I uninstall the Last.fm app on my phone, will I stop being charged? If anyone knows the answer to this, please reply..
RCF
16 February, 07:39
Honestly…the Android app SUX
Use the Pandora app for the phone and last.fm for your computer
Super_Dork_42
16 February, 07:49
I can’t understand why, when Pandora can do it, last.fm can’t do an ad-supported version.
Unfortunately, I have to say Pandora+AdFreeAndroid FTW on my HTC Droid Eris.
rabbit
16 February, 11:46
Haha, last.fm is really trying to go out of business.
I mean, come on, they don’t offer any important features (even less now than a few years ago), don’t upgrade features their users want and now they want us to pay money for that?
Seriously?
I hope some other website offers scrobbling soon, cos last.fm is going down. Very soon I hope.
Stu
16 February, 12:22
Shame mobile is now subscription only.
I only used mobile a few times a year when in hotels, very useful but rarely used by me.
How about a lite mobile version, say 50 tracks / 4 hours a month, this might encourage subscribers.
Claire Cramer
16 February, 14:51
Well, it’s February 16, I listened to the Last.fm radio stream on my Android phone during my morning commute, and…exactly the same terrible service. Dropped songs more than once. I’m insulted and will not be subscribing for something that doesn’t work.
christopher mcevoy
16 February, 15:36
Bad idea. I don’t use the mobile app enough to justify the purchase.
Also, last.fm has some serious stability issues. While I love the concept, the execution of this whole site and all it’s apps (I’m looking at you, iPhone/iPod scrobbling) have some serious scalability issues and need to be worked out and supported better before I’d ever consider paying for it.
I say this as someone who started using Audioscrobbler in 2004. You’ve guys have had a LONG time to figure out how to make this work and you’re still not there.
ken
16 February, 16:04
Just don’t run the update if u want to still use. Radio feature and aren’t a subscriber… easy peasy
Michelle G.
16 February, 17:58
Personally, Last.FM really is one of the best radio sites for mulitple reasons and if paying will enable them to ensure better quality while listening on my mobile device and ensure that the product will continue to improve then I don’t mind. I will say that the price of a fancy coffee each month does sound a little high. I am tired of having my entertainment interupted by all of the horrible and useless garbage that is constantly being pandered to us in ads. And, I want the companies I like to still be around in a year or more and for them to provide me a service that doesn’t annoy the piss out of me to use. SO, I understand not wanting to shell out more money these days, but why not support a good product this way rather than using inferior products just because its free?? You pay for it ultimately anyhow.
ME
16 February, 18:02
will be moving to another format…
later
Ray
16 February, 18:09
Shame… mobile was the primary way I got my music from Last.fm. It certainly wasn’t the craptastic website that did it for me.
Pandora, here I come.
drumaboy70
16 February, 18:11
The app doesn’t even work half of the time, I have huge problems loading songs and getting it to close properly on my Droid 2. Update the app and maybe THEN I would pay for it last.fm
paul compton
16 February, 18:17
wow £3 a month, no way, to listen to music you can`t dictate what you want to here shame cos i quite likes last fm, but not for that price :-(
rabbit
16 February, 18:36
[quote]SO, I understand not wanting to shell out more money these days, but why not support a good product this way rather than using inferior products just because its free?? You pay for it ultimately anyhow.[/quote]
Because it is not a good product. People say it’s not even stable! Why would you pay for something that’s not even properly running?
Would you buy a coffee even if it was cold ant tasted crappy?
steff
16 February, 19:20
Well, i do have a subscription and i pay 3 euros every month. But since yesterday i’m not able to listen my lastfm radio on my squeezebox anymore(?). Since today it works again if i’m connected directly to mysqueezebox.com but it doesn’t work if i’m connected to my squeezecenter on my pc (which is connected to msb itself). This is all a little bit weird and nobody really seems to know what’s the plan. By the way i’m living in switzerland.
Any ideas where you’re going to?
steff
Topbird
16 February, 19:53
I am quite upset about this. Got over and now have a question on how do we know when we have this 3 months free bit?When we subscribe again or what? Not very clear. Also as the person above just said (Steff), they subscribe already and Squeezebox still not working. Will we then get a refund?
Long time with you guys and think some clear answers would be nice:-(
Peter
16 February, 20:24
I was on the fence between Last.fm and Pandora. Thanks for helping me make my decision!
You could have gone with an optional subscription setup, with some ads and a skip limit for free. I could have lived with that
Goodbye Last.fm. You were worth the price when you were free.
Robert
16 February, 22:02
It’s all been said, but I’ll say it again.
Spotify is worth paying for because you can control exactly what you listen to.
Last.FM was worth it when it was free because I might use it 15 minutes a month in the car on Android. It also crashes frequently and in many cases won’t buffer without killing the app and restarting it if you drop service for a short time.
We users also mark tracks we love and provide statistics to you about tracks we don’t.
I always talked up last.FM and got many of my friends to join up because mobile was free. Sure you can’t control what it plays and it crashed all the time but it was FREE.
Paying for last.FM for use on Android (or iOS for that matter as my Apple friends say they have similar problems) is rediculous. You claimed in previous release notes that the crashing was fixed, but it never was.
Given it has never worked for me and I have to do all the work because playlists are gone, why on earth would I pay for it?
I think I’ll quit before the trial ends out of spite. It’s really no loss to me, 75% of the time listening in the car was to get the app to not crash while searching.
Craig1974
16 February, 22:18
Pandora is free. AOL radio is free. I think this is a bad move on your part. I deleted my app. Hope you all change your mind. Your app was free all this time thanks to ads. What makes you think that people are going to be willing to start paying for this every month after the 3 month free subscription?
Gabe
16 February, 23:09
Needs more incentives to be a subscriber at that price
mgaleotti
17 February, 01:44
Well I guess I will be switching to Spotify and Pandora.
Sherye
17 February, 02:44
Sucks… i’ll be finding a new app. Being a very long user of Last.fm… i’ll be switching.
Trevor
17 February, 07:17
I’m going to be generous and give it one month to try it but right now I am still skipping a ton of music. I understand the need to pay licensing fees but as a result the number of listenable tracks should go up. I’m tired of looking up an artist and song only to find I can’t even listen to it. I am not going to pay for database entries, sorry. I mostly use the service just doing homework on my laptop at University but there are dozens of other services I can use that are free.
Boris
17 February, 08:48
Has there been music before last.fm?? It feels right to pay for it.
Hope you don’t lose many users.
Touchmutton
17 February, 11:55
Speaking as a “stiff-lipped limey without any sense of humour”, first you stop me listening to whole tracks, then you make me pay for radio on the Squeezebox … by all that’s right and proper, I should be flipping you the finger and darkening some other doorstep. However … your part in the sanity saving bath, candlelight, pot of tea and music routine has got to be worth £3 of my pension every month. Laters innit
John Dunlop
17 February, 13:46
Can you please explain why this costs £3 in the UK,approximately $4.80.Yet in the USA it is $3.less than £2.More rip off Britain
Aharris1
17 February, 14:36
Do you only have to pay for radio or for everything? I only use last.fm to scrobble from my ipod/spotify.
Dijan
17 February, 15:19
As most folks have stated, thank you very much for your services and it’s been a great year with y’all. I’ve been listening to Last.fm on my desktop for almost a year now at least a few times per week. I’ve scrobbled artists from various parts of the world that were never on Last.fm in the first place and it was great to provide some of the information about them.
I just got a phone last week that allows me to use the app and was super excited about it. I guess I’ll have to find another app now and hopefully it will be able to compare to your service. Thanks for a great run :)
Melissa
17 February, 18:15
This sucks. Pandora here I go again.
C. Morton
17 February, 21:24
I don’t even use Last.fm, but all the whining on this page is ridiculous.
You were using something FOR FREE. Despite getting value from it (otherwise why use it), you paid nary a dime. Nothing at all.
Now that the service isn’t free, you b*tch and complain about it? Give me a break!
Guess what, folks? Sometimes “ad supported” doesn’t pay all the bills! And then you gotta get creative. Either you go to the subscription model or you close your doors. Guess which one Last.fm chose?
Now I understand that many people won’t decide to pony up and pay for the service. That’s up to each user to decide for himself. But if that’s your choice, close your account and move on. Offering a “witty” so long retort whilst loudly announcing which other free service you’re gonna leech off of next is childish. If you’re going, just go…quietly.
And don’t complain when you’ve sucked the next free service dry and they have to ponder charging a fee too.
steff
17 February, 23:13
I agree with every word c. morton said. But still i’d like to be able to listen to lastfm with my squeezebox – i pay for it since more than a year and i never regretted doing so. But as i already said before it must work in switzerland and on my squeezebox cause that’s exactly what i pay for!
steff
staples
17 February, 23:41
sigh I loved Last.fm because it has so many more artists than Pandora. I guess I’ll just switch to Pandora for streaming on my iPod. But I love Last.fm’s My Mix, so I’ll still be using it on the computer.
Sardinicus
18 February, 00:00
I wish you all luck but won’t be ponying up for a subscription. “We can’t afford not to” is not a compelling argument for why I should pay for something that I’ve gotten in the past for free. Ask the NYT and any other web magazine that tried unsuccessfully to move to a subscription model.
If this was the only game in town, I might feel differently. Tons of free internet radio stations are available on Squeezebox. Pandora (available free on nearly every net-connected device) does a better job of finding and mixing music, IMO, and if I was going to pay for another commercial-free radio service I’d probably go there. Rhapsody (which I do pay for) allows on-demand access when I want to pick the songs, as well as seamless coordination with my MP3 player.
I do like the statistics aspect of Last and hope you survive long enough to get bought out by somebody who will adopt this aspect of your site. As Facebook and others have proved, information is golden and frankly I’m really surprised that you haven’t figured out a way to monetize that info.
Keren
18 February, 01:39
the whole mobile app thing sucks(it crashes too much anyway but what am i going to listen to now?)..I’m not leaving last.fm cause on the computer it’s still free but since i am now having to pay to listen to last.fm in other areas is seriously JANK dude I mean seriously c’mon.
dave
18 February, 06:08
dam, every one wants my money…..
EF
18 February, 09:52
Bye bye last.fm radio
danfoy
18 February, 17:22
Just thought I’d add my message of pre-emptive condolences to last.fm – RIP.
I don’t use last.fm streaming that much any more, but I found some of the artists that I now listen to the most via your service. I do still use it occasionally for background listening, but the main reason I use the site is for statistics logging. However, I was looking forward to getting my new iPhone (allegedly with more realistic battery life) and finding more new artists on the move.
Yeah, right, as if anyone’s going to pay for a streaming radio service when Genius automatically mixes the music you already have, and Spotify lets you specify actual tracks to listen to for artists that you don’t have. I would happily listen to an advert-supported version, as I sometimes do on my Xbox. I’m not a tightwad, I don’t mind you making money out of me via advertising, but I – like many other users – could never justify a recurring payment for something that I don’t use frequently, and yet I’m the kind of user that ponies up £60 for mobileme every year.
As mentioned above, I just hope that you survive long enough to be bought out so that your stats functionality can live on, although I can’t say I’m too hopeful.
Stan
18 February, 18:26
I am sorry but I cannot justify paying ~£36 a year for this service. I appreciate the whole “It’s recession, we need money” stance but seriously, I’d much prefer if there was an ad of some sort every 2-3 songs instead. I liked Last.fm, guess I’ll just shuffle my iPod on genius, it just doesn’t make sense having to pay for this just to find new artists, there are plenty of other radio stations all over the net. Sorry as much as I love last.fm I don’t love it that much.
comkaz
18 February, 19:17
Hmm I’ll probably still use it on the desktop and xbox but something different on the phone. Problem will be they’re getting me to check out and dig into a competitor on my Android, which may have me leaving last.fm, and their limitations, entirely.
And yes, they crash a lot on my mobile, rarely used. Maybe that’s what this 3 month thing is about, but even better if their App had been good and establishd BEFORE this announcement. I’m just saying.
Cythrawl
18 February, 23:03
http://www.edibleapple.com/lastfm-founder-says-apple-just-fd-over-online-music-subscriptions/
^^^ isn’t this a case of POT KETTLE BLACK??
Cant even use Last.FM on my Roku anymore without paying for it…
Assholes.fm more like
Clinton
19 February, 00:27
Wow. This blog is just filled with whiners who think EVERYTHING they want should be free and any company who tries to actually (GASP) make money is a bunch of a**holes.
Sheesh. What a bunch of arrogant, clueless, spoiled juveniles.
Grow up. $3 is the cost of a couple sodas or a starbucks frappacino. I’m sure you waste far more money on other crap throughout the month.
Services like this cannot remain free forever. $$ has to come from somewhere.
Truth be told, any of you leaving last.fm doesn’t hurt them in the slightest because you haven’t paid them a dime all the time you’ve enjoyed their services for free. And the reality is that ad-based support is WAY overblown and any company that depends on ads to survive will ultimately fail or be forced to a solid business model like a subscription based service.
So all you leechers keep whining and making your laughable “threats” about leaving. All it does is give last.fm more bandwidth to work with. I’m sure you’re all the same people who think music artists should not be paid and ALL music should be free and the money will just magically flow in from “somwhere” (as long as it’s not from you).
So be an adult, pay the puny little fee, and then enjoy the service knowing you are helping keep the company in business.
Nutella
19 February, 00:40
Uninstalled. Adios
KC
19 February, 01:06
So basically what you’re saying is that what I got for free before, after my trial subscription ends, I’ll now have to pay for? Looks like I’ll be back to using Pandora again. Thanks Last.fm.
Cythrawl
19 February, 01:57
@clinton…
So WHY is it still free for desktop and not other devices like Roku, or mobile Phones???
I think that alone is enuff to whine about.
And the fact they are (Last.Fm) is having a go at Apple for doing the SAME DAMN THING and calling it wrong and fucking the customer!!
Dont you read?
Heather
19 February, 02:44
Considering the app has NEVER worked on my Evo…. I wouldn’t pay for the subscription. I might think about it if it did…. I think once my measly 3 months are up, I’m just going to use tunein to listen to other radio stations. Not only is it free (on Android at least) but I can pick from hundreds of stations and podcasts on the go.
Dan11el
19 February, 06:47
I will not going to pay for something i get for free somewhere else. I can handle adds some time to time, i mean, money has to come from somewhere. The other charge FREE options run well without interruptions, not like Last.fm. So why to pay for a lower service/product?
I pass. Good luck.
macpro
19 February, 08:32
After this goes pay only, in the trash can the app goes. Aloha.
Will
19 February, 10:13
SPOTIFY THIS!
Rick85
19 February, 11:17
I’m addicted to scrobbling and I will continue using last.fm, but this is the last of a long list of bad moves, and for me it’s as bad as when you started discrimination based on countries.
Now in Italy i don’t know what can i use my squeezebox radio for.
I don’t see last.fm’s future looking good with an increase in competition in the market. Threat like this your core users isn’t smart.
kenwneill
19 February, 14:57
Uninstalled and subscribed to Spotify Premium – great service and good quality sound at 320kbps.
sferin
19 February, 17:36
oh for christ’s sake.
goodbye, last.fm.
Tony
19 February, 20:44
Well, one less App for my Squeezebox
Better off with Slacker and Pandora anyway
stephen
19 February, 23:58
well, it was a good run whilst it lasted. but I won’t be paying.
Rory
20 February, 07:56
Good thing I bought Grooveshark not long ago. Cya last.fm
Jamie
20 February, 14:23
I will still use Last.FM on Xbox Live because it is still free, and it NEVER crashes on my Xbox.
That said Last.FM was one of the buggiest apps I had for my iPhone, I continued to use it over Pandora because my listening habits carried over to that from my Xbox. There is NO F’N WAY ON GODS GREEN EARTH that I would pay for it though. Just deleted it and installed Pandora. Took 90 seconds total.
cantata2
20 February, 15:36
Do you see the tears in my eyes? Last.fm was my favorite service for free music in the past and is the only useful application on my squeezebox touch. I am not happy with your decision, think on it again, please
wayfarer
20 February, 15:58
I’ll still scrobble, but I do not plan on subscribing just to use this on my iTouch. :/ I still love last.fm, even with all of its recently acquired inadequacies. I’ll be riding this ship until it crashes and burns in a year or two.
yareckk
20 February, 20:01
Great:(.. I’m a subscriber, I’ve paid for this service and everything was fine until 15th Feb I’ve got a message on my SqueezeBox Player: ‹‹Sorry! Last.fm Radio is not currently available in your country.››
What’s a problem? Country?.. Do something or gimme my money back!
Beckinstein
20 February, 20:44
“I pay a subscription for my smartphone, I pay a subscription for my broadband, I’m not paying a subscription for music as well.”
Well said, DealyLama
ROSEMARY94
20 February, 21:49
does that mean that i would have to pay to use Last.fm once my free subscription is over, if so how much?
DHHHHH
21 February, 02:00
Really bad! Keep in mind that we don’t need radio’s now a days.. Anyone can upload and download anything they want to their iphones or ipod’s etc etc etc devices~
Bad move
DHHHHH
George
21 February, 15:48
As long as I’m able to listen to Last.fm Radio on my Macbook for free, I don’t care. The Android app never worked, so it’s not like I’ll be missing anything.
I honestly don’t think that this is a smart move, but I’m not a business man. What do I know?
KK
21 February, 16:58
Since I am already a subscriber:
“..For the cost of a fancy coffee, a Last.fm monthly subscription allows you to listen to radio across all platforms, on all your devices, and without commercial interruptions…”
I should have had no problem – however squeezenetwork.com does not stream last.fm to any country outside US/UK/DE.
The message:”..Sorry! Last.fm Radio is not currently available in your country.” appears for some time now ..
And slim devices are anything but mobile – so what’s the catch here?
madyaker
21 February, 18:30
Long-time last.fmer (05/06):
I would think about subscribing but for one problem: for less broad genres, your library is still limited. An hour of any niche station (Arctic Ambience, Drone Rock, IDM) mostly gets me a max of 10 artists. Niche artists radio (Sunn O))), Ochre, Xanopticon)is generally better, but lacks the variety the genre stations should have.
Sort this out, and I’d happily pay £30 p/a for android streaming.
As it stands, I’d pay maybe a tenner p/a…
(Also, Android 2.2+ browsers? Blocking them?)
alex100001
21 February, 19:43
I totally get that you guys need to make more money to keep Last.fm afloat, but honestly, this to me seems like the wrong way to do it.
Why not make the radio service on mobile devices ad-based instead? I for one would not object to an advert after every two or three songs, if it meant I could keep listening for free.
Admittedly I don’t know a lot about how much revenue can be generated from this, and it stands to reason that you guys looked into it, but perhaps a reduced profit margin might be better than what you see above: lots of unhappy users.
I for one won’t be deleting my account, but neither will I be paying this subscription fee. The only thing that would make me reconsider is if you were able to listen to music on demand as well; that would sweeten the deal somewhat.
Ben
21 February, 20:05
Well, Last.fm hasn’t got an app for my webOS phone and I don’t use Last.fm radio on my Android phone much because I don’t think it is up to scratch and I can select the tracks I want to hear using the Grooveshark app.
Might have paid if all the other recent feature regressions of the last few months hadn’t been made.
Might consider subscribing again if the monthly amount was £1. I think that would be fair.
David
21 February, 20:53
It costs the same as Sirius/XM streaming. I like last.fm but you’re not offering what Sirius offers. $3/month is too much.
Tiny
21 February, 21:10
lame lame lame.
Good game lastFM, it was fun.
suomynonAnon
21 February, 21:30
Alternative Money Making Schemes for Last.fm
Rather than lose many customers who are not willing (or are not able) to pay, by making Last.fm Mobile just a subscription based service, it would make more sense to simply sell the information of those users who are not subscribers (after telling them about it obviously.) In this way you still make money from non-subscribers, while subscribers know that their information is safe. Doing this not only helps you financially, but also helps with your PR, as I’m sure you have seen the many posts (in the iTunes store reviews and here) of users who will be switching over to other services (and telling others not to use Last.fm).
I am confident that the majority of Last.fm Mobile users would support their information being sold over losing their music and having to switch over to one of the other free music services.
If the music companies are willing, you could also offer more than one subscription package. For instance, you might have the basic subscription package that would protect users from having their information sold, and would remove ads on the regular website. You could offer a more expensive package that would allow users to listen to any song that they want. If you do everything I have suggested here, I believe other freemium mobile music services like Pandora wouldn’t stand a chance.
Not giving your free users other free options is a very bad business move, as there are other completely free — in appearance to the end-users — mobile options (though none so good for music discovery.) Worse, you are breaking your users’ trust if you do not allow the users that have already been using the Last.fm app for free to continue using it for free. You should at the very least allow everyone who got the Last.fm app before the cut-off date to continue using it for free in order to not alienate existing users. “Shazam” (that famous music identification iPhone application) does this and has remained quite popular despite the existence of “SoundHound” (the other famous music identification iPhone application). I would have deleted Shazam and warned anyone that asked me against it had they not allowed people who had gotten the app for free previously to continue using the service free of restrictions. I’m sure you know that someone who has a bad experience tells many more people about it than someone who has a good experience. For you this could also translate into lost revenue, as there are many people who would not want to use a service that changes their policies without offering succor to current users. For instance, if Apple were to start charging end-users for software updates tomorrow, they would lose considerable currently held market share to Android based devices. Many current users would leave them, and many future users would be deterred from using their products at all, since if Apple has just done this, what is to stop them from charging for other services that they currently offer for free in the future? The answer: nothing. You may think that your case is different because people purchase Apple hardware, but you were offering your services for free. In the eyes of your users, however, there is NO difference (besides, perhaps, a feeling of entitlement in the case of Apple).
Another option to consider would be including a way to donate to you in-app. This could be done alongside the information sales to further boost revenue (probably wouldn’t work on it’s own, since people are not that prone to donation.) If the donations go too poorly, then perhaps include in-app purchases of additional features that people request or that you come up with.
There is also the option of ad-based revenue, which is not nearly as effective as any of the above options (according to my understanding, and especially on the iPhone). Unless you happen to be Google of course.
I hope this helps!
chapeleastman
21 February, 22:02
I’m a subscriber who supports this change. I choose to support this company toward the development of it’s site, as well as the diversity of applications and international music subscriptions it develops that continue to provide users a broad range of listening options.
BTW, I received notice of mobile app upgrade twice last week and downloaded both. I’m hoping it’s for the annoying skipping bug. I have noticed today that I do not have skips when connected wifi.
Running Last.fm v 1.7.6 on Android System v 2.2
Sara C
22 February, 06:00
Wait a sec, you are getting all my info from my scrobbling and now you want ME to f*ing pay for it? No way. Deleting app from phone/all computers now.
Jules
22 February, 06:11
Lastfm – if you do nothing else then listen to this feedback written by so many people who care enough to write. As a tech based company the worst thing you can do is build a business based upon a free model and then switch it out (to a fee based model) after a good catchment of formative years.
It’s what Yahoo did with their pop email access back in the 90’s which is why I don’t use them any more.
You’re a bunch of fools if you think this is going to make lastfm a success. You don’t even have a robust product. At least die with dignity rather than being remembered for screwing over your customers before passing into the noise level of your competitors.
Goodbye last.fm, Hello <one of the many feeless, alternatives >
Twits!
Martin
22 February, 08:49
I only found out today that the mobile version is now suddenly subscription only. And you really didn’t draw much attention to it, did you? I updated my iPhone app, and it worked (apart from the constant crashes everyone else has already mentioned) for a while, and now I get “subscription only, free 50 title trial”.
Am I going to use it? No. Why? Because I don’t use Last.fm that much, and because the net result is not worth paying 3 euros, at least not for me. It helped me find a bit more music that I didn’t know about, I would never have missed it if I hadn’t used the iPhone app.
Oh, and the scrobbler doesn’t even work properly anymore since the last update of iTunes, so not all my non-last.fm listening ends up in the list, so I cannot even use this feature anymore.
Am I going to delete Last.fm? Don’t know yet, but most likely. I do not use the desktop version really, the mobile version has effectively been put off limits and so the net result is:
Farewell, it was nice knowing you. RIP Last.fm, died on the altar of moneygrabbing CBS executives. Shame really, it was such a lovely idea.
Good night.
Rob (again)
22 February, 10:33
Oh yeah, and enjoy Apple taking 30% of your £3.00 :)
Richard Lister
22 February, 14:12
How do I delete this crap from my iPod then?
Utter bollox crapFM, you lure people in with free radio, build up your user database, build up a great marketing statistics spreadsheet worth millions, when growth levels off, slap the users with a charge!
Great idea, ruined by greed!
RotHorseKid
22 February, 15:15
This was the single worst decision you could have ever made. We already give you our listening habit data, which is worth a fortune to the labels.
I deleted the App, rated it one star on iTunes and will tell all my friends, twitter followers etc.
Follow the free my A$$.
IB
22 February, 15:36
Happy Valentines Day, we will now charge you for something that was free.
At least Pandora is still free.
Ania
22 February, 18:42
Major fail. If I’m going to pay for something, I’d like to hear what I want at least half, if not most of the time. I’m certainly not going to pay for a service that just like Pandora (which now has the edge since it’s still free) has me put in the name of the band/artist I want to hear, only to hear nothing, or almost nothing by that artist. If I say I want to hear Red Hot Chilli Peppers, then I want to hear Red Hot Chilli Peppers- and sure, u can throw in some CAge the Elephant or similar bands ONCE IN A WHILE. The other day I was on my RHCP station and I heard Led Zeppelin. WTF? Put on the Beatles station and I get Elton John or Jimi Hendrix… WTF? Is there even a formula to this? Are you guys even trying to give us what we want or is it all just pretend? What next? I check out a Metallica station and hear Britney Spears? Might as well, at this point. It’s simple- you want me to pay? Improve your service and I’d gladly pay for a music service if it really did give me what I want. Sounds like I need to check out this Spotify thing everyone’s commenting about here. Thanks for the tip, guys~
toothpaste
22 February, 21:11
@suomynonAnon
“I am confident that the majority of Last.fm Mobile users would support their information being sold over losing their music and having to switch over to one of the other free music services.”
That is a very big assumption on your part, one I would not wager on. While I agree with you on the point that many people don’t want to leave last.fm because, in my case, of the scrobbling ability. As I have stated previously in the comments above, I have not turned on scrobbling since this news story broke. I hope that the reasons I gave in my previous post will clarify.
As for everyone that is supporting this change, good for you. We that do not support this change are not “winers”, but people that have a strong stance on this issue. As I have explained earlier, and as is stated on the last.fm site and I quote;
“Last.fm is a music service powered entirely by its community of listeners.”
Scrobbling by us the users have made this site what it is today and it is WE the USERS that made this site so attractive that it was sold. I refuse to pay $.01 towards my own hard work which contributed to the rise in popularity of this site along with thousands of other users.
So while I don’t agree with the people that are willing to pay for a poor service on android, I am not calling anyone names. To each his own.
I am only trying to make people see that without you, me and thousands of others there would be NO last.fm. No stats, no recommendations, nothing, nada, niente, nicht.
verstehen?
brian botkiller
22 February, 23:27
I really like Last, I have been championing you over Pandora for a long time.
Firstly, to you people who say “I’ll just go to pandora”, you do realize that A. Pandora charges you after 200 hours of listening, and B. They have a FAR less reaching library of music than Last, right? Also, Pandora is essentially a hipster’s playlist. They choose music based on their own tastes, NOT those of their listeners. It’s right in their FAQ – they don’t take music based on it being music. They incorporate only music that’s what THEY like.
Pandora is an epic bunch of failures, and I’d happily punch someone from their company in the bridge of the effing nose, if I could.
Last supports indie artists, which I appreciate.
Now, onto the paid service thing; I respect that Last has to do this. Streaming isn’t cheap, and ad revenue doesn’t pay for everything. But, there is an issue here, guys; it costs more to make a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. You’re obviously going to lose a lot of customers in this push. I realize you’ve accounted for that, but reading the comments here, it’s really apparent.
So, onto the payment; I looked at the sub page. The issue here is that you offer NO discount for doing up in subscription terms. If I buy a year, you should discount me off the $3/month price – that’s how you get people to consider buying more at once – it’s an upsell.
$3/mo. is not bad. It’s better than $5/mo. – but you need to offer incentives. You really would do well to offer an ad supported version, as well as a paid version.
To those going to spotify – firstly, spotify isn’t available in the US. Secondly, they’re taking forever to incorporate in the US. If you think they’re going to be a Last killer, you’re dead wrong.
Overall, I can’t blame last for doing this – but I would encourage you guys to rethink your pricing structure. You would also do well to treat your existing customers a little better in this transition. Keeping us should be your number ONE priority.
brian botkiller
22 February, 23:32
Another thing; the term “for the cost of a fancy coffee” is a silly one. People simply don’t think that like that, anymore. I have tried to push on people “buy an album for .99, don’t buy that cheeseburger!” – it doesn’t work. You should be focusing on what your service is worth to your customers, not what other services are worth in compared to yours.
TDK
23 February, 02:32
The only way that I would consider it is if it became as useful as Youtube in playing WHAT I want when I want it. If I’m paying, I should be able to pull up and play any song in your library. And if I want to listen to “Stevie Wonder Radio” I should be able to get ALL Stevie Wonder.
Last is FAR superior to Pandora, but I can’t see how this will work. I will miss you all, but I can not imagine paying to use something on my phone that is free on my desktop.
radiophage
23 February, 03:38
Ah, well. Thanks for the memories.
Johnnymarrisgod
23 February, 03:50
I’ve traveled through every corner of the Last-FM site, and cannot find a solution to my new problem. I’ve been a Last-FM user for years now, and received the email regarding subscription fees on mobile devices. Fine, I don’t have a problem paying a nominal fee for Last-FM’s quality library. As a long time user I was promised a free 3-month subscription. Unfortunately, since you updated your software I have not been able to access Last-FM on my Android phone—I keep getting the message “the application has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again”. Which I have for the last two days. It seems rather silly to me to have a free, or paid for that matter, subscription for a service I cannot access. Last-FM came preloaded on my phone, and if I cannot get a solution to this problem I’m going to remove it. Like many others here, I too am a Pandora defector, and will be forced to return to them. They’re not half as good as Last-FM, but at least their technology works, and that’s better than nothing. Thanks for nothing Last-FM.
Christiana Verao
23 February, 04:04
Seriously? Alright peace out last.fm, you were my favorite radio application :(
I agree that the music variety, personalization, scrobbling, and quality of software is incomparable but requiring users to have a subscription to access it on the go, which is 99% of my usage… isn’t gonna fly. Especially when it’s still RADIO.
DEUCES GUYS.
HI PANDORA, HI SLACKER RADIO, HI iHEARTRADIO :)
Miles
23 February, 09:05
I’ve been converting all my friends (and smartphone users) to Last.fm but after this I’m afraid everyone is going to be running in the other direction… Sadly, I may as well be too. Bad decision Last. Don’t know what you guys were thinking…
Elliot
23 February, 16:15
goodbye last.fm, it was fun while it lasted.
suomynonAnon
23 February, 20:03
@toothpaste
I went back and re-read your posts.
Alright, perhaps my comment was a bit over-arching — though it seems that many Americans don’t mind advertisement, which is essentially the same as tracking, as many ad companies will attempt to track you. Therefore, it isn’t too far of a stretch that they would support selling their music listening information, perhaps even just agreeing to do so in aggregate. The main point, however, is that people should be given the option — and that Last.fm can make money from them in this way, as opposed to giving those users up.
jared
23 February, 21:01
I loved using last.fm. I’ll certainly take advantage of my free 3 month subscription (shucks thanks) but will certainly not be renewing or paying for a subscription in the future.
It’s a shame that you’ve decided to go this route and I’m certain it will turn out poorly for you considering the other options available.
V
23 February, 21:39
Goodbye, Last.fm. ‘Twas awesome while it lasted.
Machine
24 February, 04:19
why would you decide to do this? I dont mind listening to ads on my ipod version of this at all considering how great it is. But its certainly not worth paying for when i can get pandora radio on my mobile for free. I would hate to do that considering you guys have a superior music selection….but it must be done…it was great when it lasted….R.I.P last fm mobile radio
JerkDouglas
24 February, 17:04
Why anyone would pay for a service that doesn’t even let you play an artist’s radio station and listen to just that artist is beyond me.
Oh well, the iPhone app sucked anyway.
JollyJack
24 February, 18:15
Sad day for music lovers everywhere… Bye bye LastFM..once my free 3 months is up (I’m in the merchant navy so i’ll miss half of that anyway) i’m off…. you had something brilliant and you’ve totally hacked off all your users… poor management I say..
Seth B
24 February, 18:45
I guess I’ll just delete if off my ipod.
Good luck with this.
Shad
25 February, 00:18
It’s really amazing to me that everyone expects everything to be free now. It’s a sense of entitlement I did not grow up with.
I don’t mind paying. I already have a subscription anyway. It’s not a big deal. I don’t like Pandora very much and I’ve found lots of great stuff here on LastFM. Keep the cool stuff coming and I’ll be a happy man.
last.fm: another tombstone in the graveyard of those who overreach
25 February, 00:18
Screw you last.fm. Your service runs like crap, your scrobbler stalls out iTunes for excruciating minutes at a stretch, your scrobbler is as precise as a three-year old’s handwriting, and now you want me to pay to use your stupid iPhone app? Get real. I’ll use your 3 free months and then I’m deleting this crap and closing my account. I’m not going to pay you to put up with endless frustrations and b.s. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Google will start a music service…one that works, obviously!!
fuck you a lot
25 February, 00:25
fuck you, last effing m.
Suckit
25 February, 09:46
You realize that thousands of developers use Google AdMob services to accrue revenue on their mobile apps, right? Did you even CONSIDER trying this before jumping to the conclusion that you must charge to remain profitable? I doubt it. I am seriously displeased. I will be using pandora for my web radio needs now. I will keep my profile here SOLELY for contact with friends. Good day. Otherwise I would leave in an instant
HAppY GiLmore
25 February, 19:00
are you guys smart fellers or fart smellers
burnmaker
25 February, 21:32
love last.fm and also love it on my phone… but for my phone it will have to be pandora from now on. thank god for pandora.
marketing advice
26 February, 00:31
quick tip: if you want someone to pay for something that doesn’t work, you have to pretend it works. you shouldn’t let them use the i-app free for years so that they all know it can’t play 2 songs without crashing. maybe you’ll rope in some new people though, good luck!
eat shit and die
26 February, 01:02
Last.fm has been going down the toilet for a long time. This is just another bowel fish for users to swallow. Paying for this is absolutely pointless. The last “update” you guys delivered to your product was not being able to play specific songs. Might as well use pandora for mobile devices. Eat shit and die last.fm
Stephen
26 February, 11:26
I used in infrequently anyway.
Now I won’t need to use it at all…
Jay
26 February, 17:07
I use to use it occasionally on my iPod Touch, now I wont be using it at all nor will I ever subscribe.
Alison
26 February, 20:33
Shakes head. That’s too bad. I really liked using the Android app to listen to music, but I don’t see any reason to pay for it when I can do the same with Pandora’s app for free… I think the deciding factor for me in the first place was the no skip limit, but Pandora’s music is definitely comparable and I can tolerate not being able to skip songs as frequently over paying a subscription. I’m not a cheapskate, but… come on. The Android app isn’t that great in the first place – it freezes and crashes pretty regularly. I think Pandora’s tagging of music is better. This will be a huge upset to all the indie bands out there who rely on this service to get their music out in the open too. Sucks! I would have preferred Google AdMob ads… they are universally common on mobile apps, and not as off putting because of that.
kennyshields
26 February, 22:28
Oh well Byeeeee.
Katya
27 February, 02:56
well this sucks, i’d so much rather have ads and free radio. and £3 IS cheap but i don’t use last.fm on my iphone that often and also i might as well pay for something better.
i think its a huge disappointment for all last.fm fans. shame.
Back to Pandora
27 February, 05:14
F U…
Jason K
27 February, 11:16
so basically you are taking the only thing that is unique to last.fm which is free mobile device support and why is it that on windows phone 7 it is free, what about android ? there is ad support on android ????
p.s. this is gonna reduce the amount of people who use last.fm and increase the number of people on competitors services e.g. we7 and spotify.
please dont stop supporting the mobile devices at least not on android
Steve
27 February, 16:13
Yea, Pandora is still free on my phone so Im going to have to say bye to you since you decided to make this mistake. thanks for the good music and I hope you decide that the group of listeners you are going to lose will make you change your mind.
yab_tater
28 February, 05:29
I listen to last.fm mostly on my Logitech Squeezebox, and while I have built up a radio station I enjoy, because the genres of music I listen to (goth, industrial, ebm, dark wave, etc.) are so spotty in the artists represented and in the depth of tracks available to play, what you offer in the way of what I want to listen to is not worth paying a monthly subscription for. For many artists on my station, only one or two tracks are available for play, and there are several bands (KMFDM, and Ministry to name two) where there are zero tracks available. When my trial subscription runs out, I will simply switch back to the several excellent free stations on Shoutcast that play my sort of music. If last.fm offered a truly comprehensive catalog of artists and tracks that interested me, and if the ability to listen to individual tracks was reinstated, I would be perfectly fine with paying a subscription, but you simply do not offer enough depth and variety to be worth paying for.
And just FYI, even listening to last.fm on my PC, using FireFox plus Ad-Block, and No-Script, I don’t see a single ad on your site. Right now, IMHO, you business model is pure fail.
Peter
28 February, 05:57
All you crybabies seem to be missing the VERY distinct possibility that CBS is intentionally trying to kill last.fm and getting a tasty tax writeoff in the process. Remember CBS is a marketer of content in its own right, and closely affiliated with he RIAA and MPAA. Those outfits have never like internet radio. Its just like Starbuck has done with certain competitors… buy them, dissolve them, and put in a new Starbucks in their place. Further, I don’t blame the founders of last.fm who sold out for millions of dollars. I would have, too.
All that said, I will not be a subscriber to radio. Someone else said it best: “I pay for music. I do not pay for radio”. I also don’t like providing free market data from scrobbling, and still getting charged for radio.
So this could well be the end for last.fm. But CBS doesn’t care, they get the tax write-off and eliminate a competitor. The folks who got paid by CBS are millionaires, so they don’t care either, so its a win-win for everybody who has skin in the game.
-Peter
Larky
28 February, 10:03
Ahh… I wondered how they got money from ads. Ive never seen any cos i run ad block! :-) Pitty the service has gone from squeezebox but i definately wont be subscribing
rolyateel
28 February, 10:13
Bad decision
I only listen to my own radio station through my Squeezebox – why should I have to pay £3/month to listen to music I already own?
Lego
28 February, 10:37
I’m pretty sure that all the guys complaining here about a subscription, do work for free !
Last-FM does a great job, and i’m glad that there is a service like this. So what are we talking about ? 3$/ month ?! This is just nothing !
James Cowlishaw
28 February, 20:41
Sad to see so many negative comments. I’ve dipped in and out of last.fm for years; Though I never really used the social aspect, it’s led to some great musical discoveries. I’ll be buying a subscription for my iPhone when the time comes.
I also love the new app layout.
Vielka
28 February, 22:50
Disappointed that there’s a fee now but all things come to an end right? If it were just me I’d probably buy a subscription (even with the crashing)but we just really can’t afford 3 subs right now. Back to pandora I guess. Good luck last.fm
You won't care, so why write it?
28 February, 23:06
Delete my account a few minutes ago…
Thank you for everything! It was cool! Now unto more broader horizons…:)
Aguirre
1 March, 00:19
Sorry to see this, goodbye! It was great having you on my iphone, but I’m not paying for a service that Pandora and Slacker offer for free. If you ever become free again, I’ll sign up again.
pike
1 March, 11:40
“All Logitech Squeezebox products – subscription required in US, UK and Germany”
That is obfuscating. I’ve been misled.
Please change that to: “Only available in US, UK and Germany, and only when subscribed. We check your location by IP Address”
And while you’re at it, return my $3, since I’m not able to use them here.
Bye, *-pike
Ollie
2 March, 00:17
If Lastfm has as much to offer as other paid for music resources such as Spotify then they can demand money. As they give a unique service which is hit and miss on occasions then I personally feel its rather cheeky, much of the apeal to me was how Lasfm modestly provided new music at no cost, which represented the creaters love for music which I could relate to. Now I’ve lost respect for Lastfm, its just another one of hundreds of paid for services.
chuck
3 March, 01:58
for the same price as pandora one for a year i dont see the lowest price available. they still have a free use for phones with very little ads in my opinion.. might have to just use pandora
She
3 March, 04:54
So… I would rather have a free app with ads, as opposed to giving up Last.fm. I’m even OK with 15 second audio ads. If someone doesn’t like it, then they could become a subscriber. You know, like a compromise. Subscribing should come with things like less adds, more music, higher quality, priority… whatever. Non-subscribers have advertisements, less song selection, and slightly lower quality. Or even a listening limit, like Pandora has.
What you should’ve done is fixed your app before even making this announcement. It skips and crashes constantly, so coupled with this announcement, it’s going to make people rage.
This is a failure on your part.
STPHN
3 March, 07:26
DON’T DO IT LAST.FM!
THIS IS BULLSHIT!
LOL Kthx
3 March, 17:22
Wow so many people saying Goodbye.
I’m guessing if they see enough people leaving and not paying for this then maybe, just maybe, they will reconsider. Either A. they will keep it free or B. lower the subscription.
To be honest, I rather just pay for the app. Wouldn’t that be better? Like I guess $2.99 instead of it being a free app. I like that idea better than paying for a subscription.
james311
4 March, 00:13
I really wish you would have taken that approach that other carriers like pandora have used. I really enjoy the depth of your stations compared to those of Pandora’s, but it is not reason enough to justify a monthly subscription for me. I can get by with the less than intrusive banner ads and quick 15 second audio advertisements, which is why i will just make a permanent switch to Pandora when streaming online radio on my android phone. Please reconsider your position, and i will definitely be back.
Thank you last.fm
:(
4 March, 16:13
This is sad. I started using last.fm because of the free mobile feature, but now I’ll be moving to another provider.
Dennis
4 March, 18:08
Yeah, I’ll just find something else to use then
a_u_u_b
4 March, 21:31
Goodbye Lastfm.
Just the sonos service I’ll miss. But +2000 Radio station should help…
Theres more then LastFM!
Markus
4 March, 23:38
I can understand the move in general. That’s your service and you decision.
But I am really angry at the cooperation between Onkyo & Last.fm. You can’t sell HARDWARE in form of higher end AV receivers and switch off a built-in feature after a few months! You guys should have had an agreement on sharing sales price or whatever..
This is really annoying – it is not a free app you can move from beta trial to premium!
NiG
5 March, 12:07
I wonder if all the money you get from subscriptions will just be lining your pockets other than going to all the numerous artist’s that attract people to the site in the first place?
Lastfm Moderator
5 March, 13:12
The business model we used showed we would lose a small percentage of users.
This seems to be the case!
Mike Murphy
5 March, 15:53
A small percentage of users? I may not have a doctorate in business but I’m 99% sure it’ll be more than a “small” percentage of users. Maybe if you look at PC/MAC and mobile users as a whole, but for JUST the mobile market I can almost guarantee more than 50% of users will go to a free service. If the moderators have read these comments you’ll see that the app crashes constantly, freezes constantly, and more often than not you’re spending more time rebooting your iDevice than you are listening to music. We do not need to do this with Pandora, Slacker, etc. You may maintain your PC listeners but people just do not want to pay another monthly subscription. Think about it; we pay for the mobile device, a data plan, a voice plan, internet at home, perhaps an online game, rent, car, utilities, etc. $3.00 might not seem like much but these costs add up. I love last.fm on the PC but I refuse to pay for your mobile service.
Murray
5 March, 18:43
This move will surely lose all lastfm mobile users? This is like charging people to take money out of the wall! sorry future undiscovered bands, you will never be listened to while I’m not on my PC :(
Maxwell Ball
6 March, 19:15
Back to the Pandora IPhone App I guess, damn and I really liked the New update. This is not worth $36 a year especially not for some random track listings…bummer. Grooveshark!! bring the IPhone App back please!!
zeats
7 March, 00:21
well this sucks bye bye last.fm for my droid. i guess back to pandora and slacker sad face
mrprophecy
7 March, 17:14
I actually thought last.fm was the perfect way for artists to promote their music. Unfortunately it is obviously also full of money grabbers who want to profit from other peoples creativity………Find sponsors and advertisers! How exactly is it “not practical”……..That is the biggest pile of steaming bulls poo poo I have ever heard in my life. Even fledgling developers have managed to practically implement advertising into their mobile apps.
After contributing over 100 tracks to your library and convincing about 200 people to get last.fm on there iphone, I feel a bit stupid now.
Fire the plonker that was responsible for making this totally ridiculous decision, keep it free for the people or you will have absolutely no selling point that separates you from your competitors. If you sell out any further I will leave along with my music. Your greedy corporate undertones are obvious and sickening us all! Keep this up and you might as well change your name to wontlast.fm.
Max
7 March, 21:19
I don’t pay for apps. All the other music apps on android are ad-supported (nothing in life is free and ads do provide quantifiable revenue). Last.Fm is not providing anything special.
In addition the app has been having problems staying connected lately. If I pay will the support really be any better? Most likely not, but regardless last.fm while good is only a content provider and doesn’t actually produce anything.
Many companies have proven that different environments require different revenue models. For instance Rovio charges for an ad-removed version of their popular Angry Birds games on the iOS platform, but realized android users will not pay and instead went with an ad-supported version that has proven to be just as lucrative of business for them.
Maybe for the 3 month free-trial period we should all turn of scrobbling in protest. Scrobbling is genius and without it last.fm is no better at guessing what to play next than pandora.
Failing that, this is android, we all know there will be a free app that pulls last.fm streams for free, boohoo if it doesn’t scrobble, (hell the scrobbling doesn’t work 99% of the time anyways on android).
heidy
8 March, 16:51
That sux!
heidy
8 March, 17:01
If im gonna pay I might as well get MOG
Buy Bye
8 March, 23:40
Buy Bye, Buy Bye!
HaKr
10 March, 16:16
Some fee for listening sounds fair enough, although at first I abandoned my free account.
Discussions about what amount is fair and what not will always remain.
What I do not understand is that when I would subscribe, I still can’t listen om my mobile phone. Trying to understand the motivation of Last.FM about the markets outside Germany, UK and US, I understand I have to pay some dollars. Which is fine, since I hate commercial breaks. But on my phone, the play option remains diasabled because of the country I live in.
Bruce
13 March, 16:41
I thought last.fm was a statistics music service unlike pandora which is labeled as internet radio? but anyways, your definatly not going to have any customers in the US, everyones just going to use pandora. Thanks for the good time though.
Colton Macaluso
14 March, 21:56
total bummer, hopefully they will retract this when they realize how many loyal fans their losing, and set something up for donations and or set up a free version where you get less skips or something like pandora has done. i don’t think anyone minds the ads. greed motivates i guess :(
tRodHxC
14 March, 22:43
Gay…hopefully somebody over at XDA will crack an apk soon after my trial ends(if they haven’t already). Microsoft are the ones behind this I presume. Purchasing exclusive rights to free broadcast for non-desktop devices.
tRodHxC
14 March, 22:45
They should take a page from LastPass and X-Marks service’s recent drama…
ton
14 March, 23:04
won’t be buying, app skips too much. it’s like listening to a scratched 45 or cd. not worth the money for music on your phone.
pere
15 March, 14:30
this is funny, because although you released version 3.0 for the iphone by now, the app essentially still sucks since it is still not stable enough to justify any money being paid for its use.
thanks for the three months trial now. after that the app will be gone from my phone.
Matt B
15 March, 14:59
I won’t be missing much; last.fm’s mobile streaming never worked right for me on Android anyway. Always got ‘insufficient content’ one or two songs in.
App will probably stay on my phone for scrobbling, at least until you turn that into Microsoft/Subscriber-only.
beckygoblin
16 March, 20:34
I’ve been subscribed and listening to my own and my friends’ loved tracks for a year. I’ve really enjoyed it and am very sorry to see this unique and awesome aspect of Last.fm go. Subscription canceled. Hello Pandora.
Zac
17 March, 01:51
Just got the message from you telling me that it will become a subscription service. Not happy at all. I loved lying in bed at night on my iPod listening to new music, but soon that will be over. However, in my experience last.fm radio is good with a wifi connection, through 3G its genuinely awful for me. Im gonna be at home though using it through wifi, therefore Im just gonna turn my laptop on avoiding making a payment. Only a small percentage of people will pay this, which Im sure in the longrun will not be worth it. R.I.P. Last.fm
toothpaste
17 March, 02:21
@ lastfm moderator
“The business model we used showed we would lose a small percentage of users.
This seems to be the case!”
I have not actually counted all the posts, but there are only a handful of people that stated in this blog that they would pay for this service. So the correct statement should read as follows;
“The business model we used showed we would retain a small percentage of users.
This seems to be the case!”
What school of business and economics did you attend?
BLLittle
17 March, 03:09
I could understand a pay service on mobile if it was actually reliable and lived up to the hype (and your pride). But honestly, getting “Insufficient Content” errors at least 3X per week and the same playlist with barely any reorder day after day is NOT worth paying for.
I thought by putting in a wide variety of classical composers from varied eras I’d get good, broad “recommendations.” I also put in a number of pop artists as favorites. Instead of expanding the recommendations, it seems to have actually narrowed them. Believe me, Chopin wrote more than about 3 pieces, Beethoven more than 1, Prokofiev more than 1, Elton John more than 2, Yes more than 1 (though I will admit I get two versions of the 1 — a live and the original album cut), Frank Zappa more than 2, etc.
This evidence is quite to the contrary to what you state in your blog piece; you may have at least some breadth to your collection, but to call this depth is laughable. And to try to charge for it nearly criminal.
louisyunghoi
17 March, 09:29
Sentiment is the same here. I already have a premium subscription to Spotify (best money I’ve ever spent) so I rarely use Last.fm for listening to music, rather, it’s a social supplement to enable me to discover new music from people who have the same music tastes as me. Once I’ve friended neighbours and got my recommendations, I’ll go to Spotify to listen and playlist.
It’s great having Last.fm connected to my Songkick profile so I can automatically follow upcoming gigs based on my listening tastes, but as soon as Spotify develops their recommendation engine and listener profiles, my reasons for visiting Last.fm will become redundant – which is a massive shame.
The ideal scenario for me would be for Spotify to buy out Last.fm so my listen history since 2006 hasn’t gone to waste.
Kittencake
17 March, 12:12
My wife’s in a band and she’s uploaded her music to Last FM for free.
For me to now listen to the music she’s uploaded for free I only have to pay: £45 phone contract. £30 broadband connection.
and now finally I can Pay Last FM.
This is exceptional value and we are very excited about receiving her share of the profits.
baz-71
18 March, 01:21
i will be subscribing as i’ve never had a problem on pc or my android phone and have bought more cd’s from hearing stuff on last fm than any reviewers i dont get the ‘i’m going to spotify instead ‘ as listening to constsnt ad interruptions is quite frankly a headfuck keep up the good work the best things in life have never been free and last fm is one of them
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