As someone living in Mauritius, Last.fm radio was one of the only ways to legally listen to music not available in my country. If this is confirmed then there is a risk more people will indulge in piracy. Crap.
Tekkkkk
· 8 months ago
Apparantly the way it is used now is piracy. Or am I wrong?
Jimmy Rowe
· 8 months ago
You are wrong. last.fm is owned by CBS. It's all legal.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Wow. That sucks! All of my music preferences are on there! Pandora had nothing on Last.fm. Opportunity arises!
Yo Dawg
· 8 months ago
this will be the end of last.fm internationally
Venky
· 8 months ago
Holy S**t! I was an ardent listener of last.fm from india... Paying 200 bucks a month tho is too much for me. Bye bye last.fm
Zackarij Gardner
· 8 months ago
That's 200 bucks? What currency are you talking about..because it's less than 5 bucks (dollars).
Jimmy Rowe
· 8 months ago
No, it's three dollars. >_>
Tristan Thomas
· 8 months ago
I really can't see people paying for it, awesome as it is, when they can download it for free illegally. Bye bye last.fm internationally!
Georgia
· 8 months ago
Why not charge the rich countries for a change?
Funnily enough, I've practically stopped using Last.fm as an online radio lately 'cause I can never get it to work straight from the website, but only from the scrobbler. Sounds to me like the block has already been around for a while somehow, 'cause I'm not the only one to have had that problem.
It's a damn shame...they'll be lucky to find anyone who can be bothered (or even afford) to pay. I know I can't...
Mark Donovan
· 8 months ago
Sounds like a good opportunity for niche radio services in countries outside the 3 largest markets. I'd still take a good streaming radio station over Last.fm's ineffective system any day. And they're still free.
takealeft
· 8 months ago
I wonder why Germany is included with US and UK? Why not France or Spain also?
Xavier
· 8 months ago
I misunderstood your article, and thought that the whole service was going for-pay. Fortunately, the original blogpost has much clearer wording: only the radio streaming will be for-pay, the rest remaining free - luckily.
Not too much of a loos for me: I switched my daily listening to Spotify recently, and I'm not even opening iTunes or downloading albums anymore. This sounds like a clear win for Spotify, in my opinon.
Dario
· 8 months ago
Thanks for clearing that up. i dont use the streaming at all, only the logging of my own stats. phew!
Myriam
· 8 months ago
That is what i understood too, thanks!
netgui
· 8 months ago
This is is so sad for Last.fm. I loved it, specialy on my iPhone but i won't pay for it. Who would pay just for listening a radio (even if the radio fits my tastes). This is sad, sad for french people :-( Deezer.com will be another alternative for it even if Last.fm was far better.
Car Tuning
· 8 months ago
That's why i like Digitally Imported more than last fm. I think it might be a good decision to increase their income, but they will surely loose a lot of listeners that don't want to pay for their services. In 3rd world countries, $4,40 usd per month is pretty expensive for just a couple of songs at an online radio. It was way better if they still offered for free their radio at a lower quality, like 44 kbs and users that wanted to get full quality 320kb radio should've paid a monthly fee.
cyxob
· 8 months ago
пиздец, proxy наше ффсио!
Pat
· 8 months ago
I guess now is a great time for people to start checking out http://grooveshark.com . I've been using it for months and prefer it to Last.fm any day.
Srikanth
· 8 months ago
thanx for the recco. just checked it. nice.
Hardeep Singh Dang
· 8 months ago
What a pathetic move I MUST SAY. Finally 1 more service gathers users worldwide and ditches every1 els and becomes a US Only service. I m sure UK and Denmark wont be supported for long too.
Cortimiglia
· 8 months ago
The fact is, if they started charging everybody €3/month, there would be a Facebook-style user revolt and soon the service would be empty.
But, as we’re already can see from the comments in their blog, UK/US/German users just don’t care. The old “it is not in my backyard, it doesn’t matter” egoistical reasoning. Just that soon it will happen in your backyard too!
montreal
· 8 months ago
Well, goodbye Last.fm. We had some good times...
You know, I'm really loving how in Canada we go on about broadband, blah, blah, blah but we have nothing to use it on! No iTunes tv with non-Canadian shows (so basically anything good we don't have it), no iTunes-hd, not even anything close to Netflix and now no Last.fm.
Way to drive everyone to torrents rights holders.
Mindi Pettitt
· 8 months ago
That sucks, but considering the service is outstanding, isn't it worth paying (a small fee) to support a business that does such a great job of providing us with new music? However, I do agree, that if we (Canada and other internationals) have to pay, shouldn't everyone?
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
I also thought on those lines... But then, I reckon Last.fm wouldn't be anything like it is if they didn't have all their thousands of thousands of users annotating, tagging etc the music (i.e. organising it for them). I reckon this means Last.fm is becoming just another outlet for the big US / UK record labels.
Y
· 8 months ago
Bye bye last.fm, with so many good alternatives this is a really bad move.
noisician
· 8 months ago
I wonder if it's because they are able to support the site through advertising where they are most popular but can't afford to in other places? Just a guess.
Adam Ostrow
· 8 months ago
yea, if you read the blog comments on their post, one of their execs says something to that effect. Of course, if licensing wasn't so pricey, they wouldn't have to sell so many ads to cover it ...
Corvida Raven
· 8 months ago
I wonder if they'll flock to Imeem or iLike?
Pedro Remedios
· 8 months ago
Yeah I will go to imeem now!
Mervi
· 8 months ago
Wow. Well, I hope Last.fm is ready to lose quite a bunch of users...
bradleyf81
· 8 months ago
Well, so much for Last.fm. Damn, what a headache. Now I have to remove it from FF, FB, etc etc.
Thanks to the people who indicated possible alternatives in their replies!
Jane Shkolnik
· 8 months ago
Last.fm has jumped the shark. Music fanatics are....well, fanatics and are passionate. If last.fm loses these passionate users, it will be impossible to get them back.
Rick
· 8 months ago
Absolutely disgusting move.
Wouldn't have minded paying for the service, but paying because I'm from the wrong country? That's the most insulting business plan ever. Screw them.
Chris Clayton
· 8 months ago
That sucks!
Myriam
· 8 months ago
I'm sorry but this isn't clear. I read that they are going to make people pay if they want to use LASTFM radio.
'In all other countries, listening to Last.fm Radio will soon require a subscription of €3.00 per month. There will be a 30 track free trial, and we hope this will convince people to subscribe and keep listening to the radio.'
This doesn't concern people who used the website to stream the music they played on their own computer.
I understood their announcement differently than you did.
Adam Ostrow
· 8 months ago
Added an update to the post to clarify this point, thanks.
Pedro Remedios
· 8 months ago
Well then nobody outside those 3 countries should be going back to last.fm! I'm not going back to last.fm anymore because of this! Forget it! The reason behind it is because of "internatinoal licenseing fees" but UK and Germany don't pay squat! Last.FM deserves to have their userbase reduced!
Srikanth
· 8 months ago
Good Bye, Au revoir, (Arabic) إلى اللقاء, अलविदा (Hindi), Arrivederci (Italian), До свидания (Russian), Adiós (Spanish), ลาก่อน (Thai), Adeus (Portugese), Αντίο (Greek), (Hebrew) להתראות, నమస్తే (Telugu).....Last.fm
P.S: Chances are, they won't be hearing most of the above languages anymore on Last.FM
MikeonTV
· 8 months ago
I'm out. It was fun while it lasted but now that I can get Sirius on the iPhone I have no use for streaming music. How 2002!
Me
· 8 months ago
Happy to pay, but why the heck am I constantly penalised for living outside the US or UK? I'm fed up and really hope someone steps into the void that Last.fm are creating in their own audience.
Aaroncast86
· 8 months ago
Thanks for that update. I live in Canada and there would be no way I'd pay money to have my music listening tracked on a website. I was seriously worried when I skimmed this post because I enjoy using Last.FM as a means to see how often I listen to different musicians and finding new ones I might like. Good to know that what I use Last.FM for will be free still... though I find it odd that they'd make Canada pay while letting Germany stay free. Or maybe this is one of those numerous instances where writing US is meant to include Canada... which annoys me.
Lena
· 8 months ago
More reasons to move over to Spotify :)
Jan Wildeboer
· 8 months ago
So I live in germany. Fine. But when I travel to France, Spain etc - what happens? Pay per visit? ;-)
d3bruts1d
· 8 months ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't €3.00 closer to $4.05 USD than $4.40 USD?
At any rate, I'm sad for my Canadian friends that are getting screwed here. Though I find Last.fm largely irrelevant anymore, and pretty much the only thing I really use it for now days is to keep track of what I listen to (the charts).
Paul
· 8 months ago
Actually, Last.fm charges differently in different currencies. The price will be €3.00 or $3.00 or £3.00. So users can actually save depending on what currency they pay in. Until the change comes on 30th March, people can still subscribe for an unchanging monthly fee of £1.50, which is quite a saving.
Along Parker
· 8 months ago
It is great to see that I am not alone in my views of this topic. I feel the same way. Great work, as always, us.buuuz.com
ys
· 8 months ago
the problem is, why do i pay for such service?
i mean, its not as if i'm paying to download these songs or what.
riwilo
· 8 months ago
So they charge people to listen to music that we as musicians provide for free? And we don't get anything back for that? Last.fm lost me her as a listener as well as musician. I won't permit them to earn money over my back.
Zackarij Gardner
· 8 months ago
Read more closely, this applies to the Radio function alone, not streaming from your own account.
_rt
· 8 months ago
their loss... i'm out! shame on you last fm...
Oset
· 8 months ago
I've got better idea. I won't stop scrobbling but I'll scrobble a random mess to their database.
Is there anybody who can write me a piece of software to do this? It should take random tags from last.fm database and scrobble it to my account. If a lot of angry users do this last.fm database will start to fill with random mess, and they will eventually loose their recommendation power.
Its not ok to leave last.fm and let them make money with database content i produced for free.
David, Sweden
· 8 months ago
Ok, bye!
Domingos Teruel
· 8 months ago
Its a new pandora case?
John Davis
· 8 months ago
Well, everyone else is sticking to the AMerican public, why not them?
I'd suggest international users to consider using Slacker radio with the lastSlacker plugin to scrobble your tracks. Last.fm's big draw is its scrobbleing and networking not it's radio service.
DiggeR
· 8 months ago
Great, back to VPN/TOR to use it.
Ridiculous.
Blippe
· 8 months ago
Wow, those record companies which demands these kind of licenses really gotta hate themselves:
"Hey, I got an idea, a lot of people are using legal alternatives, lets make them turn to illegal pirating instead! This way we wont have any costumers at all. YAY!"
Paul Maddock
· 8 months ago
I'll be interested to see how last.fm fairs after this choice. I'm not going to call 'greedy fat cats' just yet, but it seems wholey unjustified.
Personally speaking I enjoyed Pandora a lot more, but as a UK resident I was devistated to learn that I could not use it any more. Last.fm pales in comparison to Pandora. I would not pay for Last.fm, but I would pay to get Pandora back.
Therseus
· 8 months ago
I told them in an email to cordially go fuck themselves, then i deleted my account. Either we all pay or noone does.
Therseus
· 8 months ago
I told them (Last.fm) in an email to cordially go fuck themselves, and their UK/US/GERMAN users.So can you. Either everyone pays or noone pays. Send your emails to: office@last.fm
Therseus
· 8 months ago
Today i got the Radio Announcement email from Last.fm about them starting to charge International users for the service. In a less then cordial reply email i told them that this was out of the question for me, and that they should go fuck themselves and take with them the US/UK/DE users they will continue to offer this service to for free. I then deleted my account there. My position is simple. Either we all pay, or noone does.
x00x
· 8 months ago
If/when the same business model comes crashing down here in the old USA, it will indeed be my last.(fm)
ys
· 8 months ago
I bet nobody is gonna continue with last.fm.
What they are doing is just like Pandora.
Katie
· 8 months ago
I live in New Zealand so looks like I'd have to pay for radio... I won't though, I barely use the radio feature. I mainly use last.fm for scrobbling.
All Comments
Funnily enough, I've practically stopped using Last.fm as an online radio lately 'cause I can never get it to work straight from the website, but only from the scrobbler. Sounds to me like the block has already been around for a while somehow, 'cause I'm not the only one to have had that problem.
It's a damn shame...they'll be lucky to find anyone who can be bothered (or even afford) to pay. I know I can't...
Not too much of a loos for me: I switched my daily listening to Spotify recently, and I'm not even opening iTunes or downloading albums anymore. This sounds like a clear win for Spotify, in my opinon.
But, as we’re already can see from the comments in their blog, UK/US/German users just don’t care. The old “it is not in my backyard, it doesn’t matter” egoistical reasoning. Just that soon it will happen in your backyard too!
You know, I'm really loving how in Canada we go on about broadband, blah, blah, blah but we have nothing to use it on! No iTunes tv with non-Canadian shows (so basically anything good we don't have it), no iTunes-hd, not even anything close to Netflix and now no Last.fm.
Way to drive everyone to torrents rights holders.
Thanks to the people who indicated possible alternatives in their replies!
Wouldn't have minded paying for the service, but paying because I'm from the wrong country? That's the most insulting business plan ever. Screw them.
'In all other countries, listening to Last.fm Radio will soon require a subscription of €3.00 per month. There will be a 30 track free trial, and we hope this will convince people to subscribe and keep listening to the radio.'
This doesn't concern people who used the website to stream the music they played on their own computer.
I understood their announcement differently than you did.
P.S: Chances are, they won't be hearing most of the above languages anymore on Last.FM
At any rate, I'm sad for my Canadian friends that are getting screwed here. Though I find Last.fm largely irrelevant anymore, and pretty much the only thing I really use it for now days is to keep track of what I listen to (the charts).
same way. Great work, as always, us.buuuz.com
i mean, its not as if i'm paying to download these songs or what.
Is there anybody who can write me a piece of software to do this? It should take random tags from last.fm database and scrobble it to my account. If a lot of angry users do this last.fm database will start to fill with random mess, and they will eventually loose their recommendation power.
Its not ok to leave last.fm and let them make money with database content i produced for free.
RT
www.Privacy-Center.net
Ridiculous.
"Hey, I got an idea, a lot of people are using legal alternatives, lets make them turn to illegal pirating instead! This way we wont have any costumers at all. YAY!"
Personally speaking I enjoyed Pandora a lot more, but as a UK resident I was devistated to learn that I could not use it any more. Last.fm pales in comparison to Pandora. I would not pay for Last.fm, but I would pay to get Pandora back.
Either we all pay or noone does.
last.(fm)
What they are doing is just like Pandora.