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last.fm is now dead to me

by Phil Barrett

I had really grown to appreciate & love my last.fm both at work every day and on my iphone as a downloadable widget. It even inspired me to write a blog article on internet radio vs. satellite radio.

All that changed last week when I received an email from them confirming what had been reported in the media – last.fm was going to start charging a monthly subscription for those not in the U.S., the UK and Germany.

The email quoted 3 UK pounds per month (which translates roughly into $6 / month) and starts April 1st. You can get more details here.

It will be interesting to see how massive the drop-off will be in listeners when this comes into effect. It’s hard to believe that the small amount of revenue generated from subscription would actually be more than a properly managed and executed media / advertising strategy.

I will not be subscribing to last.fm, therefore they are now dead to me.

I asked the twits who follow me on Twitter what they use for online streaming music and consistently Pandora and Imeem were mentioned as the best (even better) alternatives to last.fm. Unfortunately Pandora is only available in the U.S. right now but rumoured to be coming to Canada soon. Imeem looks promising.

What other streaming music services should I consider?

  • hewr
    I can still use lastfm and I'm in Australia... ok just found that they are keeping it on a *little* bit longer.
    http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/30/radio-announceme...
    Thanks,
    Hew
  • All - thanks for the great suggestions

    Robin - GREAT point - i think you should do what all upset Canadians do when they are angry... write a letter!

    I also just discovered techno.fm - live streaming of all things electronic. Pretty decent so far!
  • I actually have access to Pandora at work - God Sent I tell ya. While I'm on the GO train and in the office as well - I usually stream music using my WM6.5 device. I use a program called Resco Radio. It has a bunch of pre-programmed channels covering all types of genres. If you dont see anything you like, your able to add new channels and save them to your favorites.

    That's my preferred alternative - at lease until I come across something better.
  • What I would like to know is if they are charging a monthly fee, where is the financial gain for the individual artist(s)?

    (My music is up on LastFM and I don't see a penny of it...)
  • Hi, some altenatives to last.fm from dooblet :

    ***** pandora
    *** imeem
    *** spotify
    *** deezer
    *** ilike
  • David
    how can i forget, bbc listen again player
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/

    but it uses real player, and for some reason its a bit of a memory hog.
  • David
    grooveshark
    http://listen.grooveshark.com/

    cant speak to the quality, generally i listen at a low volume.
  • Have you heard of Spotify, the music streaming service? Although I don't personally use it, it's becoming huge in the UK...

    I trieed music streaming but it's not for me... I still download which makes me an old-fashioned kinds gal ;)
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