The Inquisitr » last.fm

Xbox 360 getting Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM on November 17

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:43 +0000

The Xbox 360 dashboard update that will allow you access to Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM through your console goes live on Tuesday, November 17. That’s according to Marc Whitten, Xbox Live general manager. Here he is, doing some talking:

“We look at things like Facebook and Twitter as amazing social experiences, but also entertainment. We didn’t want to copy and paste from the PC. It’s going to be great for current users, but it’s also great for new users who can see who is on Facebook and get their first 30 friends on Live.”

Using Facebook on Microsoft’s console will allow gamers to convert their Facebook friends to Xbox 360 friends, a rather nifty Xbox 360-exclusive addition.

Yet, as VG247’s Stephany Nunneley points out, gamers may just be distracted by a few other trinkets on November 17. Check out what must be the strongest day of releases in some time:

Assassin’s Creed II
Left 4 Dead 2
God of War Collection
Assassin’s Creed DS & PSP Bundle
LittleBigPlanet PSP
Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
Tony Hawk: RIDE
Lego Indiana Jones 2

Just a bit good, eh?

[Via VG247]

I guess the fat lady sang as the founders left Last.fm

Steven Hodson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:55:00 +0000

It’s not all that unusual to see happen in the tech world. Startups – well start up, they get some big buzz, end up getting bought by a company with big wallets (if they don’t deadpool first) only to have the people who started the company decide it’s time for green pastures. Such is the case it would seem with the founders of Last.fm who have announced that they have resigned.

In the words of Felix Miller, Richard Jones and Martin Stiksel – “After two years running Last.fm within CBS we feel the time is right to begin the process of handing over the reins".

No-one is saying whether the recent accusations of Last.fm user data making its way into the hands of the RIAA, either at the behest of CBS or through them directly, has any bearing on the three gentlemen leaving at this time.

From the announcement on the Last.fm blog

After two years running Last.fm within CBS we feel the time is right to begin the process of handing over the reins. This is the latest stage in a long journey for us founders, which began in a living room in East London in 2002, and took us to the headquarters of one of the biggest media companies in the world.

It’s been a privilege working with the incredible team here in our London office, and we’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved together. Last.fm’s users have more than doubled in the last 12 months (we are now at an all-time high of 37.3M monthly unique visitors), and we’re confident the site will continue to go from strength to strength. Being a part of CBS, and the recently formed CBSi music group, continues to open up many opportunities for Last.fm. Recent product releases such as the new visual radio, and the Last.fm on XBox announcement, are an indication of how much more Last.fm will achieve.

A huge “Thank You!” has to be said to all of you in front of your computers. With your contribution, enthusiasm and scrobbles you have helped to make Last.fm into what it is today: the best place for music online. Big up yourself for that, as we say here in East London.

That’s all folks, we are going to miss you!

Felix, RJ and Martin

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of effect this is going to have on Last.fm – will they get totally sucked into the corporate culture or will they be able to keep that strong brand identity they have built up?

Last.fm again denies snitching on us, CBS disses blogs

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:32:46 +0000

Sounding vaguely like a bunch of sleazy boyfriends, Last.fm & CBS want us to know that baby, they really, really didn’t have anything going on with the RIAA. And all that scrobbling, that was ours and it meant something and they would never, ever share it with someone who might sue us or our tweens for many thousands of dollars.

The debacle began when Universal Music Australia accidentally leaked tracks from the then-unreleased U2 album No Line on the Horizon. At the time, rumors flew across the blogosphere that the RIAA was demanding (and receiving) scrobbling data from Last.fm to grass up P2P hooligans (with questionable taste in old-dude rock.)

When allegations of data sharing between Last.fm, parent company CBS and the RIAA were first raised in February, denials were issued all around to anyone who would listen- infused with outrage that we would even suspect such a thing. True or not, it kind of reminded everyone that a lot of what we send out into the internet ether could land up somewhere, stick, and come back to bite us on the ass someday.

The story resurfaced this week after a blog previously accused of fabricating Last.fm stories went for a second round. In response, CBS issued yet another statement to Ars Technica yesterday denying any and all canoodling with the RIAA. And the RIAA backed up their alleged BFF CBS, as rep Cara Duckworth coyly told Ars that ”we’ve made no such request for this information.” (Hmmm… that’s kind of… vague.)

And charmingly, CBS had this to say to the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Blog:

…those who consult such blogs should be aware of the standard by which such postings are sourced and published.

Because we all know the best way to get bloggers to trust and believe you is to attack their credibility.

Fail: Last.fm to charge for access outside US, UK and Germany

Duncan Riley — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:34:47 +0000

Popular CBS owned online music service Last.fm has announced that it will cease providing free access to users outside of the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Instead, users outside these countries will have to pay €3.00 (US$4.05) per month to have access to music on the site, as we reported earlier.

Last.fm did not specify the reason behind the decision, and instead rattled on about what a wonderful job they do. Speculation (and reason) suggests that the decision may be related to royalty payments and/ or the need to increase revenue at a time that the online advertising market is being hit hard by the great recession.

The fail in the decision is demand: why would users pay Last.fm to listen to music when they can obtain it online via a variety of other sites, both legal and illegal, for free. Add to this that Last.fm doesn’t have access to Warner Bros music, so even if you did pay, you don’t get access to 15% of the market and some of the biggest names in music (a full list here.) Alternatives services like Grooveshark will be rubbing their hands with glee.

Last.fm Radio to go subscription – sort of

Steven Hodson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:52:32 +0000

It looks like the good times will be coming to a grinding halt for those of you that like listening to Last.fm Radio. In an announcement posted to the company blog Richard Jones lets the world know that if you don’t live in the United States, United Kingdom or Germany you are going to have to start coughing up some dough for a subscription

Today we’re announcing an upcoming change to the way Last.fm Radio works in some parts of the world. In the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, nothing will change.

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. Everything else on Last.fm (scrobbling, recommendations, charts, biographies, events, videos etc.) will remain free in all countries, like it is now.

Since we streamed our first track from Last.fm back in 2002, we have focused on playing the right songs to the right people, compensating artists for playing their music, and being the best music site on the web. We appreciate the support we get from the 30 million people who use Last.fm every month—double the number of people since this time last year. We work with over 280,000 labels and artists, many of whom we pay directly, and have built up the largest catalogue of any web radio platform: over 7 million tracks are available on Last.fm Radio stations.

In order to keep providing the best radio service on the web, we need to ask our listeners from countries other than USA, UK and Germany to subscribe for €3.00 per month. In return you’ll get unlimited access to Last.fm Radio, and a promise that we’ll be hard at work improving the service for years to come.

Source: Last.fm Blog

Why do I get the feeling that much like Pandora the sticky fingers of the entertainment industry is behind this move.

Android users to get some Last.fm love

Steven Hodson — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:25:33 +0000

One thing about smartphone users – they love to get their streaming music. Up until now it is usually the iPhone that is getting all the love from sites like Last.fm but that is about to change with an announcement on the Last.fm site that users of the T-Mobile G1 can now have the same goodness.

According to Shane McGlaun over at SlipperyBrick the Last.fm application is now available on the Android Market

The Last.fm application is available now on the Android Market. Features of the application include up-to-date concert information, streaming radio stations, personalized streaming radio, the ability to find similar artists and genre-specific radio streaming.

One important new feature for the Android application is called Background Playback. This allows the music to be played in the background while another application is being viewed or used. That means that you can listen to your music while you surf the Internet or play a game.

I’m sure this will make a lot of people – if there are any – using the G1 very happy indeed.

Last.fm iPhone App rides the georetarded fail whale

Duncan Riley — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:48:45 +0000

Good news today for Last.fm lovers, the official Last.fm iPhone application has been released…for some, as it doesn’t appear to be available outside of the United States and some part of Europe, because it certainly isn’t available from the iTunes Australia store.

The Last.fm team writes on their blog

First of all we are initially rolling this out in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany and Spain. We’re looking at other locales but have to deal with licensing and a host of other issues. We assure you that we’re working on it.

Licensing issues? Hold on a second, don’t I have the Last.fm Mac application on my laptop and desktop, happily delivering music on demand? Exactly what difference does an iPhone application have in terms of licensing that the Last.fm website doesn’t have? And what exactly is “a host of other issues?” Is Apple making it hard to distribute apps across multiple iTunes stores perhaps, as Google isn’t offering its iPhone search application either (and there can be no licensing issues there).

Is Apple to blame?

For now, Last.fm iPhone App is riding the fail whale. A service that has benefited greatly from not being georetarded like Pandora is now choosing to not distribute its iPhone app that is in no ways different to the desktop in regards to local licensing issues.

If anyone can suggest an alternative let me know.

Last.fm