Last.fm to Charge Subscription Fee for Many International Listeners
The CBS-acquired streaming music service Last.fm announced this morning that it will "soon" require users outside of the US, UK and Germany to pay €3.00 per month to keep the music rolling. In blog comments on the announcement, the company explained that those three countries were the only ones where ad sales were proving successful enough to monetize the free music that way; elsewhere the money will have to come out of listeners' pockets.
It's a dramatic move that could pave the way for other media companies to do the same and effectively open up international markets. People complain, but do you think that viewers would pay a similar monthly fee for international access to Hulu, for example? We do.
All the programmatic elements of Last.fm, like the taste-tracking "scrobbling," will remain free anywhere. The company also noted in its blog post that its number of users has doubled over the last year alone and now stands at 30 million per month.
We're still waiting for examples of US customers willing to pay for online services (the iPhone app store is a related example) but it will be interesting to see if the rest of the world is. Last.fm's announcement is an interesting response to the advertising market's belief that only eyeballs from certain countries are "worth" advertising to.
Meanwhile, the vehement insistence by users that every damn thing on the web be free works hand in hand with the rise of over-saturation in advertising. Let's see what kinds of user experience, features and services we can get by paying a little cash - shall we?
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To me, LastFM is just a platform for music discovery. I seldome listen to a LastFM radio. It's slow in China :)
BTW, I'm a paid LastFM user.
Yep, that's a good point you make at the end Marshall, I think paying for services is more likely to sustain them in tricky financial times like these. There will be more and more services dropping like flies I think. Also, if Spotify can make paid subscriptions work the Last.fm should be able to as well.
I would hope that we'd see an improved Last.fm app though, I prefer Spotify's app over Last.fm currently.
@bfishadow - I agree it is terribly slow in China (where I used to live).
I primarily use it for artist information and sampling of music, rather than actively listening to the radio part. However, I also manage an up-and-coming Taiwanese singer on there - http://last.fm/music/Naomi+Yohani - that is taking part in Last.fm's royalty scheme (whereby they give you a tiny amount of money per play on their site). It's not a lot of money unless you're a super popular artist (we've only made a few pounds from it), but I can see a need for them to recoup their investment given the likely number of artists signed up to this scheme.
Ultimately though, I think they need to improve their service offering somehow if they're going to start charging for it, as at the moment I don't feel compelled to pay for it, but maybe there are other users that would.
I think there's room for a 'service store' somewhere in the mix.
I don't want to have to sign up and enter my card details on multiple different sites, but on the other hand, if it was as simple as a box that said 'We charge £2.00 a month for access to our service, click to subscribe' - using something like an Amazon 1-click meets OpenID login approach - and then I can easily manage my subscriptions in a web interface - I can see people using a system like that.
That's one of the main drivers on the app store - buying software is a one-click business, which encourages impulse.
Equally, we all know from gyms and other pre-web subscription services that many people sign up, but don't use what their payments entitle them too.
If you had actually looked at the comments to the last.fm announcement, you'd have noticed that the outrage is much less over the fact that there's now a fee to pay, but about the fact that the service has been inferior in all countries except the three ones that now still don't have to pay anything.
I'm still a last.fm subscriber and I feel screwed over when I pay a monthly fee but still am not able to get the same content other users, who pay nothing, do get.
I wouldn't have minded paying a small free. But paying a small fee because I'm from the wrong country?
That's just insulting. I wouldn't accept that IRL, and I certainly won't accept it from an online service. Screw them.
All the programmatic elements of Last.fm, like the taste-tracking "scrobbling," will remain free anywhere.
Phew...that saved my day...
Think I'm listening to last.fm However, if last.fm expands the subscription model to include the "programmatic elements", it's bye-bye for me.
BTW: some of the content in last.fm's "programmatic elements" comes from other sites (albums images from Amazon and - I guess - performer bio. from wikipedia).
I certainly agree that a subscription either must cover *all* countries or nobody.
I currently have an account with Last FM, but don't use it much. I won't be paying $3/month, because I much prefer Spotify.
It will be interesting to see what will happen in the UK where Spotify is really taking off.
EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY PAYS! end of story.
i would prefer lastfm to monetize from the local bands rather than the local users. Im sure local bands won't mind paying US$ 10 per month for it.
I don't get it... Most of the music I've found and like to listen can only be streamed in 30 second excerpts in last.fm. Hardly worth to spend a dime just to listen a part of a song.
I've found and like to listen can only be streamed in 30 second excerpts in last.fm. Hardly worth to spend a dime just to listen a part of a song.
How do they plan to identify you as an international browser, I already use 2 VPN's to get BBC iPlayer in the UK and Hulu in the US.
What a stupid conincidence, that I now moved from Germany to Austria. I understand, that they don't want ad revenues from Germany to subsidize the operations in Austria, but purely from a consumer view this is ridiculous. It is the same german-speaking cultural space. It's as if it woud be free of charge in New York City, but if accessing from New Jersey, you only get the service if you pay.
People got used to the idea, that music is free of charge so there's no way you can wipe this out of our memory any more. You music artists have to think of other ways to get our money (live performances).
It is very hard for one to charge a price when one has been using this service for free especially there are many competitors offers similar service. Will subscription model set precedent for future service ? My answer is no because there is little differentation among these services and too many substitutes exist.
Gah...that sucks, Richard. I'd probably do the same if I wasn't in US, though. I use the heck out of it as well.
Posted by: Ken Kennedy
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May 11, 2009 1:17 PM