Last.FM Becomes "World’s Best Jukebox": Bigger Than iTunes, All Four Majors Onboard
David
Web 2.0 musicmeister Last.FM and CBS’s "unprecedented new service" is a leveled-up Last.fm: It is "the most complete, licensed music catalog" in the world with music from all four major labels and 150,000 indie labels, or what they’re calling "the world’s best jukebox." It’s all available on demand (right now!) without logging in, is free (banner ad-supported) and now plays full tracks from artists you can search for directly—internet radio on ‘roids, basically. But of course, there are limitations thanks to label tightassness, the biggest point of suck being that you can only listen to a song three times.
What’s sort of shady is that they wouldn’t discuss how they track how many times you’ve listened to a track, since you don’t have to log in or register—probably based on your IP address, though. Of course, this intersects with advertiser interests, since they can better target ads based on your track history.
Another neat aspect of the re-launch is their artist royalty program, where unsigned artists can directly upload their music to Last.fm, and they’ll get paid every time their track is played—basically pulling in the ad revenue that would’ve gone to a label, if they were on one.
And they’re definitely not stopping with music. Asked about a "Last.tv" being in the works, Last.fm co-founder said that "music videos are the bridge into visual content
Last.FM Becomes "World’s Best Jukebox": Bigger Than iTunes, All Four Majors Onboard
Posted on: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 11:29 pm 
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