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Last.fm: Free music streams turn into increased music sales
arstechnica.com — Last.fm announced today that for at least one of its affiliates, CD and digital music sales increased by 119 percent after its free, ad-supported music streaming service launched a couple of months ago. If the trend sticks, we may see more full-track previews coming our way from other services.
TheXeno- 1486 diggs
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- shortkid422, on 04/10/2008, -3/+159I just want to scream duh! This is what many people have been trying to tell the record labels.
- wes00mertes, on 04/10/2008, -1/+12Same way that record sales actually came out of a slump in the advent of Napster. But let's not forget, ***** the RIAA. It's like they are trying to hurt themselves.
- digitalpencil, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1RIAA's like the Panda... it's trying to go extinct!
- RevoFM, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1But pandas are so delicious.
- digitalpencil, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1RIAA's like the Panda... it's trying to go extinct!
- falkonv7l, on 04/10/2008, -1/+4I hate Websense, I just want to listen to a little variety of music, I use Last.fm at home and it is great, but I spend 10 hours a day at my work computer.
- bdbr, on 04/10/2008, -1/+3Maybe the labels or resellers will finally realize that 30-second samples are NOT an adequate representation of music? (OK, I doubt it)
- wes00mertes, on 04/10/2008, -1/+12Same way that record sales actually came out of a slump in the advent of Napster. But let's not forget, ***** the RIAA. It's like they are trying to hurt themselves.
- ePuck, on 04/10/2008, -2/+37Free the music!
- celkin, on 04/11/2008, -2/+3***** THE RIAA!!!1!!!11!one!!!1!1!eleven!!!111!![lim as x->0 of (sin x / x)]
- joerod, on 04/10/2008, -12/+16this site is awesome! mobile scrobbler + iphone + facebook = sweet!
- algo, on 04/10/2008, -3/+7oh yea, you're digging him down but it's just a new take on your np irc script you spent a week writing and you know it.
- jc1985, on 04/10/2008, -3/+7I completely agree! Since I set up the same combination, I've bought much more music than I normally would. Having MobileScrobbler on my iPhone means my profile's constantly being updated as I'm listening, rather than just with the music I listen to on my computer (which isn't much, really), so the Last.fm recommendations have been getting better as the weeks go by. I never tend to buy songs after hearing just a 30 second clip - I'd have to hear the full track first. Facebook integration is a nice bonus, but it's really the Last.fm and MobileScrobbler setup that have made the difference.
So far the only thing to suffer has been my bank balance :-( - d0ugfunny, on 04/10/2008, -5/+3MOBILE SCROBBLER ON MY IPOD TOUCH ROCKS. I BUY 10 TIMES MORE MUSIC NOW!
...on an unrealated topic I ran out of money, but my iPods full
- Asidic, on 04/10/2008, -1/+107This makes perfect sense. People are more likely to buy a product they know they'll enjoy.
- jeriqo, on 04/11/2008, -2/+1There's radio for that, and video clips, and headphones in CD stores.
This does not make any sense to me, nobody buys things they already got for free.- Mike89, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1You're an idiot. Radio and TV play the same 20 tracks over, and over, and over. Some of us like songs that DON'T fall within those 20! WHAT A CONCEPT!
- jeriqo, on 04/11/2008, -2/+1There's radio for that, and video clips, and headphones in CD stores.
- secrity, on 04/10/2008, -0/+90Music Marketing 101: Air play sells records.
- warplayer, on 04/10/2008, -0/+9Exactly. Sometimes you need to hear a song 5 times or so before it fully sticks and you go "Hey, I really like that, I need to own it." And then from that point, it's not a matter of a want, but a need, and you WILL find a way to own that album.
- Ataxia2008, on 04/10/2008, -1/+17Shame you can only listen to a full track 3 times then...
- warplayer, on 04/10/2008, -0/+9Exactly. Sometimes you need to hear a song 5 times or so before it fully sticks and you go "Hey, I really like that, I need to own it." And then from that point, it's not a matter of a want, but a need, and you WILL find a way to own that album.
- tokyomonster, on 04/10/2008, -0/+18Similarly, after re-watching the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu, I picked up the complete series for both that and Angel, spending about 170 dollars. Because they gave something away. I hope companies continue to lean towards the free content = increased revenue trend, rather than follow the RIAA and start suing the pants off of everyone.
- edkopp4, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1I guess I'm not the only one who's loving having the first two seasons of Buffy available ad-free on Hulu. I'm down with season one and about half-way into season two. I'd forgotten just how enjoyable this show is. Before, I had a passing interest in buying the DVDs, but now they're a lot higher on my wish list.
- OneLess, on 04/11/2008, -1/+6People actually watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Man, I learn something new every day.
- notjamt9000, on 04/10/2008, -0/+30Now they just need to display lyrics on the site! Until then I've made a last.fm radio/wikipedia/autolyrics mashup here:
http://james.nerdiphythesoul.com/wikifm/- matx, on 04/10/2008, -1/+4Amarok does that perfectly fine, it's great.
- warplayer, on 04/10/2008, -0/+6Wow, very cool site you have made here. I think I'll give it a spin while I work today.
- Asidic, on 04/10/2008, -7/+11This makes perfect sense. People are more likely to buy a product they know they'll enjoy.
- Asidic, on 04/10/2008, -6/+2Please digg the above comment down, I screwed something up trying to post this.
- mickstephenson, on 04/10/2008, -2/+8I'm gonna digg this one up and your first one down, muahaha
- Asidic, on 04/10/2008, -6/+2Please digg the above comment down, I screwed something up trying to post this.
- NuFadZoo, on 04/10/2008, -9/+3I got sick of Last.FM for a while because it seemed like all the songs were remixes and b-sides, even when it came to indie artists. I might have to check it out again if I can get real songs by the real artist.
- warplayer, on 04/10/2008, -1/+2I get annoyed when I'm trying to hear a particular song, and it ends up being the live version. Maybe once out of 10 times you actually get a good live version of the song.
- rokinroj, on 04/10/2008, -2/+7sshhh...Don't tell the RIAA.
- al11588, on 04/10/2008, -3/+1I will tell the RIAA since i am a snitch.
- Alix7, on 04/10/2008, -5/+96RIAA
Suck
My
Dick- duckyinc, on 04/10/2008, -10/+1stfu ok?
- IEatHamburgers, on 04/10/2008, -0/+5I dont know about you but I wouldn't want them anywhere near mine, no matter how distasteful it might be for them.
- arooaroo, on 04/10/2008, -2/+9What a shock!
Other news just in: Pope reveals preference to Catholicism; Bears do their dirty business in the woods...- trogdorBURN, on 04/10/2008, -1/+6cha-cha-cha...charmin!
- Flann11, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1Does the Pope ***** in the woods?
- LewisBreaker, on 04/10/2008, -2/+13I love last.fm When I hear some I like I go out and buy the cd, and you can listen to any type of music!
- secondwheel2, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2liar
- spikespikespike, on 04/10/2008, -0/+6"for at least one of the affiliates." wow. im blown away.
- thailand1972, on 04/11/2008, -0/+3Yes, and that makes a "trend" LOL. Never mind, The Digg herd is running through this thread so don't expect a nuanced debate about this, or the facts getting in the way.
- mickstephenson, on 04/10/2008, -3/+2Now if only some decent bands decide to use magnatune ( http://magnatune.com/info/ ) instead of going through a record label, all our problems would go away. Let's hope Radiohead decide to use it for their next album to give it some exposure.
- chuk31, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1I think it would be worth considering how many people payed $0 for In Rainbows, especially for smaller startup bands. Still, if people are paying nothing anyways (ie pirating), I think it's an interesting idea that this might go somewhere eventually...people outdoing each other in pricing to look like bigger fans, etc.
- aoki4, on 04/10/2008, -8/+1thats a lie ppl just steal it
- 8ight, on 04/10/2008, -4/+3Great site.
- hydroplane, on 04/10/2008, -1/+7Wow, you mean you can actually make money by giving people what they want instead of trying to leech a penny wherever you can get away with it. How revolutionary.
- thelastknowngod, on 04/10/2008, -0/+2it would be awesome if they got together with emusic for sales of the indie stuff. amazon is more widely used for drm free music but i like the subscription model that emusic has.
- pixelbeat, on 04/10/2008, -3/+2I started reading the article and then stopped by viewing the interesting episode of webb alert, god, Morgan is so f*cking hot!
- scuvball, on 04/10/2008, -0/+9I've been making a 'list' of songs I will eventually purchase using last.fm. Without that website, there's no chance in hell I would even consider purchasing half the stuff I have on my list.
- posture, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I have been tagging artists that I want to explore more before I decide to purchase music from them.
- bdbr, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1I rarely hear what I like on Last.fm (not into mainstream stuff), but I have a list like that too. I can never get completely caught up on it - I keep adding stuff as fast as I'm buying it!
It always makes me laugh when the RIAA says downloads is costing them sales, yet I have a list of hundreds of songs I've already bought this year purely because of downloads. But to keep them happy, none of THEIR music is on the list.
- mBrutis, on 04/10/2008, -1/+11Great news. Last.fm is excellent.
- lacreme, on 04/10/2008, -3/+44***** THE RIAA
- al11588, on 04/10/2008, -9/+1I am snitching on you to the RIAA
- celkin, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2I'm coming to burn down your trailor!
- al11588, on 04/10/2008, -9/+1I am snitching on you to the RIAA
- ThrstForKnwldge, on 04/10/2008, -3/+1I've been scrobbling the ***** out of music and still haven't got any music recommendations from that site which is kinda annoying. Still the best site to find new music though.
- powatom, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1You've got to have friends on the site to get recommendations, they're not auto-generated. If you want to hear what Last.FM 'recommends', you need to listen to your Neighbourhood Radio, which is built up by finding relationships between bands you already listen to and bands which are somehow related to them (through genre / style and tags, basically). You can get to the neighbourhood radio through the site and the downloadable Last.FM player (I prefer using the player, stops me closing the radio by accident when I click a link :P). Some programs have Last.FM kinda built into them, like Rhythmbox on Linux, where you can get to your Last.FM radio stations.
- daedalous, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1Try pandora.com
Maybe not as good as last.fm, but a decent alternative.
- benighted, on 04/10/2008, -2/+46I love Last.fm
- celkin, on 04/11/2008, -1/+1I love ice cream
- pixelbeat, on 04/10/2008, -1/+4last.fm is kickin' the billboard rankings model of the game. Or what?
- theWrkncacnter, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1ahhhhh i lost the game!
- mellomeh, on 04/10/2008, -0/+8So not only has this led to increased sales, but if I recall correctly, each play on Last.fm results in a small amount being paid to the record label anyway, so that's yet another benefit.
- Wonderama, on 04/10/2008, -1/+8Wait...remind me again? Treating your best customers like criminals is good or bad for business?
- SpookyApplePie, on 04/10/2008, -2/+7***** THE RIAA!!!!!
- filmasia, on 04/10/2008, -1/+4Last.fm did an excellent job!!
- ArizonaRose, on 04/10/2008, -1/+2Just signed up and this is pretty kewl! Thanks for the info.
- chaos7, on 04/10/2008, -3/+2last.fm rulzzzz (download their plugin that tracks ur music..it's cool)
- d0ugfunny, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0I use mobile scrobbler on my hacked ipod and I love it. It streams music right from last.fm into my ears. The great part is I discover new bands and I buy their music, Its like 2+2, its that simple.
- Ataxia2008, on 04/10/2008, -0/+25?
Damn Radiohead
- Ataxia2008, on 04/10/2008, -0/+25?
- InspectorGadget, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1LastFMProxy for the win! http://vidar.gimp.org/?page_id=50 I use it to stream LastFM radio streams to foobar2000 and it can be used to stream to anything that'll process an .m3u playlist. Works on any platform that supports python. Using Last.FM without the official client or leaving the site open in a tab is even more useful.
- mashw, on 04/10/2008, -1/+7Last FM makes me frightened to play certain tracks I own. Poor Britney and Linkin Park are my dirty little secret now.
- ElBeh, on 04/10/2008, -8/+2Pandora > Last.fm
It's a shame Pandora is US-only, though...- KINGGS, on 04/10/2008, -0/+3pandora doesn't track plays though, plus last.fm is closer to a music social community, pandora is e-radio.
- winnestow, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1can we get conservative talk radio on this?
- surfingkid, on 04/10/2008, -3/+1need some music fans to check out JamsBio.com
http://www.jamsbio.com - freyaXgefn, on 04/10/2008, -1/+3last.fm is by far superior to pandora. i listen to last.fm 8-12 hours a day and enjoy every moment of it ^-^b
- nekochan, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1i'm afraid to burn my 3 plays per song, so i use last.fm to discover, then listen elsewhere.
- Austin7687, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1Music streams lead to more music sales? You mean allowing people to hear the music they like makes them want to buy it?
The hell you say! - Ataxia2008, on 04/10/2008, -3/+3Be my friend - I'm so lonely :(((
http://www.last.fm/user/pifko/- nekochan, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1i would, but our compatibility is Very Low.
listen to more chemical brothers and sigur ros. - roebeet, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1Added - we have some music in common, actually. That's assuming you want someone as old as your dad in your Friends list!
- Ataxia2008, on 04/10/2008, -0/+3Embrace, U2 and Kate Bush?
- roebeet, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1I said SOME music, not all. You young whipper snappers....
- JJCDAD, on 04/11/2008, -0/+2Added.
Let us know how many you get from Digg.- Ataxia2008, on 04/11/2008, -0/+16 so far
- nekochan, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1i would, but our compatibility is Very Low.
- joshua5, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1This would have been more impressive if it were someone like Amazon reporting increased sales. By Last.fm's model, what it really shows is people more often click on the affiliate link to where they can buy the music, not that they actually bought it.
- hawk3210, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0Had you thought that there might be a more sophisticated tracking system than that? We have no way of discrediting this report unless you actually know someone of either involved party...
- D14BL0, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1You mean allowing me to listen to new bands without paying a penny supports more artists? What a novel concept!
- AlexClewes, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1still doesn't go far enough for me. On my top recommendations, the majority of them do not have full albums.
- jonfredric, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1I'm also likin' http://www.nuTsie.com for streaming my and others iTunes
- quinete, on 04/10/2008, -1/+0Actually, why not just own the music yourself? It is time for us, the end user not to have to pay anything for the pleasure of listening to music. Here is my favorite blog dedicated to Brazilian Music and Bossa Nova: http://thebossablog.blogspot.com. The Blog was created by this crazy Cast Away type that claims to live in Krakatoa Island.
- jessnine, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0Last.fm is wonderful. And addicting.
Also, it's the best website when it comes to finding out show/concert information! So organized and concise. - bdbr, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1I don't listen to mainstream pop, so I virtually never find anything available to stream on Last.fm. Sometimes free.napster.com has it, sometimes not. A lot of times the only way I can hear before buying is download. I'm extremely reluctant to buy anything I've never heard - been burned too many times. Fortunately, I don't deal with labels that sue their customers! I buy a lot of music but still have a long list of stuff to buy.
- addicted68098, on 04/11/2008, -0/+1Last.fm is full of underground music,
- NathanMahdavi, on 04/11/2008, -1/+1its about time they put faith in the system.
- bondyjay, on 04/11/2008, -1/+1the proof of the pudding and all that.
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