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Last.fm Starts Paying Royalties to Unsigned Bands

readwriteweb.com — Online music service Last.fm today announced that it will start paying out royalties to unsigned and independent bands that upload their music to last.fm.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 10, 2008

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  • SolarUpNote, on 07/10/2008, -1/+238I love Last.fm. If you've never used the site it's worth a look.
  • chubbstar, on 07/10/2008, -1/+189good. one more way that major music labels are losing their power and control over the music industry.
    this is another step in the right direction (ie, internet ing general as an independent distributor of music)
  • BlackX4Life, on 07/10/2008, -0/+77i love last.fm. i discover a lot of bands i would never have heard of before on that site. my music collection would be half the size it is now if it wasnt for last.fm and other awesome sites. its good for listeners to discover new music, and its good for bands cuz its another way to gain more fans.
  • Kanele, on 07/10/2008, -1/+58Old music industry losing ground
  • peticsu, on 07/10/2008, -1/+57can you give SOME credit to last.fm?

    jeez
  • megadan76, on 07/10/2008, -2/+56This is a great idea. My own band has been tagged on last.fm for a while so the other day I signed up for the Artist program.
    We'll see what the practical results are (every 6 months: "Woo, another check for 72 cents!") but it looks promising.
  • geoken, on 07/10/2008, -1/+46Beginning of the end for the RIAA.

  • truebullfan, on 07/10/2008, -0/+34This is a cool idea. Not only does it give these artist some cash but gives more tracks for us users to listen too and discover new artist
  • Sup3rSh3ep, on 07/10/2008, -0/+31makes last.fm rock even harder!
  • inetiatic, on 07/10/2008, -4/+29This is a real good step for the music industry. Being a long time audioscrobbler har har i mean last.fm user, this is great news!
  • dsmx, on 07/10/2008, -0/+20Remind me again what the record industry is needed for?
  • notwizt, on 07/10/2008, -0/+20Finally the music industry is evolving. Let the multi-national record companies keep digging their graves.
  • crispytown, on 07/10/2008, -1/+20I wonder if they will be like itunes.... I hope they plan to get the royalties out a lot sooner then itunes does. Right now it takes about 6 to 8 months to get my royalties from itunes. I hope Last.FM does it faster. It would be cool if it was within a day. Paypal baby!
  • inactive, on 07/10/2008, -1/+17excellent way to discover new music!
    explore!
  • Grazfather, on 07/10/2008, -1/+14Good. Now let's just hope BC/DC gets paid for music scrobbled as BC-DC, BC DC, and BC_DC.
  • feliks2, on 07/10/2008, -0/+12She wouldn't let you bring your CDs? Ouch.
  • ByronT, on 07/10/2008, -4/+16Let's see if people actually get paid before we ***** ourselves, please.
  • chadisawesome, on 07/10/2008, -1/+13at the rate of .00005 cents a play, I don't expect my band to be able to quit our jobs tomorrow, but hey, this is a great step in the right direction.
  • fragsta, on 07/10/2008, -0/+11Last.fm has been planning this for yonks. I signed up to it months and months ago, and have been waiting eagerly.

    Now I have wait, again, until October, for my first statement :P

    Like peticsu said, Last.fm doesn't just steal ideas from Radiohead and NiN.
  • sgxyay, on 07/10/2008, -0/+9I've posted relevant comments mentioning my music (quite often in Trent Reznor stories!) without leaving a link and people replied with stuff like "Well, if he had left a link I would have checked it out..." So now I do post links when it is relevant.
  • JQP123, on 07/10/2008, -0/+9Meet the new Boss
    Same as the old Boss

    Yeah, I'm sure things will be a little different ... for a while. Promotional companies exist because there is a demand for what they do ... both from artists and fans. The methods may change but in the long run ... the game will stay pretty much the same.

    Don't get fooled again.

  • Slash0, on 07/10/2008, -0/+8So that paypal can take $0.50 of my $1.00 payment? Don't think so.
  • sindex, on 07/10/2008, -0/+8hopefully they'll really pay people... last.fm rocks. I'd hate to see them blunder into the kind of venom spewed at iTunes.
  • feliks2, on 07/10/2008, -2/+10If only...
  • vilago, on 07/10/2008, -0/+8finally...music the way it should be
  • inactive, on 07/10/2008, -0/+8You should post your band here so we can check it out
  • zyklon, on 07/10/2008, -1/+9I find that potheads make any possible reference to smoking.
  • oxygen911, on 07/10/2008, -4/+11I can't wait for my band's songs to start raking it in for us. I already talked with my bass player, he want's a new Audi. Jesse, our singer said as soon as the first check comes he is out and moving in with his GF in Texas, ***** *****. Me? I just wanted to rip a couple lines off a strippers ass and revel in the victory of the whole situation. Last.FM rules!
  • warplayer, on 07/10/2008, -1/+8....so?
  • kloise69, on 07/10/2008, -0/+7It's just you
  • leazarus, on 07/10/2008, -3/+10CDs? What are CDs?
  • sketching, on 07/10/2008, -1/+8Agreed. The site opened up a lot of music for me through the similar artists and neighbors' top artists. I've been led through a few unfortunate musical paths (J-pop immediately comes to mind) but I've had an overall great experience with the site.
    The royalties may not be for ground-breaking amounts, but I'm happy to see one more option opening up for non-mainstream acts to get even a bit of money for their hard work.
  • JDPoZ, on 07/10/2008, -0/+6started my account just now, and found out 2 of my songs were already on the site!
  • ShootTheCore, on 07/10/2008, -0/+6But is it harder than Blackpool rock?
  • sgxyay, on 07/10/2008, -3/+9The deal is something like they pay 30% of what the add revenue last.fm gained from that stream (which is likely tiny on a stream-per-stream basis).

    Well, I'll wait and see. I can't complain about an extra $3 a month or something :).

    http://www.last.fm/music/SGX
  • MrOdwin, on 07/10/2008, -2/+8You could buy a medicore quality mp3 version of their album for a token donation. It wasn't that bad; non-audiophiles should be happy enough with that deal.
  • fragsta, on 07/10/2008, -1/+7Same. I can't wait to start receiving my 5p a year!!!
  • gavin422, on 07/10/2008, -0/+5Yeah, I really wish last.fm would just merge artists that were clearly tagged incorrectly. And there are ambiguous ones, like "&" vs "and" and "The Arcade Fire" vs "Arcade Fire", and many more.
  • eggsovereasy, on 07/10/2008, -0/+5last.fm and Pandora have driven me to a lot of bands I would probably never even have heard of otherwise.
  • inactive, on 07/10/2008, -2/+7Pandora has already been paying royalties to unsigned bands and artists.
  • TheSnuffster, on 07/10/2008, -1/+6...Thats what she said...
  • inactive, on 07/10/2008, -1/+6I look for music there rather than the mainstream crap.
  • gavin422, on 07/10/2008, -0/+5OK, that's fair. On a site note, my brother listens to some of your older stuff. It's a small world.
  • DaMaul, on 07/10/2008, -0/+5This isn't exactly a new idea. MP3.com were paying unsigned bands royalties 8 years ago. They did go out of business of course.
  • warplayer, on 07/10/2008, -0/+4That's sort of funny because I pay $3 a month for a subcription to Last while you estimate you may get $3 a month back. I hope you enjoy my hard-earned cash :)
  • LordofChaosIori, on 07/10/2008, -1/+5Not only that, they think everyone thinks they're awesome every time they make such a reference.
  • Stiles05s, on 07/10/2008, -0/+4Last.fm is great. I'm glad there are at least a few bands/organizations that are actually supporting this movement. Lets hope someone finds a formula soon that works.
  • doctornkul, on 07/10/2008, -2/+6And if you've got a jailbroken Touch/iPhone, check out MobileScrobbler. It is one of the best applications out there.
  • freeth1nker, on 07/10/2008, -2/+6Rest assured they'll be whining and crying about it sooner or later to some judge.

    "Nuh-uh, they can't do that! It's not fair for the artists!"
  • f4nt0m4s, on 07/10/2008, -1/+5This is awesome news, and proof that the Internet is revolutionizing music. It's time for music to get back to its root. We need to start rewarding talent and stop giving useless artists and their big labels money.

    I'll be going on 2 years as a last.fm user...it's a great way to see what you listen to and discover new artists. Truly an awesome social music revolution.
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