Last.fm shelves fees – for now
Last week the tech grapevine was all aquiver with the news that lovely music streaming/scrobbling service Last.fm was to start charging a monthly fee
Last week the tech grapevine was all aquiver with the news that lovely music streaming/scrobbling service Last.fm was to start charging a monthly fee in most parts of the world. Well, following a lot of feedback/uproar, it has now postponed its pay-to-stream service until a later date.
While users in the UK, US and Germany were still receiving the entire Last.fm service smorgasbord free of charge (Last.fm makes enough money from ads in these countries, apparently), the company wanted to charge everyone else in the world about £2.75 a month for radio streaming, scrobbling, recommendations, charts, event news and videos.
Well, unsurprisingly the rest of the world felt a bit miffed about that decision and this reaction has prompted Last.fm to delay its plans – although they won’t say for how long.
Last.fm’s Richard Jones did defend the original decision on the Last.fm blog, saying, “We simply can’t be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service. The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it’s a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships.”
What do you think? Should Last.fm remain free, or should they be paid for the service they provide? Have your say below
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
