Search results matching tag 'last.fm'

Apple getting social with iTunes

2371004 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:25:00 GMT

A new month, and a new salvo of Apple rumours to wade through - this time concerning iTunes, with the web salivating over the prospect of an iTunes/Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm partnership.

Thing is, it ain't gonna happen.

It certainly looks like Apple is planning some sort of social networking integration with iTunes, and soon, but don't expect Twitter or Last.fm to be involved.

Those in the know have probably seen a couple of screengrabs from the purported iTunes 9, which curiously followed rumours that the newest version of Apple's music player would integrated with Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm.

The photos have since been debunked as a hasty Photoshop job, by someone with far too much time on their hands.

But even with photographic evidence, a rumour such as this just doesn't make sense.

The idea is that iTunes would broadcast what songs its users are listening too, to Twitter and Facebook profiles, which would be simply, annoying - especially those among us to keep music playing several hours of the day.

Furthermore, Apple has never been a company to jump on a bandwagon, especially concerning a faddish little microblogging website with major operational issues.

A partnership with Last.fm makes less sense. The two companies work in a similar vein, and Last.fm (as much as I love it) is far from an established brand, Apple would have nothing to gain. Many of the features that makes Last.fm shine, such as it's 'similar artists' tab, are available on iTunes anyways (iLike).

But Facebook. Maybe, just maybe. The two companies established a partnership a while back, by allowing iPhoto users to publish their pictures to their Facebook profiles.

Looking at the big picture, the rumours generally deduce that Apple is planning to push a social networking strategy through its iTunes platform, even though the details might have been mixed up.

Digging deeper into the rumour pile, it appears Apple is preparing to launch some sort of social media app, whether for iTunes, its OS desktop, or the iPhone, that would consolidate various streams into one juicy platform.

Sound suspiciously like FriendFeed - rather a FriendFeed killer, which gives this rumour (some) legs and puts some more weight behind the companies surprise sell-out to Facebook this week.

Better late than never, it looks like Apple is ready to embrace social networking, but likely on its own terms - a sort of "social media browser", which would allow users to search and share content with their friends.

Perhaps this will be part of Apple's plans to 'reinvent' the digital album, by including loads of additional content with iTunes purchases.

Apple rumours, as per usual, are common and vague, but this one is keeping an eye on. Speaking of which, where's my iTablet?

Last.fm introduces premium subscription model

255762 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:58:00 GMT

The paid for content movement got another boost as Last.fm begins introducing a premium subscription model as it attempts to generate more revenues.

The CBS-owned music community first talked about the new service more than a year ago when it said users would get to stream more than three full tracks in a row under a subscription service.

According to Paidcontent, Co-founder Richard Jones has now confirmed Last.fm will from March 30 charge around £3 a month for the existing "Last.fm Radio. This is a catch-all term that refers to personalised, back-to-back full-track streams. The fees will initially apply everywhere except the UK, US and Germany or everywhere that it does not have a significant user base.

Last.fm like everyone else has been hit as online advertising as slowed and CBS wants to see some return on the £141m it paid for Last.fm in May 2007.

Paidcontent also says that when Warner Music Group did not to renew its deal with Last.fm in June this was partly because of disappointment at failure to introduce a subscription service. Although it does still have deals with Universal, EMI and and BMG.

The paid for content ball is certainly rolling. Spotify, which recently reached one million registered users since it launched last October, already charges 99p or £10 a month for a great library of music and shows that people are willing to pay for premium services.

With newspapers looking really seriously there is likely to be a significant announcement on this market in the coming months. A trickle and maybe then a flood.

Follow me on Twitter

Blame Bono

2371004 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:21:00 GMT

Poor Techcrunch, which can't seem to help making enemies in the digital industry, accidentally or otherwise.

Less than a month after Techcrunch founder Michael Arrington announced a blogosphere-sabbatical after being spit on at the Davos World Economic Forum (amid apparent threats against himself and his family), co-editor Erick Schonfeld has riled the locals at Last.fm, in what has the makings of a bitter and adorable internet-feud.

On top of that, who's to blame? Bono. Yes, it's fucking Bono's fault.

Well not directly, but the rose-tinted Dubliner is a worthy scapegoat when two of my favourite online portals are at odds.

It's not something I like to see, like two family members quarrelling, as both Last.fm and Techcrunch are held near to my heart.

It all began with U2's newest album 'No Line on the Horizon', which isn't due out till March 3, but was mysteriously leaked on the internet last week. Mysterious due to the fact that U2 is notoriously secretive about its new releases, allegedly refusing to send out industry samples and insisting on private, in-person listening parties.

When the album hit the web, it was illegally shared several hundred thousand times, which understandably upset some of the cheery lawmen at the RIAA.

After some investigating, Schonfeld posted a "rumour" on Techcrunch, which said that the RIAA had sent its lawyers to Last.fm to gather data about possible users who had been listening to the new U2 album, a function that is pretty much Last.fm's crux, showing others what you are listening.

Fuelled by hearsay, Techcrunch alleged that Last.fm had actually handed over data of the possible U2-pirates, which could have resulted in prosecution and legal action of those who were sharing 'No Line on the Horizon'.

That sparked a revolt from both Last.fm users and its London-based staff, including a blogpost by Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones, titled "Techcrunch are full of ***" in which he lambasted the tech-site, and vehemently denied the rumours.

Jones also offered an explanation on the original Techcrunch article, which has received over 500 comments (TC averages about 30 comments), and said:

"We never share personally identifiable data such as email and IP addresses. The only type of data we make available to labels and artists, other than what you see on the site, is aggregate data of listeners and number of plays."

There you are, squabbling over scrobbling, courtesy of the rumour-mill.

Hopefully, the two parties will be able to shake and make-up, but that doesn't answer the biggest question... just how did that U2 album get leaked anyways?

It was U2's label of course, Universal, who accidentally put the album up for sale a week before the actual release date. Oops.

Getmusic.com.au, which is owned by Universal, put the album up online, and didn't catch the error until it was too late. Far too late.

Since then, the new U2 release, which is bound to be dreadful in every sense of the word, has been getting some pretty good online buzz, which should help sales when the album does finally hit shelves.

Last.FM Launch Free Music Streaming

1841938 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:40:59 GMT

Interesting to hear that Last.fm has just announced that it's streaming full tracks, on-demand, for free.
It means that any last.fm visitor will be able to stream a track on its system (and it seems to have all the majors signed) up to three times. Money-wise they're profit-sharing the advertising money with the record companies.

At the same time they're also planning to introduce a subscription service, which I imagine will mean you'll be able to stream songs more than three times (perfect for you set up that recording to Audacity), get higher quality, no ads etc.

Whilst last.fm isn't the first person to do a deal like this, it does fit in nicely with the rest of their streaming radio business, and was probably fairly easy to activate as they have all the songs in their system. It seems they're positioning themselves quite nicely to be the one-stop shop for a 'music on-demand' experience. It also means that they're probably paying their music licensing costs for the first time!

There's more detail at paidcontent.org.