Last.fm Radio to require subscription (outside of UK/US/DE)

Just great. Then I'll need to find yet another service. First I loved Pandora, it was excellent. When it was closed then I started to use Last.fm and now I need to find another. Any good recommendations?

"Closed, as free service ended"

Russ said:
It's no secret that Last.fm streaming is paid for by advertising. We've unfortunately been forced to close down streaming in places where we can't support our streaming by advertising.

I don't see this as unethical.

I guess that's the problem. Just because it makes business sense because the revenue is segregated along national lines, doesn't make it ethically right to segregate your users in the same way.

I'm less worth to you on a spreadsheet, fine.

Treat me like that as a person, that's an entirely different matter.

Very disappointing nobody at Last.fm can look beyond the numbers and see the human beings anymore, especially with a service that relies so heavily on the input of those same people.

I'm not saying it's an easy problem to solve, but you're probably familiar with the phrase "your broken business model is not my problem". Punishing your customers for your business problems is a bad idea in the best of cases, but doing it along national lines is the worst imaginable way to go about it.

And hell, I'm willing to make it my problem, I'm willing to pay the damn 3 euros. But not just for not being in the UK/US/DE. I don't subsidize a business that thinks that way.

Last.fm was supposed to be about the love for music and the internet, two things that know no national boundaries. Last.fm just spat on both, and a large group of users along with it.

If you see no ethical problem in that, I don't want to be a Last.fm user anymore.

(Keeping my account until the 30th, in the hope somebody at Last.fm HQ still "gets it".)

Am suprised this didn't happen sooner. Hey at least we can still subscribe to last.fm, it could have been worse (aka Pandora).

Does this mean we soon will have a "Bring back the Free last.fm" group?

some people don't seem to understand that it actually demands a lot of financial resources to run a service like this.

Maybe the people at Last.fm should do a real world test, see how it feels:

- Organize a music event in London. (To be a real analogy it would have to be worldwide and simultaneous, but London is international enough to simulate that.)
- Get local sponsors.
- Invite everybody, even explicitely in their own language, but only allow UK-citizens in for free. After all, the sponsors only care about the locals.
- Stand at the door and tell people that to their face. Tell them they have to pay because they're not British. Look them in the eyes while you explain your perfectly rational business model.

Suggestion: leave your soul at home. And hire some serious security....

Just because it makes business sense, doesn't make it ethical. Refusing entry to clubs based on ethnic appearance is also based on pure business sense, only very rarely because the owners are racists: it influences the atmosphere and profitability of the club. Yet it's still a racist policy.

Last.fm's policy is unfair and discriminatory, and insulting to users, no matter how well the numbers add up, and no matter how much you blame the markets or the music industry.

If you wouldn't do this to people in person, don't do it over the internet.

Just curious:

Not everybody reads the blog and it's T-4 today! So how all the affected Last.fm users outside the US, UK, and Germany will be informed that they can't play any Last.fm radio without subscription from Monday, March 30 forward?

...

i see, i wasn't aware that you had to use paypal these days to pay the subscription. but then again in the faq it says.

"You can use your credit card with PayPal even if you don’t have a PayPal account. "
Well, i dont know is this a new option or old faq ;> I will check, thanx.
But BTW: i wrote about this issue on Polish and English Message Boards and there was no admin to tell me this...

but there's no such thing as free lunch anyway.
In UK, US and Germany you can eat for free :>

I'm not going to buy three subscriptions (me, mom and dad) just because I'm living in the wrong country. My parents won't see the difference between Last.fm and a generic free radio, and for little more than 36$ I can buy two 16Gb USB drives to bring my own music to work - music I can choose, pause, and play as I like.

I hate regional discrimination. I loathe DVD regions, I loathe shops that won't sell outside their country even if they legally could, I loathe everything where the global market is willingly turned into many little market stalls with limited choice. And I won't support a product that decides to take the easy way out and decide that some users should pay more than others for an inferior service. Goodbye Last.fm, it was nice while it lasted.

In UK, US and Germany you can eat for free :>

in soviet russia the lunch eats you!

skoop pisze:
Instead, last.fm could make the streaming services paid-for in all countries, and lower the subscription fee to $2.50. Now, the advertising in the US, UK en Germany helps pay for the rest of the world. This is much more fair.


Couldn't agree more.

If you tell ppl to pay, at least make it fair to everyone.

so... I'll be paying a "not American/British/German tax"? yes. that will happen.

is there a way to cheat this? with Tor or something?

here's a thought:

why don't you consider removing the "free-on-demand" privilege from all us/uk/de users? i imagine that'll ease the strain on your bottom line a tad, wouldn't it? not to mention, lessen the inequality of this double-standards game you're playing, and expecting the rest of the world to play along with you.

of course i'm just kidding, we all know that's pure nonsense. but just imagine how they'd react if the shoe were in the other foot.

...here I come!