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In an overwhelming intellectual leap of faith, last.fm has concluded that allowing full-length track streaming has increased sales.
Since Last.fm’s label deals allowed them to stream over five million full tracks for free, the site has seen its CD and MP3 Amazon referrals increase 119 percent. Some of the effect is due to an increase in overall traffic since the full songs showed up, but existing users of the site purchased 66 percent more music during the same period.
Did anyone ever harbor the illusion that 30-second track previews were really enough to sell people on a track purchase? Sure, one could argue that maybe the right 30 seconds would be enough, but there’s no way of finding a “one size fits all” snippet for everyone.
Full length track streaming is the only way to go for online music purchasing. It isn’t a replacement for owning the cd or file because you can’t put the music on your device – the end goal of most users.
Would you buy a car after a mere 30 second test-drive? There is no way I’m spending my money on any music without hearing it in its entirety to make sure I love it.
Read more about last.fm’s conclusion [blog.wired.com]
- On demand, ad-supported streaming via the last.fm website or client – 150,000+ licensed songs with a limitation of 3 plays per track per user
- Pay-Per-Listen royalty scheme – artists/labels will get paid based on the number of times their songs have been streamed (independent artists will get paid directly from last.fm)
First of all, I want to applaud CBS and last.fm for taking their service in this direction. I’ve used last.fm for a couple of years now and the number one wish I had was full-length track streaming. 30 second previews are simply useless as a music discovery tool. Like the recent fall of DRM, on demand free full-length track streaming seemed unattainable just one year ago. It’s good to see that progress is being made in catching up to actual consumer behavior. That being said, this service has a ways to go before it starts to become an indispensable music tool. Continue reading »
