Last.fm Goes On Demand

CBS owned social music site, last.fm, announced on Wednesday that they would begin offering full-length track streaming of over 150,000 songs including catalog from the four major record labels.The two major points of the release are:

• 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.

I gave last.fm’s on demand streaming a test drive and the biggest issue I have with it is the track selection. This problem is twofold. On the catalog front, there are a ton of albums that just aren’t available. Metallica’s “Black” album, Led Zeppelin’s IV, even Radiohead’s OK Computer are all off-limits for your demanding fingertips. On the flip side, many new and “unreleased” singles from bands are nowhere to be found as well (Hot Chip’s Shake A Fist and Milburn’s What Will You Do (When The Money Goes) were the two I looked for). In other words, if you were looking for a replacement for using Myspace’s deplorable site to discover new music, you’re going to be disappointed. Having worked in the digital music industry, I know how difficult it can be in getting song licenses from labels and major artists, so the song catalog deficiencies are understandable. However, these shortcomings need to be resolved for the service to be successful.

I would also like to see the limit of song streams per song increased to something between 5 and 10 times. Sometimes it might take a few listens to “get” a song. As it is, though, three streams isn’t THAT limiting when you think about it. Most of the time you really need only one listen to determine whether a song is for you or not. If you’re playing a song more than 10 times, it’s pretty obvious you like the song and should seek to acquire a higher quality copy of it that you can either burn to disc or put on a portable device.

The other intriguing announcement is that individual artists can get paid directly by last.fm proportionate to the number of streams their music generates. This is definitely a step-up over Myspace (who don’t pay at all). It also plays in as an extra bonus for record labels and terrestrial radio stations as another source of consumer research data. If CBS plays their cards right, they could supplant Myspace as the premier destination for artists to host their music and for music fans to hear them.

While last.fm’s on demand service won’t change my current music discovery habits, it is a great step in creating a robust music discovery service. I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on its progress.