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Digital
Last.fm cuts back on its streaming services
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 14 December 2012
Last.fm announced a further restriction of its streaming services earlier this week.
In the UK, US and Germany, where Last.fm has been most prolific in terms of service offering in recent years, use of the platform’s Pandora-style interactive radio service via a desktop client will be restricted to paying subscribers only, though the same service will remain available for free via the Last.fm website. It means that accessing the Last.fm music service via a desktop app will require a £3 per month subscription, as is already the case for those using the company’s mobile apps.
Perhaps more significantly, the interactive radio facility will be switched off altogether in many other markets, even to paying subscribers. It means Last.fm will only operate as a streaming service in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Brazil in addition to the UK, US and Germany. Announcing the changes, the CBS-owned music platform said they were “due to licensing restrictions” and “in response to various factors that affect our business differently in parts of the world”.
Despite being one of the early players in the online streaming market, and enjoying rapid growth for a time, many have long wondered what Last.fm’s long-term business model would be.
It’s always seemed doubtful that advertising alone could sustain the various elements of the digital firm’s operations, yet Last.fm took some time to hone its subscription offer, by which point the subscription-based streaming marketplace was becoming much more competitive. In a world where brands and content owners are increasingly obsessed by analytics, some reckon Last.fm’s future is as a data business, but it’s yet to really work out how to monetise that.
The latest downsizing of Last.fm services (there have been a few in recent years) comes as the company [a] celebrates its tenth anniversary and [b] moves from its Shoreditch base to share offices with its parent company CBS in Southwark, following various rejigs in the CBS Interactive business earlier this year. It’s hard to see that move in a positive light, meaning it will be interesting to see where the media giant takes its digital asset next. Will there be another ten years of ‘scrobbling’ to document in a decade’s time?
