This looks suspiciously like an outbreak of common sense amongst the record labels: royalty payments directly to the artists? Free full-length playback of sampl

This looks suspiciously like an outbreak of common sense amongst the record labels: royalty payments directly to the artists? Free full-length playback of sample tracks, with opt-in for unlimited numbers of plays? Tight integration with iTunes and other music players to track real-time listener data? On the other hand, this could only come about after the labels had basically neutered independent Internet radio streams with their insane royalty structures. Funneling everything through Last.fm gives them a single entity with whom they can negotiate and from whom they can extort^M^M^M^M^M^M collect payment.