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Does anyone know the reason behind this change? Is it a measure because of cost of operation in certain countries or is it a legal issue?

by verdant 18y ago

jwilliams 18y ago
It's the former, sort of... See the comment on the post titled "Joost, HodgeStar, et al": (I can't find a permalink) "These are the countries in which we have the most resources to support an ad sales organization, which is how we earn money to pay artists and labels for their music." Edit: Found the permalink: http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement#c007521 http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement#c00...
- gaius 18y ago
  It's funny how people who use Last.fm's content and bandwidth for free think Last.fm will be hurt in any way by them leaving.
  - batasrki 18y ago
    Call me naive, but were a large percentage of users to leave, they will be hurt. Not just from the traffic and revenue perspective, but also from a reputation one. Take a gander at the comments. There are not just normal users, but also independent artists and even a record executive from Brazil. This is a serious move and potentially, a very damaging one.
    - mikedouglas 18y ago
      How about from a profitability perspective? I think we should suck it up, and realize large companies aren't going to subsidize what we want to do on the internet, forever. If Last.fm isn't €3/month, don't pay it.
      - batasrki 18y ago
        I realize that, but at the same time, I realize that they've offered this service for free for a long, long time. Also, I wouldn't mind it so much, if they were to charge everyone. However, charging everyone but the English, Americans and Germans is patently unfair. Also, the people from those countries already get services and features no one else does. So now we're talking about the rest of the world subsidizing what users from only three countries consume from Last.fm. You cannot tell me that that's fair or that it even makes sense.
        mikedouglas 18y ago
        The UK, USA and Germany are large enough markets for them to sell ads in. If anything, over the last few years, ad sales in those countries has been subsidizing everyone else. Hulu, Kindle, GrandCentral, etc. It's not like this is a new experience for Canadians. It sucks, but I don't blame the companies for being forced to realize market realities.
        batasrki 18y ago
        If what you say is true, that was not indicated in their announcement. As for market realities, it's a reality that they've offered this service worldwide. Hulu, Kindle, etc. have not. It's unrealistic to not expect a huge backlash against a service that's restricting itself to only those markets where they think they might make money. As some commenters have rightly indicated, losing the scrobbling ability of the whole wide world will inevitably degrade the service of the "special" ones. And trust me, I've already stopped feeding them information. Also, come end of March and I will take my business elsewhere. I don't mind paying for a service. I do mind discrimination and senseless discrimination I mind even more.
        mikedouglas 18y ago
        "It's unrealistic to not expect a huge backlash against a service that's restricting itself to only those markets where they think they might make money." Which, in one sentence, explains the insanity of the mindset of web startups at the moment. Fortunately, it looks like that's starting to change. "And trust me, I've already stopped feeding them information. Also, come end of March and I will take my business elsewhere." Great. Especially if you think Last.fm is wrong about the value of your market, why not start a competitor? "I don't mind paying for a service. I do mind discrimination and senseless discrimination I mind even more." There shouldn't be a taboo against saying you don't think last.fm (or any web startup) isn't worth paying for, but I hope you still don't think this is the result of CBSs xenophobia.
    - lallysingh 18y ago
      Well, the options are that or starving to death in a crap economy. No matter how good some of the clients may be, if they can't make money off of them, they're wasted resources. If people want free Pandora in their area, push people to advertise w/Pandora. Someone's got to cover the expense, and clearly Pandora themselves can't cover it anymore.
  - mtarnovan 18y ago
    Let's apply the same logic for Google. Wait, what?
    - gaius 18y ago
      The bandwidth necessary to serve Google's minimalist web pages is trivial compared to that to stream music.
      - mikebo 18y ago
        Not to mention the music licensing fees. Do people realize that last.fm has to pay music labels every time a user streams a track?

Does anyone know the reason behind this change? Is it a measure because of cost of operation in certain countries or is it a legal issue?

by verdant 18y ago

Does anyone know the reason behind this change? Is it a measure because of cost of operation in certain countries or is it a legal issue?

jwilliams 18y ago

It's the former, sort of... See the comment on the post titled "Joost, HodgeStar, et al": (I can't find a permalink) "These are the countries in which we have the most resources to support an ad sales organization, which is how we earn money to pay artists and labels for their music." Edit: Found the permalink: http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement#c007521 http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement#c00...

gaius 18y ago
It's funny how people who use Last.fm's content and bandwidth for free think Last.fm will be hurt in any way by them leaving.
- batasrki 18y ago
  Call me naive, but were a large percentage of users to leave, they will be hurt. Not just from the traffic and revenue perspective, but also from a reputation one. Take a gander at the comments. There are not just normal users, but also independent artists and even a record executive from Brazil. This is a serious move and potentially, a very damaging one.
  - mikedouglas 18y ago
    How about from a profitability perspective? I think we should suck it up, and realize large companies aren't going to subsidize what we want to do on the internet, forever. If Last.fm isn't €3/month, don't pay it.
    - batasrki 18y ago
      I realize that, but at the same time, I realize that they've offered this service for free for a long, long time. Also, I wouldn't mind it so much, if they were to charge everyone. However, charging everyone but the English, Americans and Germans is patently unfair. Also, the people from those countries already get services and features no one else does. So now we're talking about the rest of the world subsidizing what users from only three countries consume from Last.fm. You cannot tell me that that's fair or that it even makes sense.
      - mikedouglas 18y ago
        The UK, USA and Germany are large enough markets for them to sell ads in. If anything, over the last few years, ad sales in those countries has been subsidizing everyone else. Hulu, Kindle, GrandCentral, etc. It's not like this is a new experience for Canadians. It sucks, but I don't blame the companies for being forced to realize market realities.
        batasrki 18y ago
        If what you say is true, that was not indicated in their announcement. As for market realities, it's a reality that they've offered this service worldwide. Hulu, Kindle, etc. have not. It's unrealistic to not expect a huge backlash against a service that's restricting itself to only those markets where they think they might make money. As some commenters have rightly indicated, losing the scrobbling ability of the whole wide world will inevitably degrade the service of the "special" ones. And trust me, I've already stopped feeding them information. Also, come end of March and I will take my business elsewhere. I don't mind paying for a service. I do mind discrimination and senseless discrimination I mind even more.
        mikedouglas 18y ago
        "It's unrealistic to not expect a huge backlash against a service that's restricting itself to only those markets where they think they might make money." Which, in one sentence, explains the insanity of the mindset of web startups at the moment. Fortunately, it looks like that's starting to change. "And trust me, I've already stopped feeding them information. Also, come end of March and I will take my business elsewhere." Great. Especially if you think Last.fm is wrong about the value of your market, why not start a competitor? "I don't mind paying for a service. I do mind discrimination and senseless discrimination I mind even more." There shouldn't be a taboo against saying you don't think last.fm (or any web startup) isn't worth paying for, but I hope you still don't think this is the result of CBSs xenophobia.
  - lallysingh 18y ago
    Well, the options are that or starving to death in a crap economy. No matter how good some of the clients may be, if they can't make money off of them, they're wasted resources. If people want free Pandora in their area, push people to advertise w/Pandora. Someone's got to cover the expense, and clearly Pandora themselves can't cover it anymore.
- mtarnovan 18y ago
  Let's apply the same logic for Google. Wait, what?
  - gaius 18y ago
    The bandwidth necessary to serve Google's minimalist web pages is trivial compared to that to stream music.
    - mikebo 18y ago
      Not to mention the music licensing fees. Do people realize that last.fm has to pay music labels every time a user streams a track?