Last FM goes OD

Last FM, a social networking site that allows you to see what other people are listening to and offers radio and streaming services based on that user's tastes and other features, have announced that they have gone on-demand. They managed to sign a deal with all the four big labels (EMI, Sony BMG, Warners, and Universal) and with hundreds of smaller independent labels to allow huge volumes of albums to be listened to and streamed, making Last FM bigger than Napster and all other leading competition.

In my eyes, this is a major deal. Especially considering the state of the industry where artists and organisations are desperately trying to find new business models. This one, to me, is the fairest model for both consumers and artists/labels so far.

So how will this work then?

The user of Last FM would be at first allowed to listen to any track from the library of 3.5 million tracks for free...but there is a catch. You can allow listen to the track for a maximum of three times. After that, you will be recommended other songs or artists that you may like and will advise you to subscribe, like Napster, in order to have unlimited listens. I'm unsure of what the fee is at the moment. I read one blog that said $3 but I'm not sure, since there's no mention in the Last FM blog post explaining the on-demand service. I'm pretty sure though it will be cheaper than Napster.

What's the benefit for the artists and labels?

It's simple really. They will be paid everytime a song gets played. Last FM also annoucnced that, in addition to this on-demand service, unsigned artists could sign up for free and upload their own music to the database. That artist would then recieve a royalties payment everytime one of their tracks was played. This aspect of the on-demand service is really exciting for aspiring artists. The benefits for an unsigned artist are now far more appealling financially than they would be on MySpace.

How will Last FM make money?

Advertisers would be able to use a 'mini billboard' in the pop up player to sell their product or service. Simple as.

This idea is definitely one that can work and I think the oppurtunities for unsigned artists are promosing. Is this the way forward for the music industry? Well, unless anyone has a better idea, this is the best solution I've heard of so far...

DIGG IT!