Not a huge fan of the changes coming to last.fm. I LOVE last.fm, and use that as my primary online radio station when I am at work, in the car, and at home. The selection is the best I have found (way better than Pandora Radio) and they hardly ever play the same song twice. I also like that I can comment on songs and view other members and the songs he or she chooses to play. It also tracks all of the songs that you listen to and you can go back and play all of those tracks again if you so choose. It is literally a social network for people who like to listen to music. I am always getting suggestions and sharing songs with friends all over the world.
But soon, last.fm will begin charging a membership fee. Pandora already does this, and it’s the exact same price as far as I can see. So if I did choose to pay for online radio, it would be last.fm, not Pandora. Anyway, this is an email that I received the other day explaining the changes. I just wanted to share it with you if anyone out there uses and loves last.fm as much as I do. (Please note that both of these services offer a free streaming solution. They are loaded with advertisements, and allow you limited skips with trying to find your favorite tune. Both services will continue to offer a free solution once this new subscription things takes place.)
We want to share with you an important update about our radio service:
From February 15 you will need to be a subscriber to listen to last.fm Radio stations on devices, including your last.fm iPhone and iPod Touch app.
No other features are affected by this change.
In taking this decision, we have given a lot of thought to how this impacts some of our early adopters and long-time users like you. We truly appreciate what you have meant to our growth and success, and offer you the following as a token of our thanks;
A free 3 month subscription to last.fm.
This will start automatically on February 15th 2011. As a result you will continue to be able to use last.fm as you do today until the end of your subscription. If you’d like to see the other benefits of your free subscription, please <a href=”http://bit.ly/exi8Yy” target=”_blank”>visit the subscription page</a>.
We appreciate you may have questions about this announcement, so <a href=”http://bit.ly/fA40e7″ target=”_blank”>visit our blog</a> to read more about these changes and offer feedback.
We value your support and hope you continue to enjoy using last.fm.
