Free Albums and Music at Last.fm
As a precursor to a full subscription service which is soon to be available, the nice people over at Last.fm have made an announcement that tracks and complete albums can now be streamed in full.
Previously it has only been possible to play various radio streams or ’suggestion’ type radio in a similar vein to Pandora, you couldn’t choose a particular track or album and play it. Now this is possible however with a limit of 3 plays per track.
This is a great move for the service which will allow users to try before they buy, or if they want sign up for the full subscription service when it becomes available for unlimited play.
As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website.
Something we’ve wanted for years—for people who visit Last.fm to be able to play any track for free—is now possible. With the support of the folks behind EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner—and the artists they work with—plus thousands of independent artists and labels, we’ve made the biggest legal collection of music available to play online for free, the way we believe it should be.
Full-length tracks are now available in the US, UK, and Germany, and we’re hard at work broadening our coverage into other countries. During this initial public beta period, each track can be played up to 3 times for free before a notice appears telling you about our upcoming subscription service. The soon-to-be announced subscription service will give you unlimited plays and some other useful things. We’re also working on bringing full-length tracks to the desktop client and beyond.
Free full-length tracks are obviously great news for listeners, but also great for artists and labels, who get paid every time someone streams a song. Music on Last.fm is perpetually monetized. This is good because artists get paid based on how popular a song is with their fans, instead of a fixed amount.
