If you’re not in the US, UK, or Germany, you’re going to be paying a monthly charge for streaming music from the Last.fm site.
It’s been almost two years since I wrote about the challenges of finding a site that even catered to me in Canada. Now it seems the free ride is over. I wish there was some change in the way music distribution was licensed: the geographic exclusivity clauses seem so archaic.
For now, I get 30 free tracks and then I have to start paying. Also important to note: only live streaming is going to cost money; the really powerful “scrobbling” feature of Last.fm will continue to be free. To me, the music industry gets a huge benefit from “scrobbling” because it gives a pretty accurate view of who’s listening to what music. Demographics aside, this is a measure of actual listeners that was never available on traditional radio with any real accuracy.