Comments on: What Killed Last.fm?

By: Graeme Hayter

Graeme Hayter — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 00:32:52 +0000

Gave up on it 3 years ago. Looked like it might be a thing and I invested an awful to of lot of time in it ( and the really fiddly band management aspect) when I was officially involved with TR but it just didn’t get noticed and I didn’t get any benefit from it. It just got bypassed.
Btw hope you’re well, Tim. Always follow your posts with interest

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 19:01:31 +0000

@PaulE: I guess last.fm was doomed as soon as the founders sold out to CBS; there is inevitably going to be a conflict of interest between the owners and the would-be customers.

@Sphen: That would be a good niche; I’d love to see user-curated streaming radio that pulls music from various licenced sources and includes plenty of independent and obscure stuff as well as the labels’ back catalogues. It’s a shame mFlow’s business model didn’t prove viable.

By: Sphen the sober

Sphen the sober — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:03:36 +0000

seems to me an aggregation service for band camp, reverb nation, and the other indie sites would be a useful niche for last.fm. I can’t generally be bothered trolling around those sites to find the gold.

By: PaulE

PaulE — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 17:30:41 +0000

Re: “the majors’ business model”
I’m sure they would counter by saying that no business pays to advertise anothers’ products – especially when it is a competitor.
I would counter that by saying that it is in their interests to have as many potential customers engaged in the process as possible. Restricting the music pushes people away.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 14:01:25 +0000

Never forget that the majors’ business model is based on keeping the public from hearing music that the majors don’t own.

Legal streaming sites are in a Catch-22. They can’t sell their service unless they’ve got the majors and their catalogues on board, but the majors are less likely to support a site that ends up promoting too much independent music.

By: The Other Tim Hall

The Other Tim Hall — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:54:06 +0000

The fact that Spotify is substantially owned by the majors could readily be used to construct a variety of entirely plausible theories…