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I knew something was up about a week ago when my Wilco and REM -- two Warner Brothers Artists -- were mysteriously absent from my Last.FM playlists. At first I thought it was just a fluke, or some not-so random shuffling snafu, but then I saw this thread on the popular social network's help boards. According to a CNET post dated June 6:
Warner Music Group has pulled its entire catalog from Last.fm, a company spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
This is potentially huge, as Warners was one of the first labels to sign on with Last.FM, and is home to some of pop and rocks most popular artists such as Madonna and Led Zeppelin. Wired's blog has more details on the deal that did, or rather didn't go down. Recently, Last.FM offered an "On Demand" listening service that allows members to listen to any song in their catalog a total of three times for free before they are prompted to subscribe to the service, and is revamping the look of their site (which subscribers can get a sneak peek at here. I've seen it, and it's a big improvement. The look and feel is much more user friendly.)
Via the Wired story:
Last.fm users can still stream music from Warner's artists via their artist-based radio stations (see below), because those songs are licensed under a different deal.
And from Silcon Valley Insider:
What's the issue? We don't have the details, but we assume this is a straightforward debate about money: As in, Warner wants more of it. The company has licensed its music for on-demand streaming to iMeem and the forthcoming MySpace JV; in both cases, it has ended up with equity stakes in the services.
There is a bright side, however. From the looks of it, it seems that some of the Warners music is back in Last.FM's catalog as of this week, but this whole ordeal has left a bad taste in the mouths of music fans who count on Last.FM's vast storehouse of music to get through their days. It is arguably the biggest social networking site centered around music. Alternatives exist, like Pandora, iLike, and MOG, but they either don't offer the sense of community that Last FM does, nor the variety of music.And despite the trouble with Warners, you'll be able to listen to Last FM radio outside your computer. According to Last FM's Liz Rice, the company is teaming up with Logitech to bring Last FM to their Squeezebox line of products:
I’m a big music fan, but one way and another I don’t really listen to all that much music while I’m sitting at my PC. That’s probably why I’ve always been excited about getting Last.fm onto other devices where you listen to music. Today, our friends over at Logitech are adding official support for Last.fm radio on their family of Squeezebox products, opening up a really easy way to get Last.fm music in any room of the house.
Last FM in your kitchen? That's one reason to smile.
