The UK register reports less than a year after unveiling what it called a “free global jukebox”, Last.fm is scrapping free radio listening, except in the US, the UK and Germany. The site, acquired for $280 million by CBS almost two years ago, will instead introduce a €3 monthly equivalent fee for music streams.
“Revenue from international subscriptions will be used to cover the cost of providing a radio service for international users”, explained Last.fm’s Owen Parry on the company blog. “Revenue from advertising will be used to cover some of the cost of providing service in the three countries – subscriptions are also available. While we would like to provide the same service for users of all countries – the world is a huge place and it’s not cheap to deliver music over the Internet.”
Last.fm lost a fifth of its staff before Christmas.
