Last.FM introduces 'free music'.

Why?

That report's odd because it makes no mention of the paid subscription last.fm will point you towards when your free plays are up.

there's a lot (well, ok, some) more discussion about this on the existing last.fm thread (post yr audiosrobbler etc).

That Jonas last.fm dude has overtaken that Gennaro HMV bloke when it comes to "Please shut the fuck up you're a businessman stop having opinions on music" feelings brewing in me.

they're not talking about the music improvisation company here, amirite?

Well this is singularly unexciting.

I'm pretty excited. slsk is so flaky for me these days it's increasingly not worth the effort to try and d/l something that ends up being shit. This is just the kind of legit try-before-you-buy I've been hankering for for years.

now i want genre portals (tags thing is imperfect) and release schedules

i'm kinda excited, but my browse of the site just now seemed to suggest that 90% of stuff i wanted to listen to wasn't available to stream. doesn't rhapsody already do something like this? i certainly believe that a "celestial jukebox" (isn't there a thread about that?) along these lines, streaming to mobile devices, is the future - i'd be happy enough not to "own" music if i could listen to whatever i wanted to. i suspect that tying up all the licensing is still a ways off, though, sadly.

Yeah that is the dream.

is Nick still composing his appalled thoughts?

Are his concerns going to focus on the audio quality?

I love it when the basic premise is:

"Here is a new and exciting initative in the field of xxxx, which will be funded with banner/click through advertising."

Seems to work for plenty of folks.

Somehow.

Isn't this what Myspace does?

Any 'audio quality' type argument here is going to be a little bit like complaining of the audio quality of the songs you hear on the radio. If this works properly it could be a fantastic resource.

Sorry, mental busy today - my concerns are not about audio quality at all, but rather about cultural value and consumer behaviour. I'll try and compose something more cogent later.

It's later now. What's wrong about cultural value?

pretty easy to tell the non-musicians on this thread

How will the change affect musicians v. non-musicians?

Oh, I see --Asked whether users would not prefer to own music - and be able to put it on a portable player - rather than just being able to stream it, he said: "The way people consume music is changing - sometimes you just want to listen to it there and then."

well, that's always been true. it's just that now you've got more chance of being able to.

i could see this. we play streaming radio at work a lot, and sometimes clients ask for specific songs, and then we just shrug and say "it's the radio, you get what you get"--so wait, this might force me to do more work. Nevermind.

It's last.fm...certainly you'll have a log of every single song you play.

Damnit, not in Canada yet....