Last.fm to launch any track on demand free music streaming

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A world where music lovers can listen to free music over the internet -legally - came a significant step closer today when Last.fm,the social music website, announced that it had record industry's approvalto start an unprecedented new streaming service.
As part of the new service, any visitor to Last.fm's site will be able tostream tracks from any of the major record labels in their entirety, withoutpaying, as and when they choose. After three streams - which allow someoneto listen to a song, but not to download it onto a computer or music player- they can elect to buy the song from a retail site, such as iTunes.
The deal, which has been hammered out with all four major labels, will giveLast.fm users access to millions of tracks, and mean that Last.fm can offera far more comprehensive service than previously, when users had no controlover when they heard songs that they wanted to stream.

A Last.fm user will now, for instance, be able to click on the new AmyWinehouse album and listen to the whole thing in full, or hear tracksindividually. In the past, songs had to be added to a playlist, which wouldplay them at random.
People using the site have to be sitting at their computer, but a spokesmanfor Last.fm said that he hoped a similar service would be available onmobile phones before too long.
"We're trying to make all music accessible without people having to login or pay anything for it," Martin Stiksel, Last.fm's founder, said. Headded that Last.fm's model - which is supported by advertising - was betterfor artists because it enabled an artist or record label to get paid eachtime a song was streamed, as opposed to just once, when a person bought aCD.
"Everyone ackowledges that the business of selling plastic discs is notreally working. What we're trying to offer is music that you can listen toit anywhere, any time, and that you don't need to have sitting on yourshelf. All you need is connectivity."
The new service, which goes live in the US, UK and Germany, represents asignificant coup for Last.fm, which is one of a number of sites that havetried to develop free, advertising-supported music offerings.
Spiralfrog, a US-based 'free download' service which forces people to watchads while a song downloads, has so far only attracted the support ofUniversal. We7, the start-upbacked by Peter Gabriel, which plays a short ad at the start of a musictrack for up to eight times after it is downloaded, likewise, only has thesupport of independent labels.
In January, the service that is most like Last.fm, Pandora, which creates whatis effectively an 'personalised radio station' for users based on theirmusic tastes, was closed to users outside the US earlier this month becauseof a dispute with rights holders over royalties.
A spokesman for the IFPI, the record industry body, said the new service andothers like it did not mean that CD sales were on the way out, but ratherreflected an increasing diversification in the industry. "You're goingto see more and more licensing deals like this. These days digital music isnot just about downloads. It's streaming and subscriptions as well," hesaid.
Last.fm, which has 313,000 users in the UK and 1.5 million in Europe,according to Nielsen Online, allows people to share their tastes with otherson the site using a process it calls 'scrobbling'.
A person has to download software from Last.fm, and once they have, everytrack they play on iTunes, for example, is recognised by the site. Softwarethen makes recommendations about other music they might like and puts themin touch with other users who have similar taste.
Last.fm was bought for $280 million by CBS, the US television network, lastyear.