<b>Last.fm streaming going subscription only or shutting</b><br>So farewell t...

Julian Bond - 2012-12-19 10:12:40+0000 - Updated: 2012-12-19 10:12:40+0000

Last.fm streaming going subscription only or shutting
So farewell then, Last.fm radio. From Tuesday 15 January 2013, most of the world loses access completely, United States, United Kingdom, and Germany retain ad-supported free access on the website but subscription only in the desktop and iPhone clients. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Brazil is subscription only.

A while ago, I did some work on a python proxy that uses the API to stream last.fm radio to things like Winamp. I imagine that will go subscription only as well.

Oh well. Streaming is apparently how we will all listen to music via Spotify, Pandora, Grooveshark, Google Play, etc. But it seems CBS (who own last.fm) can't work out how to make it pay or deal with the licensing issues outside a few countries. All a bit sad when last.fm was one of the first.

Announcement: http://www.last.fm/announcements/radio2013
Discussion: http://www.last.fm/forum/21717/_/2197072
Proxy http://www.last.fm/group/LastFMProxy

Radio changes to Last.fm from Tuesday 15 January 2013 – Last.fm

Tony Sidaway - 2012-12-19 14:10:47+0000

I still use Spotify on the advertiser supported model in the UK. You can even squeeze out a free trial of the paid model without registering your credit card by simply installing and using the free software unofficial client API, despotify.

As I don't listen to music that often, it works well enough, with YouTube as a backup for the material not covered by Spotify.