I have long loved the social music site Last.fm. In fact I’d go as far as saying I was almost fanatical about it. I’ve been a user since November 2005 and have loved every moment. I’ve made new friends and discovered some fantastic music, for which I’ll always be appreciative.
Then in April of this year came the controversy that I’m sure most people have heard about by now - they began to charge a monthly fee for their streaming music service to any user outside of the UK, US and Germany. I can half appreciate why they took this move, licensing costs are no joking matter and I’m sure many users don’t appreciate that. Though I also sympathised with the effected users - it’s a sad situation if you happen to be outside one of the designated ‘free’ countries.
However, while I greatly sympathised, I must admit that rather selfishly it didn’t bother me too much as a) I’m in the UK and b) I rarely listen to the streaming radio anyway. So I personally wasn’t influenced by the change, at least not until today.
I’ve been a continuing subscriber to Last.fm since I joined in November 2005. I got so much out of the site that I didn’t mind giving something back (keeping in mind this was before CBS owned them). £1.50 per month was an affordable and reasonable amount, and it was nice to see who was visiting your profile. Anyway, to the point. My subscription ran out today so as I usually do I immediately went to resubscribe, only to find the monthly amount had doubled to £3.00 per month. Not only that, but I don’t even get anything extra for it! It may seem like a small amount (though it isn’t to me currently) but it’s the principle of it. I’ve happily donated for years purely to support the site and then I get this big neon ’screw you!’ sign shoved in my face.
I’m both shocked and disappointed that a site I’ve supported and told everyone I could to go and join has taken this route. I won’t be resubscribing.
Luckily there’s a new kid on the block called Libre.fm which is a far more open project. As soon as a few more features are introduced, which going by the current rate of development won’t be long, I may well ditch Last.fm completely. Here’s my Libre.fm profile, I’m hoping it will turn into my new social music home. Perhaps they’d appreciate my (albeit small) £1.50 a month more.
Update
Matt has replied in a comment that a monthly donation facility is now available, so I’ve put my money where my mouth is and my monthly sub is now going to Libre.fm. If you support the project please consider doing the same, you can donate here!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Jackie,
Inspired by this post, we’ve added donations to Libre.fm — if you’re interested, please go over to http://libre.fm/donations.html and subscribe now.
You won’t get anything extra for your money, except a warm fuzzy feeling of supporting a project with your intentions at heart.
Best,
matt
Wow, Matt, thanks for stopping by.
Consider $3 a month yours (I’ve just signed up). That warm and fuzzy feeling is more than enough for me and it’s a much bigger reward than giving to Last.fm.
Keep up the great work. :)