Last.fm Radio to require subscription (outside of UK/US/DE)

DA_Philmeister said:
Proxy to the rescue

Personally i don't have a problem. Live in Belgium but I use a proxy cause last fm isn't the only site that uses the ban foreigners protocol.

For people who are interested Hotspot Shield is a very decent one. It changes your ip so that sites think you are located in the US. try it.
I´m also using a proxy and I have some stataments to make. I dont mind so seriously about the idea of paying for the service. But it outrages me the idea US, UK and Germany will have it free. Also the fee it self should be country based cause 3 dolars are like 6 reais where reais is our currency and the avarage brazilian gets less reais than the american get dollars per month look for couch surf which has country based fees to achieve some "parity". Also make it payable with a bank bollet cause many people dont have or dont want to put a credicard on internet.

Well those were my 2 cents.

^^

Heh, sycophant.

DA_Philmeister said:

Proxy to the rescue

Personally i don't have a problem. Live in Belgium but I use a proxy cause last fm isn't the only site that uses the ban foreigners protocol.

For people who are interested Hotspot Shield is a very decent one. It changes your ip so that sites think you are located in the US. try it.
Proxy isn't the only way to work around this; there are many ways to do it if people really want to. Not that I'm advocating that. I am, however, advocating stopping scrobbling & otherwise adding data to the site rather than deleting your accounts. (Sorry Lastfm, I realize it's not you but your new owners)

·····

I have to pay to listen to my own library; I contributed that data for free. Not only that, but I'm asked to pay in one of the "Big 3" currencies, after I was told that money from my country would remain in my country, to cover its own costs. Last I checked, my country's currency was not EUR, GBP, or USD, nor does it have the same value, nor does my country have the same fees as other countries. Canada (SOCAN) said:
On-Demand Streaming: Monthly fee: 6.8% of amount paid by subscriber; Minimum fee: 43.3 cents per month, per subscriber. (CAN $) I hope my $5.34CAN (£3) covers that. Something doesn't add up, but like I said earlier, I'm sure there's a believable explanation.

[Edit] I'm enjoying this thread & all the varying opinions & reactions. I find this all quite interesting.

MAOraNza said:
First Pandora, now Last.FM... C'mon people take a break!Totally different news to Pandora, imo. With Pandora, everyone outside the US was cut adrift with no way of ever listening again - totally heartbreaking.

With Last.fm, nobody is being cut off. Users are being asked whether they want to pay a modest sum to keep their service. It's your choice. You have a choice. Completely different to Pandora.

Currently you need a credit card (or debit card in many countries) or a Paypal account to subscribe.

That's the only thing which give me a bad taste about the change. They should add other payment options pretty fast so most who want to be a subscriber actually can become one.

StudleyUK said:
Totally different news to Pandora, imo. With Pandora, everyone outside the US was cut adrift with no way of ever listening again
No way of ever listening again? Really?
Dear Pandora Visitor, We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandorahttp://www.pandora.com/restricted

I could use proxy or some other method to continue listening Last.fm but I've chosen not to do so.

Yes, we have a choice - which we are forced to make. I've chosen to look for free alternatives and I'm chosen to use Last.fm recommendations, charts, biographies, etc. - for free.

maz35 said:
But I'd love to have the option to pay a small fee to have access to pandora again even if people in the us didn't have to pay for it..Same here, that's kind of what I meant (i may have got carried away by using words like "ever again"). Much better to have the option to pay for a service you love, rather than having the service taken away altogether.

DFA1979 said:
As far as I'm aware, nothing changes then either - everything should work exactly the same, regardless of when your subscription started.Hello again DFA1979 and any Last.fm staffers that may catch this at some point. I located an earlier post (from an earlier thread mentioning the official announcement), regarding differences in subscription service (benefits) based on location. I unfortunately require a bit more clarification on the subject after reading the Staff response contained inside this post. It leaves me a bit confused, after pairing it with your response here. I have searched for an hour or more and I remain unable to find mention of how Subscriber/user playlists and the ability to edit and play them will change. In your previous response, you began with, "As far as I am aware..." But it would be nice to get a more solid response, as this will involve people, like myself, spending money on the service you represent. I will paste-in the portion of the post that left me confused. If you would be so kind as to elaborate on the point mentioned below, I would be most grateful.

Russ said: intraordinaire said:
I really hope I'm misunderstanding this sentence. Do you mean, we future paying users will still get less features than freeloaders from the UK US and Germany?
So we don't even get an improvement from paying? What the hell!?
You're not misunderstanding it - this is unfortunately correct. On-demand listening is a licensing minefield and we don't have the capability to support it outside UK/DE/US at the moment.What exactly does Staffer Russ mean by "On-demand listening" and what are these indirect mentions of differences in listening experience based on location actually equating to? This is VERY important information that should be presented to us in a clear layman's terms manner before we subscribers, outside the unaffected zones, prolong our subscription with Last.fm.

Thanks for any good information you can provide to this long-time subscriber.

Jason

Jason,

The 'on-demand' listening available in the three countries is still in beta. It was originally meant to be a test to see how it went before introducing an additional, higher subscription, which would have been available to all. It was the labels pushing it - they wanted a way to earn more money from the site, Warners especially (that's why Warners pulled their music from Last.fm, they were pissed off because Last.fm didn't introduce that higher subscription immediately, the way Warners wanted it). Whether the test is still going on, or whether it's in its last days, we don't know. Maybe they will still introduce a new, higher subscription for unlimited on-demand listening, who knows. I'd be interested in staff response on this too.

(btw - I'm pretty sure we alluded to this earlier on in this thread. I know I did).

Babs_05 said: Jason, The 'on-demand' listening available in the three countries is still in beta. It was originally meant to be a test to see how it went before introducing an additional, higher subscription, which would have been available to all. Aha. OK, I see. Sorry we here in Sweden will not be able to take part in the fun, but I think understand now. Thank you for the response.

DFA1979 said:
jasound said:
What exactly does Staffer Russ mean by "On-demand listening" and what are these indirect mentions of differences in listening experience based on location actually equating to? This is VERY important information that should be presented to us in a clear layman's terms manner before we subscribers, outside the unaffected zones, prolong our subscription with Last.fm.'On-demand listening' is when you're able to listen to a specific song, when you want (i.e. not as part of a radio station/playlist/etc, you can just go to the track's page, hit play, and hear that song in full immediately). Some tracks are like that worldwide, generally by independant artists. But there are also quite a lot of tracks available in that way from major labels (with a '3 listens per user' restriction), but they're only available 'on-demand' within the UK, US & Germany (and are not related to subscriptions). The lack of being able to listen to those tracks whenever you want is the only location-based difference that should exist for subscribers. (And the subscription itself doesn't differ at all, as that feature's available to non-subscribers in UK/US/DE, but licenses haven't been sorted out to offer it elsewhere)OK, this is exactly what I was looking for to put the dots together. I see now. This On-demand feature will be a future alternative for those living in the unaffected zones. I completely understand. Again, sorry that we will not be able to have these nice options, but I am very grateful for the services already provided under the 'normal' subscription terms. I completely understand the licensing restrictions and the "minefield" Russ refers to in his response in my post above. I do not understand why more do not understand that there is not a world law governing copyright control and licensing globally. It makes perfect sense that eventually things would become difficult monetarily speaking. I am just happy to be able to contribute to the services I already use almost daily. I almost never have to queue music into my players due to the fine radio features offered to Subscribers here on Last.fm. This is worth every euro one has to pay. You are definitely not asking much for the great options available here. Thanks for the clarification. I'll definitely be renewing my subscription under the "new" monthly terms when the time comes. It is worth it!

Jason

maz35 said:
They haven't explicitly said so but I hold onto the belief that the same applies to last.fm and that if they found they could change back to free for all in future they would.

I don't know anything about how Pandora works but as far as last.fm is concerned, I doubt that they will go back on their decision. SInce there is now less incentive for people from outside the big 3 countries to join last.fm, it would be more difficult for last.fm to expand back into those markets in the future than it is now.

If their plan works, they'll probably end up getting rid of users from other countries, because that would mean a lot less hassle with negotiating licenses.

This really sucks! Once you've used us to create your database and all the information on groups, then you make us pay to continue listening to our music. Hope nobody gets a suscription and you finally have to close down. I won't pay a single cent. I'm sure other sites will copy you and lastfmers swap away from here. vanvic68 (Spain)

To music lovers try www.rockolafm.com. It's not the same but it can work.