October 21st site update - forthcoming changes for subscribers

ClocklessHours said:
Tecfan said:
weevilwhey said:
said and done : it is *c*h*r*i*s*t*~mas eve & we cherish our belonging to Co-mmunity .*t*We May Never Pass This Way Again

seriously. STFU
You can easily ignore this person's posts. No need to be nasty.

he's been talking non-sense for a year now, I can't take it anymore. perhaps I should have upper-cased stfu? it does look very scary.

acreature said:
pogopatterson said:
55 Playlists, some for myself, the rest to amuse my page visitors. That's hours of effort, a refund will not make up for that.
Just to be clear, your playlists, tags, and loved tracks aren't going anywhere. It's the playability that's going. You'll still be able to view, edit, and create your personalised lists – and as Knapster01's said, we're investigating ways to let you play them on other services. I know it's not as good as the current service, but hopefully it softens the blow.

what's the point of having a playlist if you can't play it? as for new options, why not get rid of the old service AFTER a new one has been found? it feels like we're being left out in the rain with no ride home. suxorz.

WHY would you remove the features that make you GREAT and UNIQUE?

Did you consult with your subscribers BEFORE you made these programming plans? I never received any advisement or consultation.

You will lose a significant portion of your membership.

Jeffrey Barkin
TuneBlendR

Philippe3000 said:
Hey why not just shut the site down completely? Would be less painful than seeing it slowly die by a thousand cuts....
i like this idea! it has something the present arrangement hasn't - integrity. better to have loved and lost, and not to have last at all.

What will happen to playlists btw? A list of tracks that can't be played surely shouldn't be named a playlist, imo.. I hope you will get rid of the entire playlist system to avoid confusion; just export all playlists into tags please

These guys sell ears and eyeballs to advertisers. Subscribers get around that. CBS/LFM would rather have the ad money than the $3 subscription fee.... It is not likely they will have either to sell for very long if their pace keeps up the way it has been... These "updates" are getting rather painful. Update my ass.......

I'm pretty much All Out of Love....

EDIT: *** I am encouraged and pleased that acreature and several other LFM staffers and mods have been candid in their displeasure with the CBS mandated changes. I am hoping that they, along with the LFM community, can move to remedy the situation in some acceptable manner. Workovers, workarounds,-- lots of work needed to be done here before Nov.17th. I am confident that something CAN be done. It may take a few bruised egos and some willingness to compromise to GET it done. Will you help?
*************************************************************************************************************

Why am I "upset" with the "updates" ?

I tag religiously and have over 7000 loved tracks and over 150 playlists- many of which are full at 200 hand-picked tracks. Or ear first, then hand-picked....

I break them into categories like what I like to listen to when I first get up, working, writing, thinking, driving, cooking dinner/ then eating dinner, making love, cleaning the house or working on the cars.

I have Guitar (acoustic separate from electric) Guitar Solo, Guitar Gods, Guitar out the ass, Blues, Bluesrock, Violin (contemporary separate from classical) Classical, New Age, Contemporary Instrumentals, Piano, Piano rock, ROCK, Progressive Rock, Classic Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Mind(messers), Mindracer, Late Sixties, Synthesizer, Dance, Braindance, Trance, Uplifting Trance.

Progressive Trance, Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Progressive Everything else under the sun, Instrumental broken out separately from vocals in every category, Psybient, Psychill, Chillout, Ultimate Chillout, Still Chillin, Chill out the kazoo, and even Anesthesia- which pretty much puts me in a coma in about 20 minutes. Just to name a few that come to mind.

I have listened to every song in its entirety- most several times. Many songs dozens of times- or more.

I have thoroughly enjoyed making the lists and listen to several every day. And I am constantly adding to them.

Last.fm has been my musical guru thanks to the incredible array of artists and the hundreds of people who send me songs all the time. It has been a very pleasurable experience for me.

And you want to just -pop- take all that away?

With the Google Chrome and the LFM extension I can play ANY list- right down the line- in order- now- without touching a thing. As long as we have that, the playlists will still play- even without the randomization bs. If the GC goes- I'm gone- wouldn't be here now if it weren't for GC.

Do not TOUCH my playlists. They are mine...- homegrown and very personal- I love them, obviously. Heck I picked them one at a time- for 14 months- all day every day.

They are not for sale. As a matter of fact they WERE free to all subscribers who knew about them- and a bunch did! I have a constant flow of traffic in and out of my page 24 hours a day. I know because as a subscriber I see the avatars of everyone who dropped by. (I sure wish you would make THAT section larger...) And I made a lot of new friends from all over the world and we exchanged music and ideas frequently.

Life is GOOD! Or was- well, is so far....Quit screwing around with the wonderful things you have in here. Just fix the things that are broken, speed things up a bit- and stay out of our way as we open each new song like a kid on Christmas day.

Please don't do this. THINK about the joy you bring to people all over the world. Find a way to make money off of it- that's fine with me. I'll keep paying. I just re-upped today as a matter of fact- but only for thirty days this time. Not sure I will have anything left to enjoy after Nov. 17th.

NOTHING you could possibly offer me will replace what I have now- thanks to the artists, my friends, my two good ears and Last.fm's incredible library- and the GC upgrade- yep------ that is the ONLY useful upgrade I have gotten here so far- and you guys didn't even do it.

You may think that your computer can replace me and offer what EVERYBODY has compiled in similar lists. But music is personal. If you don't know what I mean by that- do us all a favor and get a job doing something else- like at an AM radio station in the suburbs somewhere that plays top 40 hits.

Stay far away from people who love music more than commercials.

I am one of those people. And I am betting that a HUGE chunk of the so-called 40 million members are also....

**Please do what you can to correct this before the poop hits the fan on Nov.17**

RettAlexis said:
Wow, smart move LastFM, make everyone love you with awesome features for subscribers that we all were willing to pay for and then take it away, pretty much ensuring you'll lose most of your membership.

All this while I had the mistaken impression that Lastfm really cared about us subscribers and offered us all kinds of cool stuff so we'd know we were special. I imagine this is what it feels like when your husband leaves you cos he found someone else, and he takes the house and car, both of which you paid for. and you're left with nothing but a bitter aftertaste.

LastFM you used to be awesome. Now you suck major balls.

Well said my dear.

I think you guys (Last.fm) need to hire someone to re-negotiate with the record labels. Point them to this thread to show there really is a demographic for the kind of service you Provide. Point out that these people would rather stream with subscriptions (which many are already willing to pay for) and this is preferable than them pirating music instead.

Many have already stated they would be willing to pay more for their subscriptions. That's $$$ for the record labels. If they can't understand that then something is being lost in translation.

But I also wonder if it might not be your Parent company stipulating these demands. It basically sounds like someone has said, it's fine if they want to stream internet radio as long as the user doesn't have any say over what bands they get to listen to.

If it is CBS forcing these demands, then really, someone somewhere has deeply misunderstand what Last.fm is about. They have mistaken it for simple internet radio. If it becomes such, the metrics you guys collect does little to benefit users other than the recommended artists page, which I can also get from amazon.com or itunes.

This is only a place they know we will let some steam out, only a handful of moderators and moderating bots check this out. Please make yourselves heard in the right places. If you know any more links or emails please message me or post them in a public way. We can in theory make a change, if not only annoy them a lot like they are annoying us.

CBS LAST.FM customer service email: office@last.fm

CBS Interactive Feedback Form email (just for the annoy factor): http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php

CBS Digital Radio suits (from legal guys to PR guys): mbiemolt@cbs.com ; peter.bowen@cbsradio.com ; wayne.ward@cbsradio.com ; erik.white@cbsradio.com ; tdfrederickson@cbs.com ; nate.azark@cbsradio.com