I’ve been brooding a while over Last.fm’s decision to stop providing a free radio service for users outside of the U.S., U.K. and Germany. Apparently, they think alienating their most dedicated users is a risk worth taking. I beg to differ.
I am a user from The Netherlands, and I have been a very enthusiastic and active user of the site since January 2006. Count ‘em, that’s more than three years. Last.fm went live somewhere in early 2005, I recall, correct me if I am wrong. I have been one of their most loyal costumers. In total, I have spent many, many hours (too many actually from any perspective) on tagging music, creating new radio stations and even recommending Last.fm to friends a lot. Just check here for a list of tags I created: http://www.last.fm/user/uncle_aubrey/library/tags?view=list&sortOrder=desc&sortBy=taggedcount
To say I feel cheated is putting it mildly. They already took the playlist function away from me a year or so ago, without any regard to how much I used it. I used it a lot, thank you very much. Thanks for never warning me about that genius marketing tactic.
So now they even took the radio function away from me. I will never pay for something I expect to get for free, and actually can get free on a million radio station on the web. They will not be scrobbled, but tough luck. It might be an honor thing, but paying $3,00 a month for the radio service is something I will never do. They might as well charge $300,00. All this pushing about how cheap it is misses the point. The amount isn’t the hurdle, the charging is the hurdle, period.
I’ve blogged on Last.fm, reviewed and embedded radio stations on some of my other sites. No more. I’m even tempted to delete all my tags if this was something easily done, because I now feel cheated into working for them for free. I can’t use the radio anymore, so why should I contribute anything?
I find that I hardly visit the site anymore. I’ve gone back to using Last.fm for what I originally subscribed for: the statistics. At least that is still free. I think Last.fm can count itself lucky that I am such a statistics freak. Even if a similar service pops up somewhere else on the web, Last.fm still represents three years of scrobbling and that is hard to leave behind. But no ad revenue for them from this user: I’d be damned before I give them anything anymore after all they have now denied me. No more recommending, no more tagging and no more reviewing. I’ll contribute nothing more than submitting scrobbles.
Goodbye community, goodbye to the innovative Last.fm that was and the dumb corporation that it has become.
--Aubrey
I am a user from The Netherlands, and I have been a very enthusiastic and active user of the site since January 2006. Count ‘em, that’s more than three years. Last.fm went live somewhere in early 2005, I recall, correct me if I am wrong. I have been one of their most loyal costumers. In total, I have spent many, many hours (too many actually from any perspective) on tagging music, creating new radio stations and even recommending Last.fm to friends a lot. Just check here for a list of tags I created: http://www.last.fm/user/uncle_aubrey/library/tags?view=list&sortOrder=desc&sortBy=taggedcount
To say I feel cheated is putting it mildly. They already took the playlist function away from me a year or so ago, without any regard to how much I used it. I used it a lot, thank you very much. Thanks for never warning me about that genius marketing tactic.
So now they even took the radio function away from me. I will never pay for something I expect to get for free, and actually can get free on a million radio station on the web. They will not be scrobbled, but tough luck. It might be an honor thing, but paying $3,00 a month for the radio service is something I will never do. They might as well charge $300,00. All this pushing about how cheap it is misses the point. The amount isn’t the hurdle, the charging is the hurdle, period.
I’ve blogged on Last.fm, reviewed and embedded radio stations on some of my other sites. No more. I’m even tempted to delete all my tags if this was something easily done, because I now feel cheated into working for them for free. I can’t use the radio anymore, so why should I contribute anything?
I find that I hardly visit the site anymore. I’ve gone back to using Last.fm for what I originally subscribed for: the statistics. At least that is still free. I think Last.fm can count itself lucky that I am such a statistics freak. Even if a similar service pops up somewhere else on the web, Last.fm still represents three years of scrobbling and that is hard to leave behind. But no ad revenue for them from this user: I’d be damned before I give them anything anymore after all they have now denied me. No more recommending, no more tagging and no more reviewing. I’ll contribute nothing more than submitting scrobbles.
Goodbye community, goodbye to the innovative Last.fm that was and the dumb corporation that it has become.
--Aubrey
