Last.fm will create content communities

During his speech at CBS-Last.fm, CBS President and General Manager Leslie Moonves said the company was about to start a “content community.” “In such communities, the future of our business,” he said.

Sounds interesting. But what does all this mean?
')
First, some additional information: last May, CBS acquired a Last.fm site for $ 280 million, where users can listen to any song for free. Well, almost free. The site exists due to the abundance of advertising on it.

This site, which is called the “world's largest music library”, is captivating by the fact that 4 well-known music labels work together with it, as well as another 150,000 independent members who post songs and whole albums. Thanks to this, on the site you can find approximately 3.5 million songs from Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, which are paid for by advertising revenue.

The site is also open to unregistered music groups that can profit from ads attached to their songs.

Everything is too good to be true: music lovers just go to Last.fm, the number of users of which reaches about 15 million people from more than 200 countries and listen to music. The site is well known for its mechanism of recommendation of songs, through which you can track the preferences of listeners and combine them together. Looking for a singer, listening to a song and simultaneously watching a small commercial. The site does not even need to register if you do not want.

Users can listen to any song three times before being sent to one of Last.fm's partners, including iTunes, Amazon and 7Digital, from which the user can buy the track. You can’t download tracks on Last.fm, so listeners will not be able to download songs to the player.

The CBS / Last.fm method of operation is no longer new. RealNetworks launched a similar service about three years ago, and users could listen to 25 songs a month for free. In 2006, Napster allowed users to listen to 5 songs for free, and then asked to pay for the service with a credit card. Spiral Frog, working with Peter Gabriel, imeem and others also offer similar services.

However, with all these services, listening to songs online was limited.

Let's return to the idea of ​​unification. What is so special about this almost free service to listen to songs online in addition to the strong support from advertisers and major and lesser-known record companies?

Moonves said: "In such communities, the future of our business."

Among the “content-uniting” projects of CBS, there are television shows on CBS, The CW and Showtime, films from Paramount and other companies, CBS Radio, CBS Interactive and even a book publisher. And do not forget: next month, CBS will broadcast the Grammy Awards ceremony, the musical equivalent of the Oscars.

It’s safe to say that all the songs on Last.fm will be connected with each other, which will help CBS to unite people in musical tastes.

The more people come to Last.fm to listen to what song they just played on “CSI: NY”, the more CBS will earn money, and Last.fm will launch commercials.

“This should attract not only listeners, but also large companies,” said IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian in an interview with Wired magazine. “Digital technologies are very promising. The relationship between artists, labels and listeners can be much wider than before. ”