23 January 2008, the day Music Economy was redesigned!
Today is a great day for both Music producers and consumers. The CD albums are clearly out fashioned and online music stores cannot (yet) compete with piracy. Well, last.fm brings to the mainstream a concept many are trying to implement (like reverbnation and the Portuguese PalcoPrincipal).
Last.fm announced they will now make full tracks available free for the first 3 times (during the beta) and forever if you subscribe their soon-to-be-announced subscription along with some surprises. And it will come to the Desktop application too! (iTunes be aware!)
The greater news is that artists will be paid directly (as they insisted in highlighting) according to how popular their music is. So after all, they are getting a share of the advertising revenue just like ReverbNation. The difference (and what most astonishes me!) is that they managed to make these deals with the major labels: EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner.
The only not-so-good news is that this is available for US, UK and Germany only! Can’t wait till it comes to Portugal!
JM
Great news.