(24 January 2008 5:25 pm)

MUMBAI: London-based Last.fm, which works in the area of online music, has launched a service to allow anyone in the world to listen to music on the site for free.

The company says that its library has attracted a community of more than 20 million unique monthly users in 240 countries around the globe. The heart of Last.fm is a recommendation engine that guides listeners to music they are likely to enjoy based on prior selections, connecting them with the music they love and with others who share their tastes.

In launching this service, Last.fm becomes the first music site to offer free, global, on-demand access to the largest licensed catalogue of music built on partnerships with all four major record labels — including Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG, Warner and EMI — as well as CD Baby, IODA, the Orchard, Naxos and more than 150,000 independent labels and artists.

Last.fm’s free-on-demand service will be ad-supported, allowing clients many unique opportunities to reach a highly targeted and engaged audience. The company was acquired by US media cionglomerate CBS last year.

CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves says, "It is clear to us that communities built around great content are increasingly driving traffic and revenue online.

"We acquired Last.fm because music is one of the best ways to build communities on the Internet. Adding such a tremendous collection of content to Last.fm will help it grow by leaps and bounds. The skill set that we’re learning along the way will be very important as we build additional online communities around our other world-class content as well."

Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel said, "We’re giving the listener free access to what is basically the best jukebox in the world. The ability to dip into such a uniquely broad catalogue from your laptop, home or office computer, and listen to whatever you want for free represents a new way of consuming music that in turn might change the way you listen to music. In that respect, nobody else can currently offer what Last.fm is offering right now."

At the same time, Last.fm is launching an "Artist Royalty" arrangement, whereby those artists not signed with a label who choose to upload their music to Last.fm will receive payment, directly from Last.fm, every time one of their tracks is played. This means artists without traditional recording or publishing deals will be able to reach millions of music fans, offer their music for free, while generating revenue.

Last.fm’s other co-founder Felix Miller says, "We’re building a platform to help redesign the music economy, enabling artists and labels to earn revenue according to how people listen, rather than how they buy.

"Now we can offer the arrangement to unsigned music creators too. For the first time, anyone can upload tracks and get paid when those tracks are played. It’s a whole different model — one that benefits the artists, labels and advertisers — but most of all the listeners"

Last.fm is present in the US, UK and Germany. It is scheduled to roll out the free-on-demand service globally in the coming months. All tracks can be streamed for free up to three times each. At that point, the listener has the option to purchase the song for download via any of Last.fm’s affiliate partners including iTunes, Amazon and 7 Digital.