Last.FM

Back in January, social music service Last.fm announced that it would be launching something called the Artist Royalty Program that allows unsigned artists to reap royalties each time one of their songs is played through the site's ad-supported streaming music feature or Web radio. (They just have to upload their music first.)

On Wednesday, the service announced that the Artist Royalty Program had gone live and that more than 450,000 tracks have been uploaded in conjunction with it.

"We're leveling the playing field by offering them the same opportunities as established bands to make money … Read more

The likes of iTunes, iLike, and Imeem might be making troubled record labels' lives a bit more complicated. But on a brighter note for the music industry, they've also created digital music's ultimate publicity stunt.

A press release came out Wednesday from our sister company Last.fm, touting the fact that Radiohead's landmark album In Rainbows is now available for free streaming on the site.

In Rainbows has been out since October, and it was famously distributed across the Web with a name-your-own-price policy. So it's not exactly the freshest story, though In Rainbows is no … Read more

This post was updated to clarify the size of Imeem compared to Last.fm.

Music videos from Universal Music Group's artists are now available on social music site Last.fm, the companies announced Tuesday.

That will make ad-supported videos from artists like the Killers, Jay-Z, Snow Patrol, and Amy Winehouse available on Last.fm, which already had a partnership to stream Universal's music catalog.

It's the first time Last.fm is bringing music videos to its site, which began offering original video programming last month.

"We want to offer a video library that rivals our unparalleled … Read more

UPDATE:To include CBS statement.

Warner Music Group has pulled its entire catalog from Last.fm, a company spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

Warner Music would not comment on the reason for leaving Last.fm, but the label's departure is certainly a setback for the social-networking site. Warner was the first of the major labels to do a deal with Last.fm.

Last.fm offers an on-demand streaming service that's free to members but has been seriously hamstrung by limits placed on song playback. The site allows users to listen three times to a song. At rival Imeem, users can … Read more

Last.fm, the music-focused social site that CBS Interactive acquired last year, announced Wednesday the launch of a project called "Last.fm In A Box," which distributes the site's ad-supported streaming radio services to partner companies.

Launch partners include a variety of social networks, personalized home page services, and music sites, like the AOL-owned Bebo, Billboard.com, Break Media, subscription service eMusic, Frengo, Gigya, iGoogle, concert promoter Live Nation, Meebo, MP3.com (owned by CNET News.com parent company CNET Networks), Netvibes, Ning, Pageflakes, the News Corp.-owned Photobucket, Piczo, blogging platforms Six Apart and WordPress, teen … Read more

Lala.com has a history of coming up with innovative ideas that don't quite conquer the world. The company is best known for its online used-CD trading service, which is an interesting idea but works well only if you have a large list of CDs available to trade.

It also offers a music "locker" service that allows you to upload your music then listen to it from any computer with an Internet connection...but it only works with MP3 files, so you're out of luck if you've been using (for example) iTunes to rip your … Read more

CBS' $280 million darling Last.fm has unveiled a small, somewhat unexciting portion of its services this morning called "Playground." The space will be a new test bed for works-in-progress features that aren't quite ready for prime time and need a little user testing to work out the kinks. While lacking in eye candy, some of the tools are actually quite useful for music discovery.

Starting today there are three to play with: multi-tag search, artist name variations, and a listing of the tracks that make it the most to the weekly top 10. Of the bunch, … Read more

Last.fm, the social music service that CBS Interactive acquired last year, is venturing into original content for the first time with a new video series called Last.fm Presents.

The series consists of interviews with popular and rising bands and artists; among the first artists featured are techno legend Moby, rising alternative-pop singer Santogold, and popular indie band Spoon. Last.fm has also made a selection of live concert footage available on its site to complement the interviews.

Members can sign on to Last.fm Presents as they would with any other group on the social network. The videos … Read more

Last.fm is a music discovery and listening service owned by CBS Interactive. It's got a wide range of tracks users can listen to and share with others. It also has a handy recommendation engine that will give you a list of artists it thinks you'll like, based your personal favorites. Users can make their own playlists and even share them with friends using the service's widget-making tool or Facebook application.

One of its more helpful services for music junkies is Scrobbling, which tracks the music you're listening to on your computer and sends the information … Read more