Last.FM

Buzz Out Loud 700: Merger-mania!

Yahoo and Microsoft bring Google, AOL, and News Corp. into the ring for a pretty awesome merger-mania that we sincerely hope involves the gratuitous use of Spandex. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday on Pay-per-view! That darned RSA conference continues to scare the sneezes out of us by demonstrating how taking down a national power grid is trivially easy. (Insert nervous giggle here.) We guess it's good to know? Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 667

Yahoo-Microsoft buyout brawl, one-two punch with a swift comeback punch http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9916001-7.html http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9915835-80.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120776803032602423.html… Read more

Does streaming lift music sales?

Free streaming music turns people on to new music and encourages them to buy, says social-networking site Last.fm. In the music industry, this will not come as a huge revelation.

Last.fm, acquired by CBS last May, announced Wednesday that since the company launched its on-demand streaming service two months ago, CD and download sales through its partnership with Amazon.com have more than doubled.

So what does that mean?

Music discovery continues to be one of digital music's greatest vulnerabilities. Nobody has come up with a sure or simple way to help people wade through the millions … Read more

CBS Radio, Last.fm sing a streaming-audio duet

Last.fm, the social music site that CBS Interactive purchased last year, will be seeing closer integration into one of the media conglomerate's other properties very soon. According to a joint announcement Tuesday, Last.fm and CBS Radio will be sharing audio content on the Web to provide online editions of CBS' radio stations to Last.fm users and free streaming music to CBS Radio listeners.

A collaboration with CBS Radio has been rumored since the Last.fm acquisition was first announced last May.

In what Last.fm co-founder and CEO Felix Miller said was "the first of … Read more

Songkick helps you discover new bands and their upcoming shows

If you're a person who loves live music but hates having to keep up on when your favorite bands are coming into town, there's a great new service for you. It's called Songkick, and it's been designed to help you stay on top of upcoming concert dates, as well as discover new music from your existing tastes. It's making a complicated process wonderfully simple, and I expect it to be the next big thing in live music in the same way that Last.fm and Pandora were with prerecorded music tracks.

To figure out what … Read more

SpiralFrog gets loan extension, fortunes still look bleak

SpiralFrog continues to dodge bullets.

The troubled ad-supported music service that has needed loans to keep operating was supposed to pay creditors $7 million by April 19. At least from the outside the situation looked bad because it was only three months ago that SpiralFrog needed a $2 million loan. Where would a start-up that's only been in business for six months get that kind of money?

Turns out, SpiralFrog's managers renegotiated the loan terms and the company now has a year to repay, according to a company spokeswoman.

So SpiralFrog keeps hopping, but for how much longer? … Read more

Rumors of Facebook music service bubbling again

This post was updated at 6:49 a.m. Pacific time to add comment from Facebook.

Facebook may be getting closer to launching a music service that competes with Apple's iTunes, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

Sources told the publication that Facebook has been approaching major record labels about licensing deals so that it can sell music through its Web site.

It's a long-standing rumor that has once again floated to the surface of social-media chatter.

Music sales would provide Facebook with an alternative revenue stream--the site currently relies on advertising, which many have said is precarious for … Read more

New details on MySpace's music play

MySpace Music is the name News Corp. executives are tentatively using for a proposed music service that they are pitching to record executives, two sources told CNET News.com.

The news that News Corp., MySpace's parent company, has approached the four top music labels was first reported over the weekend by the blog PaidContent. Here are a few new details on what News Corp. is running past the music companies.

News Corp. has tested the record industry's interest in a site that would offer music in several different ways, including ad-supported downloads and streaming to PCs, according to … Read more

MySpace's music plan likely to be streaming service

Beware, SpiralFrog and Imeem. A powerful new player is eyeing your ad-supported music turf.

MySpace.com is in talks with the four major record labels about starting a free-to-consumer music service, a source with knowledge of the talks told CNET News.com on Monday night. So far MySpace and the labels are just talking, the source said, but PaidContent, the blog that broke the news, reported that the music companies are being offered an equity stake in the News Corp.-backed start-up.

A MySpace spokeswoman declined to comment Monday evening.

There are conflicting reports about whether the new music service … Read more

CBS reports early success with Last.fm music streaming

Fresh off launching an ad-supported streaming music service for its Last.fm property, CBS Interactive is already touting success.

According to a release from CBS on Friday, there were 85 percent more unique listeners on Last.fm on Wednesday, January 23--the day that CBS Corporation and Last.fm announced the service--than there had been on the previous Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, saw an 80 percent increase from the previous Thursday, which CBS took as evidence that it wasn't just a single-day phenomenon.

Last.fm had previously offered streaming music primarily in 30-second clips. But thanks to licensing agreements … Read more