Warner Music Group pulls catalog from Last.fm

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 listen to free streaming music as many times as they want.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Warner Music licensed its music to Last.fm on a month-to-month basis and hasn't renewed it.

"We are currently negotiating a new agreement with Warner Music Group," CBS, which acquired Last.fm a year ago, said in a statement. The network added that it was "working hard to build the most comprehensive music service on the Web."

Note:CBS has agreed to acquire CNET Networks, parent company of News.com.

[coronit]

Last.fm is one of my absolute favourites, however not only because the stream functionallity but for the whole statistics thing.

Still... not good news for Last.fm. I think though a new deal will be made pretty soon. Social music sites can't afford to not cooperate with the big ones.

/Coronit
social-music.info

[benjaminstraight]

It is their choice to pull.