The Social

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 from their music," Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel said in a release Wednesday. "The young musician making music in a bedroom studio has the same chance as the latest major label signing to use Last.fm to build an audience and get rewarded.

It's also an incentive for them to promote Last.fm as a promotional hub for their music, potentially eating into a market dominated by News Corp's MySpace.

Disclaimer: Last.fm is owned by CBS Interactive, which also owns CNET News.

(Credit: Radiohead)

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 longer available for free and had not been turned into a free stream anywhere on the Web. The band had originally opted to distribute it through its own Web site.

But these "digital release" announcements, where an artist that already has a decent fan base teams up with a digital music service, are growing more and more popular. R.E.M. debuted its most recent album, Accelerate, as an ad-supported stream on iLike in February; and in May, Imeem debuted Anywhere I Lay My Head, the album by actress Scarlett Johansson.

It's probably a win-win situation for both the site doing the promotion and for the album: the artist gets extra publicity, especially if accessing the streaming file requires joining a mailing list or signing up as a "fan," and the site gets some buzz from new visitors who may be fans of the band but haven't heard of the site. Assuming neither party paid an arm and a leg to get the promotion in place, it's a cheap way to promote an upcoming album even as the concept of "albums" grows increasingly antiquated.

AOL and Yahoo have done this for years with pre-release "listening parties" and exclusive tracks, but because sites like Last.fm and iLike use developer platform access to tap into the social-networking audiences of Facebook-MySpace-Bebo-ad-nauseam, they can reach a more distributed network of music enthusiasts. And bigger digital-music players are doing it too, with iTunes and MySpace debuts (not to mention exclusive songs) already industry mainstays.

That said, it's only a matter of time before this sort of promotion is so commonplace that it's no longer newsworthy--remember when we all wrote breathlessly about every big Web company's foray into Facebook applications?

Disclaimer: Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes News.com.

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 music catalog, as we work towards Last.fm becoming the only place you need to go to for all music-related content," co-founder Martin Stiksel said in a statement, "and this deal marks the first step towards that goal." Rival Imeem, a start-up that focuses more on playlist creation than music discovery and which pulls in either comparable or greater traffic than Last.fm depending on which metrics source is used, has also been inking video deals, and the far bigger MySpace offers music videos on its MySpaceTV player.

However, the Universal Music announcement comes just a week after Warner Music Group, another major label, pulled its catalog from Last.fm's music service. CBS Interactive, which acquired Last.fm last year, said that a new contract is under negotiation.

Disclosure: CNET Networks, parent of CNET News.com, is set to become part of Last.fm parent company CBS in an acquisition expected to close in the third quarter.

Last.fm, the music-focused social site , 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 site Stardoll, Wayn.com, as well as CBS properties CBS Television Stations and CBS Affiliates.

Last.fm audio content is already distributed on CBS Radio's online stations. The music service announced earlier this year that it had deals with all the major music labels to offer ad-supported streaming music to its members.

The "In A Box" project follows a distributed model slightly similar to the one that CBS Interactive has adopted for online video with the CBS Audience Network, which makes the company's television and other video content available on partner sites like AOL, Veoh, and now Yahoo TV.

Last.fm is owned by CBS, which is set to acquire CNET News.com parent company CNET Networks in an acquisition expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

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 will also be syndicated across the "CBS Audience Network" of content partners.

A number of social-networking sites have ventured successfully and semi-successfully into pop-culture content: News Corp.'s MySpace.com, which rose to fame as a promotional tool for independent artists, has launched a number of video shows, entertainment programming, and a live concert series as well as an ad-supported music service that will likely compete directly with the one Last.fm announced earlier this year.

Several smaller social-media sites also have begun to expand into original content with the aim of seizing the digital age's equivalent of the pop-culture niche that was occupied by MTV before the rise of the Web. Streaming media site Imeem has started to syndicate video content from partner companies, and Buzznet has acquired a handful of influential music blogs to beef up its editorial offerings.

Last.fm, still headquartered in London, continues to expand--one might say it's moving into MySpace territory. It promoted a number of concerts in the U.K. last year and plans to back new events in the U.S. and Europe soon. Earlier this week, CBS announced that Last.fm would be powering AOL Radio's online stations in Europe.

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 what we hope to be many collaborations (with) CBS Radio," streaming versions of all the company's radio stations--including New York's WCBS, Los Angeles' KROQ, and Chicago's WXRT--will be available on Last.fm. In return, listeners using CBS Radio's player on the Web will be able to listen to full songs on Last.fm. The partnership is a simple one: basically, it's designed to create crossover and brand awareness between the two CBS divisions.

CBS Radio's 140-plus radio stations are now in the process of being introduced to Last.fm in a "staggered rollout." In addition to music, news, talk, and sports stations will also be available on the social network.

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 a social network--and would additionally help it compete with bigger rival MySpace.com, which has a service called MySpace Music in the works and has the big-media backing of parent company News Corp. to give it an extra push in the entertainment industry. For the labels, selling music on already-popular social-networking sites is a way to tap into a youth market that has been abandoning CDs.

But it wouldn't necessarily be a good thing for companies that have built music-related applications on Facebook's developer platform. Some of them, like iLike, Imeem, and CBS Interactive's Last.fm, have ad-supported streaming or paid downloads already tied into those developer applications and it's unclear what would happen if Facebook creates an in-house competitor.

The Financial Times article suggests that like MySpace Music, the shadowy Facebook music initiative would likely offer both streaming music and downloads. "While details remain vague, record executives said that they expected a service would offer consumers free streams of music, supported by advertising, as well as the ability to pay for downloads in MP3 format, which can be played on any device," the Financial Times article stated.

The logo for the 'Music on Facebook' page. But right now, it offers artist resources for 'fan page' creation, not streaming music or downloads.

But this all might take awhile. "Facebook Music" is something that has been talked about for months and so far has borne no fruit. Back in October, AllFacebook blogger Nick O'Neill said that he was familiar with someone interviewing for the position as head of Facebook's "music division" and that the social network was already in negotiations with record labels.

But rumors of a full-out Facebook music service grew muddled with early reports about the site's "fan pages," which Facebook encourages bands and artists to create as promotional tools. A Wired blog report about Warner Bros. looking for a Facebook application developer likely dealt with the creation of fan pages and surrounding applications, not an iTunes-like music service as blogger Eliot van Buskirk speculated.

Facebook's "fan pages" launched in November as part of the company's new social advertising strategy. Since then, the company has created "Facebook Music" and "Facebook Film" hubs to promote the creation of those fan pages and offer tools to musicians and filmmakers who want to build a presence on Facebook. And at this month's South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, Facebook will be throwing parties and developer events not only at the geek-saturated South by Southwest Interactive division but also for the indie confab's music and film festivals.

Facebook representatives have stressed that the music and film pages are strictly tied to the fan pages, not any kind of upcoming commerce.

"Facebook did not launch any new music or film products in recent weeks," the company said in a statement responding to a request for comment. Facebook "created informational pages called 'Music on Facebook' and 'Film on Facebook' as guides and resources for musicians, bands and filmmakers wanting to create their own Facebook Pages. The ability for musicians, bands and filmmakers to create Facebook Pages has been available since the launch of the Facebook Pages product on Nov. 6."

The company also highlighted the fact that it does not have a partnership or formal agreement with iTunes and that any links between Facebook and iTunes are on behalf of developers who have integrated them into their third-party applications.

Clearly, Facebook wants to make a play for pop culture, but these latest rumors about big agreements with the record labels aren't much more substantial than the ones we read five months ago.

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 with all four major music labels, the social music service now allows users to stream a song three times for free before being given the option to purchase the song at a number of digital music stores.

Actual traffic to Last.fm hasn't jumped quite so much: CBS reports 27 percent more unique visitors and 45 percent more page views over the same time period. That suggests that existing Last.fm visitors are indeed tuning into the new music offering, but that it might not be boosting membership numbers quite yet. Claiming early success, however, is important PR for CBS: many have lost faith in ad-supported streaming music. Once hyped as the solution to both peer-to-peer piracy and the iTunes monopoly, enthusiasm has faded as start-ups like SpiralFrog have made disappointing debuts.

CBS executives have remained optimistic, suggesting that big-media muscle may be the secret to making free streaming music work online.

It's no secret: ad-supported streaming music, held up as an alternative to both paid downloads and free-for-all piracy, has hit some twists and snags. A number of well-funded start-ups, like SpiralFrog, dove into the space and few have emerged intact. Only one, Imeem, can really claim to be a success--it has licensing deals with all four major music labels--but it's still been criticized for a tepid user experience.

So it was a bit of a surprise when CBS' big announcement about Last.fm, the music-based social network it purchased last year, was the launch of a free, ad-supported streaming music service.

Previously, most music content on Last.fm had been limited to 30-second clips.

According to Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive (the CBS division that owns Last.fm), big media companies may be the key to making ad-supported music a success. "Only media can bring those kinds of sponsorship relationships," he said in an interview with CNET News.com, adding that broadband penetration has reached a point where streaming music is legitimately viable.

With the new on-demand music program from Last.fm, which launched Wednesday in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, CBS has all the majors on board as well as over 150,000 independent labels and artists. Additionally, it has an "artist royalty" program so that unsigned artists who upload their music to Last.fm will receive a cut of the ad revenue when a track is played.

Smith said that Last.fm's music recommendation and "scrobbling" engine may also give it an advantage in the ad-supported music space, because that data can potentially help advertisers choose where to place their ads. "You've got targetability," he said, "and not in a freaky, invasion-of-privacy way." Presumably, that could lead to better advertiser confidence and higher click-through rates. People who listen to a lot of pop, for example, could see ads for Justin Timberlake concert tickets; country fans could be served up Nascar ads, or movie soundtrack fans could see ads for the latest blockbusters.

But targeted advertising, like many of the other developments that CBS Interactive plans with Last.fm, hasn't been rolled out yet. "We wanted to make sure we got that announcement out there to the consumers first," Smith explained. Later, we'll start to see some of the projects that were rumored yesterday, when it became evident that Last.fm was making a big announcement--including, perhaps, a video-related service.

"We certainly own (the domain) Last.tv," Smith said.

But even an established media powerhouse like CBS hasn't been able to completely nail down the model. Last.fm's streaming service has already gained a bit of criticism because tracks can only be streamed three times--after that, the user is given the option to buy the track from a Last.fm retail affiliate partner like iTunes or Amazon MP3. When asked about this, Smith said that the three-song limit wasn't CBS' choice.

"It was a joint decision from all parties involved," he elaborated. "You've got to do the baby-step thing with these guys."