Last.fm delays plans to charge

Postponement after "a lot of feedback"

31 March 2009 12:00 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Last.fm has announced it has "postponed" the date in which it will begin charging users for its radio service, following "a lot of feedback".

The online music site has defended its decision to charge 3 euros a month to those outside the US, UK and Germany in a blog post:

"We simply can't be in every country where our radio service is available selling the ads we need to support the service. The Internet is global, and geographic restrictions seem unfair, but it's a reality we are faced with every day when managing our music licensing partnerships".

The company says it's "listening" and has postponed the date on which radio will become a subscription service and is making improvements too.

The subs fee will be able to be paid with a gift subscription and Last.fm is also looking at pay-by-SMS options for those in far-flung countries.

The company provides no exact timescale for the now-postponed changes saying it will happen as soon as they've implemented the improvements, then:

"Thereafter, radio in the USA, UK and Germany will remain ad-supported, and radio in other countries where it's not feasible to have an ad-supported service will be moving to a subscription service".

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Audio, Software, Internet radios, Websites, Lastfm