So says Last.fm

Since CBS-owned Last.fm re-launched its free ad-supported music service in January, with licenses from all four of the major labels, overall CD and download sales through the site’s partnership with Amazon.com have experienced a 119% increase. The upturn in sales can be accredited to an increase in new visitors as well as existing users who, according to Last.fm, have purchased 66% more music than they did prior to the free-on-demand offering. Last.fm also has affiliate deals with iTunes and 7Digital.

Last.fm’s co-founder, Martin Stiksel said in a written statement: “In just over two months it’s become clear that people will buy CDs and downloads if they get access to the kind of service we offer. No one else can give music fans this amount of music for free — but more importantly also drive their discovery, as we do through our unique recommendation engine. That’s why people are sticking around on Last.fm — minutes spent on site are up 118% month-on-month — and discovering new music to listen to and buy.”

It’s not really all that surprising that an Internet radio type of service is providing leads to music sales — it’s hardly a novel concept. Listen and discover new music for free, then purchase it for repeat listening on any device, including iPods. Not only does Last.fm have better tools for discovery than traditional radio but the site’s restrictions also give a gentle nudge towards purchasing, whereby each track can only be streamed three times for free before you’re redirected to a music store.

Other posts that may be of interest

• CBS, Last.fm create “communities around content”, not just another music streaming site
• Report: Yahoo may be next to offer unprotected MP3s
• Radiohead teams with Last.fm to offer “In Rainbows” for free, on-demand streaming
• Amazon invests in social music site
• eMusic to start selling DRM-free audio books
• Study: P2P downloading leads to more CD sales

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 10:19 am and is filed under Audio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.