I just noticed that the Last.fm team has plans to implement a cost to their radio access. Excepting users from USA, UK and Germany, the radio will require a monthly subscription.
A part of me was expecting a similar measure, after they announced their royalty system, which is supposed to give a little cash to artists and bands who uploaded and gave free access to their music through the site, it is planned to be initially implemented in the above mentioned countries, with future plans to expand the service in other places. Well, I think that this new measure pretty much kills the essence of the plan in the near future.

Don’t misunderstand me, my “trouble” (if I can call it like that) with this is not about the latter thing; although I’m a frequent Last.fm user and I have uploaded all my stuff available for listening and free download just like I do it here, my main concern is how the other users will react when they start to charge them for something that was free for quite a long time. Not even mentioning the subscribers who paid to get some extra benefits with their personal experience in the site.

Through all this time, a lot of people have criticized the recent changes in last.fm, from their page redesigns to them being bought by CBS, and the limitation or loss of certain functionalities to interact with other users. The latter is the reason why I slowed down my activity in the various groups that exist there, especially the ones who perform as a link with other DIY artists, A few of whom I have collaborated, learnt new things, and even they have been an inspiration source in all this time.

Last.fm’s destiny appears to be uncertain, and even more if you look at other alternatives like Spotify, which can take advantage of these changes, unless they start to reflect into something positive in the future.