Album and Track Purchases by Users of Social Music Network Grow 119% After
Launch of Free-On-Demand Service
NEW YORK and LONDON, April 9 -- Last.fm announced today
that its free-on-demand music service has had a direct and positive impact
on the music purchases of its users. Since the service launched in January,
overall CD and download sales through Last.fm's partnership with Amazon.com
have experienced a 119% increase.
Alongside an increase in visitors to Last.fm -- which has seen the
community grow massively since the site started offering free access to its
music catalogue in January -- this boost is also fueled by existing users
purchasing 66% more albums and tracks than they did prior to the launch of
free-on-demand.
According to Martin Stiksel, Last.fm Co-Founder, this demonstrates that
giving users free access to streaming songs encourages music purchasing.
"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."
Last.fm has affiliate deals with partners including iTunes, Amazon and
7Digital, allowing users to buy CDs and downloads from a catalogue that
includes all four major labels and thousands of independent labels and
artists. Affiliate links on the site's music players allow users to click
through from any song they're listening to and buy individual tracks or
full albums from any of those partners.
Since launching free-on-demand in January -- a service which currently
offers free access to over five million tracks for full-length streaming --
Last.fm has become the fastest growing free music Web site in the U.S.
About Last.fm
Founded in 2002, Last.fm is the largest global free music platform on
the Web. Last.fm can offer music fans millions of tracks in every genre for
free- on-demand streaming thanks to partnerships with Universal, EMI,
Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, CD Baby, independent aggregators The Orchard
and IODA, and more than 150,000 independent artists and labels -- without
the need to sign up or download any software. As well as being able to
access tracks for free - - a service which has seen Last.fm become the
fastest-growing free online music network in the U.S. -- music fans can
also share their music preferences by linking their media player to the
Last.fm database. As a result, Last.fm can intelligently recommend songs,
artists, local concerts and even other members based on their musical
tastes. Last.fm also supports unsigned artists by offering them an
unprecedented Artist Royalty program through which they can earn revenue
directly from Last.fm every time their music is streamed. Learn more about
Last.fm at http://www.last.fm.
