Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

[vansmack]

Bummer...I thought he meant The Director.

No "prestigious black icon" for you, then.

i lol'ed.  nice one.

Yes, nearly got me in trouble in my meeting.

[sweetcell]

eh, $3/month is a very fair price.  lest we forget, music isn't free.  providing the last.fm service isn't free either (hell, just think of how much they spent on R&D for that prestigeous black icon!!! )  seriously tho, how is this a dumb idea?

In today's marketplace, how do you not give the users the option of (1) free with ads or (2) paid subscription with no ads?

i'm guessing that some marketing types crunched the numbers and decided there wasn't any/enough money in free-with-ads on mobile and home systems.  or maybe they think mobile and home users are most willing to pay for a subscription, so let's not offer them an option.

[vansmack]

i'm guessing that some marketing types crunched the numbers and decided there wasn't any/enough money in free-with-ads on mobile and home systems.  or maybe they think mobile and home users are most willing to pay for a subscription, so let's not offer them an option.

And I'm telling you that the Marketing types are wrong.  That's why it's a dumb idea.

With everything moving to the cloud, what is the added value of Last.fm any longer?  The only chance they have to is to keep creatures of habit, which you won't do by moving a free service to a paid-only service.

You don't need a marketing degree to figure that out - just common sense. 

[Jaguar]

I said their downloads sound lower; hence, worse; than most other give-away MP3s elsewhere. Almost all in other places are designed to be not quite as good as a purchased product but Last.Fm's are so low that they need adjusted with some sort of software just to play them on your own MP3 player along with other freebie files with the same bit rate or you end up dealing with big differences between songs. Besides, it's up to the bands whether or not they want to give them away for free and the bands don't have any control on the excessive loss via Last.fm. Guess that's why so many are now resorting to other services for distributing free downloads.

Don't get me wrong, Last.fm is providing a decent service (not one I'm 'buying' though) but there's plenty of other options out there that offer the same or similar services and many that give away better sounding MP3s. It's definitely not one of their strong points. Their strong point is showing off to the world what you are listening to and offering a pick and play service much like Pandora, something the RIAA and others tried to stop several years ago. In fact, those type of organizations are probably where most of their profits are going.

[Jaguar]

You don't need a marketing degree to figure that out - just common sense. 

Especially in today's crappy economy!

[sweetcell]

With everything moving to the cloud, what is the added value of Last.fm any longer? 

you don't see the value in last.fm?  a lot of people either lack the knowledge, or the will, to hunt down new music.  it has social networking and music suggestions that users won't get is they go it alone in the cloud.

[vansmack]

With everything moving to the cloud, what is the added value of Last.fm any longer? 

you don't see the value in last.fm? 

I said "added value" and I was referring to the last.fm player.  And no, I don't see the added value of paying $3 a month for last.fm with my entire collection available to me via audiogalaxy, though I do pay the $36 a year for Pandora because I higher bit rate AND no commercials (far be it for me to point out that they also have a free option).  Now that's added value.

[Jaguar]

^ Oh Smackie, never underestimate the "added value" of "a prestigious black icon"!!!

 


You know they aren't offering much else if they have to include such inane filler as a selling point.

Cue some wise-ass (I'm looking at you, NKOTB) with a well placed zinger. 

[Jaguar]

Now this is "added value".

[sweetcell]

though I do pay the $36 a year for Pandora because I higher bit rate AND no commercials

which works out to $3/month...

[walkonby]

i come in here every once in a while, to be entertained.  and i am.  the picture from jaguar was a nice, endearing touch of funny. 

[kosmo vinyl]

kinda bummed on the specs for the Echo phone, no 4G and non dual core processor, the dual screen features look great, but it appears they shorted themselves a bit... Kosmette thought the same as well.

and at&t sticks us on the antrix because it's their exclusive...  bah humbug to two year contracts and exclusive phones :p

[vansmack]

and at&t sticks us on the antrix because it's their exclusive...  bah humbug to two year contracts and exclusive phones :p

I understand that at&t's exclusive on the Atrix is not eternal like the iPhone.  I'm hearing 3-6 months, however, I expect Verizon to be the other carrier with the Atrix (if that helps your decision making).

I agree - stay away from the Echo.  Too much hype, not enough meat.

[vansmack]

which works out to $3/month...

I get that, which is why I used it as my example.  I also noted that there was value add (higher bit rate AND no commercials, but if I didn't want that, Pandora offers a free solution). 

Again, I don't see the value add in taking something I could already do for free (albeit ad supported) and closing it down to $3 a month with no other added advantage, other than commercial free.  I'm on record as saying this is a bad idea for last.fm and I stand by it.  They will change this policy in 3 months...

[ggw]

No comment on Li-Lo's pending felony charges?