Last.fm: CBS’s Attempt to Reap Benefits of Indie Scene?
Anyone who has known me for any period of time knows that my distrust of big business is extreme enough to spawn several complex conspiracy theories. My comments here are not to be taken as complete fact but as the byproduct of an extremely socio-critical noggin.
That said, I admit that I’ve known about the CBS purchase of Last.fm for quite some time now. I admit that I’ve been using the service with great frequency. But something recently has slowed down my desire to use it (besides the program causing my computer to crash a couple of times).
Mates of State Rock Out with AT&T—Wireless!
Okay, I think you get an idea of where I’m going now. Indie music and culture are becoming increasingly gobbled up by large corporate machines. Of course, they wouldn’t be able to use artists in this way if the artists didn’t agree to it in the first place, which is also kind of disappointing. “Why not shut up and let them live happily in wealth?” For any art to be lasting, it will be free of a system which uses it solely to reap profits for a corporation. “Lasting” meaning lasting over a long, extended period of time. That which is sold for months and then put on sale to make shelf room for the new cultural craze becomes buried in the shuffle; this isn’t always the case, but in terms of previous history (i.e. Roman culture), cultural treasures that were free from “profit-driven buzz” remained intact to inform later culture.
My anger, I suppose, comes from the feeling that no matter what I hold dear and authentic, the influence of this capitalistic/consumer society will ultimately taint it.
So, how does Last.fm fit into all of this? Last.fm is a “social music revolution.” A plug-in tracks the songs you play on iTunes, reports it to the website, and then the website creates a music profile based on your listening habits. It compares your musical tastes with users who listen to similar artists, and it recommends new bands to you.
When CBS purchased this site for a reported 280 million dollars, surely they thought there would be some huge pay-off. Corporations don’t just fling millions of dollars around (Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it). So my logic is this: the music industry is doing a good enough job pimping Mims and Rihanna to middle schoolers. Why would CBS want this website? For the advertising money the site produces? Nah. And users don’t pay for monthly account use. It seems only natural that the site will be mined for the listening data of the users. Stats are updated regularly, and I’m sure the CBS camp has their own program that interprets the received data.
What will they do with this data? In thinking about how business has developed over the course of the 20th century, I believe the information they collect will be used not only by CBS but sold (not individual data, but re-interpreted overall stats) to interested third parties. Business helps business. Used to be that this happened for free. Now help comes at a price, certainly. Who will they sell information to? I don’t know. Maybe Apple, M&M’s, Outback Steakhouse, etc. etc. etc.
Anyway, that’s all. I’m debating whether to delete my account (I realize one person deleting an account isn’t going to do shit) or keep it running. How can I support something that I’m bothered by? I’m considering using Last.fm for its “similar artist” feature and not reporting my listening data back to the site. I’ve been getting most of my music recs from blogs recently, though many of these blogs—surprise—use Last.fm to discover new material.
Sigh. If only I were a trust fund baby, I would have the time and the funds to organize a “drop Last.fm” campaign. If we all banned together, we could ruin that million dollar investment.
In my dreams.
December 16, 2007 at 11:36 am
Why is it that people instantly distrust large organisations? I’m a big fan of Last.Fm, and I haven’t seen anything to suggest CBS are abusing Last.Fm users. Websites to do not run on fresh air and the founders had to beg, borrow and steal (they didn’t start out with the correct broadcasting licenses) to keep the site running.
At the end of the day, the only info they collect is Track, Artist & Album name. I’m all for anyone knowing that information. Maybe CBS or any other organisation might realise that we don’t all want to be fed manufactured pop and that we actually have quite a diverse taste in music. The talk at the time of the CBS sale was that the commodity that CBS were most after was the intellectual property of the whole recommendation based on listening habits system and were in fact happy for Last.fm to carry on growing.
At the end of the day if Last.Fm wouldn’t of secured the investment, they would probably have been gobbled up by what is becoming a very competitive sector within the internet. 2 years ago they had 7 staff, they now have 75.
Of course it’s up to you, but I would personally wait for some evidence that the site is abusing your trust, rather than assuming that they will. It would be a shame to lose the use of the site, on the back of that.
Sorry for the rant on my first visit to your blog.
December 16, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I appreciate your comment… no need to be sorry about ranting…I’m glad someone wanted to take time to rant about something I wrote/brought up.
I, too, love Last.fm. I was a member of Audioscrobbler when it first started up, and I’ve seen the site go under all its changes since then.
So, I went snooping around the developer’s site to see what policies they have concerning user information, and this is what I’ve found:
Licensing
All web services here are for non-commercial use only under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. If you want to use these services in a commercial context you must contact partners at last dot fm first to get a seperate license.
If the data you are using was generated directly by you (ie. it is your profile data, recent tracks etc) then you can do whatever you want with it. Don’t worry about any licensing restrictions.
If the data was generated by Last.fm, or other users of the site, then you must abide by the CC license above (or a commercial license from us).
(source: http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices/)
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So, they are leaving the door open, at least, for other interested parties to make use of the data. And the “commercial license” comes at a price, probably. I mean, the e-mail address to contact is entitled “partners.”
I know this doesn’t mean they ARE using my data (and if they did, it would be factored into everyone else’s data as well, so I know my information would just be one little piece of info among many). How would I ever get evidence that they WERE using my data? All I personally can do is *prevent* that use.
Money talks when corporations are at play. They don’t keep an amazing website alive just because it’s amazing. Profit must be an issue; if it isn’t… who is the person taking care of their business, what are they thinking?
December 16, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Thanks for the reply, you’ve obviously done a little more digging that I have on the subject. It would be interesting to see exactly what Last.Fm would be prepared to license as they naturally have to look after their brand as well as try to monetize the site. There is a big difference between offering chart stats to a music magazine and selling consumer info to marketing companies. I guess ultimately it boils down to whether you have an issue about supplying people with your personal consumption data.
Every single day when people purchase things whether it be local groceries or property, consumer behaviour data is collected. Even the local farmer collects data on what sells and what doesn’t and in what price range. In my view the collection and subsequent use of such data can only be a good thing, in that the seller should then offer products which both you and I desire. In contrast and to illustrate you could look at the Communist way of doing things where the powers that be dictate what people can have in their lives. (This discussion has made me remember a post I wrote some time ago)
As I touched on before I have no problem with anyone having my Last.Fm data. If that means CBS or anyone else for that matter stocks,sells,invests or whatever else in music I like, rather than don’t like, then that’s fine by me.
As a final point, I agree that money talks when corporations are at play. I was just saying that a lot of reports where saying that they bought Last.Fm for the people and the ideas, as they possibly see that user driven media is the next big thing. I don’t think they would allow Last.Fm to hemorrhage money or anything, but I think as long as it toodles along being self sufficient they might not interfere too much. After all so far they have left all the staff in place and haven’t insisted they move HQ or anything like that.