Last.FM's Free On-Demand Music Boosts CD and Download Sales

posted by soulxtc in music // 30 days 10 hours 22 minutes ago

Claims that CD and download sales through its partnership with Amazon has increased by 119%.

Back in January I wrote about how Last.FM had changed to begin offering music streaming on-demand instead of by keyword or genre. Up to three times a day users of the site are allowed to listen to a specific track of their choosing. This is in contrast to the previous site format where you could only listen to music by artist or genre.

When users select a track to stream there also appears affiliate links on the site's music players which allow users to click through from any song they're listening to and buy individual tracks or full albums from any of those partners. 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.

Since the change in format the partnership has had some interesting results, most notably that it has led to a 119% overall increase in CD and download sales. Among users registered prior to the launch of the on-demand service was a 66% increase in music purchases.

Martin Stiksel, Last.fm Co-Founder, says that these figures demonstrate that giving users access to free on-demand music encourages physical purchases.

He comments:

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.

Since the launching of free on-demand music back in January Last.fm claims to have become the fastest growing free music Web site in the U.S and I wouldn't doubt it. Last.fm was already pretty popular before and I'm sure allowing people to choose specific songs to stream only helped increase their following.

The fact that Last.fm's on-demand streaming seems to have had a positive effect on music sales also comes at no surprise. Many in the file-sharing community have said for years that the number one reason why they download some albums is because they simply don't have access to them otherwise. They have no means to listen to a track or two before they buy them nor in some case are they even available for purchase due to physical or geographical limitations.

Now if only Last.fm would start offering free ad-supported music downloads.