Last.fm goes bye bye...

[thelake]

Today we’re announcing an upcoming change to the way Last.fm Radio works in some parts of the world. In the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, nothing will change.

In all other countries, listening to Last.fm Radio will soon require a subscription of €3.00 per month.

http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement

This is the only thing on internet that drives me crazy. Country discrimination!

These are the countries in which we have the most resources to support an ad sales organization, which is how we earn money to pay artists and labels for their music. We are focused on the US, UK, and Germany as key markets, with the help of the CBS Interactive salesforce and our own sales team here in London. Our headquarters are in the UK and we’ve always had a strong presence in DE.

And so we’ve made the decision to focus on these markets for free streaming radio. We are still available worldwide and while listening is subscription, all the other rich content on the site is still free.

Excuse me but even though I pay 3$ per month I can't get the whole service because I'm living outside of US/UK/Germany. So does this mean all the other people will have to pay 3$ per month so the 3 lucky countries can have free services?! That is outrageous.

I hate the "this feature/video/service is not available for your country" message more than anythng else, and now this happens.

Q&A for users outside the US, UK or Germany

Q. When does this go into effect?
A: We are currently planning to switch to subscription radio outside the US, UK, and Germany on Monday, March 30.

Q. What happens if I’m already a subscriber, or I buy a subscription before March 30th?
A. Your subscription will continue to be valid and automatically gain Last.fm Radio functionality after the switch. Existing subscribers don’t need to change anything.

Q. Does this affect listening to previews or full length tracks?
A. No.

Q&A for users in the US, UK or Germany

Q. Will I be affected by the changes to Last.fm Radio?
A. No!

I've been having a constant proxy problem with my desktop player for over 3 days now, maybe it was about this, I'm not sure. But they say it's gonna be officially in service on March 30th. Whatever.

*goes through the comments and chooses good stuff for you*

Just connect through proxy which is located @ those 3 mentioned countries. ftw

Pricey and difficult to establish. Not reliable at the least.

And I'm sorry but what else is out there for free users except for the radio? We can't listen to full tracks and what is the use of scrobbler when I don't have the right to listen to similiar artists/songs as a result of my scrobbling?

Those companies can do so much better with thinking a lot more into it, but limiting the access by country is the easiest and worst way to go. That is exactly why people keep downloading illegaly.