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Last.fm shuts down radio subscription service, keeps Spotify partnership alive

Last.fm shuts down radio subscription service, keeps Spotify partnership alive

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After going paid subscription-only last year, Last.fm announced today that its subscription radio streaming service will no longer be available. The company cites on its blog the music industry's rapid change for the decision, which could be referring to the overwhelming popularity of services like Pandora, Spotify, and Rdio.

Last.fm's radio streaming service never matched the popularity of its competitors, even if it did have a following in countries like Canada and Germany. Killing it could be the best way for the company to focus on one of its original goals: helping people discover new music. In January, Last.fm announced it would let its users listen to any song from its website in Spotify, making it faster and easier for users to browse, listen, and find new music all at once. Piggybacking on Spotify and other services like it could get Last.fm tracks in front of more users and make a bigger impact that the radio streaming service did overall. The company says that this change won't affect the Spotify partnership, and users will still be able to listen to stations on the company's new player.