Wednesday 22 April 2009

And it's gone too!

Decided to spend my birthday afternoon listening to my new Last.fm station. Lots of my favourite songs. Lovely. I was rather puzzled by a new sign about a free subscription. Isn't Last.fm a free service? I thought to myself, but dismissed it, thinking they were referring to the benefits of the paid subscription, which hold no allure for me. About twenty minutes ago, the music died. Puzzled, I clicked around and found this:

. . .listeners to Last.fm Radio outside of the USA, UK and Germany will be asked to subscribe for €3.00 per month, after a 30 track free trial period. In the USA, UK and Germany, where it’s feasible to run an ad-supported radio service, there won’t be any changes. Everything else on Last.fm (scrobbling, recommendations, charts, biographies, events, videos etc.) will remain free in all countries, like it is now.

I didn't get enough time to decide if I liked Last.fm enough to pay nearly $40 a year to listen to it, and frankly, I'm a bit ticked off at being penalized for failing to live in the UK, the US, or Germany.

Happy birthday to me...

13 comments:

Marie said...

Happy birthday, virtual twin. Here's another question, why can't they have an ad-supported radio service anywhere other than the UK, USA and Germany? Seems oddly specific to me. Germany, ads. Austria, NO.

Volly said...

Happy Birthday, Persephone!

Ann ODyne said...

Wishing you many happy returns of the day, and much good music always.
Rock ON!

(Ha! w.v is 'driven' - yeah, an Aries - they don't go to hell when they die cos the devil is scared of 'em)

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

God, doesn't this sort of thing just suck? -- but then again, I suppose in these days where content is so difficult to get people to pay for, they're looking to take in cash where they can. Still damn confusing why the border of the US/Canada suddenly creates the need for cost, or the Germany/Austria etc one does either.

Baffling: sorry you appear to have lost out (again) belated happy birthdays.

I must assume you already view this, but there have been some very fetching pictures on David Tennant Daily recently if that cheers you up...

Persephone said...

Marie's virtual twin? Only if I get an attractive Sims character that looks like you... I rather suspect that their research shows the majority of users in those three countries, making it not worthwhile to pursue elsewhere. Canadians are pretty used to be overlooked and snubbed.

Why, thank you, Volly...

Are you an Aries then, Ann oDyne, because I'm a Taurus through-and-through, which probably means I'm too stubborn to go to hell (although that's failed to save me from Hades).

I've never looked at the David Tennant Daily, Lisa, but there appears to be nothing there I haven't seen. This is because I spend way too much time avoiding what I'm supposed to be doing by looking for DT on the computer...

Jane Henry said...

Belated happies Persephone and a pox on LastFm. I don't know if you got the ecard I sent, it was playing up!

Persephone said...

Thank-you so much for the e-card, Jane/Jules! I just went to check for it and found 3 versions of it plus 2 reminders! (This week has been a tad on the stressful side, sorry!) While the ape-look rather suits DT, I rather preferred him as a bear; what do you think?

Jane Henry said...

Oh sorry you got so many versions! I wasn't sure if it had sent or not... Yes bear, definitely. You didn't get the superman one that Marie got as I didn't have your photo... There was a rather rude one which showed his dangly bits, and I thought, best leave that kind of thing to the imagination! Sorry week been so stressy.xxx

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Ha - I'm not surprised there is nothing you haven't already seen on DT Daily - but it is nice to have it confirmed that it isn't just me who spends ridiculous amounts of time online chasing DT pictures (Sitting Tennant competition? hmmm, I rest my case...)

JoeinVegas said...

But, didn't you just transfer your play list there? sorry.

But I can't see the Dr. Who clips on BBC because I'm not British, so lots of places do that.

Persephone said...

Dear JoeinV, dat's de facts, Jack! I'm now busy transferring my "stuff" to http://www.imeem.com, one of many sites listed in the Last.fm comments field by furious users. Apparently CBS took over Last.fm about the same time they took over Yahoo, bless their navy-blue socks.

I don't get Doctor Who through BBC either; I get it the old-fashioned way --- I have my elder teenaged daughter illegally download it, or look to my trusted list of stealthy YouTube Doctor Who suppliers who leave clues, post the episodes under other names and (if they're smart) remove the episodes before Auntie Beeb finds them. I'm happy to purchased the DVD at the appointed time, but I refuse to forgo the pleasure of dissecting the episodes online with other loo-, uh, enthusiasts...

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

I think you'll find that should have had 'lu-' not 'loo-'. Unless you intended to call us 'loofers' or something...

;)

I'll settle for 'enthusiasts' though!

Persephone said...

I've never seen "loonies" spelled as "lunies", though I know "loony" is a shortening of "lunatic"...