Comments on: Last.FA

By: Jol Dantzig

Jol Dantzig — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:52:30 +0000

Sometimes, I think that the only revolution going on in music is the increasing speed of the corporations to keep up with, and then seduce the “rebels”.

By: Steve Lawson

Steve Lawson — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 22:30:46 +0000

I’ll be leaving my stuff on there – it’s a similar contract to the one that MySpace had up – is there a termination clause that says you can take it down and the contract is terminated? I haven’t been sent any new contract details since the takeover, and I uploaded all my stuff long before CBS got involved… If there is a termination thing in the contract details, they couldn’t possibly use it for anything nefarious, as you’d just terminate the deal, and then sue them for anything ongoing… so it’s just to cover them when someone embeds a playlist into their blog and one of your tracks is on it (tracks that you’ve selected to be playable in such a way, BTW), you can sue last.fm for airplay royalties. Which, to me, is fine… :o)

Sxx

By: Andy_D

Andy_D — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:27:00 +0000

Although I have no music on there at present I have been sharing my preferences for some time now. I wonder how they use the data – seriously thinking of pulling the plug on that!

By: Steve Dix

Steve Dix — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:24:16 +0000

It depends what you mean by “related projects” though, doesn’t it?

You’re certainly not giving them the right to use it in a film or on an advert, as those are “synchronization” rights, and they’re not named specifically. They’re just basically trying to cover their arses over allowing people to embed their player in their site, and then you coming after them for royalties.

They’re going to have a hard-enough time defending that as it is…

By: adrian

adrian — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:45:30 +0000

It’s the open-endedness that worries me, Steve. You’re not simply uploading your music to their website, you’re giving them full rights to use it there and on any related projects. That’s essentially the same deal as I have with Future, except that only applies for 6 months and I get paid for it!

By: Steve Dix

Steve Dix — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:51:09 +0000

…yeeeeess….sooooo?

It’s, as far as I can see, a pretty standard license across a number of platforms, with arse-covering aplenty going on. Let’s face it, you’re essentially doing the same thing when you put your music up for podcast – allowing someone to play it in the hopes that someone may stump up and buy it.

Or is it that you’re afraid CBS will do the internet equivalent of a 3-bolt-neck to Last.fm?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:35:23 +0000

Gah!

Didn’t realise that, I’ll have to pull my ‘hit’ rushing up the Last.FM charts.