Last.fm, music labels launch free music on-demand

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Last.fm, the social music network owned by CBS Corp, said on Wednesday it is introducing a free service for fans to listen to their favorite songs on-demand.

The new service is being launched in partnership with the four major music companies, as well as over 150,000 labels and artists.

When fans in the United States, Britain and Germany search for an artist on the Last.fm Web site, they can now stream the artist's song for nothing or pay to download an MP3 version of the song via Amazon.com

Last.fm said the streaming service is funded by advertising revenue, which is shared with the music companies.

The move comes nearly six years after Last.fm first started reaching out to music companies to license songs to stream on its site.

"They wouldn't even take our calls back then," said Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel.

"But our motto to always do the right thing by respecting artist copyright has helped us in our discussions," he said.

A source familiar with one music label's dealings with the network said because Last.fm is now backed by a major media company like CBS, it gave it a "leg-up" in discussions, compared with other start-up digital music companies. CBS paid $280 million for Last.fm last May.