The three founders of Last.fm Richard Jones, Martin Stiksel, and Felix Miller will most likely be leaving CBS by the end of the year. About two years ago, Last.fm was sold to CBS for $280 million. The three founders will be leaving to start another project.
“This is the latest stage in a long journey for us founders, which began in a living room in east London in 2002, and took us to the headquarters of one of the biggest media companies in the world,” stated the founders of Last.fm.
The founders are not planning on any reasons revolving around the acquisition, but more because the website is in great shape. They even said the company may even do better without the “crazy founder dudes hanging around.”
The three co-founders will be stepping down by the end of the month, but will serve as advisors for three months. The three co-founders will also help pick another head for Last.fm. Last.fm has about 37.7 million users.
In the past, TechCrunch had heard rumors accusing either CBS or the Last.fm founders of sending user data to the RIAA. Both CBS and Last.fm had denied those claims.
TechCrunch wrote a post several months ago about whether Last.fm submitted user information to the RIAA. Last.fm denied it. And now a new rumor has came up about how Last.fm’s parent company CBS Corporation sent information to the RIAA by tricking Last.fm. The trick that TechCrunch claimed took place was that CBS told Last.fm that they were planning to use the information for internal uses, but sent it to the RIAA anyway.
The source behind this whole issue is an anonymous individual that spoke directly with Last.fm employees. However Last.fm claims that no one at the company knows anything about a leak of information. “Any request for such data would have to be approved by myself first. The suggestion that CBS’s ops team provided this data is just not possible – Last.fm operates as a separate entity and their operations staff do not have access to our system,” stated Russ Garrett, a developer at Last.fm.
paidContent published a response that CBS has made in relation to the aforementioned controvery:
“Both CBS and the RIAA have already stated quite clearly, for the record, that absolutely no individual user or listener information was supplied to the RIAA by last.fm or any division of CBS Corporation in the past, nor do we plan to do so in the future. The story posted by the website was based on an unnamed tipster. No inquiry was made to CBS or last.fm about the veracity of the anonymous source. Those who consult such blogs should be aware of the standard by which such postings are sourced and published.”
The original source TechCrunch had for the story about Last.fm sending data to the RIAA stated that the employee that leaked the information was fired.
This commercial for Last.fm on the iPhone is currently airing in the U.K. Maybe they are collecting data about who is using this iPhone app and reporting it to the RIAA also.
According to a tip received at TechCrunch, Last.fm handed data over to the RIAA about their users. Erick Schonfeld published an article regarding the tip and it was homepaged on Digg. The rumor was Last.fm handed data to the RIAA so they could find out who listened to the leaked U2 album. Many Last.fm executives denied the allegations in the TechCrunch blog post and Ars Technica even wrote an article that the RIAA didn’t know where that rumor came from.
“When you signup to Last.fm and scrobble what you listen to, you are trusting us with your listening data. We take this very seriously. The old-timers on Last.fm who’ve been with us since the early days can attest to this – we’ve always been very open and transparent about how your data is used. This hasn’t changed,” stated Richard Jones, a founder of Audioscrobbler. Audioscrobbler was merged with Last.fm before it was acquired by CBS Interactive for $280 million. “We never share personally identifiable data such as email and IP addresses. The only type of data we make available to labels and artists, other than what you see on the site, is aggregate data of listeners and number of plays.”
The blog post for Last.fm’s response was “Techcrunch are full of sh**.” It is good to see how quickly Last.fm responded to rumors like that. TechCrunch is often times seen as a credible source for other news outlets to syndicate. TechCrunch could really taint the images of companies, but this time the tables have turned on them.
To learn more about the PR for CBS Interactive, I recommend following Katie Gunion on Twitter.
As the first premium content network to take an open approach to syndication, we are committed to providing our users with the best online viewing experience possible,” stated Anthony Soohoo, SVP and GM of Entertainment at CBS Interactive. “Our new video player platform takes advantage of the new social medium online by combining the most advanced video technology with our expertise in premium content programming to deliver new ways to discover and enjoy entertainment online.”
CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) officially announced yesterday that they are launching a new video player in HD-quality to enhance the user experience on their website. The video player will be launching over the next few months. The video will be able to go full-screen and users can embed the videos in their MySpace, Facebook, blogs, or other websites.
Users will also be able to watch CBS premium content in H.264 standard which is the same standard as Blue-Ray and HD-DVD.
The HD Video Player was developed by the CBS Labs division (http://labs.cbs.com). CBS Labs also has a Social Viewing Room where users can chat about the same videos that they are watching. This makes CBS programming more interactive.
Another feature of CBS Labs is Build.last.fm. CBS acquired Last.fm for $280 million in May 2007. Last.fm is also being used to power CBS Radio. CBS Interactive oversees Interactive properties: CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSNews.com, CBS Mobile, CBS EyeLab, Last.fm, Wallstrip, and MobLogic.tv.
Information Source:
[1] Press Release sent to P2 by CBS Corp. Communications.
“The content and distribution power between these brands is incredible, and we’re tapping into that strength to greatly expand our digital footprints while significantly improving the user experience on all our platforms.” -CEO of Last.fm, Felix Miller
CBS Interactive has found a use for the music social network they acquired last year, Last.fm. CBS Radio will be levaraging Last.fm to distribute CBS Radio. Some of the stations that Last.fm will be streaming includes WCBS (New York), KROG (L.A.), WXRT (Chicago). Using the CBS Radio player, visitors will be able to listen to full songs on Last.fm. CBS acquired Last.fm for $280 million in May 2007.
CBS Radio has over 140 radio station. Last.fm CEO, Felix Miller claimed this initiative is “the first of what we hope to be many collaborations (with) CBS Radio.”
CBS Radio also recently took advantage of AOL and XM’s contract expiration. CBS Radio will be rolled into AIM and other AOL properties around May 2008. CBS Radio will be brokering the advertising and splitting the revenue with AOL.
Information Source:
[1] Digital Media Wire: CBS Radio to Stream Station Feeds to U.S. Last.fm Users by Mark Hefflinger
[2] Center Networks: Last.fm Gets CBS Radio Stations by Allen Stern
CBS Corporation[1] will be acquiring Last.fm[2] for $280 million. Last.fm has more than 15 million monthly users of which 4 million are in the U.S.
“Last.fm is one of the most well-established, fastest-growing online community networks out there,” stated CBS’ CEO, Leslie Moonves. “Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS’ goal to attract younger viewers and listeners”[3].
Last.fm is based in London, England and was founded by Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, and Richard Jones. Last.FM competes among the likes of Yahoo! Music and Real Networks’ Rhapsody player.
The idea behind Last.fm is to provide users the ability to listen to 30 second clips of music and then socialize with others who enjoy the same song. Last.fm then also suggests related songs that the user may enjoy and has a “buy this album” button that links to Amazon.com’s listings. Last.fm also has the ability to tag and write a journal on songs and albums. One of the latest features is a widget that can be embedded on websites, blogs, and/or social network profiles.
There was a recent rumor that Viacom would acquire Last.fm for $450 million so if this is true, CBS got a great deal. CBS has also recently acquired WallStrip, a humorous financial video website. CBS plans on placing their own content within Wall Strip and Last.fm
[1] CBS website: www.cbs.com
[2] Last.fm website: www.last.fm
[3] L.A. Times: CBS to buy social network
CBS Corporation[
