Today is a big day for Klout. The social influence calculator just added five new networks to its algorithms, bringing their measurement possibilities to 10 total networks. Adding Tumblr, Blogger, Flickr, Last.fm and Instagram to the already-included Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare and YouTube means that some Klout users are about to see a huge jump in their scores. The staff blog reminds users that “connecting an account will never lower your Score, but it may increase it as we can give you credit for your influence in that network.” TechCrunch notes that Google+ is still missing from the list but that it should be on its way soon.
Last.fm has announced on their blog that the radio feature on mobile apps and home entertainment devices will be going ad free and subscriber-only. Last.fm Radio will remain free on their website in the U.S., U.K., and Germany. Last.fm Radio will also remain free on Xbox Live and Windows Mobile 7 phones in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.
Every day millions of people are tweeting, digging, voting up on reddit, IMing, texting, and uploading video content. Keeping track of everything on the Internet can be overwhelming. Visualizing some of this data can make things easier on our eyes. There are lots of tools out there that can help visualize and make sense of all of the user generated data. The purpose of this blog post is to raise the awareness of the tools available as of today. I have broken down the tools by the associated websites in alphabetical order here.
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.
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