Last.fm has just announced that, starting today, you will be able to play entire tracks and albums for free through the Last.fm website. Believe it or not they actually got all four major record labels to sign on the deal and participate.
For those of you who are just now tuning in, or are currently having a hard time soaking this in: this is a big deal. This is a huge change for the music industry, one that hasn't been seen since we were introduced to iTunes.
Right now it's going into public beta. You can listen to a track up to three times for free before the notification comes up that you'll need to sign up for the new subscription service they will be introducing. The new subscription service will allow you to listen to any track unlimited times and some "other useful things". Details on the subscription service are a little sketchy at the moment, but I'm sure the brains over at Last.fm will let us know soon.
Another interesting aspect of this is that they will be paying the artists directly. This is great news for independent artists who are looking for their big break. Now, not only can you submit your music to be play on Last.fm, but you get paid per play. Think of it as Google Adsense for music.
All in all, I'm pretty stoked that this is coming out. DRM is all but gone and the mediums currently available for music distribution are getting more interesting and more innovative everyday. Who knows, maybe soon we'll be able to get music planted directly into our brain. The iChip. Yeah, that could be cool. Except for the part where we all turn into iRobots controlled by iSteveJobs. That's pretty iScary. DANGIT!
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