Last.fm Offers Radiohead's In Rainbows for Free-On-Demand Listening

Last.fm Offers Radiohead's In Rainbows for Free-On-Demand Listening

NEW YORK and LONDON, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Radiohead have teamed up with Last.fm to offer their album, In Rainbows, for free, ad-supported on-demand streaming. The album will be made available on Last.fm to listen to in its entirety, for free today at www.last.fm/music/radiohead. This deal marks the first time the band have granted a worldwide license of this nature for In Rainbows to an online music Web site.

The rights to In Rainbows have been licensed to Last.fm through the "one stop shop" digital licensing platform that Radiohead and their publisher Warner/Chappell Music created at the end of last year. The service enables rights users around the world to secure all the necessary digital licenses across both the recording and publishing rights for In Rainbows from one destination. All licenses are subject to band approval.

In Rainbows, Radiohead's seventh album, was first made available as a download, which fans could purchase at a price they decided, in October 2007. Last.fm, which is able to track the listening habits of its 21 million-strong community of music fans, revealed that the album was listened to over 22,000 times in the first 12 hours it was available, or once every 2 seconds.

Martin Stiksel, Last.fm co-founder, said: "Radiohead understand that the Internet is changing music distribution, and we're extremely proud that they've teamed up with us to offer In Rainbows for free-on-demand streaming. We believe that music fans should be able to access music for free, and just as importantly, that artists and rights holders should be paid when their music is listened to. Last.fm makes this possible, and we're thrilled to be working with Radiohead to once again break new ground in digital music."

Bryce Edge, Radiohead's co-Manager, said: "We felt this was a fantastic means of offering a new way for people to discover In Rainbows. It's perfect timing for the band's current world tour."

Jane Dyball, Senior Vice President, European Legal and Business Affairs, Warner/Chappell Music said, "The experimental 'one stop shop' for all In Rainbows digital rights has proved a great success. It has offered the band a whole spectrum of innovative ways to digitally distribute and promote their album, whilst providing all their licensees with a nimble service on terms set in consultation with the group and their management."

   Listen to In Rainbows on Last.fm at www.last.fm/music/radiohead.    About Last.fm  

Founded in 2002, Last.fm is a CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS.A) (NYSE:and) (NYSE:CBS) owned free global music platform. Last.fm offers music fans millions of tracks in every genre for free-on-demand and radio streaming thanks to partnerships with Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, CD Baby, independent aggregators The Orchard and IODA, and more than 150,000 independent artists and labels -- without the need to sign up or download any software. As well as being able to access tracks for free -- a service which has seen Last.fm become the fastest-growing free online music network in the U.S. -- music fans can also share their music preferences by linking their media player to the Last.fm database. As a result, Last.fm can intelligently recommend songs, artists, local concerts and even other members based on their musical tastes. Last.fm also supports unsigned artists by offering them an unprecedented Artist Royalty program through which they can earn revenue directly from Last.fm every time their music is streamed. Learn more about Last.fm at www.last.fm.

Source: Last.fm

CONTACT: Last.fm, In London: Christian Ward, +44 (0) 20-7780-7085,
christian@last.fm, or In New York: Katie Gunion, +1-212-975-8009,
katie.gunion@cbs.com; Warner/Chappell, James Steven, +44 (0) 207-368-2572,
james.steven@warnermusic.com, +44 (0) 7870-70-4646

Web site: http://www.last.fm/music/radiohead
http://www.last.fm/

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Profile: International Entertainment