Tag Archive: CBS


LAST POST FOR LAST.FM?

Filed under: Italy, Music — Leave a comment
December 13, 2012
steerpike

Steerpike – subscriber – but not for much longer.

Appropriately funereal logo

A bombshell email from team Last.FM today.  Their radio streaming service Last.fm offers to me as an Italian subscriber will no longer be available as of January 15.

This massive change also affects services in Spain, France, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and China. the official explanation is that it’s “because of licensing restrictions”  but unofficially it is the inevitable consequence of a CBS takeover some years back. Continue reading →

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BACKTRACKING # 17 : THE CLASH

Filed under: Music, Politics — Leave a comment
June 5, 2011

Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)

THE CLASH – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais b/w The Prisoner (CBS, 1978)

The mainstream hegemony is highly efficient and resistant to threats. It is hard to believe that less than two years before the release of this single, the folk devils were pounding on the door getting the establishment in a sweat.

Punk Rock was accused of demonizing the youth and the treasured social order was seen as being at risk. The tabloids railed against the filth and the fury on prime time TV. Where would all end? The Sex Pistols were the main whipping boys but they were seen as just the tip of a dangerous iceberg. Continue reading →

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CRACKS IN THE LAST.FM COMMUNITY

Filed under: Music, Politics — 1 Comment
April 26, 2009

I  have been a contented subscriber of Last.Fm since 2004.

The reason I am happy to pay is because it enables me to listen to the on-line radio – either one based on my personal tags or, more often, group radios or play-lists linked to particular artists or genres.

My motivation is not to listen to music I already know or have in my collection but to make fresh discoveries , mainly of those artists working outside the mainstream channels.

It would,of course, be great if such a service could be provided free but I think to expect this for nothing is unrealistic.  Last.Fm is not a charity and needs money to survive.  For the price of a cappuccino & cake I get a monthly dose of great music.

There may be good economic reasons why it makes sense to charge people in Europe and the rest of the world for a service that users in the UK, USA & Germany get for free but it doesn’t take a genius to realise that such a proposal is going to cause resentment. Continue reading →

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