There are things you just cannot leave out
by Volker Weber
Here is a good example how not to communicate:
Today we’re announcing an upcoming change to the way Last.fm Radio works in some parts of the world. In the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, nothing will change.
In all other countries, listening to Last.fm Radio will soon require a subscription of €3.00 per month.
What is your first question if you read this? Let me guess:
What is the difference between the US, the UK, Germany and the other countries?
The news item never answers that question. Further down in the comments, after people got angry, there is an explanation. Last.fm pays for the music it plays with money they make from advertisement. That business model only works for these three countries. Last.fm is headquartered in the UK, they can use CBS sales people in the US, and they traditionally have had a strong presence in Germany.
Simple explanation that makes sense. Now I need somebody to explain why Last.fm only integrates with Sonos in the same three countries. There are no ads when you listen to Last.fm on your Sonos.
Comments
Hi Volker - Last.fm and Sonos began our relationship in late Oct 08 w/ these three markets and we're continuing to explore additional countries where we can integrate the service. Sonos would very much like to offer Last.fm radio worldwide as we believe it is a great service and our customers have demonstrated a strong interest in Last.fm.
And, for your or possibly just my added displeasure, that Last.fm blog only renders properly in IE. In Chrome the BG images are borked, and in FF the fonts are wrong and the page pretty much unreadable.
Last.fm also works great with my Logitech Squeezebox.
Even worse, they are dropping support for non-licensed mobile apps.
Last.FM:
You won't be allowed to use our API to stream to mobile phones. This is unfortunately a limitation of some of our licensing agreements. Again, we may be able to make an exception to this if you talk to us directly.
Gizmodo
Goodbye Mobbler.
