Of course they can. Just reinstate XP as an option and inertia will keep the money rolling in. Honestly, I kind of wonder why they bother trying to develop "the next windows" instead of just polishing what they have. Maybe they should try a "plus pack" if they're yearning for upgrade cash.

Check your mail.

I'm inclined to agree with you here.

It just boggles the mind how incredibly narrow minded and short sighted the music industry is.

Here's a service that has the potential to increase paid streaming, sales through downloads and physical goods as well as promoting events to an international audience. All with the help and contribution of the actual consumers.

What do they do? Rigidly try to enforce rules to adhere to some artificial market they created fifty years ago!

Sad, really.

In a mailbox near you.

Spotify and last.fm aren't even that similar.

What sets last.fm apart is the great community effort and recommendation engine. I use it all the time to find and - actually - BUY new music as well as finding out about events that I might otherwise have missed.

Spotify is great when you already know what you want to listen to but I find the music discovery factor of Spotify to be sorely lacking.

Can't wait 'til Spotify provides an open API and someone provides a nice mashup to stream my last.fm recommendations through Spotify!

(I've seen some hacks based on Spotifys Google Docs spreadsheets providing parts of this functionality already.)

As it stands, EUR 3 for last.fm recommendations and free radio streaming is just "OK". Spotifys EUR 10 for on-demand streaming is also just "OK".

I'd pay last.fm EUR 10 a month in a heartbeat if they'd combine their recommendation with Spotifys ad free on-demand streaming.

A partnership brewing, perhaps?

I'm located in Sweden but regularly buy CDs from Amazon.co.uk after following links of recommendations on last.fm.

That's a referral, isn't it?

Besides, I just can't believe event promoters aren't flocking to the service and then paying last.fm based on the number of "I attended this event" or some such.

Considering the potential gold mine that last.fm surely must be I can only speculate that this move was intentional to avoid hefty infrastructure investments for markets with only marginal direct contribution to the bottom line.

Short term - great move.

Long term - it'll be just another MTV.