UPDATE: (8/12/09) At the risk of alerting the wankers at Last.fm who may find this on Google, I can still use the streaming radio through the iPhone app! Suckers!
Today I received this email from Last.fm, whose personalised radio I’ve been enjoying FOR FREE since 2007.
Hi frostnova,
Your free trial to Last.fm Radio is about to end. If you’re enjoying it, why not
subscribe for only $3.00/month and continue listening to non-stop personalised
radio.Best Regards,
The Last.fm Team
When I first joined, there was no mention of this “free trial” bollocks they’ve pulled completely out of thin air as if they are some kind of Ministry of Truth.
To be honest, I value Last.fm mostly for tracking my listening habits and haven’t used the streaming radio very much so I’m not ready to completely jump ship just yet.
What I’ve really been waiting for is for Apple to make “Genius Live” for iTunes, so you could listen to suggested tracks which aren’t in your library.
You can read about what other disgruntled users are saying, although I won’t be surprised if this thread gets censored.
Same thing happened to me a few months ago. My opinion of last.fm went instantly from some cool free social music tool, to just another company trying to hook me in then scam me into parting with my money. In a way, good to see someone else had the same experience, I was thinking I had just absent mindedly missed the part about it having a time limit when i signed up.