Last.fm on XBL: free to gold subscribers, 3 hours per month for others

by Kevin Kelly on Jun 30th 2009 7:45PM

Microsoft announced at their E3 keynote last month that Last.fm would be coming to Xbox Live. We're working on an interview with key players at both Last.fm and Microsoft to bring you more details about the collaboration soon. However, we can share one tidbit: today we spoke with Christina DeRosa, a general manager for XBL, and she let us know who the service will be available to.

"Silver users will be able access what we're considering a trial period of three hours a month, which comes with video advertising. Gold users will have unlimited ad-supported access, so they can use it 24 hours a day. There will also be a premium offering on a subscription basis from Last.fm, that will be commercial free and will also have more sophisticated personalization features, like Loved Tracks."

Last.fm's subscription prices are currently $3.00 US (€3 EU or £3 GBP) per month, so you'll have to shell out an additional $36 a year if you want to avoid the ads and have full access to their service. You'll also need a Last.fm account, in case you haven't set one up already. Luckily, that part is free.

Last.fm (Xbox 360)

Tags: Dashboard, dashboard-update, dashboard-update-fall-2009, Last.fm, Microsoft, Music, Radio, XBL, Xbox-360, Xbox-Live

Reader Comments (103)

Microsoft came through on this! I thought it would be paid for everyone!

You are paying for it...Live+ads or an extra $3 a month for no ads....such bullshit for a paid service.

Why would you think that. That's been the trend for these types of services. They're free if you're gold member, but you have to pay if you're a silver member.

and thats y i own a ps3, got sick of paying for everything and the ads were rediculous

Sorry, im too busy cross-game talking with my friends. I can't hear you!

The only thing extra 360 owners need to pay for is online,not everything, 360 and ps3 owners still pay for dlc, it isnt free for ps3,and also the online is well worth the money, 60 dollars a year is nothing.

So now for 60 dollars a year,you get free radio,great online,not a bad deal.

speaking of PS3, what is up with the downloading then installing? I hate that. How come there aren't demos for arcade games?? i have a PS3 and that SUCKS

Well Live's been giving me all sorts of trouble lately, but I dunno why. I played Uno online the last couple days, but everytime my friend invites me to play Rock Band 2 I can't join the game or party. He gave me a 1 month card that he got from some game or console repair, and I read that sometimes they have limitations on what you can do. It's frustrating.

tmacairjordan87, i gave my older bro a 1 month LIVE card and we had no problems inviting each other to games. i gave him one 2 weeks ago and we played Halo 3 together. I have a whole bunch of 1 month cards and i gave another one to my nephew and no problems.

I dont' know what the problem is though. Sometimes I'll try to go to the game marketplace or play a game from the hard drive and it will give me an error message, which for some reason makes Live forget everything I've bought (it will try to make me buy it again when I redownload). Then other times, it will block me out of parties and joining games. I can go online on my own, but joining games is a big no no for some reason lately.

I never get these problems on my ps3, but forgive my bias since I'm pretty pissed at MS right now.

"The only thing extra 360 owners need to pay for is online,not everything,"

Where did you get your free wireless adaptor?

"Where did you get your free wireless adaptor?"

Same place I got my 20 gig PS3's.

Oh Snap!

yeah roto, that's one of the only things holding me back from buying a 360. i need wireless since my modem/router is downstairs. there's no way i'm gonna run a cable from the downstairs to the upstairs of my house. and a wireless adapter is $100, so it's not like it's a cheap add-on or anything.

"60 dollars a year is nothing"

Says the guy who probably complains about the PS3 price but that in 3/4 years will have paid more for his xbox than any ps3 owner has.

And well, if this doesn't apply to you, it certainly does apply to lots of whinny people.

ok who actually pays $60 a year for xbox live? there are deals ALL THE TIME now for 12 month subscription cards going for as cheap as 28 bucks. besides the retail on these is 50 (not 60) and when you add in tax that is around 54 dollars.

Sly, google how to use a wireless bridge for the xbox 360. You should be able to find a wireless solution for around 20-40 bucks, you don't have to use microsoft's expensive adapter.

@ Sly

I've been using this for a few years and not one issue yet.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16873999102

That explains why you spell ridiculous the way you did.
Funny enough, my router hates my 360 and loves my PS3. And this having to pay extra thing bugs me.

@Sly

My living room media pc uses wireless n. My 360 uses it as a bridge for live access. Wanna know how much it costs me? Absolutely nothing. ;)

"what is up with the downloading then installing? I hate that."

The installing part is just the unpacking of the file and I'm sure some kind of error checking to make sure that the file didn't get corrupted. My only guess is that the unpacking and error checking could slow down any game that you are playing at the time because it would have to use extra RAM and possibly grind you're hard drive a bit.

However, if that's the case, then they should make it so it will automatically install only if a game isn't being played.

lol yep, if you pay over 30 dollars for xbox live nowadays you obviously have so much money that you don't bother looking for deals....second,built in wify and a web browser on my xbox is things people like me cry for but when i actually get them, barely use them lol-the number one thing i want wify for is for the dates that i unlocked my achievements to gets saved,because there's no way im playing over live on wi-fy!

@ Kodros

but why don't you have to install demo's/arcade titles on the XBOX 360, but you do have to on the PS3?

that's always bugged me aswell.

i think its because the XBOX 360 installs the game automatically while downloading, so that its ready to play as soon as the download is finished.

Pandora has been working on the ps3 web browser for some time now..... and that is FREE for everyone.

Does Pandora actually work if you're accessing it from Canada or something like that?

I have a ps3 and a 360.
The PS3's online is pretty good, but they kinda dropped the ball on the lack of a free headset option... which results in mute players.

What makes me still play the 360 is the fact that I don't know about 5 people that own a ps3 and about 20 people that own a 360.

Yeah, I can't wait until this is out. Read online sometime around August...*crosses fingers*

But there is no news on WHEN it's coming out yet, huh?

Nice to know about the trial period for silver users.

I hope i can listen to this in the backround while playing games,like how you normally listen to music via 360.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Would be nice to stream radio through Saints Row 2 like in the cars and the houses...

That would be awesome... Somehow I doubt it though, how would you see their stupid ads?

I was under the assumption you could, but now that I think about it, its very odd. Is this meant to only be used on the last.fm screen?

I smell fishy business...

Could be interstitial audio ads.

This is the key part, they should just tell us already. If in-game audio is possible, I will use this all the time (and probably start paying for last.fm). If in-game audio isn't possible, I will never use this.

I'm guessing that's the case for a lot of people.

I think they'd be able to have some sort of audio commercial things, kind of like how Pandora does it.

And even when you listen to last.fm on the internet, I minimize my browser window. Kind of the same thing.

I really hope MS fixes the guide up for music. Right now it's so terrible. And the volume control on it controls for voice messages too, which is retarded.

So...Is last.fm going to be available internationally? Or just America or America+Europe?

Unlike things like Pandora, Last FM is available everywhere, so I don't see why this would be America only. Infact imagine that's why they went with Last FM over anything else

Thank you, I didn't know. I swear it was last.fm that rejected me. Maybe that was pandora or whatever it is.

With that said though, Microsoft love taking their time with bringing content to Australia, so I'll wait and see I suppose.

It's available everywhere, but it's not free everywhere any more.

I tried getting into last.fm last year on a recommendation, but I just couldn't figure out how to make it a seamless experience and continued using pandora. On the occasion I feel like streaming random music, my phone is never 10 feet away from me and my desktop is always connected to our sound system.

Would you say this made for people who are permanently affixed to their console or is it just for people who have absolutely no other method of accessing last.fm (and facebook, twitter)? Seems like it is wasted on those services target audiences.

I agree, Pandora is much better. But if I want to put some music on real quick while doing chores or eating dinner, Last.fm might do OK.

Pandora isn't available outside the US...

is this the equivalent to vidzone on the ps3?

Not really, this is a radio service that tracks music that fits your taste or is similar to other bands you like. It's a really great site.If you're like me and don't really follow popular music, Vidzone is completely worthless.

No, it's the equivalent of opening the PS3's browser and accessing Last.fm

vidZone is completely worthless!? really ?

Vidzone allows you to create your own playlists, use premade playlists and to _watch_ whatever music you want, kind of like MTV on demand with whatever type of music you like and its completely free, but yeah I can see why its worthless, is it because you dont have anything like it on the 360, right ?

It's worthless because it has no music I like, Last.FM does.
Also Ashitaka, Last FM doesn't work on the PS3's browser, or else I would be using it on there.

Even if it did work you would need to pay to access the radio services unless you lived in the US, UK or Germany.

Napster, circa 2000, FTW!

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Last.fm on XBL: free to gold subscribers, 3 hours per month for others

Last.fm (Xbox 360)

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