Last.FM resorts to YouTube-powered player

In December we reported revenue declines for CBS-owned Last.FM. Now the company has cut costs with a new video-music player powered by YouTube. A lighthearted explanatory video at the Last.FM YouTube page explains that the Scrobbler function, which has been Last.FM’s distinguishing feature, connects to the new player. Scrobller is a music intelligence layer that tracks user selections and compares them with data sets belonging to other users, for a kind of auto-crowdsourcing of what you hear next.

The Last.FM channel on YouTube has over 23,000 subscribers.

The tactical product change saves in the content-cost department, as YouTube handles rights management and royalty payments on the back end.