Last.fm is shutting down its subscription-based music streaming service at the end of next month. The company reveals in a forum post that it’s closing the $3 ad-free streaming radio function from its apps on April 28th, though it will continue to operate its ongoing “Scrobbler” music tracking, playlist building, and new music recommendation service to users as normal.
The post spotted by The Next Web advises that in Last.fm’s ten-year history “the music landscape has changed considerably,” and it has “been forced to make some very difficult decisions surrounding our core products and services.” While it does not directly mention a specific reason for the change, it could be inferred that it did not wish to continue dealing with music licensing issues, instead relying on YouTube and Spotify to serve up music from its web pages.
