The popular UK-based music streaming and discovery service Last.fm announced that it has expanded its on-demand listening and streaming radio services on the Japanese version of the site with content from Universal Music, IODA, The Orchard, and CD Baby. According to Last.fm, this means that its Japanese outpost now has close to 3.5 million tracks available on its streaming radio service, which makes it the largest free streaming music service in the country.
But when I shared this item on FriendFeed, that wasn't the part of the announcement that received the most attention. Michael W. May noticed this little tidbit:
One interesting piece of information in Last.fm's announcement is that it has increased its click-through sales in the US and UK by 119% since launching its free on-demand service in January. Not only does this provide a significant revenue stream for Last.fm, but it also shows that giving listeners access to the complete song instead of just the standard 30 second clips will actually make them more likely to buy the song. Currently, Last.fm allows its users to completely stream every song three times - after that, it also switched to the standard 30 second clips.
The Japanese launch of last.fm is also discussed at hypebot.com and pluginmusic.com, the latter including a canned press release quote from Felix Miller (last.fm CEO):
We're hugely excited to be able to offer free streaming music to our Japanese community for the first time. This is an incredible opportunity for us and all of our partners in one of the largest and most exciting music markets in the world. Our deals with Universal and the independent labels and aggregators who have teamed up with us allow Last.fm to offer the Japanese community an unparalleled catalog of tracks through a music experience that is unmatched in the Japanese Web space.
