August 07, 2009

Free on demand: 0.5 cents per stream

Premium radio: no meaningful figure

Free radio: .05143 cents per play

Subscription radio: .05882 cents per play

During Q2, the 'Premium Radio' tier was replaced by 'Subscription Radio,' to coincide with the introduction of a subscription for radio streams outside the US, UK and Germany. Whereas previously Premium Radio was classified as streams for all services that can be accessed by subscribers only (for example, Loved Tracks Radio), the new Subscriber Radio is classified as any radio stream listened to by a subscriber.

Due to the change being made mid-quarter, both tiers will appear on the Q2 2009 report, to be replaced by Subscription Radio only in future reports.

Please see below for an explanation of the terms you see in your royalty reports:

Free On-Demand: these are plays of a single track, directly from the site (using the Play button) in the US, UK and Germany, where the rights holder is participating in the ARP. They appear the same as a Full Length Preview for the user, however they earn royalties whereas Full Length Previews do not. All labels participating in the ARP will have their tracks set to Free On-Demand automatically, and can change this by opting out of collecting royalties directly from Last.fm.

Premium Radio: up until Q2 2009, this meant any subscriber-only radio streams, that were not available to non-subscribers. During Q2 2009, this was replaced by Subscription Radio.

Subscription Radio: replacing the Premium Radio tier, these are radio streams listened to by a subscriber to the site (regardless of their availability to non-subscribers).

Radio: these are radio streams listened to by non-subscribers, which means within the US, UK and Germany. The need for subscription to listen to radio streams in the rest of the world occurred during Q2 2009 - before this, the 'Radio' tier was global.