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Business News Digital
Last.fm posts further losses
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 9 October 2014
Last.fm has filed its latest financial figures with Companies House, which show that the music data company continues to make losses, according to The Guardian. However, although revenues fell by more than 20% in 2013, the company has halved the losses made the previous year.
As previously reported, Last.fm, which was bought by CBS in 2007 for $280 million, has been aggressively cutting costs for a few years now, amidst rumours that the service’s owner is losing its patience with it. A significant change in the last year was the shutting off of its self-hosted subscription radio, which it had been scaling back for several years, in favour of playing music provided by Spotify. However, the Guardian reports, behind the scenes staff numbers have also halved.
In its last financial year, Last.fm reportedly made £4.92 million in revenues – a drop of 22.8%. Largely this came from advertising income, with a small amount from affiliate sales and £1 million in subscriptions. Only EU countries (not including the UK) saw a rise in revenues, which almost doubled from £740,659 to £1.12 million. The UK and US both saw significant drops (45.8% and 22.8% respectively), while the rest of the world saw a 60% decrease in revenues to £288,859.
In its financial statement, the company said: “Last.fm competes with other internet [music] providers, broadcast radio and other media providers for advertising spending. As such, revenue decreased during the year and cost reduction plans continued throughout the year to minimise the impact of the lower revenues”.
It remains to be seen if further cost savings can be made, and if CBS will allow Last.fm another year to try and hit profit.
