Last.fm founders stepping down
Last.fm’s three co-founders have announced that they’re stepping down. In a post on the company’s blog, they explain that “After two years running Last.fm within CBS we feel the time is right to begin the process of handing over the reins”.
They go on to point out that the site’s users have more than doubled in the last 12 months, to 37.3 million monthly unique visitors. “We’re confident the site will continue to go from strength to strength. Being a part of CBS, and the recently formed CBSi music group, continues to open up many opportunities for Last.fm. Recent product releases such as the new visual radio, and the Last.fm on XBox announcement, are an indication of how much more Last.fm will achieve.”
It’s inevitable that speculation around their decision to step down will focus around the recent spat with US tech blog TechCrunch, which claimed parent company CBS passed Last.fm user data to the RIAA without the site’s agreement.
All concerned have denied that this happened, so the timing of the founders’ departure may just be unfortunate. What may be more relevant is that CBS acquired Last.fm on 30th May 2007, suggesting that the three founders may have agreed to a two-year earn-out period.
This is a breaking story, so we’ll update this post with further details as they emerge.
June 10th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
[...] Martin Stiksel, Felix Miller and Richard Jones, the three men who founded last.fm in East London in 2003, have today left the company. Last.fm has been owned by American media conglomerate CBS since May 2007 after they bought it for £140million, netting the trio around £19million each at the time. Rumours are bound to circulate that their departure has got something to do with the US blog TechCrunch’s recent posts, claiming that CBS had possibly handed over last.fm customer data to the RIAA without the site’s agreement. It might also be worth noting that it is almost exactly two years since the trio agreed the deal with CBS. It might therefore be possible that there was a two year handover period in place. Details of the departure should be coming clearer in the coming days. What is clear is that Stiksel, Miller and Jones’ idea has played a major role in the dramatically altered landscape of music distribution. With streaming music become more poplar and more commercially viable with services like Spotify, it is fair to conclude that these three developers will be remembered as pioneers of digital music. Plus, they’ve all got millions of quid in the bank, so it’s not all doom and gloom. (via Music Ally) [...]
June 11th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
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