Free music boosts Last.fm's user numbers

Last.FM claims its move to enable free online music streaming has massively boosted usage of the service.

"Monthly unique listeners up 92 per cent month-over-month; new free-on-demand service helps spur traffic and metrics across the board," the company claimed, describing Last.FM as the "fastest growing online music network in the US".

Unique visitors climbed 59 percent, while page views increased 58 percent. Last.FM receives more than 21 million active users worldwide every month.

Martin Stiksel, Last.FM co-founder, said: "Free is the future, and this is signalled not only by the industry's growing acceptance of what we're doing, but more importantly, by the incredibly fast increase of users accessing music on Last.FM since we launched free-on-demand."

Users can visit Last.FM without registration to stream their choice of track from the available catalogue.