CBS-owned social networking music site Last.fm just released research data that showed it to be the fastest growing online music network in the U.S.,as their free-on-demand music service saw a unique listener increase of 92% since it was launched four weeks ago.

In addition, since the launch of free-on-demand, unique visitors
continued to show sustained growth, up 59%, while page views increased 58%.
Last.fm receives more than 21 million active users worldwide every month.

“We’ve created a new model that works for everyone — listeners, artists and copyright holders — and the user response proves that it is working”, said
Martin Stiksel, Last.fm co-founder. “Free is the future, and this
is signaled not only by the industry’s growing acceptance but more importantly, by the incredibly fast increase of users accessing music on Last.fm.”

Last.fm launched a free-on-demand service earlier this year and became the first music Web site to offer free, global, on-demand access to
the largest licensed catalogue of music built on partnerships with all four
major record labels — Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG, Warner and EMI –
as well as CD Baby, IODA, the Orchard, Naxos and more than 150,000
independent labels and artists.

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