From the Last.fm blog’s Free the Music: “As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website….Free full-length tracks are obviously great news for listeners, but also great for artists and labels, who get paid every time someone streams a song…This is good because artists get paid based on how popular a song is with their fans, instead of a fixed amount. We will be paying artists directly.” [Now if only iTunes would cut out the middle man and direct its payments away from the labels, then the music industry can be born anew].