Last.fm is killing off its subscription radio service on April 28

CBS-owned music service Last.fm is shutting down its streaming radio subscription service, the company announced today.

Last.fm, once a leader among streaming music services, has been scaling back its operations this year to cut costs and refocus the service to remain competitive in a sea of rivals.

The first of these moves came in late January when Last.fm turned on music streaming via YouTube rather than pull from its own library of licensed content. The second move came later that week when Last.fm signed an agreement with Spotify that gave its users access to Spotify’s vast library of 20 million tracks.

Today’s announcement means that users who subscribe to Last.fm’s premium service will no longer be able to listen to streaming radio on any device or third-party service.

Last.fm did say it plans to keep a premium subscription service around that offers listeners the ability to filter stations by tags as well as a new 30 percent discount on all Last.fm merchandise. Subscribers can also chose to block advertising on the web and mobile apps.

“Over ten years, our goal has always been to allow people around the world to discover new music with as few limitations or restrictions as possible,” Last.fm said in a statement the news.

“However, the music landscape has changed considerably during that time and we’ve been forced to make some very difficult decisions surrounding our core products and services.”

Instead of a streaming radio service, Last.fm said it plans to focus all its attention on improving its recording and scrobbling of tracks on other streaming music services, which should help Last.fm users discover new artists and songs.

Last.fm’s radio service is scheduled to cease functionality April 28.