How Last.fm Responded to the Opportunities and Challenges of E-Business Technologies
As an e-business from the start, an online presence was essential to Last.fm’s business model. There was no risk of channel conflict or cannibalisation of pre-existing sales channels.
Last.fm’s Relationship with Technology
Using Rogers’ (1962) technology adoption lifecycle model, organisations can be innovators, early adopters, early or late majority, or laggards. However, an organisation like Last.fm can have a different relationship with each technology it uses.
Technology Adoption Lifecycle Model:
1) Innovators 2) Early Adopters (chasm) 3)Early majority 4) Late Majority 5)Laggards
(Adapted from Rogers (2003 p.281, Moore (1999, p 16), Chen (2003, p 269)
(The middle of this post has been unpublished at the request of the Open University, as it began as a report for their course in ‘E-business Technologies’).
Last.fm: A mature E-business Enterprise
Last.fm’s well-timed innovations, choices in technology adoption and adaptation to current conditions in the digital technology revolution have enabled their success and recent purchase by CBS, while their ongoing commitment to continuous learning and change is the hallmark of a mature E-business enterprise (Earl, 2000).
References:
Michael Arrington, Techcrunch (2007) iLike Growing Quickly, Still Massively Trailing Last.fm [online] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/27/ilike-growing-quickly-still-massively-trailing-lastfm/ (accessed 24 May 2008)
BBC News | Technology (2007) Last.fm strikes Sony music deal [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6284798.stm (accessed 24 May 2008)
BBC News | Cornwall (2007) Web pioneer, 24, is millionaire [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6727809.stm (accessed 24 May 2008)
BBC News (2007) Fatal blow to Web Broadcasters. [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6562823.stm (Accessed 25 May, 2008)
BBC News (2007) How to be a high-tech startup success [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6979941.stm (accessed 25 May 2008)
BBC (2007) Webscape [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6619183.stm (accessed 25 May 2008)
BBC | Newsbeat | Technology (2008) Internet music library launched [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7207000/7207749.stm (accessed 25 May 2008)
BBC News | Technology (2008) Web users ‘getting more selfish’ [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7417496.stm (accessed 25 May 2008)
BBC News | Technology (2007) Web 2.0 ‘neglecting good design’ [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6653119.stm (accessed 25 May 2008)
BBC News. (2007) Last.fm stories in BBC Audio and Video [online] http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=av&q=last.fm&recipe=all&scope=all&edition= (accessed 25 May 2008)
Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Archive for Last.fm [online] http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.last.fm (Accessed 25 May 2008)
Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC News | Technology (2008) Last.fm debuts free music service [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7205147.stm (accessed 24 May 2008)
Rory Cellan-Jones (2001) Dot.Bomb: The Rise and Fall of Dot.Com Britain
Cnet (2000-2001) Streaming Reviews, Blogs and Features at CNET.co.uk [online] http://www.cnet.co.uk/tags/date/78/streaming.htm (Accessed 25 May 2008)
Earl, MJ (200) Evolving the E-Business. Business Strategy Review, 2000, Volume 11 Issue 2, pp33-38.
The Economist (1999) ‘Catch the wave’, The Economist, 18 February, Innovation in Industry pp. 7–8.
Leander Kahney, Wired: Last.fm: Music to Listeners’ Ears [online] http://www.wired.com/print/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/07/59522 (accessed 24 May 2008)
Last.fm About Last.fm [online] [online] http://www.last.fm/about/ (accessed 24 May 2008)
Last.fm tour [online] http://www.last.fm/tour/ (accessed 24 May 2008)
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, G.T. (2008) E-Commerce: Business, Technology, Society
Perez, C. (2002) Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages
Yves Rabeau, Institute for Research on Public Policy (2004) Choices, Vol 10, no. 7. The Schumpeterian Wave in Telecommunications: Public Policy Implications [online] http://www.irpp.org/choices/archive/vol10no7.pdf
Rogers, Everett M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovations
Clay Shirky, Clay Shirky’s Writings about the Internet (2003) The Music Business and the Big Flip [online] http://www.shirky.com/writings/music_flip.html (accessed 24 May 2008)
Wikipedia: Joseph Schumpeter [online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter (accessed Sept 2009)
Wikipedia. Streaming Media. [online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_audio (accessed 25 May 2008).
Wikipedia: Technology Adoption Lifecycle [online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle (accessed Sept 2009)
