New York - The number of Americans who listen to online radio at least once a week grew to 42 million, up from 33 million in 2008, according to a new study from Arbitron and Edison Research. Nearly half of the U. S. population, or 49%, 125 million people, have at least once listened to online radio.

New York - CBS-owned (NYSE: CBS) social music discovery service Last.fm announced on Friday that it has launched a music streaming application for Google's Android mobile phone operating system. Features include similar artist listings and genre-specific streaming radio stations, personalized streaming radio, updated concert information and the ability to track listening habits to a Last.fm profile. The company already offers an iPhone application in Apple's App Store.

New York - Social music discovery service Last.fm announced this week that it saw triple-digit growth in U.S. unique visitors (204%), site visits (147%), page views (219%) and total minutes spent on the site (141%) in 2008, according to Nielsen Online data. The firm credited its new free on-demand streaming service, as well as its acquisition by CBS (NYSE: CBS) for $280 million in May.

San Francisco - CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS) on Tuesday provided updated traffic data for its stable of websites, touting gains at sites including CBSNews.com, GameSpot and Last.fm. The company said year-over-year traffic at CBSNews.com was up 63%, while traffic at GameSpot was up 21% from a year ago and Last.fm saw a 26% increase in unique users and 21% rise in total minutes spent on the site.

London - Last.fm, the social music discovery service acquired by CBS (NYSE: CBS) for $280 million last May, is laying off about 20% of its 95-person staff as part of a cost-cutting initiative at CBS Interactive, PaidContent reports.

London - Last.fm, the social music discovery service owned by CBS (NYSE: CBS), announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with LyricFind to add the lyrics to over 800,000 songs to the free site. LyricFind has licensing deals with nearly 2,000 music publishers, including Warner/Chappell, Sony/ATV and EMI Music Publishing.

New York - CBS-owned (NYSE: CBS) social music discovery service Last.fm said on Monday that the Dandy Warhols have joined its Artist Royalty Program, which allows artists not affiliated with a label or collecting agency to accrue on-demand and streaming radio royalties directly from Last.fm every time their music is played on the site. The band started its own label earlier this year to release its eighth album, "Earth to the Dandy Warhols." Last.fm said that its Artist Royalty Program now counts more than 200,000 participating artists.

London - Finetunes, a Germany-based digital music distributor, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to social music discovery service Last.fm, alleging the company is streaming songs that it is not authorized to offer, the company tells Billboard.

London - CBS-owned (NYSE: CBS) social music discovery service Last.fm on Tuesday announced the launch of its free on-demand listening and streaming radio service in Japan. The service will offer over 3.5 million free streaming tracks from Universal Music, IODA, The Orchard, CD Baby, Naxos and others, and will expand to include tracks from local Japanese labels. Last.fm in Japan will also include click-through links to purchase songs from HMV Japan.

London - CBS-owned (NYSE: CBS) social music discovery service Last.fm announced on Wednesday the launch of a new artist royalty program, which the company said will give unsigned and independent artists the opportunity to accrue royalties every time their tracks are listened to on the site.

London - CBS-owned (NYSE: CBS) social music discovery service Last.fm announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Radiohead to offer the band's "In Rainbows" album for free streaming from its site, supported by advertising. The rights were licensed through the "one stop" digital licensing platform that Radiohead and publisher Warner/Chappell Music created at the end of last year. The band previously made "In Rainbows" available as a pay-what-you-want download; Last.fm said it has already been streamed 22,000 times in its first 12 hours of availability.

New York - Major record label Universal Music Group on Tuesday announced a deal with CBS-owned (NYSE: CBS) Last.fm that will make UMG's music video catalog available for free, on-demand streaming on the social music discovery service. Under the deal, Universal and its artists will receive revenue for every video streamed; more specific details were not disclosed. "We want to offer a video library that rivals our unparalleled music catalogue, as we work towards Last.fm becoming the only place you need to go to for all music-related content, and this deal marks the first step towards that goal," said Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel.