Last.fm Premieres Video Channel

mobyVenturing into video, online music service Last.fm has launched a new channel spotlighting popular and emerging bands and artists and other original programming.

Last.fm Presents kicks off with interviews with Moby, rising alternative singer Santogold and indie rock band Spoon. The new video channel on the social music site will also include concert footage from Last.fm's own promotional events.

"Music discovery is key to the Last.fm experience, so our video interviews are all about what drives these artists' creativity and what music means to them," said Martin Stiksel, Last.fm co-founder, in a statement.

Music video outlets abound on the Web from AOL Sessions and Yahoo Music to music channels on social sites such as MySpace and YouTube that skew toward indie acts and user-submitted content. Competing social music service imeem also offers an array of pop culture content from music videos to comedy clips and animated shorts.

A recent post on the blog ReadWriteWeb noted that seven of the top 10 YouTube videos to date are music videos, including those by Avril Lavigne, My Chemical Romance and Shakira.

U.K.-based Last.fm aims to cut through the clutter with original video that its members won't find elsewhere around the Web.

Acquired by CBS last May for $280 million, Last.fm also will distribute video content through the CBS Audience Network of media partners. Earlier this week, CBS announced that Last.fm would power AOL Radio in Europe.

Last.fm Presents is planning to broadcast additional sessions with music acts in the coming months. The videos are offered ad-free at launch, but as the new channel adds more interviews and original content it will be with an eye toward monetization, according to a CBS spokesperson.

After promoting concerts across the U.K. since late 2007 for new bands and artists including Hot Chip, Afrikan Boy, and George Pringle, Last.fm is planning more events across Europe and the U.S. this year.

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