"Fleet Foxes" and "Lightspeed Champion" First Artists to Kick Off Series of Last.fm-Sponsored Music Events

Last.fm, the free global music platform, today announced its first ever series of live music events in the U.S., in a partnership with The Bowery Presents, New York's largest independent concert promotion company.  Fleet Foxes and Lightspeed Champion are the first artists to play the Last.fm and The Bowery Presents co-promoted U.S. concerts, kicking off a series of stateside live music events for Last.fm.

Last.fm has been staging live events in the U.K. since late last year as part of the Last.fm/Presents initiative. Last.fm/Presents brings exposure to the artists rising up Last.fm's Hype Chart, which tracks the hottest new artists building the most buzz amongst the site's 21 million strong community of music fans. 

This is the first time the site has brought the Last.fm/Presents showcase to the U.S. The series of shows kicks off this Saturday, June 7 with Lightspeed Champion - aka Dev Hynes, NME cover star and celebrated indie troubadour currently touring his Mike Mogis produced debut album, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge - followed on July 9 by the critically acclaimed band Fleet Foxes.

Martin Stiksel, Last.fm co-founder, said: "We're thrilled to be working with The Bowery Presents to co-present shows from some of the most exciting new bands around. Thanks to Last.fm's community of music tastemakers, we first saw Fleet Foxes and Lightspeed Champion rise up our Hype Chart back in 2007, and we're looking forward to bringing these bands to a wider audience."

The Bowery Presents will film the shows for Last.fm's dedicated Last.fm/Presents channel (http://www.last.fm/presents), which features original video and new music content. Launched last month, Last.fm/Presents premiered with a series of unique video interviews featuring artists such as Moby, Santogold and Spoon.

The Last.fm/Presents shows, in partnership with The Bowery Presents, kicks off at the Bowery Ballroom in New York this Saturday, June 7, with Lightspeed Champion (http://www.last.fm/music/Lightspeed+Champion) followed by Fleet Foxes on July 9.

About Last.fm

Founded in 2002, Last.fm is a free global music platform. Last.fm can offer music fans millions of tracks in every genre for free-on-demand streaming thanks to partnerships with Universal, EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, CD Baby, independent aggregators The Orchard and IODA, and more than 150,000 independent artists and labels - without the need to sign up or download any software. As well as being able to access tracks for free - a service which has seen Last.fm become the fastest-growing free online music network in the U.S. - music fans can also share their music preferences by linking their media player to the Last.fm database. As a result, Last.fm can intelligently recommend songs, artists, local concerts and even other members based on their musical tastes. Last.fm also supports unsigned artists by offering them an unprecedented Artist Royalty program through which they can earn revenue directly from Last.fm every time their music is streamed. Learn more about Last.fm at www.last.fm.

About The Bowery Presents

The Bowery Presents is an independent promotion company based in New York City.  With a core business based around great music, its mission is to bring the best bands to the NY metropolitan area and to provide the best concert experience for fans and artists, along with reasonable ticket prices.  Over the years The Bowery Presents has worked with a vast cross-section of some of the most talented performing artists, including Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Bright Eyes, Billy Corgan, Guster, Interpol, John Mayer, Moby, Modest Mouse, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Sonic Youth, The Sea & Cake, The Shins and The White Stripes.  Michael Swier and John Moore of The Bowery Presents have presented music at the Mercury Lounge, the Bowery Ballroom and Webster Hall over the past 15 years.  Jim Glancy, former president of the New York division of Live Nation joined the company as partner in 2006.  The Bowery Presents, headquartered on Manhattan's Lower East Side, opened the Music Hall of Williamsburg in September 2007, Terminal 5 in October 2007 and will be opening the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ in fall 2008.  For more information, visit http://www.bowerypresents.com/.

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Last.fm Contacts

New York:

Katie Gunion               

(212) 975-8009                       katie.gunion@cbs.com

London:

Christian Ward

+44 (0) 20 7780 7080             christian@last.fm

The Bowery Presents Contacts

New York:

Jason Ross                  

(212)375-1200x40                  jason@bowerypresents.com