Last.fm vs Pandora and the age of “ad supported” online radio in the uk

I am an avid fan of last.fm, the uk based social music platform and was please to see today the announcement of new functionality within the last.fm website to allow the playing of full-length tracks and albums for free. This new reminded me of the announcement a couple of weeks ago from Pandora that LABELS AND PUBLISHERS FORCE BLOCKING OF PANDORA IN THE UK (there empasis not mine!).

How can one company achieve it but the other say it’s not possible I wonder?