The debate of subscription vs. ad-supported model has been going on since the dawn of online music services (you know, way back in the early/mid 2000s). Some services have you pay a monthly fee to get your music downloads while others don't have you pay anything but instead have ads all over the site that can interrupt your user experience.

Now comes news that Last.fm, formerly only an ad-supported model, is going to launch a subscription fee for users outside of the US, UK and Germany. For about $5 a month, users can sign up to Last.fm's radio service (Last.fm did formerly offer a monthly fee in exchange for no advertising).

More and more services seem to be moving away from ads. The change comes hot on the heels of last week's shuttering of Spiralfrog, an ad-supported model. Dada.net has always been a monthly subscription fee as you know, as have many other music services. It will be interesting to look at the Last.fm test and watch which type of service is more popular with users.

Which do you prefer?