Portishead fans flock together for early album stream

Portishead's newest 11-track album "Third", their 4th one to date, went live on last.fm last week attracting 327.000 listeners in just under 24 hours. It was the first time Last.fm has made an album available before its official release date. The site estimates that a quarter of a million people have visited their site expressly to listen to the Portishead tracks. Impressive figures though it remains to be seen how much of an impact this will have now the album is on the streets. "Third" is the first release for Portishead in 10 years, and their first studio album in 11 years.

Last.fm was bought by the American media company CBS for £140 million last year and relaunched in January. It now lets users listen to thousands of full-length tracks for free. The service is funded through on-screen banner advertising. Artists get paid each time a track is played.