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4 OUT OF 5

Channel 4 Radio's alliance with social networking site Last.fm is a canny move in keeping with its challenger brand credentials.

Last.fm sits firmly in the Web 2.0 world - a global community of 20 million music enthusiasts who use the portal to listen to music, personalise their choices, exchange comments on what they've heard, recommend new tracks to friends and to buy music.

I like it. It's more intuitive, more like "radio" than iTunes and much more engaging compared to music services such as musicovery.com. Strategically, 4Radio and Last.fm makes a lot of sense. An alliance with Last.fm can strengthen 4Radio's brand equity in online radio and create a unique selling point on this essential platform, while it awaits the result of its bid for the second DAB multiplex.

Major commercial radio groups have only just begun to cultivate their own online music communities, with their main focus centred on linear broadcasts to their 31 million UK listeners.

But the jury is out on the initial collaboration - The Worldwide Chart. Last.fm tracks and ranks what users listen to and - while a chart show based on their preferences might expose a UK audience to potentially new genres of world music - it feels counter-intuitive.

Successful chart show properties such as Hit40Uk are losing traction with audiences despite the inclusion of digital downloads. The reality is, chart shows represent the fading grandeur of the analogue world and are at odds with a peer-to-peer digital space.

The real potential for 4Radio lies in the technology and the enormous web community that Last.fm brings to the table. 4Radio can take content and applications to where consumers hang out, rather than simply expect them to tune in. Last.fm will track and share all the music 4Radio DJs are playing and allow 20 million Last.fm users to experience the 4Radio brand in their time and space.

Rather than becoming just a content island, this will enable 4Radio to interact with the web community, taking content to consumers and personalising their experience of the brand.

- Review by Jonathan Barrowman, head of radio, Initiative.