Last.fm hasn’t become the cash cow that Warner Music executives hoped it would be, causing the company to withdraw their artists’ songs from the service. The move comes at a time when Last.fm is planning to roll out a new subscription service, which will bring more functionality to the site.

But the $$$ generated by Last.fm aren’t enough for the team at Warner Music, who have sited MySpace and Imeem as offering better deals to labels. And just to prove that greed still runs rife throughout the industry, Warner also wants money from the advertising revenue Last.fm pulls in when any of their artists are mentioned on the site.

The folks behind Last.fm remain optimistic that a deal will be thrashed out with Warner, but anyone looking to stream some free Zeppelin, Linkin Park, or Faith Hill songs will have to look elsewhere. [NY Times]