The early reports are coming in about adoption of the new update, and last.fm is reporting they saw a whopping nearly one million new users sign up for the service via Xbox Live in the U.S. and UK.
That boils down to almost 300 new users per minute over the course of the last week, which last.fm says is the biggest growth spurt they've ever seen since the service first launched back in 2002. Additionally, over 120 million minutes' worth of music has been streamed through last.fm on the console during that week. By all accounts, that's a huge success for last.fm and a big win for the Xbox 360 as en entertainment hub beyond gaming.
The stats are doubly impressive when considering the total volume of Xbox Live users is only about 20 million -- meaning almost 5% of them signed up for last.fm after the social integrations went live. Free Xbox Live Silver members only have access to a trial version of last.fm with a 180 minutes streaming limit, but paid Xbox Live Gold members have unlimited streaming access.
An additional last.fm subscription option at $3/month nets you ad-free, uninterrupted station listening, a view of recent profile visitors and a custom station of just the tracks you've loved (as well as member benefits on the last.fm site itself). Of course, it remains to be seen how many of those new signups will be converted to paid subscribers.