Last.fm facts for kids
 |
|
|
Type of site
|
Online music database, music recommendation, events, statistics, social networking service |
|---|---|
| Available in | Multilingual (12) |
| Owner | Paramount Global |
| Created by | Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, Michael Breidenbruecker, Thomas Willomitzer, Richard Jones |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free, with optional subscription |
| Launched | 20 March 2002 |
| Current status | Active |
Last.fm is a music website that started in the United Kingdom in 2002. It helps you discover new music based on what you already like. It does this by keeping track of the songs you listen to. This process is called "scrobbling."
When you "scrobble" a song, Last.fm records details about it. This can be from online radio, your computer, or portable music players. This information is sent to Last.fm's database. Many music apps like Spotify and Deezer can connect directly. Or, you can use a special program called a plug-in with your music player. All this data helps Last.fm create a detailed profile of your music taste. It also builds pages for different artists.
In 2007, a big company called CBS Corporation bought Last.fm. Today, CBS is part of Paramount Global. Last.fm used to offer a way to listen to music directly on its site, like an online radio. But this service stopped in 2014. Now, it mostly links to other places like YouTube and Spotify for listening to music.
Contents
How Last.fm Started
The Last.fm website we know today grew from two different projects. These were Last.fm and Audioscrobbler. They joined together in 2005.
Audioscrobbler began as a school project by Richard Jones in the UK. He wanted to find a way to track which songs people played on their computers. This allowed users to see charts of their favorite songs. It also helped them find new music based on what others with similar tastes enjoyed.
Audioscrobbler and Last.fm Join Forces (2002–2006)
Last.fm itself was started in 2002 by Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, Michael Breidenbruecker, and Thomas Willomitzer. They were from Germany and Austria. It began as an online radio station and a place for music fans to connect. It used music profiles to create special playlists for users. The name "Last.fm" uses the ".fm" part, which is a common internet address for radio-related sites.
Users could click "love" or "ban" buttons to tell Last.fm what they liked or disliked. This helped the site learn their music tastes. Last.fm won awards in 2002 and 2003 for its new ideas.
The Audioscrobbler and Last.fm teams started working closely. By 2003, Last.fm was fully connected with Audioscrobbler profiles. This meant you could send your listening data from either service. The old Audioscrobbler website fully became part of Last.fm in 2005.
In 2006, Last.fm got a big update. It added a new program to play its radio stations and record songs from other music players. The site also improved its friends system and added a "Dashboard." This dashboard showed users important information about their music. Last.fm also started offering its website in many different languages, like Japanese, German, and Spanish. In late 2006, Last.fm won an award for Best Community Music Site.
Being Bought by CBS and New Look (2007–2009)
In May 2007, news spread that CBS wanted to buy Last.fm. On May 30, 2007, it was announced that CBS had bought Last.fm for about £140 million (which was around US$280 million at the time). The original team stayed in charge.
In July 2008, Last.fm launched a completely new look for its website. It had a new design and colors. While some users didn't like the changes, CBS said that the new design helped the site get 20% more visitors.
Around 2009, there were some concerns about user data. Last.fm stated that it did not share personal listening information with outside groups.
Changes to Music Streaming (2009–2011)
In March 2009, Last.fm announced a change for free music streaming. Users outside the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany would soon need to pay a small monthly fee to listen to Last.fm Radio. This change started in April 2009. Many users were upset by this decision.
In 2010, Last.fm also removed the option to listen to full songs as previews. Instead, it linked to other sites like Hype Machine or MOG. This made some users sad, as they felt it made it harder for new artists to be discovered. Soon after, a new feature allowed artists to let users stream their songs in full.
Later in 2010, the ability to listen to custom radio stations (like "loved tracks radio") was also removed. Last.fm said this was due to music licensing rules.
Website and App Updates (2012–2013)
In March 2012, Last.fm had a security issue where some user accounts were affected. Last.fm let users know about this in June 2012. They worked to fix it and keep user information safe.
In 2012, Last.fm launched a new version of its desktop program for recording songs. It also released a new design for its website. Many tech websites liked the new look, but some users on the site's forums were not happy with the changes.
In December 2012, Last.fm announced that its radio service would stop for subscribers in most countries after January 2013. It would only continue in a few countries like the US, UK, and Germany. Even in those countries, using the radio in the desktop program would require a subscription.
End of Radio and New Look (2014–Present)
In January 2014, Last.fm added connections to Spotify and a new radio player that used YouTube. With the YouTube player, the regular radio service became only for paying subscribers.
On March 26, 2014, Last.fm announced it would completely stop its streaming radio service on April 28, 2014. They said they wanted to "focus on improving scrobbling and recommendations." This meant the site would no longer play music directly.
In 2015, Last.fm released a new website design for subscribers. Some users didn't like this new look. In 2016, a feature called Music Manager was stopped. This meant music uploaded by artists could no longer be accessed directly on the site.
Last.fm saw a small rise in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020. This was partly because of its use in music groups on Discord. Last.fm celebrated its 20th birthday in 2022. Many people have created special programs that connect Last.fm listening data with Discord.
How Last.fm Gets Money
Last.fm makes money by selling advertising space on its website. It also earns money from monthly subscriptions that some users choose to buy.
The original founders, Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, and Richard Jones, left the company in 2009.
Cool Features
User Accounts
A free user account on Last.fm lets you use all the main features. Registered users can also send private messages to each other.
Last.fm also has a "Last.fm Pro" account. This paid account offers extra features, like being able to change your username. You also get early access to new features.
Your Profile
You can build your music profile on Last.fm in a few ways. You can listen to your own music collection using a special program called an Audioscrobbler plugin. Or, you can listen to music on the Last.fm Internet radio service (when it was available). All the songs you play are saved in a log. This log helps Last.fm create charts of your favorite artists and songs. It also helps suggest new music for you. This automatic tracking of songs is called scrobbling.
Last.fm creates a profile page for every user. This page shows your username, picture, when you joined, and how many songs you've played. There's also a "Shoutbox" where people can leave public messages. Your profile page is visible to everyone. It shows your top artists and songs, and your 10 most recently played songs. Each profile also has a "Taste-o-Meter" that tells you how similar your music taste is to other users.
Music Suggestions
Last.fm has a special page just for you that suggests new music and events. These suggestions are made just for your music tastes. Last.fm uses a smart computer program to figure out these recommendations. This way, you can find new artists that are similar to what you already like, but that you haven't heard yet.
Artist Pages
When at least one user "scrobbles" a song by an artist, Last.fm automatically creates a main page for that artist. This page shows how many times their songs have been played and how many people have listened. It also lists their most popular songs, top listeners, and similar artists. There's a shoutbox for messages and links to events. You can also find official music videos from YouTube on these pages.
Users can add information about artists to their pages, like a wiki. People check these edits to make sure they are correct. You can also add a picture of the artist. If many pictures are submitted, the most popular one is chosen by votes.
Last.fm sometimes has trouble telling apart artists who have the same name. So, one artist page might be used for different artists with the same name.
Music Charts
One cool thing about Last.fm is that it automatically creates detailed music charts and statistics for you every week. These charts show your Top Artists, Top Tracks, and Top Albums. They are based on how many times you actually listen to a song, album, or artist.
Last.fm also has charts for the top songs by each artist and for individual albums. Artist profiles also show a list of "Top Fans." This list tries to show how important an artist is to a fan's music profile.
Sometimes, there can be mistakes in the charts. This happens because the information comes from the song files themselves. If a song title is spelled wrong or has strange punctuation, it might show up as a separate listing. This can make a song seem less popular than it is.
Global Charts
Last.fm also creates "global" charts every week. These charts show the top 400 artists and songs listened to by all Last.fm users around the world.
These charts are different from regular music charts you see on TV or in magazines. Those charts are often based on how many songs are sold or played on the radio. Last.fm charts show what people are actually listening to. For example, The Beatles are often a top band on Last.fm, showing that their music is still very popular even years after it was released. Big events, like a new album coming out or an artist passing away, can also make a big difference on these charts.
The Global Tag Chart shows the 100 most popular words (tags) used to describe artists, albums, and songs.
Radio Stations (Discontinued)
Last.fm used to offer special "radio stations." These were continuous streams of songs chosen from its music library. This service stopped on April 28, 2014.
You could create stations based on your own music profile, or on what your "musical neighbors" (people with similar tastes) or "friends" listened to. If enough music had the same tag, you could even create a radio station for that tag. You could also make stations based on a specific artist or artists similar to them.
With these radio stations, you couldn't pick specific songs or choose the order they played in. But you could skip songs or ban ones you didn't like. Last.fm paid money to the people who owned the music rights.
On March 24, 2009, Last.fm announced that most users outside the US, UK, and Germany would need to pay a monthly fee for Last.fm Radio. This change caused a lot of discussion among users.
Last.fm stopped all streaming and radio services on April 28, 2014. They said they wanted to focus on "scrobbling" and giving good music recommendations. However, the website still suggests music based on what you've listened to.
The Last.fm Player
Screenshot of the Windows client from 1.4.2.58893 Version (Early 2008).
|
|
| Developer(s) | Last.fm |
|---|---|
| Stable release |
2.1.37 / 22 March 2016
|
| Preview release |
2.1.35 / 6 March 2013
|
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Unix |
| Type | Media player |
| License | GNU General Public License |
Last.fm used to have a player built into its website. But if you wanted to record songs played from your own music collection, you needed to download and install the Last.fm program.
This program combined the music player with the part that sent your song data to Last.fm. It was free and worked on computers with Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.
The player showed you the station and song playing, the artist, title, and length. It also showed album details, artist photos, and lists of similar artists. You could click buttons to "love," "skip," or "ban" a song. "Loving" a song added it to your favorites. "Banning" a song meant it wouldn't play again. Both of these actions helped shape your music profile.
The Last.fm program also let you install other small programs (plugins). These plugins worked with other music players to send your listening data to Last.fm.
A new version of the desktop program came out in 2013. This version made the radio function only for paying users.
Last.fm has also made apps for mobile phones like iPhones and Android phones. These apps were mainly released in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.
Scrobbling
Besides Last.fm automatically tracking music from its own radio service, users can also send (scrobble) listening data from other music sites or from music played on their own devices. This means you can track music played on your computer, phone, tablet, or even special music players. In fact, this was the main way to scrobble music both before and after Last.fm had its own radio service.
Some music sites and players have scrobbling built-in. For others, you might need to download and install a plugin. This plugin automatically sends the artist and title of a song to Last.fm after you've listened to about half of it, or at least four minutes. If a song is very short (less than 30 seconds) or doesn't have proper information (like artist and title), it won't be recorded. If you're offline, the data can be saved and sent later when you connect to the internet.
Other Apps That Work With Last.fm
Supported Applications
- Build Last.fm
Since 2008, Last.fm has a "Build" section on its website. Here, other people can submit apps they've made that work with Last.fm. After a review, these apps can be shown on the page.
- SXSW Band-Aid
Last.fm worked with the SXSW festival to create a special app. This app helped festival-goers find artists performing at SXSW based on their Last.fm listening habits. It also suggested new artists they might like.
See also
- List of Internet radio stations
- List of online music databases
