Last.fm facts for kids
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Screenshot of the website homepage in December 2024
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Type of site
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Online music database, music recommendation, events, statistics, social networking service |
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| Available in | Multilingual (12) |
| Founded | United Kingdom |
| Owner | Paramount Skydance Corporation |
| 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. The site uses a special system called "Audioscrobbler." This system keeps track of the songs you listen to. It records details from your music players, like Spotify or Apple Music. This information is then sent to Last.fm's database.
This data helps create a detailed music profile just for you. It also builds pages for different artists. In 2007, CBS Corporation bought Last.fm. CBS is now part of Paramount Skydance Corporation. Last.fm used to offer a radio streaming service, but this stopped in 2014. Now, it provides links to songs on YouTube and Spotify instead.
Contents
How Last.fm Began
The Last.fm website we know today grew from two different projects. These were "Last.fm" and "Audioscrobbler." They joined together in 2005.
Audioscrobbler's Start
Audioscrobbler began as a computer science project. Richard Jones started it while studying in the United Kingdom. The word "scrobbling" means finding and sharing information about music people listen to. Jones created the first tools for this. He also made it possible for others to create tools that worked with many music players. Audioscrobbler first tracked songs played on computers. This helped create music charts and suggest new music.
Last.fm's Early Days
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Last.fm was founded in 2002 by Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, Michael Breidenbruecker, and Thomas Willomitzer. They were from Germany or Austria. It started as an online radio station and music community. It used music profiles to create custom playlists. The site's name uses ".fm," which is the internet address for Micronesia. This ending is popular for radio-related websites. Users could click "love" or "ban" buttons to shape their music profiles. Last.fm won awards in 2002 and 2003.
Joining Forces
The Audioscrobbler and Last.fm teams started working closely. They even moved into the same offices in London. By 2003, Last.fm was fully connected with Audioscrobbler profiles. Users could send their music data through either system. Both sites also shared many online discussion areas. On August 9, 2005, the original Audioscrobbler website officially became part of the new Last.fm site.
In July 2006, Last.fm updated its website. It added a new program for playing Last.fm radio. It also improved the friends system. Users now had a "Dashboard" to see all their profile information in one place. The site also added more ways to buy music online. It got a new look too.
Last.fm began offering its site in different languages in July 2006. It started with Japanese. Today, it is available in many languages, including German, Spanish, and French. In late 2006, Last.fm won an award for Best Community Music Site. In January 2007, it was nominated for Best Website at the NME Awards.
Being Bought by CBS
In April 2007, there were rumors that CBS wanted to buy Last.fm. On May 30, 2007, it was announced that CBS had bought Last.fm for about £140 million. The original Last.fm leaders stayed in charge. In July 2008, a "new generation" Last.fm was launched. It had a completely new design and new features. Some users did not like the changes, saying it was hard to use. However, CBS reported that the new design led to a 20% increase in visitors.
Last.fm helped launch Portishead's album Third on April 21, 2008. This was a week before it was officially released. It was available as a free stream on the website. Over 327,000 people listened in 24 hours. This was the first time Last.fm shared an album before its release.
In 2009, there were reports that the RIAA (a music industry group) asked Last.fm for user listening data. This was to find people with unreleased songs. Last.fm denied sharing any personal data. The reports were linked to a leaked U2 album.
Changes to Music Access
On March 24, 2009, Last.fm changed its free streaming rules. Outside the US, UK, and Germany, listening to Last.fm Radio required a monthly payment. This change made many users upset.
On April 12, 2010, Last.fm removed the option to listen to full songs. Instead, it sent users to other sites like Hype Machine or MOG. This decision also made some users unhappy. They felt it made it harder for new artists to get noticed. A new feature was added later, letting artists choose songs for users to stream fully.
On November 17, 2010, the ability to listen to custom radio stations was removed. Last.fm said this was due to licensing rules.
Website Updates
In March 2012, Last.fm had a security issue. Over 43 million user accounts were affected by hackers. Last.fm told users about the attack in June 2012.
On February 14, 2012, Last.fm launched a new test version of its desktop program. This new program was released for everyone on January 15, 2013.
On July 12, 2012, Last.fm announced a new website design. It officially launched for all users on August 2, 2012. While tech websites liked the new look, many users on the site's forums were not happy.
On June 19, 2012, Last.fm started "Last.fm Originals." This new website featured special performances and interviews with musicians.
On December 13, 2012, Last.fm announced it would stop its radio service in most countries after January 2013. In some countries, like the US and UK, radio in the desktop program would require a payment. However, website radio would remain free in those countries.
Radio Service Ends
In January 2014, Last.fm added connections to Spotify and a new YouTube-powered radio player. With the YouTube player, the regular radio service became only for paying users.
On March 26, 2014, Last.fm announced it would stop its streaming radio service completely on April 28, 2014. The company said it wanted to "focus on improving scrobbling and recommendations."
In April 2015, Last.fm released a test version of another new website design for paying users. Many users on the site's forums did not like this redesign.
In 2016, the "Music Manager" feature was stopped. Music uploaded by artists and labels became unavailable.
Last.fm saw a small increase in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020. This was partly because it became popular in music groups on Discord. Last.fm celebrated its 20th birthday in 2022. Other developers have created programs that connect Last.fm listening data with Discord.
How Last.fm Makes Money
Last.fm Ltd earns money by selling online ads. It also gets money from monthly payments by users who choose to subscribe.
What You Can Do on Last.fm
User Accounts
A free user account lets you use all the main features. Registered users can also send private messages. Last.fm Pro is a paid account that offers extra features. These include changing your username and editing your scrobbles. You also get early access to new features.
Your Profile Page
You can build your music profile by listening to music on your computer or a portable device. You can also listen to Last.fm's online radio. All the songs you play are saved. This helps create your personal music charts and suggestions.
Last.fm automatically creates a profile page for you. It shows your username, picture, and how many songs you've played. There's also a "Shoutbox" for public messages. Your profile page is visible to everyone. It shows your top artists and songs. It also has a "Taste-o-Meter" that shows how similar your music taste is to others.
Music Suggestions
Last.fm has a special page just for you with music suggestions. This page is private. It lists new music and events that match your taste. These suggestions are made using a "collaborative filtering" method. This means it looks at what people with similar music tastes to yours are listening to.
Artist Pages
When at least one user "scrobbles" a song by an artist, Last.fm creates a main artist page. This page shows how many times the artist's songs have been played. It also shows the most popular songs and listeners. You can find similar artists and popular tags here. There's also a shoutbox for messages. You can find links to events, albums, and song pages. Music videos from YouTube can also be watched on artist and song pages.
Users can add information about artists to their pages. This is like a wiki, where people can contribute. These edits are checked to make sure they are correct. You can also add a photo of the artist. If many photos are added, the most popular one is chosen by votes.
Last.fm sometimes has trouble telling artists with the same name apart. This means one artist profile might be shared by different artists.
Music Charts
Last.fm automatically creates detailed personal music charts and statistics each week. These charts help build your profile. You can see charts for your Top Artists, Top Tracks, and Top Albums. These charts are based on how many times you've listened to each.
Charts are also available for the top songs by each artist. Artist profiles also show a list of "Top Fans." This list shows users who listen to that artist a lot.
Sometimes, there can be errors in the charts. This happens if song titles or artist names are misspelled. For example, songs with confusing punctuation might be listed separately. This can make a song seem less popular than it is.
Global Charts
Last.fm also creates weekly "global" charts. These show the top 400 artists and songs listened to by all Last.fm users.
These charts are different from regular music charts. Regular charts are based on radio plays or sales. Last.fm charts change more slowly. A new album might stay popular on Last.fm for months or years. For example, The Beatles are often in the top five bands on Last.fm. This shows their music stays popular even without new album sales. Big events, like a new album release or an artist's death, can greatly affect the charts.
The Global Tag Chart shows the 100 most popular tags used to describe artists, albums, and songs. This is based on how many times users have used a tag.
Radio Stations (Discontinued)
Last.fm used to offer custom "radio stations." These played songs chosen from its music library without stopping. This service was stopped on April 28, 2014.
You could create stations based on your profile or your "musical neighbors." You could also make stations based on tags. You could skip or ban songs you didn't like. Last.fm paid money to the people who owned the music. The radio stream used an MP3 format. You could play it using the website player or the Last.fm program.
On March 24, 2009, Last.fm announced that radio access would cost money for users outside the US, UK, and Germany. This change made many users upset.
Even though streaming stopped, the website still gives you music suggestions. These are based on the music you already listen to.
Last.fm Player
Screenshot of the Windows client from version 1.4.2.58893 (early 2008).
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| Developer(s) | Last.fm |
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2.1.37 / 22 March 2016
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| Preview release |
2.1.35 / 6 March 2013
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| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix |
| Type | Media player |
| License | GNU General Public License |
Last.fm provides a player built into its website. However, if you want to track music played from your own collection, you need to download the Last.fm program.
The Last.fm program is the only official way to stream custom Last.fm radio on desktop computers. It combines the music player with the tool that sends your music data to Last.fm. It is free software and works on Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows computers.
The player lets you type in an artist or tag name. It then offers different radio stations based on that. You can also play your personal recommendation radio.
The player shows the song playing, the artist, title, and length. It also shows album details, artist photos, and album art. You can see lists of similar artists and top fans. Buttons let you "love," "skip," or "ban" a song. "Loving" a song adds it to a special list. "Banning" a song means it won't play again.
The program also lets you install tools that connect with other music players. This allows you to send tracks played in those programs to Last.fm.
A new version of the desktop program was released on January 15, 2013. This version required a paid subscription to use the radio feature.
Last.fm also made apps for mobile phones like iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. These apps were only available in certain countries.
On June 10, 2014, Last.fm had a long outage. The website was down for over 22 hours.
Scrobbling Your Music
Besides tracking music from Last.fm's radio, you can also "scrobble" listening data from other places. This includes music played on your computer, phone, or other devices. Scrobbling was always the main way to track music, even before Last.fm radio existed.
Some music sites and players can automatically scrobble your listening data. For others, you need to download and install a special tool. This tool automatically sends the artist and title of a song. It sends the info after half the song has played, or after the first four minutes. If a song is shorter than 30 seconds or has no information, it won't be sent. You can also save data and send it all at once. This is helpful for people with slower internet.
Other Apps That Work With Last.fm
Apps for Last.fm
- Build Last.fm
Since March 2008, Last.fm has a "Build" section. Here, other companies can submit apps that work with Last.fm.
- SXSW Band-Aid
Last.fm worked with the SXSW festival. They created an app that filtered artists at the festival based on a user's listening habits. It also suggested new artists the user might like.
See also
In Spanish: Last.fm para niños
- List of Internet radio stations
- List of online music databases
