Last fm

Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed over 40 million active users based in more than 190 countries. On 30 May 2007,CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for US$280m.

Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the songs the user listens to, either from Internet radio stations, or the user's computer or many portable music devices. This information is transferred to Last.fm's database ("scrobbled") either via the music player itself (Rdio, Spotify, Amarok) or via a plugin installed into the user's music player. The profile data is then displayed on the user's profile page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user's favourites.

Initially users were able to create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library, and could listen to some individual tracks on demand, or download tracks if the rights holder has previously authorised it. However, the ability to listen to custom radio stations ('personal tag radio') was withdrawn on 17 November 2010 (Tag radio still exists but the criteria for calling up tracks has been widened). For users living outside the UK, US, and Germany, the radio service requires a subscription for €3.00 per month after a 30 track free trial, but since October 2010 subscribers were offered a refund due to the removal of the custom stations.

Features

User Accounts

The free user account includes access to all the main features listed below. Registered Users are also able to post in the Last.fm forums, send and receive private messages and use the Last.fm client music player. For users living outside the UK, US and Germany, the radio service will require a subscription for €3.00 per month after a 30 track free trial.

Profile

A Last.fm User can build up a musical profile using any or all of several methods: by listening to their personal music collection on a music player application on a computer or an iPod with an Audioscrobbler plugin, or by listening to the Last.fm internet radio service, either with the Last.fm client, or with the embedded flash player. All songs played are added to a log from which personal top artist/track bar charts and musical recommendations are calculated. This automatic track logging is called scrobbling.

Last.fm automatically generates a profile page for every user which includes basic information such as their user name, avatar, date of registration and total number of tracks played. This can be customized with additional information or photographs if desired but the fundamental layout cannot be changed. There is also a Shoutbox for public messages. Profile pages are visible to all, together with a list of top artists and tracks, and the 10 most recently played tracks (can be expanded). Each user's profile has a 'Taste-o-Meter' which gives a rating of how compatible your music taste is.

Profile pages can also include lists of friends, weekly musical "neighbours", favourite tags, groups and events. An optional customizable playlist may be also added, with tracks that the user wishes to share or promote. Other features include the ability to remove songs listened to within a 2 week time-frame, navigation to linked profiles (such as friends and musical neighbours) and a list of individual users' favourite albums.

A customizable display of Recently Played tracks, is now available via web services, allowing users to add them to blogs, MySpace or as forum signatures.

Recommendations

The most recent expanded service on Last.fm is a personal recommendations page known as "The Dashboard". This is only visible to the user concerned and lists suggested new music, events, journal entries and other people with similar tastes, all tailored to the user's own preferences.

Recommendations are calculated using a collaborative filtering algorithm so users can browse and hear previews of a list of artists not listed on their own profile but which appear on those of others with similar musical tastes. The page also lists music that has been directly recommended to the user and groups the user belongs to, journals written by users about artists the user listens to, and other users who have listened to similar music recently. There is also a 'recommendation radio' station which will play music specifically filtered based on the user's last week of listening. Last.fm also permits users to manually recommend specific artists, songs or albums to other users on their friends list or groups they belong to, providing the recommendation in question is included in the Last.fm database.

Groups

Last.fm allows the formation of user groups between users with something in common (for example, fans of an artist, a genre of music, or membership of another internet forum). Groups may be linked to artists and countries. Any user may start a group and add members. Most groups are open to all, but membership may be subject to approval by the Group Leader. Last.fm will generate a group profile similar to the users' profiles, showing an amalgamated set of data and charting the group's overall tastes. Individual groups have their own discussion forums and journal space, and a group radio station based on members' music profiles is automatically generated once a sufficient number of members have joined. Group members are also able to submit recommendations of artists or tracks to all the other members of their group.

Events

With the October 2006 update, events functionality was added, which lets users specify a location and a radius from the location, then suggests gigs or festivals that that user may want to see in the area. Users can set themselves as attending an event. Any registered user may add a new venue or event which will then be listed on the band or artist's main page, together with other details if available. There is also a facility to submit reviews and photographs of past events.

Subscriber accounts

Last.fm offers paid accounts, costing $3 per month. Some of the extra features that paid users receive are:

• No advertising
• The ability to view recent visitors to one's own profile page
• Priority on Last.fm server
• The ability to play Last.fm radio outside of the UK, US or Germany
• Access to radio on mobile apps and hardware devices

Xbox 360

On November 17, 2009, Last.fm was fully rolled out to all Xbox Live Gold members, after a 3 month successful trial to selected gold members via a redeemable code. The application may be downloaded from the Xbox 360 Dashboard. Users cannot listen whilst playing games; reasons for this are still unclear but point to Microsoft not allowing the application to use too much of system resources to allow maximum processing for games and live services.

Last.fm on the Xbox 360 is available only to players in the United States and United Kingdom, regardless of Last.fm or Xbox LIVE subscription status.

Microsoft announced that Last.fm for Xbox 360 will also be available in Germany soon.

Developer: CBS Interactive

website link: http://www.last.fm/

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