Issue under the microscope: LAST.FM

On last weeks show, I discussed the purpose and functions of one of my favourite websites LAST.FM.

LAST.FM is an online community for music lovers, founded in 2002. It claims over 30 million active users in more than 200 countries. The website includes the standard features of a social networking website such as friend requests, wall posting and a private messaging system. However, its primary purpose is to set up a music library detailing each members listening habits, by storing information about all the music they consume on their computer, ipod and other mp3 devices.


After signing up an account to LAST.FM, users must download and install a plugin, known as the "Audioscrobbler", which connects their music player (i.e. iTunes, Windows Media Player etc) to the website. LAST.FM will then automatically submit the artist and song title to your profile page, as you are listening to it, as seen in the picture above.

LAST.FM keeps a track record of the number of songs you've listened to since becoming a member. Since becoming a user in April 2006, I have listened to a total of 84,710 tracks! LAST.FM continually ranks the music you listen to in order of the number of times you have listened to particular songs and/or artists. You can see which songs/artists you've listened to the most in the past 7 days, the last 3 months, the last 6 months, the last 12 months and overall.


Above shows my top 10 overall listened to artists, and their play counts. No surprises with who pops up really!


Above in Table 1 is my top 10 listened to artists of the past 3 months (notice the different time periods you can select at the top, and the "see more" option at the bottom which can extend the table to show all artists). Table 2 shows my top 10 listened to tracks for the past 7 days.

Every artist/song has its own page where you can view the number of times they have been listened to by all LAST.FM users. These pages also have a "wall" where you can leave comments about the artist/song. Artist pages rank the artist's songs in order of their popularity amongst users. Taken from Michael Jackson's page:


As you can see, the most listened Michael Jackson song by LAST.FM users for the past week is "Billie Jean" with 22,751 spins.

On a social networking level, LAST.FM is great for recommending "friends" who share similar musical tastes with you. These are known as "Neighbours", and it's a great way of making online friends who share a passion for the same kind of music that you do. When you browse another user's page, it will list the common artists you share with that user, and provide a musical compatibility rating of low, very low, medium, high, very high and SUPER! This is one of my favourite features. Here is my compatibility rating with The Fool and the Opera presenter Dan Vo and Diff'rent Strokes presenter David Lim...no suprises here either!


LAST.FM also recommends you artists and videos that are in sync with your musical tastes - a great way of discovering artists you may not have otherwise noticed. There is also LAST.FM radio which allows you to stream your friend's playlists! You can also write journals, create groups, and event pages for upcoming concerts, festivals etc.

As you can see, LAST.FM is a fantastic service for people who are passionate about the music they listen to, and want to keep a record of their listening habits. Register an account today and start scrobbling your tracks! If you are a member, or are becoming one, make sure to join the Sound Museum group so we can see what our listeners are listening to. Happy listening!