Dr. Ravi Singh

WHO IS Last.fm?

Last.fm is a music service founded in the United Kingdom in 2002.

WHAT THEY DO?

Last.fm is music website that uses a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler” to build a detailed profile of each user's musical taste.

HOW THEY WORK?

Last.fm’s user account is free. Last.fm creates a detailed profile of each user's musical taste, by collecting details of the tracks the user listens to, either from online radio stations, computer, and portable music devices.

Last.fm’s free user account includes access to all the main features listed below. Registered Users are also able to send and receive private messages.

BEST PRACTICE:

Last.fm features a personal recommendations page that allows users to see lists of suggested new music and events based on their preferences.

Last.fm’s scrobbling allow users to build a profile by listening to your personal music collection on a music player application or Last.fm internet radio service. The songs listened to are added to a log from which personal top artist/track bar charts and musical recommendations are calculated.

HISTORY:

In 2002, Last.fm was founded in the United Kingdom.

In 2002, Last.fm won the Europrix and was nominated for the Prix Ars Electronica in 2003.

In 2003, Last.fm was fully integrated with Audioscrobbler profiles.

In 2004, Last.fm received the first round of angel money, from Peter Gardner, an investment banker and a second round from Stefan Glaenzer (joined by Joi Ito and Reid Hoffman).

In 2005, Last.fm and Audioscrobbler, which were merged.

In 2006, Last.fm received the first round of venture capital funding from European investors Index Ventures.

On July 14, 2006, an update to the site was made on Last.fm, including a new software for radio streams and for logging of tracks played with other media players.

In October 2006, Last.fm won Best Community Music Site at the BT Digital Music Awards in October.

In January 2007. Last.fm was nominated for Best Website at the NME Awards.

On May30, 2007, Last.fm was bought by CBS for £140 million.

In July 2008, Last.fm’s "new generation" was launched with a completely new layout, color scheme, and several new features.

On March 24, 2009, Last.fm announced a change in free stream listening policy.

On April 22, 2009, Last.fm Radio introduced a subscription of €3.00 per month.

On April 12, 2010, Last.fm removed the option to preview entire tracks.

On November 17, 2010, Last.fm removed the ability to listen to custom radio stations i.e. personal tag radio, loved tracks radio.

In March 2012, Last.fm was breached by hackers and more than 43 million user accounts were compromised.

On February 14, 2012, Last.fm announced that a new beta desktop client had been launched for public testing.

On June19, 2012, Last.fm launched Last.fm Originals, a new website featuring exclusive performances and interviews from various musical artists.

In January 2013, Last.fm discontinued radio service after to subscribers in all countries except the U.S, UK, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil

In January 2014, integrated with Spotify and a new YouTube-powered radio player.

On April 28, 2014, Last.fm discontinued their streaming radio service.

On April 15, 2015, Last.fm released a subscriber-exclusive beta of a new website redesign.

In 2016, Music Manager was discontinued and music uploaded to the site by musicians and record labels became inaccessible.

TIPS:

You can track the music you listen to by scrobbling via our desktop and mobile apps or by connecting to many of your favorite music services e.g. YouTube, android, iOS google play, tidal, SoundCloud, mixcloud, Bandcamp, and Spotify among others