Audioscrobbler vs. last.fm

July 26, 2004 1:54 PM

Does anyone know the relationship between audioscrobbler and last.fm? More »

Someone sent me a note saying how much they liked my last.fm music, even though I've never been there or signed up. I found my user page there, which is exactly like my audioscrobbler user page, but nothing on either site indicates a link between the two sites.

Is Last.fm just audioscrobbler data + a listen preview added?

posted by mathowie to media & arts (15 comments total)

i guess maybe you've already looked at this, but fyi the whois info is different. audioscrobbler's contact is someone called richard jones in southampton, while last.fm is connected to michel breidenbruecker in london (both uk).

.fm whois at www.dot.fm
posted by andrew cooke at 2:12 PM on July 26, 2004

Is Last.fm just audioscrobbler data + a listen preview added?

Yep, mostly, though it looks like you can also submit tracks yourself. But your audioscrobbler plugin does it automatically.

The two sites are run by the same people, on the same servers.
posted by gleuschk at 2:14 PM on July 26, 2004

There is a connection, or at least, they're run from the same office in East London and (I think) share the same servers. Although I'm pretty sure the ideas were developed separately, it seems reasonable to assume they're working together in some regard now.
posted by ascullion at 2:15 PM on July 26, 2004

OK, freaky, mine's on there too. From their tutorial page, it looks like anything you submit to Audioscrobbler is automatically sent to them; but also added to your Last.FM profile are tracks you listen to via their streaming radio service. At the bottom of every Last.FM page, there's a link inviting you to download an Audioscrobbler plugin.

On preview, Gleuschk beat me to it.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:16 PM on July 26, 2004

I'm told Audioscrobbler was developed by two Brits and last.fm by a German..
posted by ascullion at 2:17 PM on July 26, 2004

They started as individual projects, but merged since they were working on the same problem from opposite ends.

Audioscrobbler is designed to give you recomendations based on what you listen to.
Last.fm is designed to let you listen to new things you might like based on what it knows you like.
posted by borkencode at 2:23 PM on July 26, 2004

Even mathowie scrobbles? Why, then, does the Mefi Group only have 3 members? How about let's all join up, and put an end to "What music is everyone listening to?" threads once and for all (or at least reduce them to a one-link answer).

(By the way, you could have used google.)
posted by rafter at 4:09 PM on July 26, 2004

My userpage at last.fm (which I had never heard of until now) is a lot nicer-looking than the one at audioscrobbler. But who are my "neighbors" and what makes them my neighbors? I have no idea who any of those people are.
posted by iconomy at 4:40 PM on July 26, 2004

How about let's all join up, and put an end to "What music is everyone listening to?" threads once and for all ...

I tried, but:

New accounts are currently unavailable
We are investigating exactly how many more accounts we can handle with the current hardware.

posted by dg at 5:06 PM on July 26, 2004

Except that you can join last.fm, which seems to give you automatic membership to audioscrobbler. I love back-doors.
posted by dg at 5:18 PM on July 26, 2004

From Audioscrobbler's FAQ:

What is the relationship between Audioscrobbler and Last.fm?
Last.fm is a 'profile radio station'. It adapts what songs it plays based on your musical profile. Last.fm is run by the same team that run Audioscrobbler, your profile and login details should work on both sites. We are planning how best to share certain features and community aspects between the two sites, but this is still work-in-progress.

posted by waxpancake at 6:09 PM on July 26, 2004

dg is my hero.
posted by smackfu at 7:27 PM on July 26, 2004

He's mine too. We'll have to share.
posted by Salmonberry at 12:55 AM on July 27, 2004

Incidentally, does anyone else find audioscrobbler very hard to get going? (using mac itunes)
posted by ascullion at 3:46 AM on July 27, 2004

one of the developers of both audioscrobbler and last.fm is pretty active in the winamp community, so i've talked to him a bit about their work. if i remember right, there's also a slight involvement with intelligent mp3 tagging software, musicbrainz. i'd ask him about it, but he's on vacation at the moment. :o/
posted by lotsofno at 4:07 AM on July 27, 2004