Comments on: Audioscrobbler vs. last.fm

Question: Audioscrobbler vs. last.fm

mathowie — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 13:54:40 -0800

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?

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:12:04 -0800

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

By: gleuschk

gleuschk — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:14:27 -0800

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.

By: ascullion

ascullion — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:15:41 -0800

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.

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:16:42 -0800

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.

By: ascullion

ascullion — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:17:22 -0800

I'm told Audioscrobbler was developed by two Brits and last.fm by a German..

By: borkencode

borkencode — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:23:04 -0800

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.

By: rafter

rafter — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:09:21 -0800

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.)

By: iconomy

iconomy — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:40:37 -0800

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.

By: dg

dg — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:06:20 -0800

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.

By: dg

dg — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:18:37 -0800

Except that you can join last.fm, which seems to give you automatic membership to audioscrobbler. I love back-doors.

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 18:09:27 -0800

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.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 19:27:02 -0800

dg is my hero.

By: Salmonberry

Salmonberry — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:55:40 -0800

He's mine too. We'll have to share.

By: ascullion

ascullion — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 03:46:29 -0800

Incidentally, does anyone else find audioscrobbler very hard to get going? (using mac itunes)

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 04:07:48 -0800

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/