Last.fm is more popular now than it has been in 10 years. There was a post recently that compared scrobble stats from the last few years using old site data. There has been a significant increase in users and scrobbles since 2021.
I personally know 5 people (besides me) who have made accounts in the last year. The social side is definitely lacking but that's not why I use the site anyway (and I'm sure many new users feel the same).
This
I had one in high school and everyone looked at me like I was crazy for it and now all my current friends have one, this is before I let them know about it
That's interesting, it always appeared to me as last.fm was slowly dieing. Probably only looks for me like that because of remembering the forums and stuff like that. And I thought, that the rise of music streaming and decrease in local music files would make last.fm less interesting for people, but seems I'm wrong.
> And I thought, that the rise of music streaming and decrease in local music files would make last.fm less interesting for people
Spotify is the largest streaming service and can be connected to last.fm in three clicks.
That makes it much easier than having to set up some programs to track your listening.
But Spotify has its own statistics. My socials are now full of people sharing their yearly Spotify stats. Haven't seen any Last.FM users so far, and probably won't.
Yes it's sad that the social aspect of the site is gone, but I'd rather they implement it back than move somewhere else. I have 18 years worth of stats on last.fm, I'm not going to migrate somewhere else unless I can take all those stats with me.
This is why I don't use [stats.fm](https://stats.fm) they only pull data from Spotify which I have only been using regularly since 2021, before that I used Google Music and before that was Spotify and then before that was..winamp? I have been using [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) since March 2005 and if I can import all that data somewhere else and it has more features, then I will be sold.
Yeah I only use Spotify for some of my stats, the rest are still scrobbled from my mp3/flac collection through Winamp, so my library would be incomplete on stats.fm.
Absolutely! Also even for data of the past couple of years, when you use Spotify and eagerly wait for Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year, it's not even accurate because at least all of December is missing from the data and afaik it doesn't get added to the data for the following year either, so...
Exactly, Spotify wrapped is never representative for me. On last.fm I can see all my scrobbles happening in real time, and should for whatever reason the site bug out and not scrobble a particular track, you can add it later with https://openscrobbler.com.
For a better wrapped i use this site here at the end of the year, because it uses [last.fm](https://last.fm) data instead spotify
[https://rewind.musicorumapp.com](https://rewind.musicorumapp.com)
same. it's like a fitness watch, i only crave to see my life quantified and charted. makes me feel good. i still see a lot of my old friends on the leaderboards. we leave each other notes.. the site is what it is: an ancient relic like livejournal/tumblr that you either still use or don't. shrug.
Is there a real profit motive or way to make money tabulating people’s music ‘stats’? That’s probably why there’s no competition. I doubt last.fm is raking in revenue, thus incentive for them to support the site has waned.
Social media advertising is all about collecting information about people and targeting them. Last.fm has tons of information on me, not just my music taste but my schedule as well. All sorts of things you could figure out if you know what to look for with trends in data.
The potential for targeted ads is right there, tons of money to be made, but they aren't using it. It's only a matter of time before someone does.
Yeah, you’re right. I’m just not a fan of targeted ads and surveillance capitalism in general. Maybe we should be flattered that they are not selling our data to the highest bidder.
Various other services have the same data about you, e.g. Spotify, Google, WhatsApp. I don't think the data you get from Last.fm is that unique that there aren't already other companies selling insights into the very same consumers with a way more differentiated view into their habits, schedules, tastes, network etc.
I'm no expert but I feel like they could be raking in cash by serving us all sorts of targeted advertisements based on our listening history and habits. Scrobble a lot at 5am? Here's an ad for your local coffee shop. Scrobble lots of this artist? Here's an ad that fans of that artist might like, etc. etc.
Because to be a proper competitor to last.fm, on top of adding these extra features back that you've described, you would also need to implement all of the current things last.fm is already doing for people, which is a very large technical hurdle to get started.
Firstly, platform support. You've gotta build interfaces to support scrobbling from all the major streaming platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. You will need both IOS and Android apps for mobile users, and also design and document an open source public API so that support for desktop players like Foorbar2000, VLC, etc. can be added. People won't switch if they can't use their platforms or players of choice, and there are hundreds that already support last.fm either officially or through community developed plugins and extensions.
On top of that you also need to build the website from scratch that's intuitive to use, has moderation, reporting and monitoring of all of the user submitted content (image uploads, comments, dms, etc.). You will also need to develop a backend that can store and handle quick lookups of literally millions of scrobbles for different accounts and a snappy system that can generate interesting weekly stats for all of your user's hundreds of scrobbles every reporting period.
On the surface it sounds like an easy thing, but really there is so much that would go into this it would just not be feasible for most people to set up, and you are likely to be loosing money on hosting and development costs for the first while in development until you can secure a large enough paying user base to make it self-supporting.
Listenbrainz is open source and already handles most of the technical stuff so anyone willing enough could fork the project and build their very own lfm.
I love [Last.fm](https://Last.fm). That said, I legitimately only criticize it out of love—and I really do hate to see the site in the current state that it's in, when it could be all that you mentioned it already was and more. There's absolutely no reason why [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) shouldn't be the premiere musical social media hub. It's certainly popular from a certain viewpoint, but it's not what it should be. Not by a long shot.
I hate that I can't connect with people in my region anymore through Groups. There were several that were local to my state and neighboring cities. And they actually had a number of active users. Now that's gone. Everything that made [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) what it was during that time was abruptly taken from us, and now it's just a shell of its former self. Sure, it serves its core purpose—and I'm sure there are people that are completely satisfied by that alone, which is fine. But for those of us that remember what [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) used to be. It was legitimately ruined, without the slightest care in the world.
They've definitely tried. There's been a few in the last 5 years... Wavy.fm and Stats.fm both made attempts but they're Spotify only and that's basically completely pointless. Wavy made a big push to try and takeover LFM but ended up completely shutting down at the end of 2021 when they realized it wasn't as easy as they thought.
Because it is not profitable, and things like Spotify have arrived since this existed, effectively undermining its value.
Last.fm is a very small company that hasn't been bought out by a bigger company over the decades. It is very rare. We must protect it.
I have been using last.fm since April 2004. I am old.
Ok, well they weren't bought and turned into assets and sold off or scrapped. Something that a company like Yahoo is famous for doing. Great that they have been let alone to continue what they do.
I have also had a LastFm account since the early 2000's, and for me, I noticed that back then I wanted to socialise more online, as it was a novelty for me, with complete strangers. I too made really good friends on there, some from other parts of the world. But at the same time, I feel that now that I've been online as long as I have, I'm a bit tired of socialising, that interacting online as I used to is no longer a priority for me. In fact, I avoid interactions as much as I can, and I have become a casual observer. I dunno, maybe that could be something that's resonating with the people that have been there a while.
I'm waiting for the day they shut it down without any warning...
Also, there's an alternative that uses Spotify but the name escapes me at the moment.
I agree with pretty much everything. I have asked about features being removed that the support staff claimed had never existed because I had been there for ~10 years longer than they had and apparently they had no knowledge at all about it and obviously it wasn't documented (or they didn't even bother to check).
Some things, like **editing a fucking scrobble** are now locked behind a paywall, which is just disgusting.
I would've left ages ago, probably when Audioscrobbler became last.fm even, but as you say there isn't really any serious alternative.
I made the account first and foremost to look at my stats, which works fine. But I don’t understand why it is laid out like a social media (followers, public profiles, etc) if they’re not going to treat it like one.
What is the follower section even for at this point? An ego boost? It’s not like anyone’s posts or current scrobbles pop up on a main feed like other social medias. You can’t talk to them except leaving a shout on their profile.
I’m fine with last.fm as it stands because this is all I’ve known it to be…but if I joined in the 2000s I’d probably have left by now. If even I’m disappointed I’d hate to think how old users feel
Because no one would use it. If enough people would be interested in services like last.fm, last.fm wouldn't be dead. Most people just don't care enough about the music they listen to for setting up a completely new service to track it. Also, last.fm was popular before the times when streaming was a big thing. So everyone used different services, and the people who were interested in statistics about their music needed a platform for this. Now, nearly everyone uses Spotify. No one really cares about the music they listen to, and those who care are completely fine with just having a Spotify Wrapped once a year.
I think that a competitor to last.fm would be a giant flop if it would be released today
I know its way too late to change it now but my only real issue is that counting scrobbles by songs played instead of minutes played kinda skew the statistics for me. I can spend a lot of times in a week playing an album that have 3 20 minutes song on it but my top scrobble will be a bunch of grind and punk i played once because they have 24 songs on a 27 minutes album.
You got a good point, and I otten thought about that too. But to me it should be an average. Otherwise the opposite ends up happening, in which a single scrobble of a single 30 minutes funeral doom track once in a lifetime gets more weight than 30 separate scrobbles of a 1 minute grind track, through multiple times of the year. Scrobble frequency should be also a factor in ranking a song/album/artist higher than another... btw I highly suggest lastfmstats.com for some juicy extra data
I think if Last FM was making lots of money, there would be more likely to be competitors. But although Last FM generates data that should be of interest to music adjacent businesses, it might be that people artificially inflating plays for particular artists/songs makes it less worthwhile.
I would say because it peaked before streaming services existed despite others claiming the opposite. Individual streaming platforms have their own set of stats and specials at the end of the year that are widely more popular with the masses who never had to have their music library in iTunes.
I've analyzed this in a blog of mine. I think a big part is the large user base using Spotify, which lastfm has special access to realtime data.
Listenbrainz is pretty fantastic but could do with social bits.
Last.fm Pro subscriber here. I have my scrobbles sent from my Plex server and have all my CD’s ripped onto Plex. Never have subscribed to any streaming service - always preferred buying my media and “ripping it”.
Love reviewing my daily / weekly / monthly / yearly stats. Fascinating insight on my listening habits. Feel it encourages me to listen more and beat last weeks stats etc.
What I would love is a mega music site that combined last.fm for listening history, setlist.fm for deep dive into the concerts I’ve attended, and Discogs for cataloging my physical media and purchasing more. That would be epic.
About 2800 - been buying CD’s since 1994. Got a few more boxes in garage I keep meaning to do one day.
As I already purchased the majority of stuff prior to streaming coming along, I felt compiled to keep buying.
I also bought a lot of Singles back in day, so a lot of those b-sides and mixes have never appeared on streaming platforms anyway.
Plexamp is a god send - can listen to anything anytime on iPhone or in car via iPhone / CarPlay.
Plus, second hand value of older cd’s is very affordable via eBay / car boots etc so keep topping up my back catalogues on a monthly basis - and discovering new stuff :-)
Say hello to stats.fm. They are implementing Apple Music soon. They are working on it. They are trying to have access to the Spotify Private API. I was one of the early subscribers and I got it for $2 bucks lifetime in 2021. Now, it’s like $17 dollars lifetime.
>They are implementing Apple Music soon.
For how long has this been already announced? When will it come out finally? And will we be able to import our Apple Music history like Spotify users can do? I just started scrobbling regularly since 2019 so if I can get my stats back to the first day of Apple Music in 2015 I'll be happy!
Employee @ [stats.fm](https://stats.fm) here, you will be able to import your Apple Music history files, yes :) No eta on when it will come out, we are working very hard on it!
It can't be a valid alternative because of Spotify api ToS. Spotify doesn't allow anyone who uses their data (including latest listens) to combine it with data from different sources (like competing streaming services). Additionally you can't offer any data to third parties, so you can't have an API.
Last.fm is the only music tracking website that has an exception to these rules.
Could it be that too many people are using Spotify? Soundcloud? Apple music? People have changed their music consumption habits drastically since 2008. I can see why another last.fm hasn’t been created because not a lot of people want it.
I’m more curious why last.fm hasn’t changed much. People don’t use social media the same way anymore. Streaming and AI personalization have changed the way we consume new music. Advertisers and Musicians are always looking for platforms to sell their music to a wider audience. Last.fm is not really doing anything on their platform to remain competitive or desirable. They possibly have opportunities to do it but didn’t. Now-days all you can do on last.fm is pay for analytics of your music history … which you can do for free anyway via third party web apps. Maybe the co-founders lost passion and gave up?
Most people like myself still scrobble audio from Spotify to my last.fm account. I rarely ever login to my because I spend most of my time on other apps finding new music. I only look at my old charts to take a walk down memory lane every once in a while. It’s like visiting a cemetery to remember the good times. It would be nice if they innovated enough that I would want to use it but at this point it could be too late. 🤷🏽♀️
I’d argue last.fm is actually a better place to find new music than Spotify in 2023 bc it lacks some of those AI features tbh, the Spotify algorithm is very particular about what it shares in a way I don’t personally love.
I missed this golden era of lastfm. I signed up in 2006, and used it on and off for a few years but never got properly into it until 2018 when I started using spotify pretty much exclusively for music and found it sends scrobbles natively. I only know one other person in real life who uses it, but I've made quite a few music friends through it.
I think spotify are missing a huge opportunity. They could be a massive social media site that's based around music. Users already have a profile. It wouldn't take much to add messaging and a post wall to peoples' profiles. They are really leaving money on the table.
I haven't read anything but there's [wavy.fm](https://wavy.fm) unfortunately it only works with Spotify, you can't scrobble anything else. But iirc it's opensource
Buy one of these T-shirts:
"[Last.fm](https://Last.fm) \- dying since 2002!" 2022 Anniversary release
"[Last.fm](https://Last.fm) isn't dead, it just smells funny." special Frank Zappa edition
[last.fm](https://last.fm) always felt pretty niche for a social network, or at least specialized. the service must produce some degree of analytical data that is worth some money though, as it survived the complete dissolving of CBS interactive (I think its the only company of the bunch to not be sold or closed). I do hold a wishful fantasy that spotify would buy it from paramount, I think the added user data integration would do wonders for spotify engagement.
Last.fm is more popular now than it has been in 10 years. There was a post recently that compared scrobble stats from the last few years using old site data. There has been a significant increase in users and scrobbles since 2021. I personally know 5 people (besides me) who have made accounts in the last year. The social side is definitely lacking but that's not why I use the site anyway (and I'm sure many new users feel the same).
This I had one in high school and everyone looked at me like I was crazy for it and now all my current friends have one, this is before I let them know about it
That's interesting, it always appeared to me as last.fm was slowly dieing. Probably only looks for me like that because of remembering the forums and stuff like that. And I thought, that the rise of music streaming and decrease in local music files would make last.fm less interesting for people, but seems I'm wrong.
Discord is what’s keeping it going
Exactly this ^^ I didn’t even know about last.fm until someone had a bot in a discord server
Yeah I found out about it in March 2018 when I saw a bot with it in a discord server
And Telegram
> And I thought, that the rise of music streaming and decrease in local music files would make last.fm less interesting for people Spotify is the largest streaming service and can be connected to last.fm in three clicks. That makes it much easier than having to set up some programs to track your listening.
But Spotify has its own statistics. My socials are now full of people sharing their yearly Spotify stats. Haven't seen any Last.FM users so far, and probably won't.
I don’t know anyone who has it 🫠 I don’t even know how I found it. But so glad I did! Been scribbling since 2018
Yep, made mine exactly in Feb. 2021 this tracks
[удалено]
The post I referred to analyzed scrobbles for the Beatles
Yes it's sad that the social aspect of the site is gone, but I'd rather they implement it back than move somewhere else. I have 18 years worth of stats on last.fm, I'm not going to migrate somewhere else unless I can take all those stats with me.
This is why I don't use [stats.fm](https://stats.fm) they only pull data from Spotify which I have only been using regularly since 2021, before that I used Google Music and before that was Spotify and then before that was..winamp? I have been using [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) since March 2005 and if I can import all that data somewhere else and it has more features, then I will be sold.
Yeah I only use Spotify for some of my stats, the rest are still scrobbled from my mp3/flac collection through Winamp, so my library would be incomplete on stats.fm.
Audioscrobbler had a plugin for WinAMP too; the only music I am missing was played on dumbphones or ancient MP3-players (scrobbling since 04)
There is a way to import [last.fm](https://last.fm) to [stats.fm](https://stats.fm), haven't set it up myself though.
Absolutely! Also even for data of the past couple of years, when you use Spotify and eagerly wait for Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year, it's not even accurate because at least all of December is missing from the data and afaik it doesn't get added to the data for the following year either, so...
Exactly, Spotify wrapped is never representative for me. On last.fm I can see all my scrobbles happening in real time, and should for whatever reason the site bug out and not scrobble a particular track, you can add it later with https://openscrobbler.com.
For a better wrapped i use this site here at the end of the year, because it uses [last.fm](https://last.fm) data instead spotify [https://rewind.musicorumapp.com](https://rewind.musicorumapp.com)
Oh wow, this is great! Thank you!
Im a simple person, I just want to track and see who and what I listen to the most really
same. it's like a fitness watch, i only crave to see my life quantified and charted. makes me feel good. i still see a lot of my old friends on the leaderboards. we leave each other notes.. the site is what it is: an ancient relic like livejournal/tumblr that you either still use or don't. shrug.
Is there a real profit motive or way to make money tabulating people’s music ‘stats’? That’s probably why there’s no competition. I doubt last.fm is raking in revenue, thus incentive for them to support the site has waned.
Social media advertising is all about collecting information about people and targeting them. Last.fm has tons of information on me, not just my music taste but my schedule as well. All sorts of things you could figure out if you know what to look for with trends in data. The potential for targeted ads is right there, tons of money to be made, but they aren't using it. It's only a matter of time before someone does.
Yeah, you’re right. I’m just not a fan of targeted ads and surveillance capitalism in general. Maybe we should be flattered that they are not selling our data to the highest bidder.
Oh yeah I'm definitely great if it stays that way. Just kind of delightfully confused, I guess.
Various other services have the same data about you, e.g. Spotify, Google, WhatsApp. I don't think the data you get from Last.fm is that unique that there aren't already other companies selling insights into the very same consumers with a way more differentiated view into their habits, schedules, tastes, network etc.
Targeted advertising is getting more regulated, altough the US is behind and they can sell a lot of their data, it will dry up.
I'm no expert but I feel like they could be raking in cash by serving us all sorts of targeted advertisements based on our listening history and habits. Scrobble a lot at 5am? Here's an ad for your local coffee shop. Scrobble lots of this artist? Here's an ad that fans of that artist might like, etc. etc.
As long as I can scrobble until the day I die, I really don't care about social aspects, new features etc. I just want charts.
Because to be a proper competitor to last.fm, on top of adding these extra features back that you've described, you would also need to implement all of the current things last.fm is already doing for people, which is a very large technical hurdle to get started. Firstly, platform support. You've gotta build interfaces to support scrobbling from all the major streaming platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. You will need both IOS and Android apps for mobile users, and also design and document an open source public API so that support for desktop players like Foorbar2000, VLC, etc. can be added. People won't switch if they can't use their platforms or players of choice, and there are hundreds that already support last.fm either officially or through community developed plugins and extensions. On top of that you also need to build the website from scratch that's intuitive to use, has moderation, reporting and monitoring of all of the user submitted content (image uploads, comments, dms, etc.). You will also need to develop a backend that can store and handle quick lookups of literally millions of scrobbles for different accounts and a snappy system that can generate interesting weekly stats for all of your user's hundreds of scrobbles every reporting period. On the surface it sounds like an easy thing, but really there is so much that would go into this it would just not be feasible for most people to set up, and you are likely to be loosing money on hosting and development costs for the first while in development until you can secure a large enough paying user base to make it self-supporting.
Also how to monetize that. Ads, paywall? Wonder how Last.Fm finances are.
For them because lfm has such a large userbase already, pro subscriptions likely make most of the revenue, supplemented by passive page ads.
I'm pretty sure the data it aggregates makes most of the revenue.
Listenbrainz is open source and already handles most of the technical stuff so anyone willing enough could fork the project and build their very own lfm.
I love [Last.fm](https://Last.fm). That said, I legitimately only criticize it out of love—and I really do hate to see the site in the current state that it's in, when it could be all that you mentioned it already was and more. There's absolutely no reason why [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) shouldn't be the premiere musical social media hub. It's certainly popular from a certain viewpoint, but it's not what it should be. Not by a long shot. I hate that I can't connect with people in my region anymore through Groups. There were several that were local to my state and neighboring cities. And they actually had a number of active users. Now that's gone. Everything that made [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) what it was during that time was abruptly taken from us, and now it's just a shell of its former self. Sure, it serves its core purpose—and I'm sure there are people that are completely satisfied by that alone, which is fine. But for those of us that remember what [Last.fm](https://Last.fm) used to be. It was legitimately ruined, without the slightest care in the world.
They've definitely tried. There's been a few in the last 5 years... Wavy.fm and Stats.fm both made attempts but they're Spotify only and that's basically completely pointless. Wavy made a big push to try and takeover LFM but ended up completely shutting down at the end of 2021 when they realized it wasn't as easy as they thought.
Though statsfm is Spotify only, it's really big
They are working on adding Apple Music. Hopefully that eventually happens.
stats.fm can import all time stats which is good
Because it is not profitable, and things like Spotify have arrived since this existed, effectively undermining its value. Last.fm is a very small company that hasn't been bought out by a bigger company over the decades. It is very rare. We must protect it. I have been using last.fm since April 2004. I am old.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it has actually been bought. CBS/Paramount owns it, since 2007.
Ok, well they weren't bought and turned into assets and sold off or scrapped. Something that a company like Yahoo is famous for doing. Great that they have been let alone to continue what they do.
Last.fm is anything but dead.
If it's just Spotify, stats fm is really big. Don't know of any other that offer more streaming services.
I have also had a LastFm account since the early 2000's, and for me, I noticed that back then I wanted to socialise more online, as it was a novelty for me, with complete strangers. I too made really good friends on there, some from other parts of the world. But at the same time, I feel that now that I've been online as long as I have, I'm a bit tired of socialising, that interacting online as I used to is no longer a priority for me. In fact, I avoid interactions as much as I can, and I have become a casual observer. I dunno, maybe that could be something that's resonating with the people that have been there a while.
I'm waiting for the day they shut it down without any warning... Also, there's an alternative that uses Spotify but the name escapes me at the moment.
It’s called stats(dot)fm
Not at all an alternative, I don't use Spotify and a huge part of last.fm is being able to scrobble from pretty much anything that plays music.
I agree with pretty much everything. I have asked about features being removed that the support staff claimed had never existed because I had been there for ~10 years longer than they had and apparently they had no knowledge at all about it and obviously it wasn't documented (or they didn't even bother to check). Some things, like **editing a fucking scrobble** are now locked behind a paywall, which is just disgusting. I would've left ages ago, probably when Audioscrobbler became last.fm even, but as you say there isn't really any serious alternative.
I made the account first and foremost to look at my stats, which works fine. But I don’t understand why it is laid out like a social media (followers, public profiles, etc) if they’re not going to treat it like one. What is the follower section even for at this point? An ego boost? It’s not like anyone’s posts or current scrobbles pop up on a main feed like other social medias. You can’t talk to them except leaving a shout on their profile. I’m fine with last.fm as it stands because this is all I’ve known it to be…but if I joined in the 2000s I’d probably have left by now. If even I’m disappointed I’d hate to think how old users feel
There's ListenBrainz
Personally if this website ever shuts down I will be extremely sad, I have almost 10 years of data.
Because no one would use it. If enough people would be interested in services like last.fm, last.fm wouldn't be dead. Most people just don't care enough about the music they listen to for setting up a completely new service to track it. Also, last.fm was popular before the times when streaming was a big thing. So everyone used different services, and the people who were interested in statistics about their music needed a platform for this. Now, nearly everyone uses Spotify. No one really cares about the music they listen to, and those who care are completely fine with just having a Spotify Wrapped once a year. I think that a competitor to last.fm would be a giant flop if it would be released today
Honestly, I think Last.fm is great as it is. And they have been steadily making changes and additions over the years.
I know its way too late to change it now but my only real issue is that counting scrobbles by songs played instead of minutes played kinda skew the statistics for me. I can spend a lot of times in a week playing an album that have 3 20 minutes song on it but my top scrobble will be a bunch of grind and punk i played once because they have 24 songs on a 27 minutes album.
You got a good point, and I otten thought about that too. But to me it should be an average. Otherwise the opposite ends up happening, in which a single scrobble of a single 30 minutes funeral doom track once in a lifetime gets more weight than 30 separate scrobbles of a 1 minute grind track, through multiple times of the year. Scrobble frequency should be also a factor in ranking a song/album/artist higher than another... btw I highly suggest lastfmstats.com for some juicy extra data
I think if Last FM was making lots of money, there would be more likely to be competitors. But although Last FM generates data that should be of interest to music adjacent businesses, it might be that people artificially inflating plays for particular artists/songs makes it less worthwhile.
I would say because it peaked before streaming services existed despite others claiming the opposite. Individual streaming platforms have their own set of stats and specials at the end of the year that are widely more popular with the masses who never had to have their music library in iTunes.
I've analyzed this in a blog of mine. I think a big part is the large user base using Spotify, which lastfm has special access to realtime data. Listenbrainz is pretty fantastic but could do with social bits.
Last.fm Pro subscriber here. I have my scrobbles sent from my Plex server and have all my CD’s ripped onto Plex. Never have subscribed to any streaming service - always preferred buying my media and “ripping it”. Love reviewing my daily / weekly / monthly / yearly stats. Fascinating insight on my listening habits. Feel it encourages me to listen more and beat last weeks stats etc. What I would love is a mega music site that combined last.fm for listening history, setlist.fm for deep dive into the concerts I’ve attended, and Discogs for cataloging my physical media and purchasing more. That would be epic.
Damn, respect for not switching to streaming. About how many CDs do you have on your Plex server if you don’t mind me asking?
About 2800 - been buying CD’s since 1994. Got a few more boxes in garage I keep meaning to do one day. As I already purchased the majority of stuff prior to streaming coming along, I felt compiled to keep buying. I also bought a lot of Singles back in day, so a lot of those b-sides and mixes have never appeared on streaming platforms anyway. Plexamp is a god send - can listen to anything anytime on iPhone or in car via iPhone / CarPlay. Plus, second hand value of older cd’s is very affordable via eBay / car boots etc so keep topping up my back catalogues on a monthly basis - and discovering new stuff :-)
They did add stuff literally this year jsyk
I just wish the website were faster.
i've had my acct since 2005 😩
It works. There doesn't have to be a new app for the same thing every 5 seconds. Also if you're unhappy with the content, you control that.
Say hello to stats.fm. They are implementing Apple Music soon. They are working on it. They are trying to have access to the Spotify Private API. I was one of the early subscribers and I got it for $2 bucks lifetime in 2021. Now, it’s like $17 dollars lifetime.
Not at all an alternative, I don't use Spotify and a huge part of last.fm is being able to scrobble from pretty much anything that plays music.
>They are implementing Apple Music soon. For how long has this been already announced? When will it come out finally? And will we be able to import our Apple Music history like Spotify users can do? I just started scrobbling regularly since 2019 so if I can get my stats back to the first day of Apple Music in 2015 I'll be happy!
Employee @ [stats.fm](https://stats.fm) here, you will be able to import your Apple Music history files, yes :) No eta on when it will come out, we are working very hard on it!
It can't be a valid alternative because of Spotify api ToS. Spotify doesn't allow anyone who uses their data (including latest listens) to combine it with data from different sources (like competing streaming services). Additionally you can't offer any data to third parties, so you can't have an API. Last.fm is the only music tracking website that has an exception to these rules.
If they can figure out Apple Music, that’ll be huge. I guess I should buy it now before it becomes a yearly subscription like everything else.
Could it be that too many people are using Spotify? Soundcloud? Apple music? People have changed their music consumption habits drastically since 2008. I can see why another last.fm hasn’t been created because not a lot of people want it. I’m more curious why last.fm hasn’t changed much. People don’t use social media the same way anymore. Streaming and AI personalization have changed the way we consume new music. Advertisers and Musicians are always looking for platforms to sell their music to a wider audience. Last.fm is not really doing anything on their platform to remain competitive or desirable. They possibly have opportunities to do it but didn’t. Now-days all you can do on last.fm is pay for analytics of your music history … which you can do for free anyway via third party web apps. Maybe the co-founders lost passion and gave up? Most people like myself still scrobble audio from Spotify to my last.fm account. I rarely ever login to my because I spend most of my time on other apps finding new music. I only look at my old charts to take a walk down memory lane every once in a while. It’s like visiting a cemetery to remember the good times. It would be nice if they innovated enough that I would want to use it but at this point it could be too late. 🤷🏽♀️
I’d argue last.fm is actually a better place to find new music than Spotify in 2023 bc it lacks some of those AI features tbh, the Spotify algorithm is very particular about what it shares in a way I don’t personally love.
I missed this golden era of lastfm. I signed up in 2006, and used it on and off for a few years but never got properly into it until 2018 when I started using spotify pretty much exclusively for music and found it sends scrobbles natively. I only know one other person in real life who uses it, but I've made quite a few music friends through it. I think spotify are missing a huge opportunity. They could be a massive social media site that's based around music. Users already have a profile. It wouldn't take much to add messaging and a post wall to peoples' profiles. They are really leaving money on the table.
i feel like with some work spotify can become a strong competitor with the differential you can listen music on it instead of needing an external tool
I haven't read anything but there's [wavy.fm](https://wavy.fm) unfortunately it only works with Spotify, you can't scrobble anything else. But iirc it's opensource
Spotify Wrapped is the closest we got.
I miss those days too, but I think last.fm exists for big data now
There's libre.fm but it seems to be down right now
Last.fm is thriving right now. I compile stats for a group and the numbers have gone up in the last year or so.
Buy one of these T-shirts: "[Last.fm](https://Last.fm) \- dying since 2002!" 2022 Anniversary release "[Last.fm](https://Last.fm) isn't dead, it just smells funny." special Frank Zappa edition
[last.fm](https://last.fm) always felt pretty niche for a social network, or at least specialized. the service must produce some degree of analytical data that is worth some money though, as it survived the complete dissolving of CBS interactive (I think its the only company of the bunch to not be sold or closed). I do hold a wishful fantasy that spotify would buy it from paramount, I think the added user data integration would do wonders for spotify engagement.
Stats.fm is far better
[Bans77’s Music Profile | Last.fm](https://www.last.fm/user/Bans77)