What should be basic features hidden behind a paywall I've used Last.fm since 2009 and nearly after the website at one point after they went through a complete revamp that was negatively received by the community. I have however stuck with them because I have a weakness for the sort of stats about the music I've played that they still offer. Unfortunately I can't honestly say that if I hadn't already been a member of their platform that I might have signed up had I discovered it in much more recent years. Many features I once enjoyed have been taken away entirely such as being able to write a blog via the platform and join groups of like-minded uses. Profile customisation has also over the years been made much, much more limited. These days Last.fm operates a subscriber feature, Last.fm Pro. I'm neither a subscriber to this or plan to be as I don't believe it to offer features to be worth the money they ask, which is £3/month or £30/year. If it was a one time fee deal I might have bit the bullet on it, but it's not. I also resent the idea of having to pay for features that I either once already had on Last.fm but were taken away from me to stick behind a paywall but also that the paywall hides what I feel should be some pretty basic, quality of life features for the platform, including the ability to change your username. I don't actually want to do that, but if I did, it's not unreasonable to expect to have the option without having to pay for it. All Pro really offers is extra stats that I can live without and advanced editing tools for your profile, most of which there are free or one time fee third party alternatives available.

Not as good as it used to be... As a bit of a chart geek I love being able to use Last.fm to compile data about my listening activity (weekly, monthly, all-time charts etc.) and being able to see what other people are listening to and have recommendations made to me are very useful tools too. Last.fm scrobbling is very easy to set up and is supported by pretty much every music player and streaming service. I find the desktop application very good for using with iTunes on my PC, and Spotify has Last.fm scrobbling integrated into both its desktop and mobile applications - both work flawlessly in my experience. More recently though, I've been listening to music through Google Play, and I find that the scrobbling extension on the Chrome browser works very well as well. For Android mobile users there are a number of apps that do a decent job of catching your music plays, with varying results. I find the Wail Beta app works best for my Android phone, which works with the native music app as well as the Google Play Music app. My problem with last.fm however is with the actual website itself. Ever since they released the Beta version last year I've found myself using it less and less. The user interface is just not intuitive at all, the site is always slow to respond whether you're accessing it on a mobile device or on a desktop PC, and the developers are extremely slow at implementing new features. I use the word "new" loosely as I actually refer to implementing old features that haven't been available since the Beta release i.e. the music manager. Even the simple function of uploading artist images took months to implement. I will always continue to scrobble the music I listen to, because I happen to like gathering useless information like that, but I hope the developers can work on improving the current site so that it can be as good as it once was.

Bad management In this last decade, it has lost a lot of its old functionalities. It seems that Paramount/CBS doesn't prioritize this project at all. Still, it offers a unique and very cool service and that's why I will always use it.

last fm are so desperate for google… Last FM are so desperate for Google's attention and to boost their own DA, that they breach copyright and use other people's meta titles as their own, which is highly illegal, we tried to approach them fairly and asked them to do the right thing, but they abruptly responded, some poor business owner called Tara and agreed to remove but hasn't done so, we have full intentions of taking this as far as we can, as we don't want to be associated with what we classify as "fraud." Last fm if you are a good product for consumers, why do you need to copy others copyright material? Pathetic!!

A very good alternatve to Spotify A very good alternatve to Spotify. Allows u to keep all the music u want in one place. I share my favourite playlist with my friends (or at least those who have a common music taste).