Last.fm (@lastfm) stops on-demand streaming. But long live the Scrobble and musical homophily.
I’ve said before that the quality of Last.fm’s audio streams is far better than Spotify’s. So that i can’t go to Last.fm and click to listen to a track is slightly upsetting. Ok, so you can still listen to your radio stations, but i can no longer subscribe and just listen to a track in the quality that they used to deliver.
But i understand. Having experienced this difficulty myself with digital music downloads and online streaming whilst at ATS Digital (sniff, RIP, sniff, sniff) i appreciate the financial pressures on both software and hardware.
However, i’m pleased that this means they will be concentrating their efforts on Scrobbling. This is an area that Spotify didn’t even try to encroach upon, they simply decided to leave it to the experts at Last.fm. Like Amazon’s product recommendation engine, Last.fm’s Scrobbler (where does that word come from?) is the genius behind their music service that no one dare try to replicate. It fills the gaps in my music library that would otherwise (and was previously) filled by mix tapes passed round the classroom, by vinyl swapped in late night boozy jazz sessions, by sharing earphones on park benches.
Musical homophily.
I thank Last.fm for their dedication to the Scrobbler. I love that they told me my appreciation of Joni and CSNY would mean i’d also likely enjoy Elliott Smith. I love that i’m in contact with a French woman who i’ll probably never meet but can share rare Miles Davis recordings with. I love that they told me Donald Fagan was the lead singer of Steely Dan and that i’d love his music as much as theirs.
Last.fm. Carry on with what you do best and with what no-one will ever be able to compete against.
Last.fm, I love you. x.