A few weeks ago I was prompted to remember Last.fm, an app which – at least in the UK – was incredibly well known amongst a generation, but now seems a distant relic.
Its founding is an interesting read, notably how its then groundbreaking ‘Audioscrobbler’ feature actually started as a separate app from the streaming service that bore the original Last.fm name.
In truth, most users only really used the former, and even to this day the idea of recording every single track you listen to into a sortable list is still very unique. In the pre-streaming era of iTunes, CD ripping, and other Mac apps (think Delicious Library) that required quite a lot of manual input, it was revolutionary.
The streaming service was a predecessor to Spotify’s ‘Radio’ feature that’s now been around for years, but even at the time services like Rdio were already doing this better.
Diving back in now (which itself was a palaver – Last.fm famously had no way to change usernames, so I was running two separate accounts once my original name became passé), the first thing to hit me was a complete stagnation of the UI. It was literally like jumping back in time. Given it was bought for £140 million in 2007 just before the recession, it’s incredible it’s still going.
Of course, the hit of nostalgia is great, but even with such detail about my listening history, relatively useless. Within minutes I used Spotlistr to transfer all my ‘Scrobbles’ to Spotify playlists.
And while the core concept of Last.fm remains solid, and genuinely innovative, most users are just happy these days with a simplified Spotify Wrapped, or Apple Music Replay.