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Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the songs the user listens to, either from Internet radio stations, or the user's computer or many portable music devices. This information is transferred to Last.fm's database ("scrobbled") either via the music player itself (Spotify, Amarok) or via a plugin installed into the user's music player. The profile data is then displayed on the user's profile page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user's favourites. Initially users were able to create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library, and could listen to some individual tracks on demand, or download tracks if the rights holder has previously authorised it. However the ability to listen to custom radio stations ('personal tag radio') was withdrawn on 17 November 2010 (Tag radio still exists but the criteria for calling up tracks has been widened). For users living outside the UK, US, and Germany, the radio service requires a subscription for -3.00 per month after a 30 track free trial, but since October 2010 subscribers were offered a refund due to the removal of the custom stations. |
