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Last.fm is killing off subscription radio, will focus on music-discovery app Scrobbler
Today, music-streaming service Last.fm announced plans to end its subscription service across all platforms. In place of its curated, ad-free radio for $3 a month, the company will focus on its Scrobbler app, which logs every song you listen to on your Last.fm profile and helps with music discovery. You'll still be able to listen to your personal stations and library via the Youtube-powered Last.fm player on the desktop (currently in beta), and users can still play their Last.fm tracks on Spotify. In other words, Last.fm will now rely on third-party providers rather than streaming from its own servers.
Last.fm releases Scrobbler for iOS
The number of options for enjoying music on your iPhone or iPad is already somewhat absurd, but Last.fm wants to add one more to the list: Scrobbler. As TNW reports, Scrobbler works as a stand-in for the default Music app, but adds a few interesting features that the company hopes will set it apart. Scrobbler can play all the music you currently own, including music stored on iCloud, and provide added tidbits like artist bios and tour dates. By "scrobbling" a track -- Last.fm's term for adding each track you play to your Last.fm profile -- the app can suggest similar music that you may enjoy, while also providing a link to purchase the content via iTunes. Of course, while the music is the same price whether you find it through iTunes itself or Scrobbler, Last.fm will get a referral bonus when you purchase the content through Scrobbler.
Mobile Scrobbler adds command-line track metadata
Mobile Scrobbler is the Last.fm client developed for the iPod touch and iPhone. In its upcoming 1.4.0 recent release, Mobile Scrobbler will allow you to query its metadata database by searching on track and artist from the command line. To do this, you need to access the MobileScrobbler executable inside the application bundle on your iPhone and issue a command along the following lines: ./MobileScrobbler -track "Shimmer" -artist "Fuel" -album "" The developers write, saying the album string will be optional--you can pass an empty string as shown here. This is a great little feature that shouldn't be overlooked by anyone who has command-line access on their iPhone or iPod touch. For a further preview of Mobile Scrobbler 1.4, check out this screenshot tour.
