what is last.fm?
As said by last.fm themselves:
Last.fm is a service that keeps track of what music you listen to, and then produces a large number of features personalised to you.
You can use Last.fm to listen to music, find out about artists you may like, other people with similar music taste, gigs in your local area, charts and quilts for your personal site, as well as much more.
So how do I start using last.fm?
Firstly, you must open a last.fm account by going to http://www.last.fm/join/.
Once you have an account, you will need a media player with Audioscrobbling capability. This is so your media player can "scrobble" the information of every song you listen to by sending it to the last.fm server and thus adding them to your music profile.
How do I get my music player to "scrobble" tracks to last.fm?
For each music player, there is different last.fm configuration method. So here's a guide on exactly how to get various music players to scrobble to your last.fm correctly.
Quick Jump to:
Linux music players
| player name | scrobbler in-built |
ipod support |
playback last.fm streams |
requires plug-in to scrobble |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amarok |  |
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| Audacious | |
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| Banshee | |
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| BMPx | |
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| Decibel | |
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| Exaile | |
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| Listen | |
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| Rhythmbox | |
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| XMMS | |
Amarok
Select the Settings drop-down from the main menu at the top of the main Amarok window, then choose Configure Amarok. Then select last.fm from the panel menu to the left and you can enter your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided. To scrobble the tracks you listen to the last.fm server, select the "Improve my profile by submitting the tracks I play" option. If you so choose, you can also select to let Amarok show Similar Artists to the currently playing track as retrieved from last.fm.
Audacious
Firstly, make sure you have audacious-plugins installed with audacious, as the last.fm plugin is contained within the audacious-plugins package.
Once you have started Audacious, right click in the main window to bring up the main menu, the select Preferences. Select plugins from the panel menu to the left, then select the General tab. Select the tick box next to "Scrobbler plugin" to activate the plugin.
Now to configure it. Still in the Preferences window, we go to the newly created Scrobbler button in the panel menu to the left. Select the last.fm tab (if it isn't open already) and you are given a place to insert your last.fm username and password. That's it! From now on Audacious will scrobble your tracks to last.fm.
Note: When you look in the last.fm preferences in Audacious after you have initially entered your login details, you will only see the username and not the password. This is a security feature. Your password is still there being used by Audacious, it's just not visible to prevent people from stealing your last.fm password.
Banshee
Select the Edit drop-down from the main menu at the top of the main Banshee window, then choose Plugins. Then select Audioscrobbler from the panel menu to the left and then the Configuration tab. Here you can enter your last.fm username and password. Select the "Enable Song Reporting" option to begin scrobbling tracks to the last.fm server.
BMPx
Select the BMP drop-down from the main menu at the top of the main Decibel window, then choose Preferences. Then select last.fm from the panel menu to the left and you can enter your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided. To scrobble the tracks you listen to the last.fm server, select the Scrobble option.
Decibel
Select the Edit drop-down from the main menu at the top of the main BMPx window, then choose Preferences. Click on the tickbox next to AudioScrobbler label to activate the last.fm module. From there on, Decibel will guide you through the rest of the process to get Decibel scrobbling correctly.
Exaile
Select the Edit drop-down from the main menu at the top of the main Exaile window, then choose Preferences. Then select last.fm from the panel menu to the left and you can enter your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided. That's it!
Listen
Select the Music drop-down from the main menu at the top of the main Listen window, then choose Preferences. Then select the Audioscrobbler tab and you can enter your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided. Select the "Enable Audioscrobbler support" option to begin scrobbling tracks to the last.fm server.
Rhythmbox
Select the Edit drop-down from the main menu at the top of the main Rhythmbox window, then choose Plugins. Then select the tickbox next to last.fm in the panel menu to the left (to activate the last.fm plugin), then click the Configure button. Here you can enter your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided.
XMMS
Firstly, make sure you have xmms-scrobbler installed with xmms, as the last.fm plugin is contained within the xmms-scrobbler package.
Once you have started XMMS, right click in the main window to bring up the main menu, the select Options > Preferences. Go to the General Plugins tab, select XMMS-Scrobbler and click the Configure button. Here you can enter your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided.
Windows music players
| player name | scrobbler in-built |
ipod support |
playback last.fm streams |
requires plug-in to scrobble |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| foobar2000 | |
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| musikCube | |
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| Winamp | |
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| Windows Media Player | |
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| XMPlay | |
foobar2000
Firstly, get the last.fm plugin for foobar2000, foo_audioscrobbler, from http://www.mp3tag.de/en/fb2k.html. Install it into foobar2000 using the instructions provided.
Once your in foobar2000, go to the File drop-down in the main menu at the top of the main foobar2000 window and select Preferences. In preferences windows, click on the + next to tools to expand the tools branch of the tree menu, then select the Audioscrobbler node now displayed under the Tools branch. Here you can input your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided. To begin scrobbling to the last.fm server, select the Enable Audioscrobbler option. There is also other options here such as "Only submit tracks from the Media Library" (which may be a good idea so as to not submit tracks that have the wrong title or artist listed in the ID3 Tags) and the option to "Import tracks played from portable devices", which requires the foo_dop plugin.
musikCube
Firstly, make sure you have the cubeScrobbler plugin installed into musikCube (it can be obtained here: http://www.musikcube.com/page/plugins/view/17). Once in musikCube, go to the File drop-down in the main menu at the top of the main foobar2000 window and select Settings > Plugins. Select cubeScrobbler, then select Configure, then enter your last.fm username and password into the spaces provided in the popup window.
Winamp
Once Winamp and the last.fm plugin (obtainable from here: http://www.last.fm/tools/downloadplugin/?id=8) are successfully installed, if the audioscrobbler config window doesn't appear when restart Winamp after installing the plugin, click on the Options drop-down from the main menu at the top of the Winamp main window, then select Preferences. From tree menu to the left select under Plugins either General Purpose or Media Library (depending on which version of the plugin you chose to install) then click on AudioScrobbler for Winamp. Click on the Configure selected plug-in button and the Audioscrobbler Config window will appear, giving space to input your last.fm username and password. To ensure the tracks you listen to are scrobbled to the last.fm server, select the Enable plugin option.
Window Media Player
The AudioScrobbler WMP plugin can be obtained here: http://www.last.fm/tools/downloadplugin/?id=9. If the audioscrobbler config window doesn't appear when restart WMP after installing the plugin, click on the tools drop-down from the main menu at the top of the windows media player main window, then select options. then select the Plug-ins tab, select the Background category and you will see the AudioScrobbler WMP Plugin. Make sure the tickbox next to AudioScrobbler WMP Plugin is activated (has a tick in the box), then click the Properties button. In the Audioscrobbler Config window that pops up, input your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided, and to make sure it scrobbles to the last.fm server, make sure the tickbox next to Enable Plugin is activated (has a tick in the box).
XMPlay
Firstly, make sure you have the audioscrobbler plugin installed into xmplay (can be obtained from here: http://support.xmplay.com/file_comment.php?id=483). Right click on the main XMPlay window and select "Options and stuff". In the window that popsup, select DSP from the tree menu to the left. If xmp-scrobbler isn't in the plugins list displayed, select it from the plugins drop-down list and click Add, then click the Config button to bring up the xmp-scrobbler configuration window. Enter your last.fm username and password in the spaces provided and to begin scrobbling, make sure the Enable xmp-scrobbler option is selected.
Mac OS X music players
| player name | scrobbler in-built |
ipod support |
playback last.fm streams |
requires plug-in to scrobble |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cog | |
Cog
Due to technical restrictions (not owning a Mac ;) ), we're currently unable to provide a guide for this player. If you can help provide a guide for this player or any other player not listed, email: last.fm [AT] duyfkenstudios [DOT] com [DOT] au.
Cross-Platform music players
| player name | scrobbler in-built |
ipod support |
playback last.fm streams |
requires plug-in to scrobble |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iTunes (Mac OS X/Windows) |
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| Aqualung (Linux/Windows) |
last.fm currently unsupported - support planned for v1.0 | |||
iTunes
Due to problems trying to configure the main last.fm plugin for iTunes (from , we are currently unable to provide a guide for this player. However, for Mac users we recommend the excellent plugin iScrobbler and Windows users should check out iSproggler. If you can help provide a guide for this player or any other player not listed, email: last.fm [AT] duyfkenstudios [DOT] com [DOT] au.
