r/lastfm 9d ago

PSA Important: changes to Spotify scrobbling - you'll need to reconnect the application!

618 Upvotes

Official post: https://support.last.fm/t/important-change-to-spotify-scrobbling-spotifys-new-refresh-token-policy/119488

Spotify is changing the way they handle their tokens, and this impacts last.fm users who scrobble automatically their music from Spotify.

TL;DR: you have to disconnect and reconnect Spotify from settings before July 20th to avoid scrobbling disruptions in your account. Then you'll have to do it again every ~6 months (there will be notifications about this).


r/lastfm 27d ago

PSA Breaking down the latest changes on Last.fm

599 Upvotes

I've been seeing people question what all the twitter drama is about, so here's a recap/explanation of what Last.fm actually changed yesterday:

  1. On-Site Charts are now listener-based

Charts have historically worked differently on the site and through their data API. Charts on-site were previously based on scrobble count. That means me listening to a track 50 times mattered more than 10 people listening to it 4 times each.

Lastfm is a social site, with charts meant to represent what *everyone* is listening to. This change addresses that complaint (which was often voiced on their support forums and social channels), in order to better reflect what the *majority of users* are listening to, not what track/artist can get played the most.

The change isnt 'racist' or 'xenophobic' (as some brilliant twitter minds have claimed) either, its not even targeted at a specific group or individual artist. Their changelog post does not call out a specific artist or group, their tweet saying "If you know you know" is purely brand marketing lingo for everyone who has complained about charts as a whole being a bad representation. This affects all artists equally, they're not weighing anyone's scrobbles less or discriminating based on user/artist origin.

The API has always behaved like this by the way, using tracks/artists with the most listeners in the last month, this ultimately just makes both of them more consistent and better reflects what the majority of people around the globe are scrobbling.

Are there still issues with this? Yes! This obviously ends up favoring artists from english-speaking countries (as those most likely have the largest user share across the site as a whole), but scrolling through charts of individual countries (South Korea, Germany, United States, to name a few) shows that overall the new global charts rankings somewhat accurately reflect what people around the globe listen to the most.

At the time of writing, tracks from Olivia Rodrigo's latest album rank highly for most regions, and as someone who's been following this data for quite some time, it does usually reflect noteworthy album releases/trending artists!

  1. Addressing Scrobble limits

A scrobble is meant to represent a person listening to a track. Again, to tie into the social aspect of the site, you aren't supposed to leave a laptop with Spotify open running 24/7. As per their changelog, the change is primarily meant to combat actual automation, not someone listening to a track or artist on repeat because they're a big fan.

They also aren't deleting anyone's scrobbles, they're simply changing the maximum amount of scrobbles you can submit in a day, based on all the data they've collected from high-volume scrobble accounts. (The old limit was 3000, which meant you would need to listen to a new track every 30 seconds for 24h)

[...]

As such we have introduced new limits based on the listening profiles of power users and 24/7 radio stations + a reasonable buffer on top. We're reluctant to reveal the exact numbers right now (and give botters a head start at working around them), but looking at your library, your daily numbers, even in your biggest month, are well below the limits we've set. Even if you predominantly listen to shorter duration tracks, we don't expect people to hit them under normal circumstances.

Reference

If you listen to an artist/album/track on repeat/all day long thats fine, it realistically won't affect you, but if you have your scrobbler configured to count a track as played after 30 seconds or if your account is submitting scrobbles 24/7 with no end in sight, you obviously aren't playing fair and trying to disrupt stats for everyone else.

This might end up affecting some third party tools like scrobble importers/or editing tools in the long run, make sure to leave feedback on their support site if you're having issues with the new limits.

  1. Private Profiles and an outlook on the future

The last update they've shared is, now that they're independent from CBS/Paramount Skydance again, that their team is actively working on improving the overall site experience/resolving long standing issues (like the two mentioned above!). The next big feature they're trying to launch is better privacy controls for your profile/data, which gets respected throughout the site/apps/API.

Fingers crossed that this also results in some other longstanding issues being addressed, like the poor state of their aging API and deprecation of the corrections system.


r/lastfm 2h ago

Compatibility Can we get much higher? SO HIGH

14 Upvotes

I wonder if anyone will GET HIGH with me. https://www.last.fm/user/Chruno3


r/lastfm 10h ago

Milestone 21 years today!

Post image
48 Upvotes

I’ve been passive the last several years but I’m getting back into it…


r/lastfm 5h ago

Compatibility Looking for mutuals

12 Upvotes

Title. I'm mostly into black metal (especially DSBM) and Japanese stuff. Follow me and I'll follow back! https://www.last.fm/user/ftruncate


r/lastfm 2h ago

Help This error has been the case for the past few weeks for me, how do I fix it?

Post image
4 Upvotes

r/lastfm 14h ago

Milestone 60000 scrobbles

Post image
14 Upvotes

r/lastfm 12h ago

Chart As Spain won the World Cup a few days ago, who are your top 5 Spanish musicians

Post image
9 Upvotes

r/lastfm 21m ago

Help Is it possible to import Spotify data to last.fm on Linux ?

Upvotes

Hello , I have a Linux PC and I want to import my Spotify data to my new lastfm account , but in the document that has been shared around the method is Windows / Mac only . Does anyone know if it’s possible or is somebody with a windows pc willing to help me ?


r/lastfm 21m ago

Game Music Duo's

Post image
Upvotes

Solo artists get too much hype. Hit me with your most scrobbled music duo's!


r/lastfm 7h ago

Help Iphone app is crashing immediately

2 Upvotes

This has been happening for two days. There's no gif problems. App has been deleted and reinstalled multiple times. What do I do?


r/lastfm 14h ago

Question Anyone else getting this on the website?

Post image
13 Upvotes

It happens when I try going to my albums sections, songs section, clicking on a specific album to see how many scrobbles I have per song, etc

It’s been like this for a few days. Hoping it’s just a bug that will be fixed soon


r/lastfm 17h ago

Help Research participants wanted: Help us research on interactive systems for self-discovery!

Post image
19 Upvotes

We're a research team at the University of Rochester studying what might be new ways of interacting with your music listening data for self-discovery — not just the numbers and rankings.

Your Last.fm page knows every song you've played, but only you know why. Behind the charts and counts are late-night drives, old friendships, phases you grew out of, and songs that still mean something.

## What you'll do
One session of approximately 90 minutes, over Zoom or in person in Rochester. You will:

- Revisit parts of your own Last.fm listening data
- interact with a chatbot to explore your listening data
- Complete an interview on what you think
- Help us imagine how tools for exploring listening data for self-discovery could be designed differently

## Who can participate?
- You are 18 or older
- You have used Last.fm for at least one year
- You are comfortable sharing your Last.fm listening data for the study

Compensation: $16/hour(30% tax withheld for non-resident alien)

We will ask for access to at least one year of your Last.fm listening data. Your data will be de-identified, used only for research purposes, and deleted after the study sessions conclude. Participation is voluntary, and all responses and listening data are handled according to the study's consent and privacy procedures.

## Interested?
Please fill out this short eligibility form: docs.google.com/forms/…/viewform?usp=dialog

## Questions? Email me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or send me a message.

We'd love to hear the stories behind your scrobbles. Thank you!

Update:
Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and interest! We have currently recruited enough participants for our first round of sessions, but we will be holding another round. You are still welcome to sign up, and we will keep your information on file and contact you about the next session. Thank you again!


r/lastfm 22h ago

Chart What are your current Recent Tracks?

Post image
46 Upvotes

r/lastfm 4h ago

Game Guess my number 1, first to guess it right can recommend me an album and i will listen!

Post image
1 Upvotes

r/lastfm 12h ago

Compatibility Just made a new lastfm account, looking for people with the same taste!

Post image
5 Upvotes

If you have at least a few of these artists in your top 8, drop your username so we can follow each other, my username is gllitjeans 💗


r/lastfm 6h ago

Suggestion Looking for feedback on a Last.fm app idea before I build it

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I'm currently designing a side project built around the Last.fm API and wanted to get feedback from people who actually use Last.fm before I go too far with the implementation.

The working idea is to combine:

• A listening analytics dashboard with things like genre clouds, listening heatmaps, taste evolution, top artists/tracks/albums, and other visual insights.

• A private "song memories" journal where you can save notes, memories, favorite lyrics (in your own words), thoughts about an artist, and even optional voice notes attached to songs.

The idea is that listening history comes from Last.fm, while the journal is completely private to the user.

Before I continue building it, I'd love to know:

Does this sound like something you'd actually use?

Which features would you care about the most?

Are there any features you think are unnecessary?

Is there anything you've always wished Last.fm or other companion apps offered?

Does the "song memories" concept appeal to you, or would you focus more on analytics?

I'm looking for honest feedback on the concept and architecture before investing more time into building it. Any suggestions or criticisms are very welcome. Thanks!


r/lastfm 1d ago

Suggestion Road to 15.000 artists

Post image
78 Upvotes

I listened to almost 15.000 artists! Please suggest me your most obscure/niche/underrated/underground artists. I'm mostly interested in electronic music, indie/alt pop/rock but I'm open for a lot of different genres and experimental stuff.

Here's my profile for reference: last.fm/user/themoldypeach


r/lastfm 19h ago

Game Give me a number between 1 and 143,662 and rate out of 10 the track I give you

Post image
5 Upvotes

r/lastfm 13h ago

Chart Here's my chart for the last 7 days, because I may or may not have forgotten to do this on Sunday.

0 Upvotes

We have any other chiptune nerds here? I only have Kubbi in my albums this week, but I normally listen to quite a lot of chipmusic, and it'd be nice to see some others with a taste for it.


r/lastfm 18h ago

Help scrobbles stuck at a specific number

2 Upvotes

hi my scrobbles have been stuck on 47982 for like an hour and they havent moved. i even tried deleting a few and it started working again until it reached the same number??? also tried reconnecting my spotify. has anyone else had this problem?


r/lastfm 18h ago

Chart What I streamed this week

Post image
2 Upvotes

r/lastfm 18h ago

Chart One Year Anniversary Back With last.fm: My Top Artists/Albums/Tracks

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

A year ago, I decided to rejoin last.fm; I'd had it way back in the aughts, while I was in college, but abandoned it in the wake of the sale to CBS. Decided on a whim to rejoin, and it's been interesting to keep track of my listening in this way again. Here are my top tracks, artists, and albums over the last year of listening.


r/lastfm 21h ago

Help Spotify repeatedly disconnecting

2 Upvotes

Helloo I’m a massive noob at last.fm and also reddit lol- but in the last few weeks my scrobbles will just stop counting. I’ve disconnected and reconnected to Spotify on last.fms website and also disconnected from last.fm through Spotify. When i reconnect it’ll carry on scrobbling for a time but then just randomly drop out within a couple days- help?