« Previous post
Next post »

May 26, 2007

Last.FM Too Slow: Users Create Their Own Facebook Application

Michael Arrington

38 comments »

Last.fm is a seriously popular music service (we’ve dubbed it a viral machine). So users are wondering why they are yet to release a Facebook application - competitors like iLike and MOG are the first and fifth most popular applications, respectively.

The Last.fm forums are being lit up with user requests for integration. In early May, a staff member (flaneur) commented “we’ve started work on some cool ways to get your music taste from Last.fm on [Facebook]” in one of the early threads requesting integration. But a month later and a day after the official launch of Facebook Applications, nothing has been released.

Perhaps Last.fm sees Facebook as more of a competitor than a partner, or maybe they didn’t realize just how important the new Facebook Developer Platform would be, in making the decision to hold off on creating a Facebook application. It doesn’t really matter, though, because users are starting to take over. Jake Jarvis (who’s also the founder of Middio) released his own Last.fm Facebook application earlier today. One of the more popular Last.fm features is that it tracks music you listen to on your computer and displays it on your profile. Jarvis’ widget displays the last few songs you’ve listened to on Last.fm on your Facebook profile.

I added it to my profile and it works just fine. Read more about this on Jake Jarvis’ blog. And thanks to Daryn Haynes for pointing this out in a comment to our post on iLike.

If you are a Facebook user, get the (unofficial) Last.fm application here. I’m looking forward to seeing how many users it has by tomorrow, and Last.fm’s response.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 26th, 2007 at 2:45 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. CBS Acquires Eupope’s Last.fm for $280 million

    May 30th, 2007 at 5:37 am

  2. CBS Acquires Eupope’s Last.fm for $280 million : Forecast-Blog

    May 30th, 2007 at 6:05 am

  3. Ramkumar Shankar

    May 30th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

  4. Ramkumar Shankar » The secret of the successful web startup

    July 8th, 2007 at 5:17 pm

Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. bandersnatch

    May 26th, 2007 at 3:00 am

    why the need to mention that you were third in line to use it?

  2. Alaska Miller

    May 26th, 2007 at 3:23 am

    Why is everybody getting a hardon for Facebook?

  3. KwangErn Liew

    May 26th, 2007 at 3:34 am

    I guess Last.fm has too much issues in their hands to move forward? ;)

    Or maybe their focus on videos has diverted their initial core purpose of “Last.fm”.

  4. Steven

    May 26th, 2007 at 3:59 am

    here’s another last.fm Plugin, http://www.facebook.com/apps/a.....2356007615

  5. the logo homepage

    May 26th, 2007 at 3:59 am

    i don’t really like facebook
    and i don’t understand why some people are hooked

    maybe i’m just the odd one out

  6. Pallab

    May 26th, 2007 at 5:31 am

    Thanks. I was looking for last.fm application when facebook platform was launched.

  7. Alberto

    May 26th, 2007 at 5:33 am

    my guess is that they are developing something way cooler and valuable than a few basic sharing charts or latest songs widgets: the real value would in fact be for reccomendations, neighbours and events to leverage on FB’s “social graph” (as it’s way larger than last.fm’s, and clusters on tightly knit communities… )

  8. mrshl

    May 26th, 2007 at 6:46 am

    I’ve addded it to my Facebook profile, but it still says only 2 users are using it. That seems awfully unlikely. It’s pretty basic, but like a lot of Last.fm users I was eager to do something. I’d like to see not only some basic customization features, but some way to update the mini-feed with occasional updates of my listening habits. Like the most listened artists on a given day (or something similar).

  9. david hyman

    May 26th, 2007 at 7:21 am

    MOG’s autotracking apps for Facebook are below. We made it seemlesslesy integrated with Facebook experience. You don’t even have to go to MOG to get usage stats on your Facebook page.

    http://www.facebook.com/apps/a.....8380&b

    http://www.facebook.com/apps/a.....2334851677

    Important to realize that Facebook is putting blocks on number of times apps can be dynamically updated each day. So, none of them can provide real time data.

  10. Rick

    May 26th, 2007 at 7:25 am

    Hey Michael do you plan to report everytime someone makes a marginally useful feature on the fb platform worth 20 minutes of work or just when Jake Jarvis does it?

  11. Brinstar

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:09 am

    It doesn’t work.

  12. Jonathan

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:12 am

    http://www.facebookmusic.com/ has a list of facebook music widgets.

  13. Dan W

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:36 am

    The xat last.fm plugin mentioned above by Steven is way slicker, give it a try:

    http://www.facebook.com/apps/a.....2356007615

    Also theres a “facebook coming soon” on the last.fm widgets page: http://www.last.fm/widgets/

  14. franky

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:52 am

    Rather seems to me that there would be too much of competition and also that last.fm is too large, to take any risk with facebook dependencies. Unlike many other f8 platforms, last.fm belong to the more popular websites of the internet.

  15. Roberto

    May 26th, 2007 at 10:02 am

    I need facebook of Orkut and Myspace ! :) I love it

  16. Nate

    May 26th, 2007 at 10:30 am

    This whole application thing seems to be intruding on the beloved simplicity of Facebook which is what made it so attractive to me in the first place.

  17. Geraldo

    May 26th, 2007 at 11:32 am

    I feel the same way about Facebook as I do about Myspace; very adolescent.

  18. butseriously

    May 26th, 2007 at 11:54 am

    Wish I even liked Last.fm I like Pandora better, but waiting, waiting for the ability to play it via podcast…

  19. Luis

    May 26th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    prueba33@gmail.com
    prueba33@gmail.com

  20. alterion

    May 26th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    according to a post on the last .fm forums by the last.fm staff :
    “We are working on it, however Facebook gave our competitors several weeks’ head start over this, which they perplexingly didn’t give us.” so presumably ilike ect oiled the wheels a bit to get ahead of last.fm
    http://www.last.fm/forum/21717/_/264156/3#f3914365

  21. Nirmal

    May 26th, 2007 at 7:58 pm

    The unofficial last.fm module is okay, but I don’t like how you have to click on it to see which songs you’re listening to. It seems a little sluggish.

    Still, that someone made one is very appreciated.

  22. ferodynamics

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:38 pm

    I’m using this one for now:

    http://www.facebook.com/apps/a.....2613910774

    Somehow it’s just the Last.fm Flash widget, but in Facebook. As if anyone really cares what music I like ;-) Listening to Recursion by Jega now. Haven’t clicked the “Ban” button yet, so it can’t be that bad. Rock on you geeks.

  23. ferodynamics

    May 26th, 2007 at 8:41 pm

    I agree with Nirmal.

  24. vaspers the grate

    May 26th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

    lastfm is junk

    I tried to dl free mp3s from a lastfm embed player at at rap artist site, and could only dl one of the six or seven free mp3s

    not good

  25. vaspers the grate

    May 26th, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    There is a huge niche opportunity for someone to create a perfect musician site, combining Twitter, GarageBand, Lastfm, Tumblr, flickr, Jaiku, Virb, and Freebase type functionalities.

    No musician feed aggregator / portal site platform currently exists in satisfying mode.

  26. qikki

    May 27th, 2007 at 4:20 am

    Please. This post is verging on hysteria Michael, and I suggest you take your Ritalin. The fact that last.fm hasn’t released a widget for the facebook platform does not mean that they “didn’t realize just how important the new Facebook Developer Platform would be.” As if something like that can be measured just 2 days after the launch. What facebook has done is clearly quite brilliant, and I am tempted to think it will eventually push them ahead of MySpace, but having or not having a widget for facebook ready at the launch of f8 is simply not meaningful for last.fm. Yes, one of their users made one; he’s loves last.fm so much that he made one. It was buggy and then he fixed it. The facebook user counter for it got stuck at 2 and you and I and everyone else thought that we were number 3. But we were wrong (well, almost all of us, apart from the actual 3rd user). And in a few days or weeks when last.fm releases their shiny facebook widget, you and I and everyone else will switch to it, because it will be better. End of story.

  27. Steven Kaplan

    May 27th, 2007 at 10:34 am

    Interesting post on how people are responding to F8 Mike. I recieved this e-mail a few hours after they launched on Friday from Campusfood.com.

    –

    From: Campusfood.com [mailto:newsletter@campusfood.com]
    Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 1:59 PM
    To: XXX
    Subject: Facebook Application for Campusfood.com

    Campusfood.com is looking for creative ideas from our customers for a Campusfood application using Facebook’s new Open Platform.

    Using Campusfood’s data and technology (restaurants, menus, specials, ordering, etc.)…
    … what would be a useful application to feature on Facebook?
    … what cool or interesting information would be worth sharing through Facebook?

    Top 5 ideas will be awarded $100 in Campusfood Cash

    Please forward ideas to rob@campusfood.com

    Also, if you can program and want to work with us directly on these Facebook mashups, email me as well.

    -Rob Saunders
    Campusfood.com

  28. franky

    May 27th, 2007 at 3:31 pm

    They seem to be working at one, but have been excluded from the pre f8 development period.
    Could it be that last.fm is too big for Facebook to be invited?

  29. Marcel

    May 28th, 2007 at 7:17 am

    I want to know how to develop these applications

  30. engtech @ internet duct tape

    May 28th, 2007 at 12:28 pm

    Yup, I’m definitely looking for specs on how to whip one of these up as well.

  31. Ian Monroe

    May 28th, 2007 at 2:59 pm

    I’m friends with a couple of the staff of Last.fm, they already have a staff-only flash player so visitors can listen to your personalized stream. Its pretty neat.

    Seems like they could have wipped up this “last played” thing in about 30 seconds, I don’t know why they made the player their top priority…

  32. Jeremy Blanchard

    May 28th, 2007 at 7:48 pm

    Here is THE BEST last.fm app:

    http://www.facebook.com/apps/a.....2371452733

    It blows all the others out of the water.

    It lets you use flash or text.

    -Jeremy Blanchard
    eyeRmonkey.com

  33. Ron

    May 29th, 2007 at 9:26 am

    It was on their site, then it went away and now it’s available..but not searchable.

    I’m not convinced that this whole ‘facebook dev’ thing is really as great as its purported to be, especially given it took them forever to release it.

    But we’ll see.

  34. sbttubijhd

    June 18th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! llkrlumcxv

« Previous post
Next post »