By Jan Wopperer

It seems like every radio station nowadays is overrun with ads. Last.fm is a free Internet radio service made for those who wonder where their music has gone.

Last.fm offers a groovy new way to listen to music they like and skip what they don't want to hear. It streams music to people online through its Web site, www.last.fm. Because it still plays songs randomly and not exactly what its users want, it stays within the realm of radio.

This music service is completely legal so there are no worries involving violations of copyright. Users are even able to buy the music of the artists they hear.

Eric Willis is the creator of the myLastFM player. He programmed it to work with Last.fm for the purpose of bringing music to the ears of the listener easily and quickly, making the service more user-friendly.

Months ago, Willis noticed that Last.fm can be slow to respond to requests to skip a song or refresh the page. The player that he created bypasses the Web site in order to make the streaming response more efficient.
MyLastFM uses a player that already exists on the user's computer (like iTunes or Winamp) to work, and it streams and plays the music offered by Last.fm.

“This player is easy to use. You just run it, type in your username and password and that's it. There's no installation required and it self-updates…it's very simple,” Willis said.

The newest version of the player, his sixth, is free for anyone to download. The songs streamed out to listeners can be played, loved, skipped or even banned forever.

As a person listens to music on their computer, a profile is created and built up using the latest audioscrobbler technology.

The profile created while listening to music offered by Last.fm can be reached at any time on any computer users have access to their musical choices from anywhere on any computer.

People from everywhere in the world are downloading myLastFM. Willis has received many e-mails from appreciative people Germany , Japan and the United Kingdom about the player.

Bojern Sjut in Germany writes: “MyLastFm is incredibly cool: You get a radio station that only plays music you like without commercials, without annoying presenters – and you can control right from your desktop.”

Christian Asseburg, from York , England, writes: “MyLastFm looks great on my desktop when I listen to last.fm, and it is much easier to use than the last.fm website. Also, it loads a lot faster than the the interface because it only requests the song information from internet, and not my whole user profile summary.”

Though this player is very much a world-wide venture, usually most of the requests to download the player are coming from people here in the United States.

“This player totally rocks. By connecting with Last.fm, I enjoy all kinds of music that I never would have heard otherwise and myLastFM lets me tailor my playlist with no waiting for the next song. And it's beta, so you can claim it deleted your homework assignment,” said San Francisco resident, Dan Snyder.

Special features include the savable album art that is displayed every time a new song is played, a mini player for those who need room on their desktops, and alerts that slide up from the taskbar to tell you what new song is playing before fading out.

Willis explained: “Right now, the player relies on whatever media player you have on your computer to stream the music. The myLastFM player interprets it, tells you what's playing and allows you to control it.”

In the future, a player that doesn't need an already existing player in order to work will be offered on the myLastFM Web site, which currently offers a download page, an information page and a community for users to offer up suggestions.

“I'm really happy with the program. A lot of ‘blood, sweat and tears' went into this,” he said.

Last.fm is still very new, but the number of people using Internet radio is growing larger every day, as are the number of downloads of myLastFM.
Willis is currently working on an engine for users to make myLastFM look however they want it to look like by creating their own skins. He is also working on a version of myLastFM for Mac users and is creating a special edition especially for the students here at Buffalo State College.

Jan Wopperer can be reached at: jannygrl1@yahoo.com

Links, for further information:

Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/
myLastFM: http://mylastfm.com/
Download myLastFM: http://mylastfm.com/download.php
myLastFM community: http://mylastfm.com/community/
iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/
Windows Media Player: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx
Winamp: http://www.winamp.com/player/
Fairly Realistic: http://fairlyrealistic.com/
Audioscrobbler: http://www.audioscrobbler.com/
Wired.com article about Last.fm:
http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64402,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3