What Is Last FM?....

Recently I was given a Roberts STREAM83I internet radio that included a free months subscription to an internet site called last FM. At that time I'd never heard of Last FM, but as I enjoy my music and it came with a free months trial I thought I had nothing to loose by checking it out.

The best way to describe Last FM is that it is an online music site that selects and plays music that it thinks you will enjoy based on what artists you have told it you enjoy listening to - without having to listen to adverts or a rambling DJ.

There is also a community of listeners that you can interact with and who can give you any guidance you may want or need about the site, you can also share music tastes and banter about your favourite artists or concerts, if that's what you enjoy doing.

Whilst you can't select exactly what you listen to, you'll be pleasantly surprised at what music it recommends for you to listen to. You can listen to it straight off the internet or from an internet radio that connects to the service.

After you sign up to Last FM, you do have to pay a subscription fee to be able to use it's services - unless like me, you are lucky enough to have a months free trial subscription. To subscribe for one month is three Dollars, three Euros or three British Pounds, which I think is a fair amount and you select your currency . You can subscribe for one month or three months at a time and you may cancel your subscription at any time. You can't say fairer than that!!

Last FM

Once you've subscribed you get to create a profile page where you can add a list of music artists that you enjoy listening to - it can be absolutely anyone. Going by your selection Last FM will then play the same or similar artists for you to listen to. In my experience the more you listen to Last FM, the better music choices it makes for you. It's down to you, all the tracks you listen to for more than thirty seconds are stored in your online music library where you can build up a good selection of music that you personally enjoy listening to, you can edit this at any time from your library. On the screen you will notice a BAN and LOVE button, if you really love the song they are playing and you press the LOVE button Last FM will store the information in your music library and use it to help improve it's music selection for you, the same goes for the BAN button except in that case Last FM won't play that track again for you. My Roberts Stream83i internet radio actually has built in BAN and LOVE buttons on the radio itself and the remote control, which gives nice control when not I'm not on the computer.

Also, if you hear a track that you just don't fancy listening to at that moment you can just skip past it and it won't be stored in your library, but it will be played again for you at some later stage.

You can select different ways of listening to Last FM....

• My Library Radio - Plays only music from artists in your library. Which you can edit if you wish.
• Your Recommended Radio - Plays music that Last FM recommends based on your music profile and of other Last FM users with similar tastes.....This is where you can hear some good tracks you may never have heard before or some proper blasts from the past. It does work both ways though and you may find the BAN button handy!
• Your Loved Tracks - Plays a selection of songs that you have previously saved by pressing the LOVE button. Sorry, I can't help but think of Joey from 'Friends' when it comes to pressing LOVE buttons!!
• Your Neighbourhood Radio - Plays music from other peoples libraries with similar taste to you.
• Artist Radio - You can select an artist and Last FM will play you songs from your chosen artist and by similar artists.
• Tag Radio - Plays music that you select by tagging, that could be by selecting a genre you'd like to listen to.
• History - Last FM will play you tracks that are in your recent history.

Roberts Stream83i internet DAB radio....

You can....

• See your recently played tracks.
• Edit your music library.
• See what tracks you've LOVED or BANNED and edit them if you wish.
• Add new artist that you enjoy listening to.
• Check out your personal charts, which is how many times you've listened to each artist.
• Tag tracks in your library, to help with track selection.
• Make friends.
• Share events with your Last FM friends.
• Check out what music your 'neighbours' are listening to - 'neighbours' are other Last FM users with similar music tastes to yours.
• Join groups of other Last FM users to share and chat about the music and artists you enjoy listening to.
• Even keep an online journal - I suppose you could blog about music, concerts, likes or dislikes. Personally I like listening to music not talking about it.

And if you enjoy listening to music, I would recommend giving Last FM a try....I've been subscribing to Last FM for a couple of months now and can say it makes for different listening to every day radio and I can see that as time goes on, my music selection is getting better. I'm glad I checked it out....