I don’t know how many, if any, Afterworders also use Last.fm. I was not present from the creation, but I have been a fairly loyal user for about 5 years. Keeping a kind of record of statistics and changing musical preferences was sort of fun. Now I suspect the owners, CBS Interactive, have killed the exercise. If the statistics generated to this point are now compromised then the whole thing is a bit of a waste of time.
Here is the entry on Wikipedia, which I think captures current sentiment pretty accurately:
On 15 April 2015, Last.fm released a subscriber-exclusive beta of a new website redesign. The new website was unexpectedly launched on August 17 while still in a beta stage, receiving almost universally negative criticism from its users, who cited broken and missing features. Multiple petitions aimed at reversing the changes appeared online the same day. Upon launch, users reported missing tracks, trouble logging into the site, a lack of control over sections of the website which were previously user-curated, and problems with authentication for third-party applications. In protest of the changes and lack of staff response, a fake act under the name “Remove the Last.fm Beta Website Design” appeared on indie music promoting website Bandcamp. Some users began deleting their accounts, some of whom publicly posted subscription cancelation confirmations on the interim support forum and official Last.FM Facebook page.
I used it for a while years ago but soon lost interest, do I really need an app to chart my changing musical preferences? I’m not sure I do. I do think there is a lot that can be done with the data that emerges from iTunes/Spotify listening preferences which iTunes ‘Music’ and Spotify still haven’t got right and which LastFM were trying to do years ago -which is basically giving you a good feed of information about bands you like, telling you when they have new stuff out or gigs – Facebook won’t do that as they mix it up with so much random stuff you’ll likely miss loads of music stuff (especially if….and this is a MASSIVE if.. the band you like hasn’t paid Facebook $$$ to promote their posts)- there is definitely room for a dedicated music based social network but nobody seems to have got it right.
From what I can see they have given up even trying.
It might be that this is one of the many features not restored from the old site, but as things stand all the community spaces have been deleted. It was never very dynamic, but I was a member of a couple that were either interesting for nostalgic reasons (Siouxsie and the Banshees fans for example) or as a place to see new artists with some recommendations from users (New Black Music for example).
I think bricameron is right, it is RIP for the site. The statistics are all screwed up, the community effort is gone, I don’t see what the point of it is now.
Death Throes,Obviously.
I agree feels like something that has lost its purpose or focus, from an era of music streaming pre-Spotify. I am a stats geek and though graphically I am fine with the redesign the community aspects of lastfm that had become almost its only point have all vanished. So, to take one loved function – the average tracks played per day – has just vanished.
There should be a market for someone to do a data aggregator across the music channels much better than this.