Founded in 2002 by Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, Michael Breidenbruecker, and Thomas Willomitzer, Last.fm revolutionized music discovery through its innovative "scrobbling" technology. Acquired by CBS Interactive in 2007 and later by ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global), it remains one of the most influential music recommendation services globally.

Last.fm official Website‌: https://www.last.fm

Scrobbling Technology

The platform's defining feature automatically records users' listening history across devices and platforms through:
Desktop apps (Windows/macOS)
Mobile apps (iOS/Android)
300+ integrated music services (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.)
Browser extensions

Personalized Recommendations

Utilizes collaborative filtering algorithms to generate:
Weekly customized playlists
"Similar Artists" networks
Neighborhood-based user matching
Social Features
Profile customization with listening stats
User groups and forums
Event recommendations based on taste
Radio Service

Offers algorithm-generated stations with:
Global music charts
Genre-specific channels
Decade-based streaming
Technical Infrastructure
Processes over 100 million scrobbles daily
Maintains a music database covering 50+ million tracks
Uses acoustic fingerprinting (similar to Shazam) for unidentified tracks
API supports 10,000+ third-party applications

Cultural Impact

Popularized the term "scrobbling" in digital music lexicon
Influenced major platforms' recommendation systems (Spotify Discover Weekly cites Last.fm as inspiration)
Hosted one of the web's largest music forums (2004-2014)
Provided data for academic research in musicology and machine learning

Current Status (2025)

While facing competition from streaming giants, Last.fm maintains a dedicated userbase of ~15 million active monthly users. Recent developments include:
Enhanced privacy controls for listening data
Blockchain-based artist verification
VR concert integration
Expanded podcast scrobbling

The platform continues to serve as the gold standard for longitudinal music behavior tracking, with some users maintaining unbroken scrobble records since 2003.