Labs of Patrick Heinzelmann

Last.fm had updated their API for external applications. At the moment, you can't use the audio streaming functionality of the Last.fm Desktop. I'm working on a new version of the Last.fm Desktop to support the official streaming protocol. To use the new version of Last.fm Desktop, you have to be a subscriber of Last.fm.

I'm planning to release the new version in Spring of 2011.

 

 


History

0.2

adding official last.fm client id and updating the user interface

0.1

inital release

FAQ


What do I need?

You need a Last.fm account and a playlist with 15 songs. You can get the account for free. You also need the newest Adobe AIR runtime. If you doesn't have it, you can install it in the upper right corner.

Current features of the application
  • Playing songs of different playlists
  • Loading the album cover
  • Searching new radio stations and playlists by user name, artist name or tags
  • Getting simular artists for the artist of current track
  • Drag & Drop support of the Last.fm radio url
  • Calling the Last.fm protocol (lastfm://) on the website to open the application
  • Scrobbling
What is Adobe® AIR™?

Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that lets developers combine HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash®, and Flex technologies to deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the desktop. Adobe AIR allows developers to use familiar tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver® CS3, Flex® Builder™ 3, Flash CS3 Professional, or any text editor to build their applications and easily deliver a single application installer that works across operating systems.

 

What is Last.fm?

Last.fm is a service that keeps track of what music you listen to, and then produces a large number of features personalised to you. You can use Last.fm to listen to music, find out about artists you may like, other people with similar music taste, gigs in your local area, charts and quilts for your personal site, as well as much more.

 

Using the Last.fm protocol (lastfm://) under Microsoft Windows

If you want to launch the application directly form the lastfm website, you have to add some information the registry of window.

Create a file with the extension .reg and open the file with a texteditor. Add following lines:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lastfm]
@="URL:lastfm Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lastfm\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lastfm\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lastfm\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Last.fm Desktop\\LastFMDesktop.exe\" \"%1\""

ReplaceC:\\Program Files\\Last.fm Desktop\\LastfmDesktop.exe with the installation path of the LastFM Desktop Application . Note that backslashes must be doubled and the additional slashes and quotes before the path must not be removed. Save the file, then double-click it to insert into the Windows registry. See Registering an Application to a URL Protocol for additional information.

Using the Last.fm protocol (lastfm://) under Apple MacOSX
  • Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter.
  • Right-click -> New -> Boolean -> Name: network.protocol-handler.external.last -> Value -> true (Replacing foo with the protocol you're specifying)
  • Right-click -> New -> String -> Name: network.protocol-handler.app.last -> Value -> /path/to/app (Replacing /path/to/app with the path to the Lastfm Desktop application)
  • Ensure network.protocol-handler.expose-all is set to true.

 

What is Discovery Mode?

Discovery Mode is a subscriber-only radio feature. With Discovery Mode enabled, Last.fm will only play you music which isn't already in your profile. This way, you'll always hear new music on the radio.

 

What is Auto Update?

If you enable this option the player automatically downloads the newest version of application.

 

Powered by:

powered by:
Adobe AIR

 

Supports:

Apple Mac OS X
v10.4 or 10.5
Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista®