A Review of Last.Fm Internet Radio and Social Network

Last.fm is a social networking website built totally around music - it's like Facebook, Imeem, Wikipedia wrapped into one - on steroid! Last.fm is the largest music social network of its kind with over 30 million users on its website. This music social network prides itself on its ability to match its users with their musical preferences and tastes.

After you sign up with Last.fm and create your profile, you will be prompted to download its AudioScrobbler software. AudioScrobbler searches through all of your music on iTunes, Songbird, and other popular music players and does calculations to decide on your personal music tastes. After AudioScrobbler does its deep, your profile will be updated to reflect your musical tastes.

Once your social profile is updated - it's time to get social and connect with fellow music lovers on the Last.fm network. The great thing about networking on Last.fm is that you can connect with people that have the same music tastes as you. Music has a great way connecting like minds and Last.fm does a great job at providing a social network to make sure those minds get connected.

Last.fm's social network allows you to jump into communications (via the forums, blogs, and statuses), add friends, and take a look at your neighbors (people in your network that have the same music tastes as you) to connect with fellow music lovers and build your social network. If you're a bit shy, don't worry. Last.fm does a great job of finding people that have the same music tastes and does all of the networking for you - you'll just have to be social. Last.fm even tells you how compatible you are with other people on its social network, so that you won't add someone that isn't compatible.

Last.fm is a great place to network with friends that have the same music tastes, but for me it's all about finding great music. You can visit Last.fm's homepage to discover the most popular music in Last.fm's social network; music, videos, up-and-coming music artists, and loads of information. You can check out the profile pages of friends on your network with similar music tastes to see what music they are checking out - and discover if it's music you'd like. Last.fm shows similar artists and songs on your favorite artist pages and you can type in keywords to find songs that users have selected to match the words you've chosen. One more thing - Last.fm has one of the greatest radios online.

If you want to listen to music you can use the Last.fm software or online radio where you are able to create stations to reflect different music tastes, skip songs, and find music that is similar to your tastes. One downside to using Last.fm's software and radio is that all songs aren't for full play and you'll have to buy them. Also, Last.fm doesn't sell music directly on the site, so if you'd like to buy a song that you hear on the radio, you'll have to be directed to other websites (sort of like Pandora).

Last.fm has lots of bragging rights against its biggest competitor Pandora Radio. Last.fm is 4 years older than Pandora Radio (in a good way), has a better interface, and has better features. There are things that you can do on both Last.fm and Pandora Radio ( play internet radio, buy music online, learn facts about artists, and chat) but Pandora is a lot more limited. For one thing, Pandora only serves the U.S. - leaving the rest of the world in the cold. Pandora Radio is a bit ugly and boring looking, and it lacks certain cool features like buying ringtones, and having a shoddier radio player.

Overall, Last.fm is a great site for people that are huge fans of music, want to network, and have a great internet radio station. You can listen to the radio, watch videos, chat and make friends, buy music, and learn everything about your favorite music artists at Last.fm. What more could you ask of a music service- that's free! If you like music and radio Last.fm will be the last fm station you'll need (sorry I had to).