I dunno. I've stopped using it. All it did was make me agonize about listening to the same songs over and over. It also didn't capture my internet radio listenings, my portable music listenings, or any of my vinyl. I had several problems with the plug-in/external listening app and it just wasn't representing my listening habits very well so I ditched it.

YMM(H)V.

I listen to LastFM through Rhythmbox, the Gnome Itunes clone, which does scrobble the songs that I listen to through my ipod (or did before some punk stole it). I like having easy access to songs by bands that I'm not familiar with to see what they sound like.

I love the part where I can see what my friends and acquaintances are listening to (hellbient just played a Bowie song! My pal B is on a Devendra Banhart kick. Etc.) The other features aren't ones I use very often.

Eide makes some good points--it doesn't reflect all my listening, and the latest client is too bloated for my tastes. That said, I've been on there for a while, and I'll probably stick around a while longer.

I lurve it. I'm old school audioscrobbler (as you can see by my avatar which I haven't changed since 2003). I designed some of their original site icons (no longer used since the redesign). Here's my profile. Because of last.fm I just found out that my musical compatibility with taz is SUPER. I've never had SUPER compatibility with anyone before. Not even my husband. I think we were meant to be.

Plus I've discovered a ton of new music, and I love that I can listen to my radio station anywhere. Sometimes I take my laptop with me and it has no music on it, but I can tune in to my music (or anyone else's) and listen to stuff I like. I don't take advantage of 9/10ths of the features though, like journaling and groups and tagging and all that.

The new client is a bit bloated. But I like to see how skewed my work music (which is the only thing it keeps track of) is. I also use the recommendations. Unlike most recommendation-engines, it doesn't recommend other albums by bands in my playlist (guess what! if I have four of the bands albums, I'm probably aware of who they are and what they sound like and whether or not I like them) and it has actually managed to recommend things I've never heard of.

Mostly, it just feeds the list impulse and serves as a handy reference for "so what music do you like?"

Their recommendations are usually pretty good, especially after you've scrobbled for a while. I wouldn't have found out about one of my favorite bands (Windy & Carl) if it weren't for last.fm recommendations.

I used to listen to the last.fm radio at work (when I had an office job, and before I had an iPod).

Mostly, though, it's the stats. They are humbling. They say: no matter how sophisticated you think your taste in music has become, you're still just a damned Radiohead fanboy.

Are the client and the Scrobbler still two different things? I think I have the Scrobbler--it is just a background application that sits up in the menu bar and sends my songs to last.fm. Seems pretty lightweight to me. Is this what people think is bloaty? Or is there something else? And why would people use it?

Anyway, I mostly like it because I like looking at data about myself. The similar bands and user functions have helped fill in gaps in my music awareness. And, lastly, it's a decent way to listen to my music library from work when I forget to bring my iPod.

I liked it, until it stopped scrobbling for me. I could not get it to work, at home or at the office, despite going through all the tips and steps in the FAQs and forums and everything. Then I uninstalled it. Then because I was never using it, I deleted my account because it was a sad reminder of my failure to get the damn thing to work.

Three different computers, three different failures to work for more than a few weeks.

Does the Last.FM Scobbler just randomly stop working? I've been been listening to stuff a Media Player mix all day and I just noticed that a bunch of songs don't show up. A bunch of them show up while it's playing, but when it goes to the next song they're gone. Weird.

I like it, and it has helped me discover some new music. As crush said, it has a pretty good recommendation engine.

Mainly, I like it because I can use the "similar artists" or tag radio.

I signed up a year after iconomy so I guess I've been on there for a while. I do like the recommendations but all it mainly does now is remind me how much music I've lost over the years to hd crashes. Which is nice. I've never had any problems with the software.