How to get last.fm on your Nseries device

Here’s how to play streaming music from last.fm on your N78, N82, N95, N810 or other Nseries device.

I’ve become a bit addicted to last.fm recently. I like that it collects and publishes a history of every song I listen to; when aggregated, this opens up many exciting possibilities.

Last.fm exposes a list of music “neighbors” - people that have music tastes similar to mine. I’ve found lots of interesting people with this feature. Sometimes, when meeting someone new, I’ll check their last.fm profile to see what their tastes are like and how they compare to my recent habits.

Listening history not only helps you find people in common, but it also helps you discover new music. The idea is that you’ll slowly venture beyond your music tastes and history and will explore similar artists and songs from your neighbors. You can do this by using something called last.fm radio. It’ll use your history to automatically recommend and play songs from your neighbors (the neighborhood) or based on certain tags and friends that you pick.

There are a few last.fm clients, but I generally prefer using the Flash player on last.fm’s website to listen to last.fm radio. Sometimes - especially when there’s stuff to do around the apartment - I would set up my computer in the living room and have it stream radio. But then I started disliking the idea of having my computer crowding up already valuable space next to my TV and speakers. So I started looking for a way to get a small device like my phone to play last.fm radio instead.

I found two methods to do this: one method that works on the Nseries tablet (N800, N810) and one that works with S60 3rd edition handsets like the N78, N82 and N95.

For the internet tablets, you can use a last.fm client called Vagalume. Here’s how:

1. To install the client, navigate to the Maemo Vagalume using your device and then tap the Click to install arrow on the page.

2. Once installed, start up Vagalume and enter your last.fm account details. Then press the play button. The radio will automatically start playing music from your neighborhood.

3. The player not only shows details about the currently playing song, but it also gives you feedback controls (love, ban, etc) that you can use to improve last.fm recommendations.

The other new client is called blastfm. It is a Symbian application that’s built to run on S60 3rd edition devices. The experience is not as seamless as with the Vagalume client, but it’s useful nevertheless. It works alongside Nokia’s own Internet Radio Player and allows you to control your last.fm radio. To run this application:

1. Download and install the SIS file onto your handset. This package will actually install three separate applications: blastfm, Internet Radio Player and Python. All three applications are required in order to use the blastfm client. You must also be sure to install the entire package on your memory card - it will not work when installed in internal memory. (When installing the package using the link, you’ll be asked whether you want to save it to your memory card).

2. Once you’ve installed the package, run blastfm.

3. You’ll be asked to Enter your last.fm account details.

4. Now, you need to choose the radio type. Select Options, then tune, then pick your choice. I usually choose Neighborhood Radio.

5. Press the blue Menu icon to go to the main menu view.

6. Launch the Internet Radio Player application from the Applications folder.

7. Choose Options, then Stations, then last.fm.

8. The application will ask you to choose a connection type. If possible, choose a Wi-Fi connection as this will making streaming radio faster. If Wi-Fi is not available, you can still use the radio using a connection like MediaNet (for AT&T). I chose MediaNet and the 3G was fast enough for a few of my tests.

9. You can switch back to the blastfm application if you want; blastfm will now display some details (title, artist) about the currently playing song. It will also give you some feedback controls (love, ban, etc).

I think the N810 approach is great for the living room because it’s a slim design that can stand upright and can show you what’s playing. The N78/N82/N95 method is better when you are on the move and want to use headphones instead. (And the N78 offers the added bonus of being able to stream last.fm wirelessly.)

I prefer the Vagalume client and use it currently in my living room. It’s a great looking application and I like the overall simple design. The blastfm application is still rather new (it’s only been out for a couple of months) but shows great promise, especially because it’s something that you can listen to while mobile and without Wi-Fi.

I also like the integration with the Radio Player application - why rewrite everything from scratch when you don’t have to?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Source : http://workshop.nseries.com/2008