Vagalume: Last.fm Where You Want, When You Want!

Music continues to be a major passion for mobile phone users and therefore it is important that Nokia N900 is capable to delivers superior music experiences in a number of different ways to ensure people get the music they want, how , where and when they want it.

Just released Vagalume 0.8 application is yet another step in right direction as it includes Last.fm’s scrobbling functionality, adds support for the Libre.fm and is compatible with Nokia N900 although UI hasn’t been completely adapted to the Maemo 5 platform.

Vagalume is a GTK+-based Last.fm client designed for the GNOME desktop environment but it is also designed to work in the Maemo platform, used by some Nokia devices such as the Nokia 770, N800 and N810 and now on Nokia N900 as well.

It's small and provides the basic Last.fm features, such as scrobbling, tags, recommendations but there is a still plenty of room for improvements as it lacks many other features and a decent UI.

Many things have changed since the previous version. These are some of the highlights (read the full list here):

• Implemented the Last.fm Web Services API v2.0
• Support for Libre.fm and other Last.fm-compatible services
• Support for Maemo 5 (Nokia N900)
• New logo and other UI changes
• Sleep timer (i.e. stop playback after X minutes)
• New configuration setting to download free tracks automatically

It’s also important to say that Last.fm does not allow streaming music to mobile phones so if you are Last.fm user and you have a Nokia N900 then you should really read the FAQ (and also this post) and If you are interested in Libre.fm or the support for multiple servers you should read the Vagalume FAQ.

Speaking of the Last.fm, it is the UK-based internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002 and it is the now world's largest social music platform as they claims. Using a music recommendation system known as "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations or on the user's computer or portable music device.

This information is transferred to Last.fm's database ("scrobbled") via a plugin installed into the user's music player. The profile data is displayed on a personal web page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user's favourites.

Users can create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library, and are able to listen to some individual tracks on demand, or download tracks if the rightsholder has previously authorised it. Registration is required to acquire a profile but is not necessary to view any part of the site or to listen to radio stations.

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