Last.fm is a music service with Internet radio and is similar in ways, to a social networking site. The website is UK-based (but can be used in other countries), is owned by CBS Interactive and was founded in 2002.
The website includes music streams on radios, such as 
"Rock Radio" which has different bands and artists in the rock genre. Last.fm has lots of information on artists, music tracks and albums (and those similar to them), charts, statistics and more. Users can read about artists they are interested in, whilst checking out their most popular songs, browse through their albums, listen to their music and watch their videos. Additionally, advertisements and upcoming events are scattered around the website which help market other businesses.
"Rock Radio" which has different bands and artists in the rock genre. Last.fm has lots of information on artists, music tracks and albums (and those similar to them), charts, statistics and more. Users can read about artists they are interested in, whilst checking out their most popular songs, browse through their albums, listen to their music and watch their videos. Additionally, advertisements and upcoming events are scattered around the website which help market other businesses.
"As soon as you start listening to music on Last.fm, or with your media player on your computer – for this you need our free Scrobbler software which you can get here– all this music will get added to your profile and you’ll see what you’ve been listening to so far and get your own artists, tracks and album charts. This is what we call “scrobbling”", Last.fm explains.
The website is also able to keep track of the most popular music searched and listened to. Even more, it has a clever feature as the listeners can easily find bands alike to their favourites and what music they already listen to. The users can create their own profile- writing in blog posts, with their own charts and stats, events calender and can invite and meet new friends through the chat forums. To create your own profile, you have to sign up.
Last.fm seems a good website to use to listen and learn about new music, either through searching yourself or looking on other people's profiles and playlists. It is accessible from any computer and is available for use on mobile phones. It also has a general Top Chart page which shows what artist or band and song has had the most views and listens. For the end of the week of 13th September, it was Muse with Uprising with 134,351 plays and 39,837 listeners.
Again Last.fm is not a downloading site, only a "listening"-site, it does have links to other internet sites which are music retailers and therefore have downloads available.
A disadvantage is how users outside of the US, UK and Germany have to pay after having a free 30-track trial. If they wish to continue listening to the streams, they have to pay ("only") three Euros.
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