In May 2010, Last.fmannouncedthe launch ofLast.fm Festivals, a personalized guide to music festivals around the world. It enabled users to browse upcoming festivals in their locale or further afield, based on their personal music profile and, of course, their ‘scrobbling’ history. Now, Last.fm hasportedthis functionality into dedicated mobile apps foriOSandAndroiddevices, which is fantastic news for serial festival-goers with itchy feet. The only caveat is that they’re available in the US only for now, but the good news is availability will be extended across the world shortly....

Last.fm wasacquiredby CBS Interactive more than four years ago, and it seems that the broadcaster is now aiming to brings some of its digital products closer together. Last.fmhas been added toRadio.com, CBS’s online player, which already streams audio from hundreds of stations including CBS Radio, whilst it also hosts both Yahoo! and AOL’s music streams. Visitors to Radio.com will now be able to create their own online stations via one-click functionality enabled through its Last....

Update at foot of post. Popular music websiteLast.fmhas been down for over 13 hours, with many of its 40 million users unable to access the website or the services its provides. TheLast.fm blogremains accessible, as do the user forums, but when a user tries to access the main site, it is not resolving. According to reports on the Last.fm forums, Web Services and Music Manager are also not working, as is the API....

Personalized music service Last.fmhas announcedthat it will introduce a subscription system for its mobile apps from February 15, dropping its free service on both the iPhone and Android. Last.fm’s mobile apps will now be ad-free and subscriber-only, but its website radio feature will remain free on the Last.fm website in the US, UK and Germany, for Xbox Live users in the US and UK and on Windows Phone 7 phones. For the time being, radio will also remain free for users of the Last....

Over the past few years, hardly anything in the world of the Internet has gathered as much attention as music. From the death of terrestrial radio to the delayed worldwide releases of sites such as Spotify, we’ve run the gamut of ideas, choices and opportunities. Why has it been so difficult? It turns out that a service you’ve likely used before,Last.fm, has some unique insight into the ecosystem that is online radio....