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Last.fm is a UK-based Internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. It claims over 21 million active users based in more than 200 countries. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for £140m ($280m USD).
Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar.
URL:
www.last.fm
www.pandora.com
Commercial?:
Yes
Yes
Type of site:
Music, Statistics & Community
Internet Radio
Registration:
Free, or subscribe for £1.50 per month ($3 USD)
Optional
Available outside the U.S.:
Yes
No
Available language(s):
Multilingual (12)
English
Owner:
CBS Interactive
Pandora Media, Inc.
Created by:
Communal
The Music Genome Project
Current status:
Active
Active
Last.fm and Pandora are the two leading music streaming services in the world today. They have comparable traffic volumes and song selections.
[edit] Last.fm vs Pandora: Determining what songs to play
While both Last.fm and Pandora aim to play songs that the service "predicts" the user will like, the algorithm they use to make that prediction is different. In both services, users provide feedback on the songs that play and the service remembers this feedback and plays songs based on it.
Last.fm chooses songs based on crowdsourcing and the site's community features (they call it crobbling). This means that if a user has indicated certain preferences, songs are based on the preferences of other users who have similar preferences. This can be a good way to discover new music even though Last.fm does not necessarily "understand" the intrinsic attributes of the songs.
Pandora has a different method to find music that the user will like. Pandora's service understands the different attributes of all songs (like vocal harmony, rhythmic patterns, electric rock instrumentation). Based on the user's stated preferences, the service plays songs that have similar musical qualities to the songs the user likes. This is a different method to discover new music than Last.fm but also has its advantages and works well.
[edit] Registration and Social Networking in Last.fm vs Pandora
Registration is optional at Pandora and the social networking features are not core to the functioning of the service.
With Last.fm, registration is required and community recommendations drive the functioning of the website using tags and preferences. The media player page is set up like YouTube - you can scroll down and leave a “shout” (comment) about the track as well as read what others are saying. Last.fm also incorporates events (like upcoming concerts) into the play page. Pandora does not offer this kind of service.
Pandora has two subscription plans: a free subscription supported by advertisements and a fee-based subscription without ads. The annual fees for ad-free Pandora subscription is $36. Pandora also makes money from commissions received through affiliate programs with iTunes and Amazon. Users can click links to these stores to buy songs they like.
Last.fm also offers subscription services. , costing £1.50, €2.50, $3 or ¥350 per month. Some of the extra features that paid users receive are:
More radio options (custom user playlists and loved tracks radio)
The ability to view recent visitors to one's own profile page
