I'm a backdoor man

For a long time I have thought that Last.fm is one of the best things on the internet. It scrobbles my music (gives me statistics on the music I listen to), suggests what I might like, tells me where and when the artists that I like are on tour and provides lists of ‘similar music' I might like (e.g. if I set an Eagles playlist they will stream music by artists such as the Byrds or Jackson Browne). I’ve discovered so many new bands and singers through that service. And I buy their music (so its not just about freeloading)!

At the start of this year Last.fm stopped becoming available outside the UK, US, Germany and Brazil. I reluctantly switched to Spotify – a good choice if you want to listen to entire albums or one artist. But their algorithms for many artists aren’t very good and they have some (lots of) black holes. Worse still are their adverts and their time limits (max. 10 hours a month). I would have subscribed to get rid of both of these – but my IP address is Belgian and my credit card is Dutch – and guess what - they won’t accept that combination. I can't say how much that annoyed me, how much time I spent trying to find a contact address to explain / grumble about that situation. I was a (very and increasingly) reluctant Spotify user for the past six months. Then my computer guru told me about a back door into Last.FM. I have gladly gone through that door, have a paid subscription to Last FM again and am a happy bunny.