last.fm as a service?

[Seb Ruiz]

On 12/12/2007, Ian Monroe <ian at monroe.nu> wrote:
> On Dec 11, 2007 7:55 AM, Shane King <kde at dontletsstart.com> wrote:
> > OK, so I've decided that getting last.fm 1.2 support into Amarok 2 is
> > the way to go for something useful to do, which raises a question: is it
> > worth trying to fit last.fm into the new services stuff? It seems like
> > it should fit there, although it's probably got a bit larger scope than
> > the existing services (since it needs to deal with the custom radio
> > protocol and scrobbling support).
> >
> > Opinions? Do it that way? Don't do it that way? Just integrate it like
> > the existing one is and worry about making it a service later?
> >
> > Shane.
>
> I don't really see how it fits with the service framework at all,
> outside of it being part of the Internet. :)
>
> Scrobbling is something that happens only when playing local files or
> last.fm streams. This isn't something the Service framework provides
> for I don't think.
>
> As far as Last.fm streams, there isn't a finite number of Last.fm
> streams (ok I suppose they are finite in the strict math sense of the
> word, but there are millions of possibilities) like there are of
> Shoutcast streams so I don't even get what would be listed in the
> last.fm service browser.
>
> So in my opinion Scrobbling should be its own thing, an EngineObserver
> like I think it is currently.
>
> LastFm streams should really be just another radio stream type in the
> playlist browser, like it is currently in 1.4. Like you can add a
> radio station with a URL or you can add a LastFm stream with a
> lastfm:// URL or with a dialog to help you construct a lastfm:// URL.
> They would be implemented as subclasses of Meta::Track.
>

Actually I think it makes perfect sense to make last.fm a service.
I'll tell you why. There is much more to last.fm than just the radio
stations, eg:
 - friends
 - neighbourhoods
 - recommended music
 - fingerprinting
 - wiki stuff
 - tagging
 - love/ban
 - "my playlist"
 - charts

I thought we could incorporate something similar to the official
client last.fm "profile bar" [1] as a service pane. I reckon it would
be totally cool. It would have it's own configuration page with the
services and be able to provide us with much more functionality than
we can currently put anywhere. It would also clean up our menus for
those people that don't use last.fm.

[1] http://www.sebruiz.net/images/lastfmclient.jpg

-- 
Seb Ruiz

http://www.sebruiz.net/