When comparing Last.fm vs Spotify, the Slant community recommends Spotify for most people. In the question“What are the best music streaming services?” Spotify is ranked 2nd while Last.fm is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Spotify is:
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music. The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports a wide range of platforms, music players and browsers
Last.fm scrobbles music from wide range of devices and music players, not just from official apps such as Scrobbler for Windows and Mac, Scrobbler for iOS, Last.fm for Android and Last.fm for Spotify, but also a wide range of 3rd party Last.fm apps that are available on many platforms, built using the official Last.fm API such as ScrobbleMe for Windows Phone, Simple Last.fm Scrobbler for Android, Last.fm Scrobbler for Chrome, FoxyScrobbler for Firefox and the built-in Last.fm scrobbling in Deezer.
Pro Scrobbling
Last.fm checks what you listen to the most, they're calling it scrobbling, and streams songs based on that information. It works via your computer, smartphone, iPod and other music services.
Pro Last.fm Tag/Artist radio
Play songs similar to "X" from Youtube.
Pro Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music.
The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Pro Related artists
Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks
Pro Curated playlists
Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.
Pro Client's functionality can be extended via third-party apps
Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm.
Pro Has a free version
A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.
Pro Weekly Discover playlist uses a great algorithm
A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors.
Cons
Con Lack of compositions
The most popular are there, but forget about something unique.
Con There is no one-time life subscription
Con Low audio quality
Con Free account have lots of ads
If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else.
Con Discovery is terrible
The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it.
Con Poor audio quality
There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad.