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Add to SafariWhen comparing Last.fm vs SoundCloud, the Slant community recommends SoundCloud for most people. In the question“What are the best music streaming services?” SoundCloud is ranked 1st while Last.fm is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose SoundCloud is:
Links to related music, based on what you're listening to, can be found in the sidebar.
Specs
Question 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 Recommendations
Links to related music, based on what you're listening to, can be found in the sidebar.
Pro Subscribe to artists
You can subscribe to artists to be notified the instant they upload a new song or give an update.
Pro Explore tab has new music constantly
Explore tab on SoundCloud shows trending music that can be filtered based on genre/tag. There's a constant stream of new music.
Pro Follow people
You can follow people with similar tastes or that often find new music. When they favorite a song, SoundCloud will notify you about it.
Pro Free to use
You don't even have to log in or sign up for an account if you don't want to.
There are paid options for if you want to upload large quantities of audio (eg if you're a music label you'll need this), but it's free to download as much and as often as you like.
Pro Pre-releases
Some music labels, especially newer ones, release on SoundCloud before anywhere else.
Pro Creative Commons filter
SoundCloud allows for finding music that is licensed under Creative Commons.
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 Can't do an advanced search
You can't search, for example, for Creative Commons music with the tag #trap. It could be useful to search for music you like that is under Creative Commons.
Con Interface is full of bugs
The SoundCloud website has tons of problems, including issues with notifications, favorites, and uploading sounds.
Con Audio ads in some uploaded content
Some content on SoundCloud includes audio ads, particularly sponsored podcasts.
(Note that SoundCloud itself doesn't add these - all the audio you're hearing is exactly as it was uploaded.)
