Last.fm is one of the largest music websites on the Internet. Users can listen to music on the site, discover related musicians and communicate with other users. The music portal provides access to a feature called Radio which essentially makes it possible to stream music that is related to artists, tags or users.
This radio feature is being used by Last Sharp, an application that can be used to download music from Last.fm. Last Sharp requires the Microsoft .net framework 2.0 and an operating system that is either Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista. The application itself can be unpacked and started from any directory on the hard drive without installation. The only other requirement is a Last.fm user account to be able to tune in and download the music.
The default language of the interface is German but it can be set to English in the options. The options are in the lower left corner. The user can set the download directory, add a proxy, enable continuous downloads or select to normalize mp3 files with MP3 Gain.
The heart of the program is the Tune In section which can be used to load a 30 track playlist filtered by tag, similar artists or account specific parameters. All tracks of the playlist are selected by default and can be downloaded by right-clicking in the window and selecting the Download option from the context menu. Tracks that are not wanted can be unchecked. The Remember Downloads setting in the option is handy to prevent that already downloaded tracks are downloaded again.
It should be noted that the downloads have to be in order. Selecting a download from the middle will prevent downloads of tracks that are listed above it in the playlist. It is however still possible to recreate the playlist which will be populated with songs that can be downloaded.
One interesting parameter is continuous download. It will automatically pull the next 30 track playlist from Last.fm once the end of the last has been reached. This effectively means unlimited downloads for as long as the application is running.
Last Sharp is available on a German website. Just scroll down to the section called Aktuelle Version and click on the Download link which leads to Rapidshare where the application can be downloaded.
Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter.Related Articles:
Download Music from eSnipsDownload free music at the Hype Machine
Download free music from Last.fm
Listen to and download free mp3 music
Myspace Music Download
Just in case anyone is wondering, I think after you change to English (which is under the Erweiterte Einstellungen tab) you need to restart the app to take effect. It does say this, albeit in German :p
Didn’t work for me. Every time I’d start the program it would give some error message in German that I couldn’t understand, and when I’d switch to English and restart the program, it would still be in German and display the same error message.
i don’t understand the appeal of recording low-quality streaming audio when it’s so easy to find high-bitrate versions of the same songs elsewhere on the internet…
Tysen send me a screenshot and I let you know what it says ;)
dont work for me too, the same error of
Tysen Woodlock, also cant change the language, im on a x64 xp machine…
Worked just fine for me! I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time now!
It streams, it rips, it works!
Went to the website and to free download. It offered the option of “save” (no option of “run” offered), saved it to the desktop but could not open this .rar file. How is it installed?
this is really the shit!
GREAT tip.
Got to love ze Germans!
dj7 – you need the winrar application to unzip the rar file. it’s similar to winzip.
In firefox is application,which allow to download file , which we’re downloading We need to work Firefox and Video DownloadHelper :: Add-on for Firefox .Next we install this add-on , we enter to for example last.fm and You’re turning on radio , which we want .When track is playing We’re clicking to the three balls on the top firefox and click down track for example
123.mp3
123.mp3
123.mp3 and choose it