A lot of people are being rather critical of this launch, which in itself is a rather mean spirited thing to do considering a) anyone launching anything should be applauded, b) and the 20 year old solo founder got into ycombinator with this product, c) data porn startups should be fascinating to hackers.
Almost 20% of the comments here, and one of the most upvoted comments here is calling it a clone.
I believe that Like.FM can and will kill Last.FM. The reason is because Last.FM is in the corporate doldrums, and since Last.FM got acquired a few fundamental things happened: Facebook & Twitter.
Last.FM has little to no integration with these services, seriously, imagine a social service in 2011 that entirely ignores these networks.
I love Last.FM, I have been a user for over 5 years (http://www.last.fm/user/Hejog) but I am infuriated to no end at the lack of innovation.
Last.FM has forgotten its roots of being a startup, and in this process lost the one thing products need to relentlessly focus on - delighting users. If Like.FM can focus on that, they will beat Last.FM.
The major roadblock with beating Last.FM is that their API is a very defensible beachhead - I refuse to use music services that do not scrobble, as data is worthless if you only see 90% of your listening habits.
Chris needs to run around SV and convince everyone to let him integrate his APIs with their music service. (seriously, isn't Earbits in the same batch as you?)
I've actually found Last.fm's APIs and its ubiquity to be a plus. I've implemented Like.fm's tracking APIs to be identical to that of Last.fm's. So new player implementations usually only require minor, or no, modifications by me to have it working with Like.fm.
I believe that Like.FM can and will kill Last.FM. The reason is because Last.FM is in the corporate doldrums, and since Last.FM got acquired a few fundamental things happened: Facebook & Twitter. Last.FM has little to no integration with these services, seriously, imagine a social service in 2011 that entirely ignores these networks.
I love Last.FM, I have been a user for over 5 years (http://www.last.fm/user/Hejog) but I am infuriated to no end at the lack of innovation.
Last.FM has forgotten its roots of being a startup, and in this process lost the one thing products need to relentlessly focus on - delighting users. If Like.FM can focus on that, they will beat Last.FM.
The major roadblock with beating Last.FM is that their API is a very defensible beachhead - I refuse to use music services that do not scrobble, as data is worthless if you only see 90% of your listening habits.
Chris needs to run around SV and convince everyone to let him integrate his APIs with their music service. (seriously, isn't Earbits in the same batch as you?)