February 29, 2008

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

Last.fm has begun promoting the various Web sites and other online services that use its free music streaming feature via a section of the site called Build.last.fm. The section organizes and showcases the various Last.fm widgets and applications developed using open platform and free Web service tools, which have been available since 2003.

The company says it will expand its Web services this year, encouraging others to include Last.fm's functionality in their programs. Examples include:

-A BBC application that allows listeners to add music streamed on BBC to their Last.fm profiles

-A Skype application that lets Skype users share tracks and playlists.

Noticeably missing from the list is the Pirate Bay's new music application which taps the Last.fm player to let users sample songs before downloading them from various torrent sites.

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