Author Topic: LastFM changes to API (02/05/19)  (Read 41058 times)

Steven

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Although I have had a reply by last.fm, I dont believe anything has been changed for now. They have restricted MusicBee (total requests for for all users averaged per second) to a very low API request rate ie. its not something you or I can control. So expect this issue to keep happening while discussion is still ongoing.
I dont think this is anything specifically about MusicBee and has been done to all apps that use more than just the scrobble api's

Bizy

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Before using my Last.fm account, I used 'loves' on top of ratings - for temporary 'flashes' and quickly finding them.
No problem, ever ever.

Paradoxically:  since I read the responses on the poll on Last.fm, I started using my account and yes, well, kind of liked it (especially for the recommendations, as Bobisimo mentioned).

Now I have these annoying pop-ups (as reported in this thread)  >:(
And even when I disable scroblling, I can't use '(un)love' anymore - always these popups...  >:(

Installing that latest patch didn't remedy that.

b.
Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 08:02:34 PM by Bizy
Full installer Version 3_4_7805
Portable Editon 3_4_7805 P
OS: Windows 10 Home Edition

redwing

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I think they should use user-level rate limit for scrobbling and loving tracks, not app-level limit.
If they won't listen, one way is to remove the built-in functionality from MB and have users install last.fm's scrobbler app. I think that's how iTunes and WMP support last.fm scrobbling. Then each user will have a daily limit per IP.

frankz

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Has anyone reported any problem other than in the loving of tracks?  Scrobbling is working fine.  I haven't seen anyone reporting anything other than an issue with loving tracks. If the only thing that's an actual problem seems to be in the loving of tracks, if it comes to it, the only thing that should really need to change is to disable the loving of tracks. 


But I don't think it's going to come to that.  I can't see last.fm being intransigent with an overall provider of a data they make money off of.

Steven

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frankz

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Well I hope I'm right that they will act sensibly in the end then. You've built a lot of cool stuff into MB around last.fm (most of which I'm unfortunately just fully exploring now at this late date since it became an issue).

redwing

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Do they assume loving should be done while actually listening to the track just like scrobbling?

Bee-liever

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Has anyone reported any problem other than in the loving of tracks?
its everything except scrobbling

Could it also be the way MB submits the loved tracks?
I've noticed that MB includes all version of a track that has the same title/artist, not taking into account the album it's from.
If I 'love' the Eurythmics-Sweet Dreams (from Sweet Dreams album) MB also 'loves' the live and remix versions I have from different albums.

If you have a few duplicates of a track in your library, this could be the trigger for:

MusicBee and my library - Making bee-utiful music together

Bizy

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@Bee-liever:  I doubt that.  I got the same message for tracks that I assume to be unique.  (And, I'll keep this in mind whenever I got that message and will search for 'duplicates' of that song.)
Full installer Version 3_4_7805
Portable Editon 3_4_7805 P
OS: Windows 10 Home Edition

Skywake

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Really sucks. Basically the main reason I use Musicbee is reverse scrobbling. I listen to and scrobble music on my phone,  reverse scrobble to MB and then sync back auto playlists to my phone. Without that? Last.fm is just stats and Musicbee is a glorified windows explorer.

frankz

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I listen to and scrobble music on my phone,  reverse scrobble to MB and then sync back auto playlists to my phone.
I do this every day.  It works the same today as it did May 2.
Without that? Last.fm is just stats and Musicbee is a glorified windows explorer.
Welcome to the forum. :-\

Steven

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So last.fm are not going to budge on this, and not even grant a temporary reprive before changes could me made and rolled out. Even if I make changes and go live in the next few days there will be many months before it takes effect as users adopt the new version ie. this rate limit issue is going to remain for a long time. I did explain this but the person I am dealing with either doesnt understand the point or just doesnt care about the apps or the last.fm users affected. I have to say I am staggered they can't see they are also hurting themselves but thats what we have.

I am in two minds what to do. If I make changes, it wont be effective for a long time so almost pointless spending the time doing so in the short to medium term (other than the artwork retrieval which has to be removed). Realistically the only things that can remain are track love; similar artists; and play count sync. Even then by my calculations MusicBee may still be over the limit so play count and love sync will be manual only. Given that scrobbling is not affected at all, I will leave that in.

I guess another approach is someone builds a plugin for play count and love sync, so if anyone wants to step up to the plate with that let me know.
Last Edit: May 08, 2019, 06:29:25 PM by Steven

frankz

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I wish I had the skill to do the plugin(s).   I really do. 

I'll tell you what I think for what it's worth.  One man's opinion. 

Play count and scrobbling are essential functions that are integral to music listening across devices / platforms. I use these heavily, so my opinion is appropriately biased in that respect.

Track love is nice and nearly essential, but can be accomplished internally for every other purpose except interacting with the last.fm service, and screw them.  What I mean by "accomplished internally" is that you could, if you wanted to, build a track love function into MusicBee tomorrow.  Or people could utilize the rating function. Or people could just add tracks they really like to a playlist for such tracks.  Loving tracks is a really "last.fm" specific thing.  I don't use "love," so my opinion is again biased.  It seem fairly redundant to me.

I've recently gotten really into the "similar artists" thing, but it is non-essential.  You could even replace it with a function from another API like the Spotify Public API if you really wanted to.  If it were to go away, it would not be devastating.

Again, just one guy's input.

Steven

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screw them.
yes I do find that statement very appealing at the moment and thats what I really meant when I said I was in two minds.
Thanks for the spotify link - i had forgotten about that and I will discuss that with the author of the spotify plugin
As to track love, I had the same thoughts and if I do go down the path of "screw them" I was thinking if last.fm is just being used for playcount stats then I would remove last.fm scrobbling all-together and make it available for libre-fm.
Anyway, when I will leave this a few days before deciding definitely what I will do and see what others have to say.

edit:
Also there is already an API for album artwork retreival. There are other sites that could be accessed via a plugin.
If someone is willing to work on an artist picture retrieval plugin, i can add an API for that
Last Edit: May 08, 2019, 07:49:39 PM by Steven

frankz

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I'd have no problem using libre.fm over last.fm FWIW.  I like their rec's, but to hell with them if they are going to be this way.

Listenbrainz is another option.  People can even import their last.fm info to that automatically.
Last Edit: May 08, 2019, 08:07:07 PM by frankz