The popular social music service Last.fm features an API that lets anyone build their own programs using Last.fm data, whether those programs are on the web, on the desktop, or on a mobile phone. In the past, we’ve listed some of the best mashups built using this API from MusicPortl to LastGraph to Yahoo Pipes and more, but now we’re anxiously awaiting the arrival of a whole new crop of applications. Why’s that? Because Last.fm has just launched a new version of their public API. Yes, there’s now a Last.fm API 2.0.
The new version of the Last.fm API will now allow any application or device deep integration with the Last.fm platform. According to their blog post about the launch, their goal is to offer “the most comprehensive social music API on the web.”
To do so, the API offers a new user authentication protocol that will let developers build apps that create “user sessions,” which will allow apps to utilize both read and write services – meaning, the apps aren’t limited to just pulling information from Last.fm, they can send info back to the service as well. While this is big news because it means Last.fm’s API now offers write support, some people aren’t happy that they chose to go with their own authentication protocol instead of using a more mainstream one like OpenID or OAuth instead.
Also included in the new version is a new tagging API now available which lets developers pull and apply tags to Last.fm’s music content from any application on any platform. This should lead to some interesting batch tag editor apps built with the API. In addition, new search, playlist, events, and geo APIs have been rolled out and even more will arrive in the coming weeks.
For help with all the new features of the API as well as to provide feedback and suggestions, there’s the Last.fm web services group for developers.
