Official: Last.fm comes to Facebook

When Facebook's new platform launched last month, to allow third parties to partner with the social networking site, who in return would provide the necessary hooks for those companies to port their applications and set-up-shop inside of the site, the omission of the popular music social network Last.fm was puzzling. Mike Arrington (over at TechCrunch) noted that their absence had left such a void that one user had even taken it upon themselves to roll a Last.fm Facebook app of their own. Then came news that CBS had acquired Last.fm and many presumed that this distraction was the reason that they hadn't yet joined Facebook's new platform.

Not the case. Last.fm simply hadn't been invited -- a decision made even more intriguing as one of its main competitors, iLike, had been included in the pre-launch programme and almost instantly became one the top five most popular Facebook apps.

As of today, Last.fm is missing in action no more.

"We’re pleased to announce the release of Last.fm Music, our first (and certainly not last) Facebook app", writes Matthew Ogle on the official blog.

Since the launch of Facebook Platform last Thursday, certain parties have been wondering where our application was. The truth is that we were perplexingly left out of Facebook’s early development program, so while some of our competitors had six weeks to work on their stuff, we had to wait until Thursday like everyone else.

The new Facebook app adds Last.fm's personalised music player to a user's profile. Users can showcase any of their saved stations (or playlist), along with recently saved tracks. The clever bit is that this that the Flash-based streaming player can also be added even if you don't have a Last.fm account -- "if you don’t have a Last.fm username, the app creates a station based on the artists listed in your ‘favourite music’ section" -- which really lowers the barriers to trying out the service.

Additionally, users can see all of their friends’ stations on one page, so they can "quickly see who’s listening now and play their music with a single click." Users can also compare their musical compatibility with other Facebook members using Last.fm's Taste-o-meter.