Got a subscription to Last.fm? Then check out the open Last.fm beta (for subscribers only). I, alas, do not have a subscriber account, but the beta forum has a good bit of discussion about new features, broken features, and the dreaded new design.

Personal aesthetics aside, the new design definitely fails at being unique. Beyond the loss of branding and novelty, though, the site seems to be going in a good direction. The two pages I have seen are clean, simple, and consistent. People are crying bloody murder over the layout (which is horrible), but I bet that will either change by the final cut, or be modifiable by the user. (Virb.com has this feature, and it is wonderful.)

But however ugly the color scheme turns out to be, the design will not be unusable, and the site update will ultimately succeed or fail because of the features and UI tweaks. The best new feature I have heard about is definitely the free mp3s feed, with a list of free recommended mp3s you can subscribe to through any news reader or podcast manager. But everyone else is probably looking forward to the big, glamorous feature: the library.

What’s the library all about? It’s a way for you to see all the music in your profile. Dig through every artist, album and track you’ve ever played, save things there to check out later and categorise your music with tags. It’s pretty fun looking at your friends’ music now too. I can now see what’s in Felix’s (not-scrobbling-yet) vinyl collection, or what music my kid sister likes—even though she doesn’t have her own computer or iPod. Your library is the home for all your music, whether you scrobble it or add it manually. It’s also the basis for all of your personalised recommendations on Last.fm.

Fine, that sounds cool. And along with it come other big things like real-time charts, and smaller things like a giant music player in the upper right-hand corner to make easier the whole Last.fm radio thing.

Last.fm has always separated itself from the crowd with its collection of sophisticated tools designed specifically to build a big community you won’t find elsewhere. Up until now, I think a lot of the Last.fm users have been using the site passively, so hopefully the new release provides an experience great enough to really compel any of these users to become more active participants. With the library, real-time charts, and who knows what other new features, this is a strong possibility.

UPDATE: Flickr: Search: last.fm beta

soundamus - web service that provides a RSS feed of new and upcoming albums based on artists you scrobble on Last.fm. Also known as: the most useful mashup of 2008.

Song library meme time: most heard songs. Check iTunes or Winamp or Last.fm or whatever, and post your top five most heard songs. My top five are:

1. Ben Folds Five - Army (119 plays)
2. Ben Folds Five - Sports & Wine (113 plays)
3. Against Me! - T.S.R. (101 plays)
4. Volcano!!! I’m Still Excited - In Green (100 plays)
5. Brendan Benson - Metarie (98 plays)

I cannot remember the last time I played “Metarie”, but after I first heard it I listened to it literally every day for probably two months straight (or more). All of which makes me wish Last.fm showed me on what dates I listened to any of the songs scrobbled. My listening habits would make for a very skewed graph, I bet.

In a case of should have been done a century ago, Last.fm now plays full songs from thousands of major label and independent artists.

Something we’ve wanted for years—for people who visit Last.fm to be able to play any track for free—is now possible. With the support of the folks behind EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner—and the artists they work with—plus thousands of independent artists and labels, we’ve made the biggest legal collection of music available to play online for free, the way we believe it should be.

Artists collect royalties for each time a song is streamed, either through various royalty collection societies or directly. Pretty sweet setup.

However, how long the songs will remain really free is a mystery. The announcement says royalties will be funded by ad revenue, but also mentions an upcoming subscription service. Right now, each track can be played only three times, with unlimited plays a feature of the subscription service, but (again) more specifics are unknown. Three times per day? Per week? Per year? Three times ever?

Though I am hesitant to be too much stock into Last.fm “redesigning the music economy” … sometimes I worry about the future of (commercial) radio. Thankfully, video has yet to kill the radio star, but I worry the internet may deal the final blow. Those legally easily-filled iPods are everywhere, making a huge assortment of music just a reach away. And satellite, commercial free radio? And never-far-off national wireless? Having music anywhere you go is no longer such a draw for radio.

But what of discovering new music? The thousand of ways to do so online (from Pandora.com to Shoutcast stations to mp3 blogs) tend to be labor intensive at best (mp3 blogs), or offer more trash than treasure at worst (streaming radio). Now that Last.fm has filled their coffer with millions of tracks from major and minor labels, discovering new music online has become easier and better. Throw some news with it and push it into the car, and commercial radio is a dead dog.

(Then again, separate the music listening from the web viewing, and you lose the all the ad revenue for the venture. Oh commercials, you tenacious bastards.)