Paradox Designs

Last.fm and Pandora, 2 music services. Both set out to do the same thing. Both do so in a similar manner. One is clearly better. In this authors opinion, that is Last.fm.

1. More music

Last.fm has been around longer, and as such, has access to a larger library of music. Last.fm is also owned by CBS, who also owns a few record labels. So, if you are into obscure music, Last.fm can provide this.

Pandora also restricts your listening. You can only skip 6 tracks an hour, and only listen to some 40 hours of music a month. Last.fm does no such thing.

2. Better interface

The way most people will use these services is on a computer, so this section goes into the details of the web/computer interface. Both products browser interfaces rely on flash, but last.FM also lets you download a client for desktop use. This means you don’t have to always leave a browser open. Minor issue, but it still is an issue.

Last.fm’s browser interface also let’s you view far more info about the song and artist. Last.fm shows a slideshow, the artists bio, shoutboxes, and similar info. Pandora merely shows the current track, the album art, and little else.

3. History view

Last.fm keeps a history of all the songs you listen to, as well as the likes and bans of these songs. You can go back later and mark or unmark a song. This is quite useful, especially when you accidently hit ban.

Pandora has no such feature, other than bookmarking.

4. Socialization

Last.fm also encourages socialization among its members. People can form friends lists, neighborhoods, and groups. Friends can see musical compatibility, compare tracks, and interact in the usual social network ways (messages, wall posts, etc).

Pandora basically makes you use the service alone, you cannot interact with anyone else.

5. API

Finally, Last.fm has a powerful API and a large open development community around it. It is quite easy to gather data about the music you listen to and embed it in a blog, website, or other application. Also, developers can integrate last.fm functionality into their apps natively.

Pandora has no such api, not even one for data.

Conclusion

This was just a comparison between the streaming portions of each service. Last.fm also has scrobbling, which is a whole different animal, and beyond the scope of this article. I am not telling you to switch to Last.fm over Pandora, but suggesting that if you are new to both, you go with Last.fm over Pandora.