Vodafone has release their own Last.FM client (in conjunction with their Vodafone Music product no doubt). Available directly from Last.FM (and thanks to CJ for the heads-up), the application is geared towards the scrobbling side of Last.FM, ie letting the web server know what you are listening to, and to recommend other artists you might like. It doesn't have an option to stream music, perhaps that's coming in a later version.

Currently users in Germany will also be able to click through from the application to their local Vodafone Music shop to buy tracks that they have discovered, and this is sure to come on-line for other countries in the near future.

While long-term users of Last.FM, and especially users of the unofficial Mobbler mobile client already available for S60 (see our review here) might think that the Vodafone client lacks some of the features that make Last.Fm incredibility useful, this could well bring a lot of new users to the Last.FM service. Assuming Vodafone market this in a visible way - currently the Vodafone Music homepage has no mention of Last.FM support.

The timing of the launch should help soothe some of the nerves at the now smaller Last.FM offices. Parent company CBS Interactive announced they were laying off around 20% of the staff at the London-based office. Bought by CBS in 2007 for $280 million, Last.FM currently has around 22 million global users, but slow growth, and is third in the popular social music sites (behind iMeem and Pandora).

And if you want to see what Last.FM can tell you about someone's music habits... http://www.last.fm/user/ewanspence.

-- Ewan Spence, Dec 08