Filed under: Software, iTunes, Reviews
SweetFM brings tasty Last.fm integration to your Mac
I'm a big music fan, and I spend a good portion of my day listening to an iPod or iTunes because music helps me concentrate and stay motivated. I have a pretty extensive music collection, but I also enjoy streaming music services like Last.fm and Pandora to find new music, listen to a mix of related artists, or just play something random. My problem with streaming services is twofold: I don't like having to have a web browser open and I like to be able to easily switch songs, pause playback or even go back to iTunes. For Pandora, the excellent PandoraJam that Scott covered a few years ago is a great option, but until today, I hadn't had any luck finding a good Mac Last.fm client.
SweetFM is a new Last.fm client that offers up a seriously sexy way to listen to your favorite Last.fm stations on your Mac. Here are some highlights:
SweetFM is a new Last.fm client that offers up a seriously sexy way to listen to your favorite Last.fm stations on your Mac. Here are some highlights:
- You can pause songs mid-stream and resume playback
- Unlimited song skipping
- Compatible with both the Apple Remote and the media keys on your Mac Keyboard. I love this because it makes it really easy for me to skip ahead, stop or pause without having to pull up the app window.
- Album art support from both Last.fm and Amazon.com
- Mark songs as loved, banned or add them to a playlist
- If you subscribe to one of the Last.fm pay plans, you can play your loved tracks
- Easy access to tagged stations, artist stations and your library
- Direct access to buy songs
- Export tracks to iTunes: you can do this with all tracks or just tracks you "love," and the MP3 file that is coming from the Last.fm server is automatically added to a specific iTunes playlist.
- Acts as a regular iTunes controller when not streaming
I also like that the app will automatically take me to the artist page in Last.fm in my web browser or to my profile page. You can also set-up a shortcut to hide/unhide the app, if you want to keep it running but not on top of anything.Saving tunes directly to iTunes will appeal to lots of users. At first, I thought this was being achieved through some sort of analog-hole, but after looking at some of the meta-data (which sometimes indicates how the MP3 is encoded), I think that it is actually grabbing the MP3 file that is served from Last.fm from cache and then writing it directly to iTunes. We're talking 128 kbps quality, which doesn't do much for me -- but this is a great way to create a playlist of beloved tracks. The program is smart enough to NOT export a song already in your library.
This is a 1.0 release, but I did have a few problems. Sometimes after streaming for long periods of time (or even shorter periods), I might get a stream error and have to either restart the app or try to stop/restart the station. There also seem to be a few UI inconsistencies -- although for the most part I think the UI is nice. You can even create skins for SweetFM if you are so inclined.
I wish there was an option to switch an radio station to the artist being currently played or some in-program tagging options, but I really can't find much else to quibble with. I reset my Last.fm scrobble history a while ago and have never really gotten back into the habit of using the service, save CoverSutra's scrobble integration, and this has reminded me of the value of the service.
SweetFM is $29US for a single user license, $38 for a two-pack and $47 for a five-user pack. SweetFM requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. You can try the program before purchasing, you're just limited to a number of played songs per session.
How do you listen to music? Let me know in the comments!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Think Adrian said 8:27AM on 6-16-2009
Does it scrobble? Does it scrobble tracks listened to on the iPod like iScrobbler does?
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+. said 9:00AM on 6-16-2009
it does not appear that way, based on my experience with the demo version.
& that's a pretty big buzzkill---the idea of having to run two separate Last.FM apps at once, if i want to switch between radio/iTunes & scrobble them both.
Christina Warren said 9:55AM on 6-16-2009
Yup, it scrobbles. You can even adjust how long into a track you want it to scrobble and turn scrobbling on and off. It'll scrobble both your Last.fm tracks and your iTunes tracks.
Think Adrian said 10:01AM on 6-16-2009
I checked, doesn't seem to scrobble iPod tracks like iScrobbler does.
Christina Warren said 10:04AM on 6-16-2009
Weird. Check this out: http://www.quicksnapper.com/film_girl/image/sweetfm-scrobble-preferences
That lit-up last.fm logo button controls scrobbling I believe.
Think Adrian said 10:07AM on 6-16-2009
iScrobbler requires a smart palylist called "Last played" which loads the last seven days". How else would SweetFM know that you just synced your iPod with iTunes?
Christina Warren said 10:19AM on 6-16-2009
Oh, I see what you're saying, yeah, I doubt it scrobbles with your iPod. I'll be honest, I rarely do that myself (but then, I've also reset my Last.fm account two or three times in the past so it ceased being accurate like, forever ago). iTunes auto-does that whole Recently Played list for me, not sure if it can access that.
Jroen said 8:50AM on 6-16-2009
Wowhoa! It even rips the stream? That is plain awesome.
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Jroen said 9:01AM on 6-16-2009
The price is less awesome... Too bad, well, need to polish my automator script further then to rip it, download the cover, put it in itunes.
Simon Arch said 9:37AM on 6-16-2009
"How do you listen to music? Let me know in the comments!"
With my ears. How do YOU listen to music? Osmosis? ;)
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kelly said 9:38AM on 6-16-2009
@Jroen: Care to share your Automator Workflow? : D
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Rob said 9:40AM on 6-16-2009
I suspect that SweetFM shares the same FLAW as PandoraJam. Many radio streaming stations stream using Enhanced AAC (sometimes called AAC+) since Flash supports this great format. But Apple in its wisdom does NOT support Enhanced AAC (or AAC+) in iTunes or Quicktime.
So with programs like PandoraJam (and I suspect SweetFM too), you can record the songs being streamed as Enhanced AAC (or AAC+) files and automatically add them to iTunes. But iTunes CANNOT properly play back these enhanced AAC (or AAC+) files. All the high notes are gone. (Use GET INFO in iTunes on the song and you will see that the sampling rate is set to 22050 Hz which means all notes above 11025 are gone!). Play back the same song in vlc media player (which supports AAC+) and you will see that the sampling rate is REALLY 44100 Hz.
Apple REALLY needs to add Enhanced AAC (or AAC+) support to Quicktime/iTunes. But don't hold your breath. There has been a petition online for years. Sign it. (See http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/itunes/signatures-1.html )
And also send Apple feedback that you want AAC+ support added! ( http://www.apple.com/feedback/ )
In the meantime, use a player that supports Enhanced AAC (or AAC+) like Songbird or vlc to play back the music properly.
P.S. Most Mac audio converters (like Audialhub) will NOT convert Enhanced AAC (or AAC+) to regular AAC since they often rely on Quicktime to do the decoding. But you can download and compile "faad" (using fink or xCode etc) which will convert Enhanced AAC (or AAC+) files to WAV or AIFF files. iTunes or QT can them convert the WAV into regular AAC files that will play back just fine in iTunes. But this dreaded transcoding would NOT be needed if Apple would just support Enhanced AAC or AAC+ files in iTunes/QT.
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Christina Warren said 9:59AM on 6-16-2009
The new Pandora subscription streams are 192kbps MP3s and from what I can gather, SweetFM is pulling MP3 files pumped directly from Last.fm. The reason I think this, if you choose to export a song, it shows up instantly after the track plays in your playlist. The encoding is sometimes blank (unknown) but I've also seen "encoded with LAME 3.97" or "LAME 3.98" which makes it clear that this was the actual file streamed into the cache.
so it's a 128kpbs MP3, which isn't going to be ideal, but that's the same file that you are listening to.
I imagine that how it works is that Last.fm uses an MP3 to stream through Flash or through the Flash API they offer up, and that it is usually stored in temporary cache that is then cleared. SweetFM is able to grab that file from the cache before it is deleted and import it to iTunes.
Christina Warren said 10:00AM on 6-16-2009
The comment on Pandora was more for PandoraJam, which if you subscribe to Pandora, will now get you the 192kbps MP3s and not the AAC enhanced stuff.
Rob said 4:52PM on 6-16-2009
Christina, thanks for your comments. let's hope last.fm continues to stream in 128 kbps MP3 format.
But remember Pandora used to stream in 128 kbps MP3 format (for those who do NOT subscribe) but they switched to 64 kpbs Enahnced AAC (or AAC+) which sound just as good as 128 kbps to most people. Let's hope last.fm does not do the same and make SweetFM less useful.
But everyday, more and more streaming radio stations are switching to enhanced AAC (or AAC+) format since it saves a lot of bandwidth. I hope one day, Apple supports it in iTunes/QT.
As you mentioned, you can record Pandora with PandoraJam in 192 kbps MP3 but only if you subscribe to Pandora.
beaugiles said 9:57AM on 6-18-2009
Snow Leopard (QuickTime X) supports AAC+ (eAAC, whatever you want to call it) natively. ;)
ryan said 9:48AM on 6-16-2009
good song.
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Hey Skanky Ho! said 10:19AM on 6-16-2009
How does it stack up compared to the official Last.fm mac app? That is one of my daily top used apps...
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Christina Warren said 10:40AM on 6-16-2009
Other than not having the in-app tagging (you can go right to the Last.fm website though), I like it better in every way. You can pause (huge for me), skip ahead with the buttons on top of your Mac keyboard (I have the bluetooth aluminum keyboard with the play/pause, skip buttons and I like to use that when possible), the Apple remote, and it can save songs directly to iTunes.
It's not free and it's scrobbling abilities for your iPod are likely not as good as other programs. But that might get improved.
The pause, export to iTunes and ability to also act as an iTunes controller are what sold me, but I'll also admit I haven’t really looked at a lot of other Last.fm apps in-depth in quite some time.
Jash Sayani said 10:24AM on 6-16-2009
Great interface (and website) ! But there are freeware alternatives for this....
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