Articles → draft - A Handy Survival Guide For The New-Look Last.fm

DRAFT

I'm waiting for someone to write a more extensive survival guide myself. In the meantime, here's a handy overview. Don't worry, you're not the only one wondering where to find your Home page, and I was there for beta testing!

Navigation:

All pages have sidebars that replace the old tabs. A lot of information has been reorganised.

You might not notice, but if you look top right, see your name and a mini avatar? See the little triangle? Click on that, see what happens.... I know!! Who knew?! lol To be honest, I keep forgetting it's there. Don't worry, you don't really need it. Phew, huh?

If you use Firefox, Ctrl +F will help you search in page, if you want to find something quickly in my journal.

Staff, look away now.... If all the white is blinding your eyes, this might help. I toggle between this and the new view. I RIP'd the Player on my Profile but kept everything else.


Navigation:

Click on the Last.fm logo, top left for:
- Home
- Recommended (Last.fm recos)
- Inbox
- Settings
* Pending Friends requests
* Free mp3s according to your taste in Personalised Podcasts
* Events according to your tastes via the Recommended tab
* Videos - ....... ditto .....
* Music reco'd by Last.fm - absolutely superb. Now you don't have to wait and establish your taste to start listening. Add your artists and you're good to go. If you're already established, you can make changes to the type of recos you get by adding new artistst. The Library is updated immediately. Last.fm Recommended Music is linked back to your Library.

** click on your name in Hi <user> above the Library pics to get back to your Profile


Communications:

* Reply Tracker returns! Find it on your Posts page
* Inbox - now in your Home page. Click on the Last.fm logo top left.

* Posts - a makeshift Grapevine. No, it doesn't show if you have replies (yet).

* Shoutbox - click on the 'X shouts' next to your avatar to jump down. No there's no jump back up I'm afraid.

* Journal - to write a new one, click on the Journal link first, in the sidebar.

* Activity Feed - please note, they are set to Private only for 2 weeks from go live (17 July). After 2 weeks, everyone's will default to public. If you do not wish for people to see your recent activity, set your preferences in Settings / Privacy.

* Recos from friends now appear as PMs.
I'm not getting on with that too well so if you want to reco me something, I'd prefer a shout, please. Thank you kindly. :)

* Forums, Contact, etc are still at the bottom of the page. I know, some people have white text on white. Rest assured, it's all still there.


I haven't finished yet....

Tagging

Adding to Playlist

* if you want to select a Playlist, it's best to click on the gears in the page. The Player does not yet have an option to send to a Playlist, and the Client hasn't been updated, so it will only send to the Playlist on your Profile.

* you can't yet select which Playlist you want on your page. Giving Playlists new titles is a buggy too.

Search

* work in progress. Biggest improvement is the dropdown menu next to the search bar so you can choose straight off if you want to search for a tag for instance, instead of heading for the big search bar we used to have. (Which was absolutely fantastic and I hope returns). 'Music' should mean artists and albums but search results aren't much better than before - you still can't find Beck's new album, Modern Guilt, by normal means. You have to go hunting for it: I went to Beck, clicked on Gamma Ray because I know it's on there, scrolled down, clicked on the album: http://www.last.fm/music/Beck/Modern+Guilt

Library

* when you add an artist, everything of theirs should play
* in instances of multiple artists with the same name, just grab the albums you want
* if you add just one track by an artist, only that track will play
* when you delete an artist/album/etc from your library it also removes them from your chart.


Radios:

* Similar Artists Radio - in the lower half of the Player, top right on every artist page
* When listening to an album in the Player, the next track is indicated in text at the top


Ideas that WILL be added in the future
Frequently Asked Questions
Known Issues