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August 21, 2009

Fire.FM – Brings Last.FM to Your Firefox Toolbar

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Fire.FM – Brings Last.FM to Your Firefox Toolbar

Aug. 21st, 2009 By Mark O'Neill

firefmlogoEven though the site has been around for quite some time (and we have done some articles on it), I have only recently begun to use Last.FM on a regular basis. In this job, I go through a lot of websites on a daily basis and so with me, if a website is not continually there in front of me, I tend to forget about it after a while.

Today I discovered Fire.FM which puts a Last.FM toolbar in your Firefox browser. Normally I shun most toolbars in an attempt to keep my Firefox browser running smoothly but after installing Fire.FM, I just know that I will be holding onto this one for quite a while!

With Fire.FM, you can play Last.FM music directly from your Firefox browser without having to visit the site.  You can also get access to your Last.FM radio stations as well as finding similar artists.

The only snag is that listeners to Last.FM outside of the United States, Great Britain and Germany will be asked to subscribe for €3.00 per month ($4), after a 30 track free trial period.  But anyone in the United States, Great Britain and Germany will not face such limitations.

firefmtoolbar1

Let’s take a look at each feature in more detail.

After logging into your Last.FM account via the toolbar, you can access your stations by going to the drop down menu.

firefmtoolbar2

You can create a station via the toolbar and it will ask you what name you want to give it. Afterwards it will load automatically and start playing :

firefmtoolbar3

Whether you create a new station or load an existing one, the music will begin loading and start playing within seconds. You will also receive a pop up window at the bottom of your browser telling you what song is coming :

firefmtoolbar4

The toolbar also gives you access to your “Top Artists” and “Similar Artists” so you can discover similar new music :

firefmtoolbar5

And to round off the Last.FM features, you can tag, like and dislike the track that’s playing.

firefmtoolbar6

This seems to be a well-made Firefox extension which doesn’t slow down Firefox. I have had it running for hours and so far Firefox hasn’t slowed down at all.  It is great if you are browsing / working online and you would like to have some music playing in the background.   An extension like this brings your music to you at the click of a button and of course every song you listen to and every change you make is more or less immediately reflected in your Last.FM account.

With Fire.FM, there is practically no reason to visit the Last.FM webpage, except perhaps to approve friend requests, visit groups or view events which you can’t do with the toolbar.   But if your only use of Last.FM is to listen to music, get the toolbar.

What do you think of Fire.FM?   An essential extension or a piece of bloatware?  Let us know in the comments.

(By) Mark O'Neill is a freelance writer, blogger and the managing editor of MakeUseOf.

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1 Comment Add Comment
2009-08-21 15:19:03
billy g

add “Low of the Low” to the playlist. Go on. I dare you. I’ve been using this addon for about a year now and love it. I use it a lot. “Low of the Low” radio is my favorite station.

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I used to use this all the time when I was a Firefox user. Great app!

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