Last.fm Update

The beta I talked about a couple weeks ago is now public to all. It's got a couple of new embeddable widgets.

A "album cover quilt" of top albums:

And a player that plays back in page and can be "popped" out of the page so that you can continue to listen even when you navigate to another page.

Suppossedly, your radio stations are easier to find now... but they moved it out of the sidebar and I actually had a hard time finding them. But, they now also generate "user radio" for everyone (not just subscribers). The catch is that you aren't allowed to listen to your own station unless you pay. I'm sure this is due to the DMCA compulsory license stipulation that you can't have too much interactivity in the creation of your own station. Of course, I have had no interaction with YOUR station... hence the ability for you to create one, even though you can't listen to it.

Other features include:

• Playlists (of full-length tracks and 30-second samples)
• Contact/address book import (supports AOL, Yahoo, Gmail and MSN mail accounts)
  
• Inline playback from the charts