Read this to get started (old beta!)

We're about to introduce a new client application for scrobbling which should make the process of downloading, installing and using the correct scrobbler plugin a breeze. At least that's the plan.

The idea is that any Last.fm user should only have to download one piece of software, the Audioscrobbler client. After installation, it will launch a wizard which detects what supported players you have installed and offer to automatically download and install the correct plugins. It will also download and install the upgraded version of the radio player (also in beta test) if you so choose. The process of configuration should be as streamlined as possible and a user should be able to start scrobbling by just hitting Next a few times and accept the defaults.

Once up and running, the Audioscrobbler app will accept submissions from the player plugins and send them on to the server. This way, there will be a standard interface for scrobbling and setting of all user options regardless of the player used. As an added bonus, it will also display album covers, tags and other useful info about the track you're currently playing.

The app comes with an auto-update feature which will download and update new version of plugins, the radio player, and the app itself. This process is fully automated and will not require the user to go to the site, download a new installer etc. Again, it should just be a matter of clicking Next a few times in the wizard.

It also has multi-user support if more than one person is using the same computer to scrobble. Changing user is just a matter of selecting a different one from the drop-down or the menu.

At this time, we're particularly interested in hearing from people running older versions of Windows than XP as this really hasn't been tested yet.

For those plugin writers among you, we're very keen to get you writing plugins for the new Audioscrobbler. If you're maintaining or thinking about writing a plugin for a less well-known player, it is now much easier to write a plugin. We have a small library for interfacing with Audioscrobbler on the client side which essentially only requires you to call a Start, a Pause and a Stop function in response to the player actions and then Audioscrobbler will handle the timing, submission to the server, caching etc.

Many thanks for taking part in the beta test! Please report bugs for both the Audioscrobbler and the new radio player in this forum.

Please note that as of now, this is Windows only and there are so far only plugins for Winamp, Windows Media Player and Foobar2000.

[Old beta installer no longer available]

Oo-er - very fabulous! :)

it doesn't work at all for me, the audioscrobbler app just doesn't seem to receive any scrobbled tracks, although they are sent to the server... foobar 0.9

EDIT: sorry, looks like my fault, i had two instances of foobar installed (to different partitions) and the plugin installed to the one i wasn't using:)