Listen to Last.fm with the Roku SoundBridge
Update: Listen to your Last.fm streaming radio on the Roku SoundBridge Using LastBridge.net.
LastBridge.net makes it really simple to listen to your last.fm music on the soundbridge. If that is what you are looking for then check out it out! www.LastBridge.net.
Updated Post
So a while ago, maybe 7 months ago I bought the Roku SoundBridge and I do like it. Recently I have been listening to a lot of last.fm to my personal radio / loved tracks. So while listening to last.fm I didn’t always want the computer to be on so I googled to see if there was any solutions. I found one but it was some kinda server written in python. I didn’t test it but from the read me file it seems you need to have your computer turned on. Which is what I am trying to avoid. Now I came up with my solution.
It’s basically a controller. You can use your a PSP that is if you have one, I do so I use that to control it when I am away from my computer. It uses a playlist file to play your last.fm radio stream. So not only can you use this playlist file with the roku soundbridge but also with other media players and its controlled via a web based controller.
It is written in PHP.
You can download it here. last.fm-for-roku-soundbridge-etc.zip
It’s super easy to setup. Just open the config.php file with a plain text editor and insert your username and password. The password need to be in md5. With Mac OSX you can open up Terminal and get your md5 that way. Type this in the termnial.
md5 -s [your_password]
of course replace [your_password] with your actual password and it then will generate an md5. If your on windows I don’t know how you would get an md5 but I found this app useful to get the md5sum.
fourmilab.ch/md5/ .zip file contain the md5.exe. Enjoy.
Oh yeah before I forget you will need a web server with php installed and with cURL. Thats it.
If you need a free php web host then here is a list 0php.com/free_PHP_hosting.php or you can always just search for one, although it’s always best to just buy web hosting its not expensive.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Quite a cool idea. I manageed to update the config.php file with md5…. but what do I do then. I imagine it i a standard feature to upload all the files on a server, but how do I do that ?
Thanks a lot for designing this !
February 20th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Yes just upload your files to your web server and that is it.
then log into your Rocku Soundbridge and paste in the URL for the playlist. The playlist file can also be played with iTunes.
Ex. Here are my files: http://fernyb.net/last.fm-fernyb/
April 13th, 2007 at 5:30 am
This is pretty cool!! – i’m so looking forward to getting it up and running om my Synology NAS asap. However i’d like to know what last.fm station it tunes in to: the logged in users “Neighborhood radio” or what?
- And where do i have to change the code so i can tune into my personal station (or even my “loved” radio) since that i why i actually pay for the last.fm service.
If you don’t know the exact location/address/url of the other stations, i’d be interested in knowing how you found the address (or url or what ever your code does behind the scenes) that point to the specific radio station your code points the SB to today.
April 13th, 2007 at 6:20 am
I pay for last.fm too.
To add more station like your personal or favorites open up stations.php
and just insert them there. So for your Loved station the string in the stations.php file is:
$station[1] = “lastfm://user/”.USERNAME.”/loved”;
and where USERNAME is your actual username in last.fm for me it would be fernyb.
I am not sure what you mean by this, “I’d be interested in knowing how you found the address (or url or what ever your code does behind the scenes) that point to the specific radio station your code points the SB to today.”
April 13th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Thanks a lot for the info – that was the exact information i was looking for … just forget my badly formulated question – i hadn’t looked at the code yet, and didn’t know about the lastfm://-url (i was at work, actually
May 20th, 2007 at 7:36 am
When I load this page into my browser i see a message ERROR=Malformed session. Any ideas on a fix?
May 20th, 2007 at 9:57 am
It has been fixed if more issues arrive just post them here
May 27th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I’m french so sorry for the misspelling.
Thanks for this! Exactly what i wanted to do with my soundbridge.
Three question for you?
- how can i play a station in association of an artist. It is like this: lastfm://globaltags/myArtist”
- When i do change station, is the soundbridge supposed to start playing automatically the new station or do i have to restart it’s connection to lastFM
- do you know a way for the soundbridge to display the name of the song and the name of the artist. I can code in php…. just point me the direction you take if you were doing it….
Thanks again for this app!
July 11th, 2007 at 3:59 am
Hi!
Thanks for making this great application – I have just one question about it: Is it possible to adjust the buffer size the Soundbridge uses to play the last.fm stream – I seem to have some pausing and re-buffering.
Also if you could send me an Joost! invitation, please
Best Regards,
Tero T
November 20th, 2007 at 2:18 am
He Ferny, I’ve using your application/scripts for a while, but all of a sudden it stopped working :S If I play the pls file in winamp I get an error: error syncing to stream.
The weird thing is that the script itsself seems to work fine, I get an ‘ok’ response from the lastFM site on handshake.
Any ideas?
March 13th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Hi Ferny
Another beginner here. I managed (trial and error and a steep learning curve!) to get a webpage up that looks like yours but with my last.fm station on it and even got that working on my Soundbridge Internet Radio.
I’m afraid I’ve done all that without really knowing what is going on!
If I press the buttons (e.g Skip this track) on the webpage, should that skip the track on the Soundbridge there and then?
It doesn’t. Hope you can help clear some mist.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Unfortunately the skipping tracks will not work anymore. basically the script will the streaming file from last.fm and wrap it in a .pls file so it can be played in the soundbridge the streaming file changes address so the script also takes care of that.
hope this helps.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Hey FernyB thanks for programming this one. I use it alot as I dont always want the computer on to play last fm.
Anyway it would be much better if the track details could appear on the soundbridge – is it possible?
July 17th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Hi,
I was searching for such solution. I want to buy that player and one of the things that was stopping me, was that I did not know if it was supported by last.fm .
Can I ask you some questions about the wifi hardware
I did not found your e-mail on the site. I am dropping mine 
P.S. Really nice work. I saw the code. I thought that the script was restreaming, but it only creats a readable play list. That saves a lot of traffic. I am thinking if I knew the last.fm protocol… the script may be tuned to show the current playing song.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Hi, I was trying to use Lastbridge on the web. Whenever you go to ass/edit stations there’s an error. Is something broken and are there any plans to fix it? Thanks.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Maybe that should have read ‘add’ and not ‘ass’ !!!
December 14th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Hi FernyB, I have run into same issue with Lastbridge.net where get error on add/edit stations. I then moved on and installed the php script and am using it without issue other than wanting to see the Artist and Song that is playing. Any suggecitons on how to implement for Soundbridge using your php files. nice work by the way. all the best hope to hear soon.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Hey man, thanks for this works great. You got a donate button?
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Awesome! Now what I’d really like is a way to scrobble tracks played on my SoundBridge…
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 am
Hey Dude,
awesome work, it it’s set up it just works like a charm. Maybe I’m dumb but I could not figure out how to configure more than one radio stream on the same account, so that I could for example just add two different URLs to my Soundbridge and switch channels by just selecting the other station.
Now that I haven’t used it for three weeks, my account seems to be suspended because I cannot log in anymore (links saved in Soundbridge do not work either) because it gives me “Wrong user/password” when entering my credentials on lastbridge.
I tried registering another account but it seems as if you can not save the same last.fm credentials twice (it gives a “Error! Unable to save” message). When I just enter arbitrary credentials, the saving works.
If it’s just a bug, could you please just kill my account so I can register again? Would be great, thanks! Name and mail are the same I used for this post.
Again, thank you for your work
Best
mike_rofone
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:58 am
@mike_rofone, I will kill your account,
just a side note, I know it’s missing a feature to reset password
I am actually going to work on that, also the site went offline for a small time I don’t know if that could be a reason why you could nor log in…
but as you want I will kill the account and I will notify you.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Hi Ferny, can you please help me, do you know if this is something i can use I have a pinnacle soundbridge m400px and I kind of need step by step ways to do all this to get it working, I use a mac book pro and firefly to be able to play my itunes on my soundbridge. Can you please help me?
Thank you so much.
Cristina
January 30th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Hi Ferny,
My Roku remains silent after giving it my url:
http://www.lastbridge.net/playlist/7255b2e88d061cfbd217435aac0c8e7f/2649/myusernamehere.pls
Does it work with your soundbridge?
When I copy-paste this url into my winamp it keeps saying : resolving hostname…. (but from the same computer I can find http://www.lastbridge.net without a problem…) hmmm…. mind goggling.
Jasper
January 30th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Jasper, is this the first time it has happen? I think it could a last.fm issue where it can’t connect to the streaming server.
Or it can be that your username/pass are not correct?
Yes it does it for me as I just tried it now.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Cristina, Yes you can use lastbridge with any device that will accept a .pls file and the Pinnacle Soundbridge m400x will work.
For steps I previously made a screencast which I believe will help you. Watch Screencast here – http://fernyb.net/mov-video/iShowU-Capture2.mov
February 5th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Hi,
I’ve been able to listen to Last.fm on my two internet radios (reciva-based Morphy Richards & Pure Evoke Flow) thanks to LastBridge.
Unfortunately, in the last couple of days it stopped working. It also fails when opening the URL with WinAmp (Connecting).
Anyone else having problems?
Max
February 8th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Ferny,
Your great app has stopped working for me. I attempted to recreate the playlist URL on my Soundbridge, but I don’t get a “playlist” link on the LastBridge pages for me to download. Your help would be appreciated.
Nuller
February 15th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Same problem as Nuller here. I can see my recent tracks, but no playlist link.
February 15th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Same problem as Nuller and Droezel here. I can see my recent tracks, but no playlist link.
February 15th, 2009 at 9:18 am
@Everyone who is having problems with LastBridge. I just started to look at the problem with it as it is not streaming, I’m not sure why it’s happening I need more time to look at it and as most know I have other projects going on so it may take a while.
As for the playlist link that is correct it does not have it anymore.
You can see them in the Add/Edit Station link.
February 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Hi,
I’ve been not able to listen to Last.fm on my new soundbridge It also fails when opening the URL with WinAmp (Connecting).
Anyone else having problems?
Uwe
February 24th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Yes – I do have the same problem. I cannot access last.fm – neither with my Soundbridge nor with Winamp or any other player. In Winamp I get a short message saying [Connecting] http://www…... and after that I immediately get an “End of playback”
February 24th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I’ve not been able to fix the problem. The problem is where it tries to connect to last.fm stream and it fails. I guess there server have changed something. As for lastbridge it works as intended but when connecting to last.fm it fails.
I’m not sure what to do now. I’ve been considering shutting down lastbridge.net. If anyone has any ideas let me know.
Thanks.
- fernyb
February 27th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Hi Ferny,
I’m willing to pay for a working version.
Maybe other people too.
Would this be a motivation to have Lastbridge up and running?
March 12th, 2009 at 9:31 am
I’m gonna find a way to make this work! Your’s was the only solution that didn’t require a pc to be running on the same local network. I have 2 locations that having a pc running just for streaming is out of the question. I’m not one to post very often, but this rates input from all interested parties.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:07 am
@TomS if interested I’ll be closing down lastbridge and putting the source code online for anyone interested in trying to make it work.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Got em playing one at a time through VLC……..If the stream can be continued it should be possible to send the modified link to the soundbridge.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Publishing the source may not be a bad idea in any case. I’ m also interested in solving this issue,
if possible.
March 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I played around more than an hour without success – and just then read until the end of this thread. So, wouldn’t it be an idea to put the information that the service is currently out of order on a more prominent place, i.e. on http://www.lastbridge.net/?
BTW: It seems that there is an issue with the authentication: I have seen my “Recent Tracks” in the first place – but at that time they were public. I then made them private (in the last.fm settings), and all of a sudden they are not displayed at http://www.lastbridge.net/user/home anymore. I reentered my last.fm credits several times, but with no success. Does anybody has a glue on that issue?
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Ferny, thanks for the offer to post the code. TomS, if you want to play with it we’d appreciate it.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Gonna take some time off work to address this……is the source code up yet?
I’ll be back here for follow-ups within the next few days
March 27th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Ok, mayb this is to late. I may have found an answer in lastripper. I see the lastbridge site is down, is this for good?
April 17th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Sorry mayb silly question, but is lastbridge.net down?
I
June 1st, 2009 at 3:27 am
[...] Fernandos Seite gibt es einen Beitrag, der ein PHP-Skript verlinkt, mit dem einen entsprechenden Dienst auf dem eigenen Web-Server [...]
October 30th, 2010 at 1:11 am
We’re a group of volunteers and starting a brand new initiative in a community. Your weblog provided us valuable information to function on. You’ve done a marvellous job!
December 14th, 2010 at 2:51 am
I have not managed to get your script to work properly yet. I have it modified (Passwords) and uploaded to my webserver ok, but nothing happens with the output stream on the Roku. What I do not know is whether your script still works with the current Last.fm – can you pls let me know?
Oherwise does anyone else out there have any alternative ideas pls?
alas Lastbridge.net is long gone
December 14th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
@Adrian
I dont know if my script still works.
I’ve been thinking of bringing back lastbridge.net its in the works.
March 3rd, 2011 at 6:15 am
@fernyb
Hi what’s the current situation please? Would love to be able to use this.
Is it possible to make the script work now or is there any other alternative?
Many thanks!
January 7th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
This place is valueble for me. Thanks!…
January 18th, 2012 at 3:11 am
The web page is incredibly interesting, you’ve made some compelling remarks along with the matter is on point. Choice to supply your site to my bookmarks so we could come back to it for another day.