CoboltFM: free last.fm on all Android phones everywhere

Update 1: CoboltFM and KLastFM are dead. Last.fm changed things for the worse and pulled the plug on free streaming for almost everyone. Believe it or not, most of the planet can't stream anymore even if they pay. Last.fm refugees can still stream custom radio stations from Grooveshark with Dood's Music Streamer.

Update 2: Liquid Bear still plays last.fm radio on Android.

Streaming tracks from last.fm is free if you're in Germany, the UK, or the USA. The rest of the world has to pay for it. If you're not in one of the three "free" countries, you can't stream last.fm on your phone, not even if you pay.

This is totally wrong! The internet was never meant to be crippled by borders and other geographical restrictions.

KLastFM solves the problem for Android by letting everyone stream last.fm radio. No matter where on the planet you are, you get the same free streaming radio stations that the germans, english, and americans get on their computers.

But KLastFM is not a very nice app. It has an ugly user interface, erratic scrobbling, and it comes with a very annoying ad banner that screams to be blocked by AdFree or AdAway.

Enter CoboltFM. It looks better, is more stable, doesn't have any ads, and the source code is freely available for everyone.

CoboltFM precaches tracks for seamless switching to the next song. It used to vibrate when loading or changing tracks, but after I complained about it in an Android Market comment the makers of Cobolt added an off switch to get rid of the shakes (thanx for that, Cobolt!). The icons are big, which is nice but makes it a little bit too easy to love, ban, or share a track by accident. CoboltFM would be better if the less frequently used buttons (love, ban, share) are a lot smaller than pause, stop, and next.

A nice touch is the "show profile page" button in the menu, which takes you straight to your last.fm profile in your default web browser.

If your launcher lets you change icons, you may want to replace the CoboltFM icon by something that looks like the last.fm logo. I use the last.fm icon from the GO Launcher EX theme RBW.

The verdict: CoboltFM is better than KLastFM, and if you're in one of the over 200 countries where last.fm won't stream to your phone, CoboltFM is infinitely better than the official last.fm app.

• CoboltFM (Android Market)
• CoboltFM (CoboltForge)

Want more?

• KLastFM (last.fm), QueueTube (YouTube music clips), Dood's Music Streamer (GrooveShark)

Update 1: CoboltFM and KLastFM are dead. Last.fm changed things for the worse and pulled the plug on free streaming for almost everyone. Believe it or not, most of the planet can't stream anymore even if they pay. Last.fm refugees can still stream custom radio stations from Grooveshark with Dood's Music Streamer.

Update 2: Liquid Bear still plays last.fm radio on Android.