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Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with LFM in 5 minutes!

Prerequisites

Step 1: Get Your Last.fm API Key

LFM needs an API key to access your Last.fm data.

  1. Visit the Last.fm API page:

  2. Create an application:

    • Application name: LFM CLI (or any name you like)
    • Application description: Personal Last.fm statistics tool
    • Check the box: "I have read and agree to the API Terms of Service"
    • Click "Submit"

  3. Copy your API Key

    • You'll see a page with your API Key (a long string of letters and numbers)
    • Copy this key - you'll need it in the next step

Step 2: Configure LFM

Open your terminal/command prompt and run:

# Set your API key
lfm config set api-key YOUR_API_KEY_HERE

# Set your Last.fm username
lfm config set username YOUR_LASTFM_USERNAME

Example:

lfm config set api-key a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6
lfm config set username musiclover123

Step 3: Try It Out!

See Your Top 5 Artists

lfm artists --limit 5

Example output:

 # Artist                      Plays
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 1 Taylor Swift                2,453
 2 The Beatles                 1,892
 3 Radiohead                   1,654
 4 Pink Floyd                  1,432
 5 Arctic Monkeys              1,201

See Your Top Tracks From Last Month

lfm tracks --period 1month --limit 10

Check If You've Listened to an Artist

lfm check "The Beatles"

Output: The Beatles: 1,892 plays

Get Your Top Albums

lfm albums --limit 10

Most Useful Commands

Viewing Your Stats

# Top artists (all time)
lfm artists --limit 20

# Top tracks from last week
lfm tracks --period 7day --limit 15

# Top albums from 2024
lfm albums --year 2024 --limit 10

# Recent listening history (last 24 hours)
lfm recent --hours 24 --limit 20

Checking Your Listening History

# Check if you've listened to an artist
lfm check "Radiohead"

# Check if you've listened to a specific track
lfm check "Radiohead" "Paranoid Android"

# Check with detailed album breakdown
lfm check "Pink Floyd" --album "Dark Side of the Moon" --verbose

Music Discovery

# Find artists similar to one you like
lfm similar "Taylor Swift" --limit 10

# Get personalized recommendations (exclude artists you already know well)
lfm recommendations --filter 10 --totalartists 20

# Search your listening history for a specific artist's tracks
lfm artist-tracks "The Beatles" --limit 20

Time Periods

You can use these time periods with most commands:

  • --period 7day - Last 7 days
  • --period 1month - Last month
  • --period 3month - Last 3 months
  • --period 6month - Last 6 months
  • --period 12month - Last 12 months
  • --period overall - All time (default)

Or use specific dates:

# Specific year
lfm artists --year 2023 --limit 10

# Date range
lfm tracks --from 2024-01-01 --to 2024-06-30 --limit 20

Command Cheat Sheet

What You Want Command
Top 10 artists lfm artists --limit 10
Top tracks this week lfm tracks --period 7day --limit 10
Top albums of 2024 lfm albums --year 2024
Recent listening lfm recent --limit 20
Check an artist lfm check "Artist Name"
Find similar artists lfm similar "Artist Name"
Get recommendations lfm recommendations --filter 5
Artist's top tracks lfm artist-tracks "Artist Name"
Help with any command lfm <command> --help

Next Steps

Optional: Spotify Integration

If you have a Spotify account, you can queue music directly from LFM:

# Configure Spotify (requires Spotify Developer credentials)
lfm config set-spotify-client-id YOUR_CLIENT_ID
lfm config set-spotify-client-secret YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET

# Then queue music:
lfm play "Pink Floyd" --album "Dark Side of the Moon"

See the full README for details.

Optional: Use with Claude

Want to ask Claude about your music using natural language?

→ Continue to MCP Setup Guide

Getting Help

Tips & Tricks

Save Time with Aliases

Add these to your shell config (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or PowerShell profile):

# Bash/Zsh
alias lfa='lfm artists --limit 10'
alias lft='lfm tracks --period 1month --limit 10'
alias lfr='lfm recent --limit 20'

# PowerShell
Set-Alias lfa 'lfm artists --limit 10'

Performance Tip

LFM uses intelligent caching. The first query might be slow, but subsequent queries are much faster!

If you want to clear the cache:

lfm cache-clear --all

JSON Output

Most commands support --json for programmatic use:

lfm artists --limit 5 --json

Ready to explore? Start with lfm artists and see what you discover about your listening habits!