The last.fm API adheres to RESTful principles, in which we make HTTP requests to call methods such as .get and receive responses in JSON format. Further information can be found here.
The data is extracted from the API using the user.getRecentTracks method. This will retrieve a record of scrobbling data for a specified user across a specified timeframe, along with associated metadata for the track such as artist and album name and IDs. The artist.getTopTags method is also used to attach genre tags for each artist.
The API has been around for a long time. Here's a tutorial provided by dataquest.io which serves as a good starting point.
You'll require a key in order to interact with the API. Follow the instructions and make note of your API Key.
