rb-scrobbler is a minimal CLI tool which allows a user to scrobble(submit) .scrobbler.log files usually generated by Rockbox custom firmware for MP3 players to last.fm.
Compared to other tools rb-scrobbler has advantages such as:
1. Session key authentication via the desktop authentication stream
2. Does not rely on outdated dependencies
3. Cross platform, can be compiled for any OS and architecture supported by the Go compiler
4. Single binary - no extra dependencies required
Some pre compiled binaries are available in releases.
The following instructions assume that the binary is within your PATH or your shell is inside the binary's directory.
On first start you'll need to authenticate yourself with last.fm
rb-scrobbler -auth
Which will direct you to a URL that asks you to allow access after which you can use the program:
rb-scrobbler -f [PATH-TO-LOG] -o [OFFSET-FROM-UTC (IN HOURS)]
NOTE: Offset is in hours. If you say happen to live in a timezone ten and a half hours behind UTC enter it as -10.5h
If your usecase involves scrobbling with no intervention (like as part of a script) you can use the argument -n along with parameters "delete", "keep" or "delete-on-success" which delete or keep the log file respectively. "delete-on-success" only deletes the file if there have been zero scrobbling fails and keeps the file untouched otherwise - this is the recommended parameter for no intervention scrobbling.
A word of warning: The "delete" option will always delete your log after sending scrobbles, failure or success.
If your player doesn't have a real time clock Rockbox marks the timestamp as zero (Jan 1 1970). The last.fm API doesn't accept scrobbles dated that far in the past so rb-scrobbler submits them with a timestamp of the current time.
Timeless support isn't a part of the official specification however it doesn't conflict with it and the feature is implemented in Rockbox.
If a binary does not exist for your system compilation is trivial. All that is required is an installation of Go and a last.fm API key.
1. Navigate to `src/api_keys.go` in your editor of choice
and fill in the empty fields with your API Keys
2. In the main project directory run `make get` to download the lastfm-go dependency
3. Run `make build` to build an executable for your host system
4. Your compiled binary will be within the build/ folder
A .scrobbler.log file looks like this:
#AUDIOSCROBBLER/1.1
#TZ/UNKNOWN
#CLIENT/Rockbox ipod6g $Revision$
50 Cent Get Rich Or Die Tryin' Intro 1 6 L 1579643454
50 Cent Get Rich Or Die Tryin' What Up Gangsta 2 179 L 1579643462
It's a tab separated file of fields [ARTIST, ALBUM, TRACK, TRACK_POS, DURATION(sec), "RATING", TIMESTAMP(unix)]. rb-scrobbler iterates over each line, looks if the "RATING" field is marked "listened" (\tL\t), copies Artist, Album, Track & Timestamp (and converts it back/forward to UTC if necessary) and then submits it to your last.fm.
Official documentation on this format is available here. I haven't implemented the specification perfectly and have just implemented the parts implemented by Rockbox (i.e RB doesn't keep timezone data so rb-scrobbler doesn't parse the file looking for it)
As with everything built on the last.fm API; scrobbles older than two weeks will not propagate on their database despite what the response will tell you.
- Improve accuracy of fail count by parsing the ignored message in scrobble result
- libre.fm/musicbrainz support
I originally wrote this program in March 2020 using the Rust programming language. It eventually fell unmaintained as I use almost no Rust programs. Going forward in the future, it's easier to maintain this in Go as I keep the toolset around for many of my desktop applications.
In terms of the language I appreciate its simplicity, similarity to C and the involvement of OG Unix people (Pike, Thompson)
The Rust code is still available in the branch rust-legacy but it is unmaintained.
- Eddie Jeselnik 2020
This project is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 - see LICENSE for details.
