lastfmR

R package wrapping useful last.fm API methods. The package leverages concurrent requests to enable fast data export.

Installation

remotes::install_github("ppatrzyk/lastfmR")
# OR
devtools::install_github("ppatrzyk/lastfmR")

The package requires as dependencies curl, data.table and xml2.

Usage

get_scrobbles

This function will download all scrobbles for a specified user. Example:

scrobbles <- get_scrobbles(user = "grinder91")
> scrobbles[sample(.N, 5), ]
                  date        artist              track                             album
1: 2014-04-29 10:23:24 The Awakening Before I Leap (XV)                      Anthology XV
2: 2009-11-25 17:46:06  Judas Priest  Take on the World Killing Machine [Remastered] [UK]
3: 2016-07-16 10:02:38  FOREVER GREY     Full Of Lights                              <NA>
4: 2011-06-26 10:36:23       Bauhaus  Small Talk Stinks                 In the Flat Field
5: 2019-02-15 22:20:35          Past             Czarna                    czarno / biala

Scrobble dates indicate when you started to play given track in GMT timezone. You can pass an optional timezone parameter with a timezone name (run OlsonNames() if in doubt) if you need. E.g., get_scrobbles(user = "grinder91", timezone = 'Europe/Warsaw').

get_artist_info

This function will download information about specific artists. Example:

artists <- c("Anthrax", "Metallica", "Megadeth", "Slayer")
artist_info <- get_artist_info(artist_vector = artists)
> artist_info
      artist global_listeners global_scrobbles                                              artist_tags
1:   Anthrax           867775         25910522 thrash metal; metal; heavy metal; speed metal; seen live
2: Metallica          2890695        280742907        thrash metal; metal; heavy metal; hard rock; rock
3:  Megadeth          1410966         97458296 thrash metal; heavy metal; metal; speed metal; seen live
4:    Slayer          1366827         82132980 thrash metal; metal; seen live; speed metal; heavy metal

get_library_info

Extension of get_artist_info. Gets list of artists in a specified user's library and information about them. Example:

artist_info <- get_library_info(user = "grinder91")
> artist_info[sample(.N, 5), ]
            artist user_scrobbles global_listeners global_scrobbles                                             artist_tags
1:    Peine Perdue             15             2645            35717   minimal synth; minimal wave; french; synthpop; france
2:        Motorama             10           171162          7331742          post-punk; new wave; indie; russian; seen live
3:     Perturbator             97           149293          6829118 synthwave; electronic; synthpop; retro electro; electro
4:   The Deep Wave              1              180              905               new wave; post-punk; retrowave; synthwave
5: Psychoformalina            621              739            13435      zimna fala; post-punk; cold wave; coldwave; polish

If you only need user_scrobbles, set user_scrobbles_only = TRUE in function call, the function will return faster.

get_tags

Get all tags and their frequencies for specified artists (you can pass multiple names). Example:

tags <- get_tags(artist_vector = 'Manowar')
> head(tags, 5)
    artist         tag tag_freq
1: Manowar heavy metal      100
2: Manowar Power metal       49
3: Manowar       metal       35
4: Manowar  true metal       28
5: Manowar  epic metal       21

Note that last.fm returns tag frequencies on a normalized scale (1-100). These are not absolute counts.

get_tracks

Get tracks and their listeners and scrobbles for a specified artist. Example:

tracks <- get_tracks(artist = 'Siekiera')
> head(tracks, 5)
               track listeners scrobbles
1:  Nowa Aleksandria     19617    121351
2:    Ludzie wschodu     17710    105302
3: Idziemy przez las     15468     82805
4:  Idziemy na skraj     12944     67068
5:  Jest bezpiecznie     10237     49799

Note that last.fm limits this method to only first 10000 tracks.

get_similar

Get similar artists for a given artist. Example:

edgelist <- get_similar('Closterkeller')
# Get also similarity for artist similar to your input (2nd level)
level2 <- rbindlist(lapply(
  edgelist[, To], get_similar
))
edgelist <- rbindlist(list(edgelist, level2))
> head(edgelist)
            From             To    match
1: Closterkeller       Artrosis        1
2: Closterkeller      Moonlight 0.998498
3: Closterkeller         O.N.A. 0.630667
4: Closterkeller Renata Przemyk 0.485797
5: Closterkeller      Chylińska 0.469014
6: Closterkeller  XIII. Století 0.402615

The function returns a data.table formatted as edgelist, which is handy if you want to analyze it as a graph (either in R or other software such as Gephi). match is a number on 0-1 scale indicating artist's similarity (returned directly by last.fm).