Last.fm's first hardware foray with Squeezebox, not quite mobile yet

I was delighted to see that Last.fm have done a deal with Squeezebox. If you haven’t seen or heard of a Squeezebox, it’s effectively a wireless .. box… that you connect to your existing speaker system which is internet-connected to a whole host of audio sources. For example you can stream your songs from a hosted service such as MP3tunes or (I think) metracks. Very swish.

However connecting your Squeezebox to Last.fm is rather exciting, particularly if, like me, you’ve been ‘scrobbling’ (recording tracks you’ve been playing) for years. I’ve built up quite a library of favourites and I often listen to my Last.fm music radio online.

The summary from the deal between Logitech’s Squeezebox and Last.fm is thus:

The deal enables users of the Logitech® Squeezeboxâ„¢ Duet and Logitech® Squeezeboxâ„¢ network music systems to build intensely personal music profiles with Last.fm just by playing tracks on their devices. It represents the first time Last.fm’s unique scrobbling system – the ability for Last.fm to track what you’re listening to and recommend you new music based on your taste – has been made officially available via any hardware music product.

My real interest, though, is the future. I am really excited at the possibility of having this kind of connectivity and functionality managed via my mobile handset.

It’s a good few years away, I think, before we’re be able to dynamically stream music (reliably) from Last.fm accounts.

Or is it… If MusicStation can do it, why can’t Last.fm?

I suspect they’re busy running a million miles away from the mobile marketplace at the moment because of the huge fragmentation with both device and mobile operators still unable to get their act together.

But I could totally see a Last.fm collaboration on an Android-powered handset…