Last.fm Group Journal: Automatic Signature Images

Going Open Source

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:27:03 +0000

I'm proud to announce that the code running this Automated Signature Images service has been released as open source as of now.

This means you can grab a copy of it and run your own album art badge service in just a few minutes.

I've been asked regularily over the past few years (this service is over 3 years old already) but I never wanted anybody to see it as the code was in really bad shape. A year ago I decided to rewrite everything but still didn't feel too comfortable publishing it. That's officially over now (although I still don't like the code too much).

If you're any good at PHP go ahead, fork it and hack away at your own will. Also pull requests are welcome anytime.

Also don't worry, I don't plan to close this service in the near future.

Weekly album charts working again

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 11:01:06 +0000

I am pleased to announce that Last.fm's API is working again.
This means working Weekly Album Charts for everyone!

Those who were already using them: You don't have to change anything. You will see them appear in a minute.

Those who weren't: Head over to the Badge-Generator and get one while they're warm!

Breaking the 50GBytes-barrier

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:35:14 +0000

About a year ago, I was pleased to see when the 1000th user started using my service.

Today there are about ten times as many users and those numbers fluctuate too much to celebrate them anymore.
Instead, its the traffic-numbers that are starting to impress: This month I've broken the 50GBytes-barrier!

A big THANKS for all you guys out there using it!

Three (and a half) new charts

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:32:36 +0000

I finally came around finishing the work on my Automated Last.fm-Signatures service.

It now offers three new chart-types: 3month, 6month and 12month overall albums. Its basically a refurbished version of the very first one, the overall albums chart.

Usage:
http://lastfm.obsessive-media.de/<3month|6month|12month>//.jpeg

It simply limits the profile-data thats being used for creating your chart to either the last 3 months, 6 months or 12 months. That way it will be a little bit more up-to-date that the overall charts but less error-prone than the weekly images.

Speaking of errors using the weekly images: Many of you have reported that "weekly images aren't showing up, overall images do". That has been a long-known issue for now (actually, right from the beginning as I stumbled across it while doing the initial testing :-)).

Thanks to the hints and help by the people in the Discussion Boards, I came up with a solution that should fix "disappearing images" once and for all: Missing images will be simply replaced by a placeholder saying "scrobble up!".

You people might even see the new weekly images after the next weekly refresh in 4,5 hours.
So now you know: "scrobble up" if you see them! :-)

P.S. Bugreports: this way please!

Finally: Weekly Albumcharts!

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:34:34 +0000

I've got good news for you: I finally managed to get weekly albumcharts working!

Simply prefix your current filename with the keyword "weekly":
For example:
http://lastfm.obsessive-media.de/weekly/10x2/phoque.jpeg

But there is one more thing I made: Weekly albumcharts for groups!
An example:
http://lastfm.obsessive-media.de/group/10x1/Automatic+Signature+Images.jpeg

But please be warned: It may be possible that Last.fm's datafeeds get messed up (wich causes my script to mess up as well). The images will be refreshed every 7 days.

Have fun and feel free to join my group Automatic Signature Images!

A thousand users!

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:53:56 +0000

The number of people using my Last.fm Albumcover Script went past one thousand this night!
A big "Thanks!" to you all for using and advertising it!

Albumart Signature Images

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:21:17 +0000

Want to show off your Overall Top Albums on Last.fm and other forums?

Go to http://lastfm.obsessive-media.de/ and get your own custom image.

It will be cached for 21 days to save my servers processing power, after that it will be refreshed.

I'm also planning to provide the same images for Weekly Group Album Charts but thats another story. Hang on until then. :-)