Last.fm and similar platforms provide intentional discoverability for people who care enough to put in the work. Only radio and Spotify have provided the unintentional discoverability that I crave.
Re: unintentional discovery it's college radio and YouTube for me
I think having some intentionality and work in discovery is probably the answer to the wave of AI slop songs filling up streaming services which rely on an algorithm just shoving the song in front of people who aren’t paying attention.
Way back last fm had a plugin for Spotify and I started finding new music at a rate I haven't since downloading peoples Napster libraries when I wanted just one song, figuring they liked stuff I had a probability of liking as well.
Last.fm still works though. You can still connect Spotify to it.
Still discovering good songs through Spotify's algorithm, like Release Radar and such. And last.fm still exists and works.