Yep, here it is. After a few months of beta testing, sneak previews and posts on the Last.fm blog every now and then, the next version of music community website Last.fm is here.

The first look: it looks more modern. It has a clear visual style that reminds me a bit of Facebook. Notice the increase of JavaScript and AJAX usage. The graphic style of the old version was very clear and not bad, but slightly outdated in my opinion.

The new version still has almost all of the old features, but according to the blog they “just re-organised”. One of the new things is the real-time updated charts. “Like it should be.” I couldn’t agree more!

Another new feature is the media library. Everything you scrobble is added to the library, so that you can have a clear overview of the music you listen to. Even more; one can play music from the library any time and anywhere. It’s a nice and useful feature, especially if you’re without a digital audio player. But I doubt how often this feature will be used. Don’t we all have iPods/Creatives?

That re-organisation is a bit strange. Some elements are clearer than they used to be: the recommendation field for instance. Others (like the field where you can see what your friends are listening to) are less clear.

I think it’s a matter of time before we can say if the new Last.fm update has been for the better: we, the users, should get used to the new interface, and the Last.fm team will surely tweak and change here and there.