Yes. Last.fm is a legitimate, long-running music service that has been operating since 2002. It is not a scam, not malware, and not a fly-by-night site. That said, "safe" also means knowing what it tracks and what it shares, so here is the honest picture before you sign up.

Most safety worries about Last.fm come down to two things: whether the site itself is trustworthy, and whether your listening data stays as private as you expect. The short version is that the site is solid, but the privacy defaults lean toward sharing. Once you understand both, you can decide exactly how much you want to put out there.

Last.fm is a real, established service

Last.fm is one of the oldest music communities on the internet, with millions of users and a long track record stretching back to 2002. If you are wondering whether it is legit or some kind of virus, the answer is clear: it is a genuine, established platform, not a threat to your device. For a fuller background on what it does and where it came from, see What Is Last.fm?

Connecting it to Spotify uses Spotify's official authorization, so you approve access on Spotify's own screen and Last.fm never sees your password. That is the safe way to connect any service, and it is the standard we hold every music tool to. If you want to link the two, our guide on how to connect Last.fm to Spotify walks through it step by step.

What is public by default

Here is the part worth understanding before you dive in: Last.fm is built around sharing. By default, your scrobbles and your profile are public. Anyone with your username can see what you have been listening to and your top artists. For most people that is the whole point, but if you assumed it was private, it is not.

None of this is hidden or deceptive. It is simply how a music community works, and it is the trade-off that makes the discovery and charts features useful. The key is going in with clear expectations so nothing about your listening history surprises you later.

It also helps to remember what Last.fm does not collect. It logs the music you play, not your banking details or private messages. So while your taste in music is on display, the sensitive parts of your life are never part of the picture.

How to keep things private

If you would rather not broadcast everything, Last.fm gives you some control in your settings:

You cannot make scrobble history fully invisible while still using the social features, so treat Last.fm as a semi-public log rather than a private diary. If privacy matters most to you, decide up front how much you are comfortable sharing.

Watch out for fake "scrobbler" apps

Last.fm itself is safe, but not every third-party scrobbler is. Stick to well-reviewed scrobblers, and never enter your Last.fm password into a random site. Legitimate tools sign you in through Last.fm's official authorization. If something asks for your password directly on its own page, skip it. The same rule protects you across every music service.

A quick gut check: a trustworthy tool sends you to Last.fm or Spotify to log in, then brings you back. A risky one asks you to type your credentials into a form it controls. When in doubt, close the tab.

A tool that reads only public data

Our Last.fm stats viewer never asks you to log in at all. It reads only the public data Last.fm already exposes through its API, from a username, and stores nothing. That is about as low-risk as a stats tool gets, and it is a good way to explore your charts without handing over any credentials.

Curious what your listening history looks like without signing in anywhere? Try our free Last.fm stats viewer. Enter a username and it reads only the public data Last.fm already shares, stores nothing, and never asks for a password.