lastfm_monitor is a tool for real-time monitoring of Last.fm users' music activity.
Tested on:
It should work on other versions of macOS, Linux, Unix and Windows as well.
pip install lastfm_monitor
Download the lastfm_monitor.py file to the desired location.
Install dependencies via pip:
pip install pylast requests python-dateutil spotipy python-dotenv
Alternatively, from the downloaded requirements.txt:
pip install -r requirements.txt
lastfm_username music activities:lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -u "your_lastfm_api_key" -w "your_lastfm_api_secret"
Or if you installed manually:
python3 lastfm_monitor.py <lastfm_username> -u "your_lastfm_api_key" -w "your_lastfm_api_secret"
To get the list of all supported command-line arguments / flags:
lastfm_monitor --help
Most settings can be configured via command-line arguments.
If you want to have it stored persistently, generate a default config template and save it to a file named lastfm_monitor.conf:
lastfm_monitor --generate-config > lastfm_monitor.conf
Edit the lastfm_monitor.conf file and change any desired configuration options (detailed comments are provided for each).
Create your Last.fm API key and Shared secret at: https://www.last.fm/api/account/create
Provide the LASTFM_API_KEY and LASTFM_API_SECRET secrets using one of the following methods:
-u / --lastfm-api-key and -w / --lastfm-secretexport LASTFM_API_KEY=...; export LASTFM_API_SECRET=...)LASTFM_API_KEY=... and LASTFM_API_SECRET=...) for persistent useIf you store the LASTFM_API_KEY and LASTFM_API_SECRET in a dotenv file you can update their values and send a SIGHUP signal to the process to reload the file with the new secret values without restarting the tool. More info in Storing Secrets and Signal Controls (macOS/Linux/Unix).
In order to monitor Last.fm user activity, proper privacy settings need to be enabled on the monitored user account.
The user should go to Last.fm Privacy Settings.
The Hide recent listening information setting should be disabled.
Otherwise you will get this error message returned by the pyLast library: 'Login: User required to be logged in'.
If you want to obtain the track duration from Spotify or use the automatic playback functionality, you need to get Spotify credentials to perform the Client Credentials OAuth flow.
Log in to Spotify Developer dashboard: https://developer.spotify.com/dashboard
Create a new app
For Redirect URL, use: http://127.0.0.1:1234
Select Web API as the intended API
Copy the Client ID and Client Secret
Provide the SP_CLIENT_ID and SP_CLIENT_SECRET secrets using one of the following methods:
-z / --spotify-creds
SP_CLIENT_ID:SP_CLIENT_SECRET format - note the colon separatorexport SP_CLIENT_ID=...; export SP_CLIENT_SECRET=...)SP_CLIENT_ID=... and SP_CLIENT_SECRET=...) for persistent useExample:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -z "your_spotify_app_client_id:your_spotify_app_client_secret"
The tool takes care of refreshing the access token so it should remain valid indefinitely.
If you store the SP_CLIENT_ID and SP_CLIENT_SECRET in a dotenv file you can update their values and send a SIGHUP signal to reload the file with the new secret values without restarting the tool. More info in Storing Secrets and Signal Controls (macOS/Linux/Unix).
If you want to use email notifications functionality, configure SMTP settings in the lastfm_monitor.conf file.
Verify your SMTP settings by using --send-test-email flag (the tool will try to send a test email notification):
lastfm_monitor --send-test-email
It is recommended to store secrets like LASTFM_API_KEY, LASTFM_API_SECRET, SP_CLIENT_ID, SP_CLIENT_SECRET or SMTP_PASSWORD as either an environment variable or in a dotenv file.
Set the needed environment variables using export on Linux/Unix/macOS/WSL systems:
export LASTFM_API_KEY="your_lastfm_api_key"
export LASTFM_API_SECRET="your_lastfm_api_secret"
export SP_CLIENT_ID="your_spotify_app_client_id"
export SP_CLIENT_SECRET="your_spotify_app_client_secret"
export SMTP_PASSWORD="your_smtp_password"
On Windows Command Prompt use set instead of export and on Windows PowerShell use $env.
Alternatively store them persistently in a dotenv file (recommended):
LASTFM_API_KEY="your_lastfm_api_key"
LASTFM_API_SECRET="your_lastfm_api_secret"
SP_CLIENT_ID="your_spotify_app_client_id"
SP_CLIENT_SECRET="your_spotify_app_client_secret"
SMTP_PASSWORD="your_smtp_password"
By default the tool will auto-search for dotenv file named .env in current directory and then upward from it.
You can specify a custom file with DOTENV_FILE or --env-file flag:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> --env-file /path/.env-lastfm_monitor
You can also disable .env auto-search with DOTENV_FILE = "none" or --env-file none:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> --env-file none
As a fallback, you can also store secrets in the configuration file or source code.
To monitor specific user activity, just type Last.fm username as a command-line argument (lastfm_username in the example below):
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username>
If you have not set LASTFM_API_KEY and LASTFM_API_SECRET secrets, you can use -u and -w flags:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -u "your_lastfm_api_key" -w "your_lastfm_api_secret"
If you want to obtain the track duration from Spotify or use the automatic playback functionality and you have not set SP_CLIENT_ID and SP_CLIENT_SECRET, you can use -z flag:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -z "your_spotify_app_client_id:your_spotify_app_client_secret"
By default, the tool looks for a configuration file named lastfm_monitor.conf in:
~)If you generated a configuration file as described in Configuration, but saved it under a different name or in a different directory, you can specify its location using the --config-file flag:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> --config-file /path/lastfm_monitor_new.conf
The tool runs until interrupted (Ctrl+C). Use tmux or screen for persistence.
You can monitor multiple Last.fm users by running multiple copies of the script.
The tool automatically saves its output to lastfm_monitor_<username>.log file. It can be changed in the settings via LF_LOGFILE configuration option or disabled completely via DISABLE_LOGGING / -d flag.
The tool also saves the last activity information (artist, track, timestamp) to lastfm_<username>_last_activity.json file, so it can be reused in case the tool needs to be restarted.
There is another mode of the tool that prints the recently listened tracks for the user (-l flag).
You can also add the -n flag to specify how many tracks should be displayed, by default it shows the last 30 tracks:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -l -n 10
If you want to not only display, but also save the list of recently listened track to a CSV file, use the -l flag with -b indicating the CSV file. As before, you can add the -n flag to specify how many tracks should be displayed/saved:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -l -n 10 -b lastfm_tracks_username.csv
To enable email notifications when a user becomes active:
ACTIVE_NOTIFICATION to True-a flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -a
To be informed when a user gets inactive:
INACTIVE_NOTIFICATION to True-i flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -i
To be notified when new entries appear when the user is offline:
OFFLINE_ENTRIES_NOTIFICATION to True-f flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -f
To get email notifications when a monitored track or album plays:
TRACK_NOTIFICATION to True-t flagFor that feature you also need to create a file with a list of songs you want to track (one track or album per line). Specify the file using the MONITOR_LIST_FILE or -s flag:
Example file lastfm_tracks_username:
we fell in love in october
Like a Stone
Half Believing
Something Changed
I Will Be There
You can comment out specific lines with # if needed.
Then run the tool with -t and -s flags:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -t -s lastfm_tracks_username
To enable email notifications for every song listened by the user:
SONG_NOTIFICATION to True-j flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -j
To be notified when a user listens to the same song on loop:
SONG_ON_LOOP_NOTIFICATION to True-x flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -x
To disable sending an email on errors (enabled by default):
ERROR_NOTIFICATION to False-e flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -e
Make sure you defined your SMTP settings earlier (see SMTP settings).
Example email:
If you want to save all listened songs to a CSV file, set CSV_FILE or use -b flag:
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -b lastfm_tracks_username.csv
The file will be automatically created if it does not exist.
If you want the tool to automatically play the tracks listened to by the user in your local Spotify client:
TRACK_SONGS to True-g flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -g
Your Spotify client needs to be installed and running for this feature to work.
In order to use this functionality you need to have Spotipy installed as described here and properly defined Spotify client ID and secret values as described here.
The tool fully supports automatic playback on Linux and macOS. This means it will automatically play the changed track. It will also automatically pause and resume playback following the tracked user's actions. Additionally, it can pause or play an indicated track once the user becomes inactive (see the SP_USER_GOT_OFFLINE_TRACK_ID configuration option).
For Windows, it works in a semi-automatic way: if you have the Spotify client running and you are not listening to any song, then the first track will play automatically. However, subsequent tracks will be located in the client, but you will need to press the play button manually.
You can change the playback method per platform using the corresponding configuration option.
For macOS set SPOTIFY_MACOS_PLAYING_METHOD to one of the following values:
For Linux set SPOTIFY_LINUX_PLAYING_METHOD to one of the following values:
For Windows set SPOTIFY_WINDOWS_PLAYING_METHOD to one of the following values:
The recommended defaults should work for most people.
If you want to see a real-time progress indicator showing the exact minute and second of the track the user is currently listening to:
PROGRESS_INDICATOR to True-p flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -p
For this functionality to work correctly, it is suggested to set the active check interval (LASTFM_ACTIVE_CHECK_INTERVAL / -k flag) to a low value (such as 2-5 seconds).
If you want the tool to fetch the track duration from Spotify instead of Last.fm, which very often reports the wrong duration (or none at all):
USE_TRACK_DURATION_FROM_SPOTIFY to True-r flaglastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -r
In order to use this functionality you need to have Spotipy installed as described here and properly defined Spotify client ID and secret values as described here.
You will be able to tell if the track duration comes from Spotify as it has an S* suffix at the end (e.g. 3 minutes 42 seconds S*), while those coming from Last.fm have an L* (e.g. 2 minutes 13 seconds L*).
You can disable showing the track duration marks (L* S*) via the -q flag.
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -r -q
Duration marks are not displayed if the functionality to retrieve track duration from Spotify is disabled.
The tool includes functionality to detect when private mode is potentially used in Spotify and even estimates the duration of its usage. It is enabled by default and is not configurable.
It is not 100% accurate. I have observed that when private mode is used, especially for extended periods, it often results in many duplicate entries being created in a Last.fm account after private mode is disabled. This leads to different tracks having the same start timestamp.
I suspect this is related to a bug in Spotify and mainly occurs when the user has Spotify on multiple devices.
However, keep in mind that this is not 100% accurate. I have observed duplicate entries even without private mode, but in such cases, the number of duplicate entries is limited. Therefore, do not treat it as something completely certain, but it is a pretty good indicator that private mode was used.
If you want to customize polling intervals, use -k and -c flags (or corresponding configuration options):
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -k 2 -c 10
LASTFM_ACTIVE_CHECK_INTERVAL, -k: check interval when the user is online, i.e. currently playing (seconds)LASTFM_CHECK_INTERVAL, -c: check interval when the user is considered offline, i.e. not playing music (seconds)If you want to change the time required to mark the user as inactive (the timer starts once the user stops playing the music), use -o flag (or LASTFM_INACTIVITY_CHECK configuration option):
lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username> -o 120
The tool has several signal handlers implemented which allow to change behavior of the tool without a need to restart it with new configuration options / flags.
List of supported signals:
| Signal | Description |
|---|---|
| USR1 | Toggle email notifications when user gets active/inactive or new offline entries show up (-a, -i, -f) |
| USR2 | Toggle email notifications for every song (-j) |
| URG | Toggle showing of progress indicator (-p) |
| CONT | Toggle email notifications for tracked songs (-t) |
| PIPE | Toggle email notifications when user plays song on loop (-x) |
| TRAP | Increase the inactivity check timer (by 30 seconds) (-o) |
| ABRT | Decrease the inactivity check timer (by 30 seconds) (-o) |
| HUP | Reload secrets from .env file |
Send signals with kill or pkill, e.g.:
pkill -USR1 -f "lastfm_monitor <lastfm_username>"
As Windows supports limited number of signals, this functionality is available only on Linux/Unix/macOS.
You can use GRC to color logs.
Add to your GRC config (~/.grc/grc.conf):
# monitoring log file
.*_monitor_.*\.log
conf.monitor_logs
Now copy the conf.monitor_logs to your ~/.grc/ and log files should be nicely colored when using grc tool.
Example:
grc tail -F -n 100 lastfm_monitor_<username>.log
See RELEASE_NOTES.md for details.
Licensed under GPLv3. See LICENSE.
FAQs
Tool implementing real-time tracking of Last.fm users music activity
We found that lastfm-monitor demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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