Another thing I noticed is that, unlike LAUNCHCast, Last.fm plays the artists you select far more often. LAUNCHCast tends to focus on artists related to one of your favorites, only tossing you a personal favorite once in a great while to keep you pacified. This annoyed me a great deal, as I felt they (LAUNCHCast) were trying to introduce to me new bands (and, by extension, get me to buy their material) instead of play the music I actually wanted to hear. New music is well and good, and a core reason of the radio medium itself, but who doesn't want to hear old favorites in the mix as well? Last.fm is truly about preferences, it seems. It picks music you will like - both music you already know and music you would want to be introduced to. LAUNCHCast is a far more commercial outfit - they are trying to sell music, not just play it.

On that note, perhaps it's my imagination, but Last.fm's selection seems a lot wider. The first Nine Inch Nails song I heard was titled "Intermission". This confused me somewhat, as I'm quite familiar with the NIN discography, but had never heard this song. I googled around and was deeply surprised that it was off the Quake soundtrack. This blew me away - a game soundtrack on internet radio? I've died and gone to heaven!
This has its downsides, of course. For example, they played a cut from Interpol's live album - the radio announcer introduction. So you have the same kind of feel of a 5-disc CD player on shuffle. You never know what will come your way... in fact, sometimes you have no clue whatsoever. But sometimes that's half the fun. One thing I'd like to see (maybe) is if they could combine the intros and the songs into one track so you don't get left hanging.

One thing that LAUNCHCast has over Last.fm, however, is a far more refined rating system. LAUNCHCast gives you a full rating system, anything from 0% (never play again) to 100% (Loved it), in 10% increments. Perhaps this is illusionary control, given the fact that Yahoo seems to ignore what you love many times, but it is something I miss. Slightly.

One other detail I miss from Yahoo is being able to pause tracks. Again, since Last.fm is licensed as a radio station, they can't legally offer it. A minor detail, and in my opinion a fair trade for the lossless sound. Yes, I'm quite the sucker for that little feature.