I am having an issue retrieving the key from this JSON result returned from the last.fm api

this is what is being returned:

```
{"session":{"name":"mcbeav","key":"***************","subscriber":"1"}}

```

and i just need the key, but if i try to print\_r or var\_dump , nothing is displayed how would i go about doing so?

for example if i `print_r($json['key']);` or if i `print_r['session']['key'];`

what is printed is "{";