I discovered last.fm yesterday. I’m obviously behind the times on this one… It’s one of those hot « social networking », « Web 2.0 » sites, this one being centered around music.
As a listener, you can listen to « radio stations » compiled by other users, via a dedicated player application, and your own page on last.fm then shows what you’ve been listening to. For instance, I did a search on « The Residents » in the player, and was promptly rewarded by « The Hill » by « The Legendary Pink Dots », whom I had never heard of, and that really blew me away.
You can also run another utility that updates your last.fm page with what you’ve been listening to in iTunes (and other players I presume).
Once you’ve listened to a certain number of tracks, the site will suggest « neighbors » with similar tastes, and/or recommend some music based on your listening history. Given my somewhat unconventional tastes, I’m usually quite weary of such claims, but searching on last.fm reveals that some of my favorite « weird » artists have thousands of « fans ». So the odds or not too bad that it might be able to deliver on its claim.
You can also automatically publish different stats to your own site: Recently played songs, top artists, top tracks, etc. The tables below are automtically generated by last.fm and updated live as I listen to music through the player or iTunes.
But wait, there’s more!
I was already quite happy with what I had found, when I discovered that I could sign-up as a « label » and « artist » and upload my music to the mix! While the overall navigation on the site is sometimes confusing, the music upload process is by far the simplest I’ve ever encountered.
I’m also always annoyed and embarrassed when I have to pick music genres for some of my stuff. On last.fm, I don’t have to. Instead, I pick « similar artists ». No restrictions either. I could type in The Residents, or Barry Manilow or my concierge’s name (if I had a concierge). My music will then presumably be suggested to other last.fm users who like the Residents (or my concierge’s music).
There are other nice features. You, (yes, you, dear reader) can tag my songs, write what you think of them or of me (in a Wiki), recommend my music, etc. Just go to my last.fm artist page and praise/trash away!
So, if last.fm lives up to its promise, I’ll probably add the charts to sknoblog, and keep posting my music there.
To be continued.