Last.fm

I tried out audioscrobbler last year and found it really interesting, but not sticky.

The idea is that you upload your iTunes xml file to audioscrobbler and they analyze what you listen to and recommend new stuff you should like.

That approach works pretty well at Amazon and we use it to find new music there all the time.

But audioscrobbler was missing something.

Earlier this year, they added a web front end called last.fm on top of audioscrobbler. 

I’ve had it on my "to do list" for months to check out last.fm and I finally got around to doing it this weekend.

So far, I like it.

Here is my last.fm page.  You can see what I’ve been listening to.

You can also see my neighbors, who are people who like the same kind of music I do.

I don’t think I know any of these people, but I’ve checked out their last.fm pages and they do indeed like the same kind of music I like.

I could think of so many things I would love to do with this list of like minded music fans. 

For example, how about the band that is most listened to among my neighbors that I haven’t listened to?

Maybe that’s possible in last.fm but I haven’t found it.

I know a lot of people like Pandora.

I signed up for it during the summer and tried it out. It didn’t do it for me.  I don’t want a computer recommending music for me.  I want people doing it.  As Ross Mayfield said at the Web 2.0 conference, "Web 2.0 is about people".  I totally agree.  That’s what turns me on about last.fm.

The one thing I really wish for is a Rhapsody agent for audioscrobller/last.fm.  I listen to as much or more Rhapsody as iTunes.  And it’s usually the new music that I am discovering that happens on Rhapsody.  As long as last.fm is missing my Rhapsody listens, it won’t be a true representation of what I am listening to right now.

But I am still into last.fm and am going to play around with it some more.

I’ve incorporated a link to my last.fm page on My Music Links about halfway down the left sidebar on this blog.

It would be great if they had a "badge" like Flickr where I could showcase my most recent listens.

If you listen to a lot of music on your computer, give last.fm a try.  You might like it as much as I do.

#My Music