It is by no means a new service, but I’ve only just started using it. Which is odd because, while I’ve heard of it many times, it took a certain Tweet to send me testing the service. And before I get all into praising the greatness that is last.FM, I want to first say that I have tried Pandora Radio. It was the summer of 2007 and I had just been introduced to Pandora by a close friend, so I loaded it up and tried it only to find disappointment. I had, and still have, a subscription to Sirius Radio which Pandora couldn’t compete with, especially since Sirius comes with an online service. I let Pandora ride a full week before writing it off, and that was only out of respect for the person suggesting the service.
Before we get carried away comparing things that aren’t at issue, like personal preferences, let me say that if you enjoy Pandora or some other web 2.0 music service, then by all means, please, continue with it. It’s not going to hurt my feelings if you think last.FM isn’t the awesomeness I’m about to rave forth with. So be it. Go. Listen and enjoy the noise that is your happiness. (Music.)
It took me three hours and some two hundred plus favorited artists with last.FM before reaching into my wallet to support the service. That’s right, I’m paid member — because I want it to stick around — and if they come up with a way for me to stream the music to my car then I will probably ditch my satellite subscription. (At the very least, my land subscription is gone at the next renewal.)
Why is last.FM so great? It doesn’t base it’s computation on what you say, it works off what you do. Very smart. I can say all day that I like listening to Herbie Hancock, but if I spend all my listening minutes tuned into the latest HipHop vibe, it’s more likely that I want to hear more HipHop. Right? Exactly.
This service takes into account that I lack the necessary cognizance to know what music I actually enjoy. Sounds strange to admit, but they’ve done a better job with the psychology side of it than any other service I’ve encountered. I may add a certain artist to my favorites but if I continually skip those tracks while listening, last.FM takes note and updates its recommendations accordingly. Very very smart.
It’s more than that, though. They also make an effort to connect me with others of similar listening taste, not exact listening taste. I’ve yet to find anyone with a compatability rating higher than “low,” but I like that. I can’t imagine a scenario where, if when listing all music honestly enjoyed, two people are perfect matches. We’re too humanly different for that sort of nonsense. I’m not interested in finding someone who is exactly like me becuase I do just fine talking to myself. I want the people who will introduce me to sounds with which I am unfamiliar. Last.FM is just the service to find me those people. Best of all, there’s a stand alone player for my linux ride.
Listen online and stream yourself.
Last.FM Has Best Listening Prediction was first posted to justinll.com on September 8, 2008.
Interesting, I just signed up to try it out. I had to give up on Pandora a year ago because they played the same songs way to many times. Did you download the tool that links it to your Winamp listening?
I don’t have a link to my songs yet because you have to add 15 artists first. But you might be able to find them under Thompology.
Thompology,
I downloaded the player, but I didn’t link it to winamp. I use Rhythmbox on Linux for my tunes.
The one downside is that I lose the stream when my Internet connection goes down.
LastFM is cool and all that but there’s one thing it lacks and it’s music on demand and for that i’ve found a website called Deezer on which they offer free and legit music on demand. It’s pretty cool, try it out at http://www.deezer.com/en
Just tried deezer.com
5 Songs, searched and found. All 5 said “This song cannot be played at this time.”
Interesting.
I like Pandora for the same reason Thompology hates it, repetition. I have stations titled; Careless Whisper, Paper Airplanes, Don’t Stop Believin’, Rich Girl, etc. I like to hear songs not artists because they usually have a back log of songs that were at some point on an album of theirs with 2-3 real good songs with the rest being filler.
@karin, thanks for the site share. It’s true, there is no music on demand. It’s also a little bit of a pain to create a playable playlist. I actually prefer, now that I’ve figured it out, to listen to my friends’ radio stations. They are their own playlists. It’s cool.
@Thompology, I had similar issues when I tried deezer.com I’m going to stick with last.fm for now.
@Josh, I agree. It’s about listening to songs, not artists, I enjoy. I rocked out for an hour listening to Thompology’s station, and I don’t know a lot of the artists he’s listed.
How do you listen to the stations of your friends? Is this on lastfm? Because that would make sense. Would it?
Wasn’t Myspace a place for your friends to listen to music that you liked. What happened to the good ‘ol days in 2003?