Members nat whilk II Posted March 5, 2008 Members Share Posted March 5, 2008 Just thinking it would be cool to be able to follow listening histories of fellow SSS forumites, for those so inclined. For those of you who don't know, Last.fm tracks your listening, gives you a page with all sorts of stats on your listening, plus options to post tags, journal, join groups, find "friends" and "neighbors", use Shoutbox to em other last fm'ers, etc. Lots of fun and a little narcissistic, too! Here's my link: http://www.last.fm/user/natwhilkii Link us up to your page - especially if you're an interesting person (I'll leave it up to you as to whether you're interesting or not) nat whilk ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted March 8, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 Huh..I thought there would be at least a few of you folks on last.fm - maybe y'all are just too OOOOOLLLLLLDDDD:poke: nat whilk ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 I'm too old to invite spyware onto my computer. Or, if you prefer euphemisims, myware. The good: Last.fm offers an excellent library of music and the ability to network with other users. The customized radio makes smart choices based on other users' input. The bad: Last.fm monitors user behavior, and your listening choices are discussed with record labels. The bottom line: If you are prone to Big Brother paranoia, this is not the program for you. But if you couldn't care less whether a company or a label monitors your tastes, you'll be rewarded with gobs of new music--and an easy method for navigating it all. http://reviews.cnet.com/music-services/last-fm/4505-9240_7-31851286.html That said, there is no doubt that my streaming subscription service tracks what I listen to -- they have to for royalty purposes -- so, I dunno, maybe it's no big deal. And, like last.fm, I did have to DL and install a program for the service (in my case Yahoo Music Enginer or whatever they're calling it in its twighlight months before Yahoo abandons it like the clueless losers they are -- I know the drill because Yahoo bought my old subscription service, let it go to hell, and then closed it down. And that's exactly what they did to their own service. A damn shame, because unlike so many things from Yahoo, this actually works pretty well. Losers.) So, I dunno... it's probably no big deal. What's the selection like? Can you pick what you want to hear? Is there a (total) limit on the number of times a specific song can be played for free (as with other free services authorized by the labels)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members amplayer Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 Ok, so I just went on there and it said you were listening to "Sure We Had Knives Around", so I clicked on it and listened. I was pleasantly surprized. I haven't listened to anything like that for quite a while, and I know I wouldn't have found it any other way. Still, I'm not sure I really "get" the service. Why do I need to bother with the profiling if it will just let me listen to whatever I want? Can I just be a freeloader and listen to stuff that you or someone else has in their history forever? Huh..I thought there would be at least a few of you folks on last.fm - maybe y'all are just too OOOOOLLLLLLDDDD:poke: nat whilk ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted March 8, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 People use last.fm in different ways. Basically I use it to find new music - it's GREAT for that. Your own listening lists are compared with everyone else's, and you can just click and get a "radio mix" of another user's favorites who seems to have intriguing tastes. It gives you "compatibility" ratings of your listening in relation to any other user. Or, if you've been living under a rock for 15 years and have never heard Phish, you can just type in "Phish" and it'll play a Phish tune or two, and then move off into "similar artists" (and come back to Phish every so often) so you can stock up on new jam bands till you are sick of them. Always wondered what "math rock" is?? Just select "tag" and type in "math rock" and you'll get a streamed mix. You can tag your tunes and artists, also. You can snoop around all the other user's listening lists and statistics, gather up band names. Including classical and jazz and hillbilly, whatever. Also - the "similar artist" thing is always tricky. Launchcast has a pretty brain-dead notion of "similar" such as, if you like Billy Holiday then hey you must like Mariah Carey, right? Wrong. Last.fm seems to have a more sophisticated notion of genre, by far. I suppose it is a benign spyware of a sort. But you're in on the spying, too. Oh, yeah, you can also upload your iPod lists to your account. And there are groups to join or not, em to use or not. My kids are away at college and I can bring up last.fm and see what they're listening to at the very moment, and send them a derisive instant message if I think what they're listening too is lame. It doesn't have any of the skanky quality of places like myspace, facebook, etc. Tends to attract more serious listeners and it stays on topic - music. And dang it's free. You can upgrade for a fee, but you don't get all that much - the real meat of the site and all the streaming music is pure-dee free. nat whilk ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted March 8, 2008 Members Share Posted March 8, 2008 It sounds like Pandora -- only Pandora's similar artist finder is pretty good -- but it does seem to sort of spiral out if you stay in the same groove too long. But Pandora's fi is pretty low. How's Last.fm's bitrate/fidelity? Doesn't sound like it'll eliminate my need for a subscription servcie, though, so, I think I'll just keep an eye on it. But supposedly it was a service like Last.fm that Yahoo wanted to focus on after they close down my substcription service (the second one they've closed down on me, as I mentioned above.) I guess they couldn't figure out a way to make money by having us pay them regularly so now they think they're going to make money by giving away music. Yahoo are really a bunch of yobbos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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