More Than Living

What is Last​.fm? A convert’s guide to the social music revolution

After much badger­ing by my col­leagues and my dad, who is depend­ing on me to explain what the big deal is, last week I finally got round to sign­ing up to Last​.fm.

For those of you who have some­how missed word of this social music revolu­tion, Last​.fm is an inter­net radio and com­munity music site foun­ded in 2002. The site exists to help users build up their own online lib­rary of music ‘organ­ic­ally’, through pro­act­ive user pro­files, radio streams and recommendations.

Just as Face­book has altered the way we use the inter­net and make and main­tain social rela­tion­ships, Last​.fm is chan­ging the way we use the inter­net and listen to music.

“In the same way that Google helps you to find just exactly what you want on the inter­net, Last.fm’s algorithm can help you to uncover the most amaz­ing gems – old and new – that you’d only have found through sheer chance oth­er­wise,” enthuses Living writer Tamsin H.

“And – better than Google – the more music you and every­one else who is part of the com­munity plays, the cleverer it gets at under­stand­ing your taste and how it relates to every­one else’s.”

Sounds good? Famil­i­ar­ise your­self with Last.fm’s favour­ite func­tions and get started.

The Scrob­bler

The easi­est way for Last​.fm to get to know your musical tastes is by installing a clever little applic­a­tion called ‘Audi­o­scrob­bler‘. Down­load the system onto the PC you use to sync your iPod or manage your MP3 player, and let it work its magic – trans­fer­ring details of all your favour­ite artists and tracks into your Last​.fm lib­rary. It will even make a note of how many times you’ve listened to each artist and create a chart of your most played tracks – stats that one can become obsessed with.

Radio sta­tions

Now you have your lib­rary, you can listen to your own radio stream, which com­prises tracks by your favour­ite artists – some of which you’ll have and some you won’t. While listen­ing, you can add any of the tracks to your lib­rary to listen to again and again. You can also listen to other user’s radio streams. The ‘Your Neigh­bour­hood ’stream con­nects you with users of sim­ilar musical per­sua­sions and plays tracks from their lib­rar­ies. And each artist has their own radio sta­tion, stream­ing music by sim­ilar artists. All great ways of dis­cov­er­ing new music.

Recom­mend­a­tions

“I like it because it recom­mends new music to me without making stupid jokes or asking me to phone in – loads better than an ordin­ary radio sta­tion,” said another of my Last.fm-loving friends. Indeed, the beauty of Last​.fm is that the more you use it, the better it becomes at recom­mend­ing new artists for you to explore. It does this based on your lib­rary and your most played and most loved tracks, which you can edit. You can also send and receive recom­mend­a­tions to friends.

Artist pro­files

Each artist has their own page com­plete with biog, details of upcom­ing tour dates and sim­ilar artists and top tracks and videos for you to play, add to your lib­rary or buy for your iTunes account. A feast of inter­act­ive inform­a­tion for music lovers.

And finally…

Learn some­thing new

If you get stuck into Last​.fm, you can learn some­thing new every day. Since I signed up, I have become a font of TV theme-​​tune trivia. Were it not for the user com­ments on the site I would still be unaware that Gene’s ‘Save Me, I’m Yours’ was used as the soundtrack to a Por­tuguese soap opera for teen­agers. I would also be in the dark over who wrote the open­ing music to north­ern Sunday night drama Where the Heart Is – it is a 2000 Prefab Sprout composition.

And don’t just take my word for it – below are a col­lec­tion of rave reviews from Last​.fm converts:

“I like the stats, read­ing the artists bios and read­ing peoples com­ments on songs and albums I love. It’s also great to be able to play your lib­rary and get recom­mend­a­tions.” Ben A

“Of all the social media whizzery that’s sprung up in recent years, I think last fm is one of the most imme­di­ately sat­is­fy­ing and yet least fad­dish. Once you’re using it, its intric­a­cies and delights reveal them­selves. I’m sure people will be using it in many as-​​yet-​​unthought-​​of ways in years to come.” Charlie P

“I like the stats, but I love that it recom­mends new music – great expos­ure for the little guys who might not get the radio play they deserve. Also, it’s one of few sites that provide such a useful ser­vice, all for free! Well, mostly free.” Randip D

“It’s about dis­cov­er­ing new music for me via the artists radio sta­tion option. I also like being able to send and receive recom­mend­a­tions to friends.” Simon M

I like it because it’s simple to use and it even updates your play list when you’re play­ing music from your com­puter. A great way to dis­cover new music.” Anouck M

IMAGES by Flickr users

Sister 72, ooOJasonOoo & Hryck.

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Ori­gin­ally posted 2009-​​01-​​17 21:06:00. Repub­lished by Blog Post Promoter

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