Last FM - Social Music Tool
Social networking tools are taking the internet by storm. Just look at the explosion of MySpace, and to a lesser extent social browsing tools like StumbleUpon. Maybe it should come as no surprise. The great strength of the internet is its ability to connect people and bring them in touch with others to share knowledge and interact. Last FM is a social networking tool for music. More music, better music. The more you listen, the better it gets.
So what's the deal? Well, if you've never used a social networking tool before then don't worry, the concept is simple. You register and create a profile for free. Then as you listen to music it will build up a picture of your musical tastes, and recommend things it thinks you might like. How does the software know? Well, it doesn't, it simply takes note of what you have said you like and compares this with others who like the same things. Then it suggests the things that they like to you. It's a bit like that friend of yours who always has a line on cool new music. The best bit is that the recommendations will improve as you hone your preferences.
At its core, Last FM is basically a tailor made internet radio station. However, to interface with the music recommendations system, you need to download and install some tools.
- The Last FM player
- Audioscrobbler Plug-in
This is a lightweight player that streams music from the Last FM site. The channel you listen and the tracks streamed are based on your preferences, and you can rate songs using a simple yes/no type system as they play. Available for XP, Vista, Linux and OS X.
This is a plug-in for your default media player. As you play tracks off your hard drive or CD they are sent to Last FM to update your preferences.
Audioscrobbler is a nice touch, but is optional. You can also add tracks manually provided they are included in the Last FM database.
Your profile that you build up is available online, and can be shipped straight out to blogs, forum signatures etc. See Pacman's profile in the Spork forum for an example of this plugged into a singature, and to the left is a live list of his tunes.
But enough technical flap. Does it work? In a nutshell, yes, although if you have particularly obscure musical tastes you may have to spend a while training it before it starts to come up with pay dirt reliably. Having said that, if you do have weird tastes it can also be an amazing tool for sharing your oddball discoveries with other weirdoes.
Music is streamed to you in MP3 format at 128kbit/sec. It could be very nifty to team up the Last FM stream with a streaming music recorder, although this would of course be a horrendous breach of copyright. So don't do it, you naughty children.
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