Music recommendation engines are all the rage now: newcomer Pandora has made a splash with its music classification algorithms, which uses your favorite tunes to recommend other songs. I tried Pandora a few months ago, and while I found it interesting, I was disappointed by the recommendations limit applied to non-paying customers.
I find the service provided by veteran Last.fm much more interesting: it's a social music recommendation service that lets users share their listening habits. Last.fm uses the data to rank music and make suggestions based on your listening habits. My profile is available at olifante User's Page - Last.fm and you can also subscribe to an RSS feed to find out what I'm currently listening to -- not that anyone would care ;-). Be sure to check the album cover collage shown by the Top Albums chart:
In order to collect data, Last.fm provides iScrobbler, an Mac OS X iTunes plug-in that can automatically submit info about the songs you listen to on your Mac or even iPod. After my harddisk broke down last August. I forgot to re-install it, but yesterday I finally got around to re-enabling it. Here's a dynamically generated chart of my last ten songs:
Disclaimer: Ever since I bought an Airport Express, I all but stopped listening to CDs. iTunes with Airtunes has long since become my "AirFi", mightier than any stone-age HiFi can be. iTunes' smokin' Smart Playlists combined with Party Shuffle make it a mighty music explorer that I constantly use to investigate unknown artists, so the fact that I listen to something a few times doesn't necessarily mean I like it. Don't be surprised to find some weird music mixed in with some very corny stuff.
Listening Suggestion: If you fancy Cockney rap seasoned with occasional Sinhalan vocals, check out M.I.A.'s amazing debut album Arular.
One of the things I like most from Last.FM are actually the sugestions they make, based on the music you hear most. It's like your own personal music trainer! :)
You ended up listening to bands that you'd probably never would have guessed. Of course this could also be taken to a more dark side, where they're suggestions aren't that innocent. But so far, it's working nicely..
For those who use Wordpress there's even a plugin to integrate your last.fm feed into your blog.
Posted by: Pedro Custódio | 2006.03.23 at 17:19
One of the things I like most from Last.FM are actually the sugestions they make, based on the music you hear most. It's like your own personal music trainer! :)
You ended up listening to bands that you'd probably never would have guessed. Of course this could also be taken to a more dark side, where they're suggestions aren't that innocent. But so far, it's working nicely..
For those who use Wordpress there's even a plugin to integrate your last.fm feed into your blog.
Posted by: Pedro Custódio | 2006.03.23 at 17:27
check out http://amua.sourceforge.net/ which allows Airtunes to be used with last.fm on os x. It works through iTunes; there is a last.fm controller in your menu bar.
Posted by: dan | 2006.07.19 at 18:04
I liked iLike, but the lack of RSS feeds is ceding serious ground to Last.fm. Last.fm feeds are being drawn into all kinds of neat mashups and web apps, expanding its visibility across the web. iLike seems wedded to its flash widget and otherwise bringing eyeballs to its site. And definitely, iScrobbler is much less intrusive than the iLike sidebar.
Posted by: Ryan | 2007.03.04 at 03:12
Hm, if you liked Pandora at all there's a new(ish) service called Pandora.FM. And earier today I saw an amazing way of visualizing your last.fm data by Lee Byron.
Posted by: Dan | 2007.05.05 at 01:14
Wonderful well this reading. More Mr Sparkle send greeting at Japan. LOL
Posted by: Gigih Barabanovx | 2008.01.01 at 18:11
Nothing seems worth doing. Oh well. Not much on my mind today. I guess it doesn't bother me.
Posted by: Mario Anderas | 2008.01.09 at 01:33