Take 1: Last.fm

Ah, it’s nice to see that something great in the name of music blossomed on the internet.

Although Last.fm is far from new, it’s still evolving; compared to the last time I logged on, it’s stats are a lot more based in real-time, it’s radio program has evolved, and certain features are now just for “subscribers”. Last.fm describes itself as “the social music revolution”; a couple of years ago, I would’ve been skeptical. Now, I can see it’s grown into just that!

I first re-discovered Last.fm when I was exploring the world of internet radio. My friend had recently introduced me to a station called Hot108 Jamz, but after a while, I realized I wanted something more diverse. I enjoyed listening to some of the radio stations streamed through iTunes and Windows Media Player, but I grew tired of those as well. I found myself switching stations frequently; I figured it was way too often. I wanted more; perhaps, a music explorer which would grow to suit my tastes.

As I grew more and more desperate, my ever tech-savvy uncle introduced me to Pandora. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize the service was restricted to the United States; and therefore I had no access to it, as I have live in Canada. However, he left me with a back-up site: Last.fm!

What is Last.fm? Well, Last.fm is essentially a music exploration service; it requires that you download its audioscrobbler plug-in to record the songs you play, and helps you to meet people with similar music tastes. There is a plug-in for each respective media player (one for iTunes, one for Windows Media Player, one for Winamp, etc.). It doesn’t matter how many media players your computer has; Last.fm will automatically detect and install a plug-in for each respective one.

Last.fm also has its own software, which is essentially a smart radio; you type in the name of your favourite artist(s), and then generates a playlist based off the artist’s genre. If music is playing in a media player on your computer (such as iTunes or Windows Media Player), it will also display a biography of the artist in a frame on its software. When playing music through the Last.fm software, you can choose to “love” a song, or “ban” a song (which ensures the Last.fm radio will never play that song again).

Last.fm has a huge database of information about artists; biographies as I mentioned, and now including a few videos and whole lot of user-posted pictures. Unsurprisingly, Last.fm also records information on which of its users listen to that artist, and displays it in the listeners tab. It also has a list of similar artists (measuring in order of genre similarities), which is excellent for music exploration! Last.fm also contains a vast amount of information of upcoming concerts about an artist; did I just hear somebody call out “convenient”?

Wait, didn’t I mention something about a “social music revolution”? And, that it is. On the Last.fm website, you are given an option of importing an email contacts list, so you can encourage other friends to sign up. Frankly, I’ve never been a fan of these “encouraging emails”, as they kind of tick me off; they’re usually for social networking sites that I’ve already avoided joining. Needless to say, I decided against it, and went into the now old-fashioned method of just asking around.

Last.fm also has what I would consider a pretty interesting feature; it would record the songs you played, but then it will now also display users with similar music interests to you (known as “neighbours”). If your heart’s desire is to meet people with similar music tastes, look no further; and, the “neighbour” feature only gets more accurate with every song listened to (not too great for now though; however, considering they usually took a week to update, I’d consider it somewhat of an improvement).

The forums on Last.fm mainly contain support and development subjects; however, there is a “News” section and “General Discussion” forum. However, for a “social music revolution”, I do believe that the forums could focus more on the community while still recieving feedback on support and development issues.

Last, but not least, Last.fm is a Godsend for up and coming artists; almost anyone can choose to upload their own songs onto Last.fm. I do remember a few of my friends uploading their own .mp3 files onto Last.fm of modified Linkin Park songs, just as a joke. I was actually surprised that it worked!

I remembered being prodded by my cousin to sign up a year or so ago, but the plug-ins slowed my old machine down, and I grew sick of that horrible radio that played the worst songs ever (now I wonder if maybe I just listened to the worst type of music ever?). Last.fm has definitely matured into a much more user-friendly website/software, and I can’t say that I’m still a skeptic.

I highly recommend that you give Last.fm a try. Take a look around, and who knows, you might be fond of it, and grow to even love it!