Over the last two weeks I’ve been using Last.FM and discovered it’s quite addicting. It’s not that I need a twelve step program or anything but Last.FM does what it does very well and really helps you find new music.
On the surface Last.FM is a recommendation engine that tracks what you’re listening to with a little downloadable application, but it does a lot more. There is a Windows, Mac OSX and a beta Linux versions available for download.
The Last.FM application lets you play your own personal radio with songs that Last.FM recommends based on what you’ve played before. You can also play music based off of tag names. So you can play any song that was tagged “indie pop” by another user. The application has a bunch of other features including playing music that friends are playing and viewing there playlist history.
Each user get their own profile page that shows recent tracks played, weekly top artists, overall top artists, and overall top tracks. Like Flickr, it has the concept of groups and friends. You can join groups and invite people to be your friends. One of the cool features is Taste-o-meter, which compares your musical compatibility with another friend.
Last.FM also gives you access to all the data that they collect for use on your own site. So you can broadcast what you’re listening to, friends’ lists, and your own personal music charts. The site has a variety of ways of getting this data from a simple text file to XML. They also have a web API for realtime access to Last.Fm’s data.
I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s going on at Last.FM. If you’re a music lover and looking to discover new music this site is perfect for you.
↓ Christiaan @ August 25th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Agreed. last.fm is ggreat :)