Last.fm
I’ve finally signed up at last.fm. I don’t know why I resisted for so long, but the increase in the numbers of full tracks that they feature was certainly an encouragement 
. I do sometimes listen to the radio stations at work when I’m away from my main iTunes library, but I’m mainly interested in it as a way of discovering new artists. A ‘similar artists’ station turned up ‘Iron & Wine’, who I had never heard of before. I liked him (yes, it is just a ‘him’ rather than a ‘they’) so much that I bought ‘The Shepherd’s Dog’ recently, as you can see from my recently scrobbled tracks.
It’s also interesting to look back at your listening habits. It isn’t completely characteristic of all my music listening, because I also listen to CDs on the stereo downstairs, but I seem to oscillate between fairly random playlists of a wide range of my collection and intensively listening to a few albums straight through. I’m in the latter mode right now, it seems.
I haven’t really done anything with the social side of last.fm yet (if you’re on there and think you might enjoy my musical tastes, do point me to your username), and I wish that the player integrated with iTunes rather than using a standalone player, but otherwise I’m liking it a lot.
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Glad you finally jumped aboard! I've discovered wonderful new music through Last FM. Be sure to check out what your close neighbours are listening to. Often, the music that appeals to neighbours with a 'super' compatibility rating will be interesting to you (I've found some new favourites this way). My profile is 'silvergull' btw.
by Kaivalya @ 03/03/2008 9:02 pm • Permalink •
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If you're still using your SliMP3, there are plugins for Slimserver for scrobbling and also for listening to last.fm (if you didn't know that already):
http://slimscrobbler.sourceforge.net/
http://www.jamescraig.co.uk/SlimServer/lastfm.html
by Martin Polley @ 04/03/2008 6:16 am • Permalink •
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I've been on last.fm for a while, and my own account - username forestpines - is probably now a measure of how many tracks I have by each band on my PC, given that I normally leave my player set to random.
Incidentally, is the bat on your last.fm icon userpic the same bat that's on the front of the Sendmail book?
by Forest Pines @ 04/03/2008 6:43 am • Permalink •
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If you want tighter hooks into iTunes, try the iScrobbler plugin rather than the standalone player.
by Dick Davies @ 04/03/2008 10:59 am • Permalink •
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Scrobbling sounds like something done by naughty boys behind the bike shed...........
by Jonathan Briggs @ 04/03/2008 6:21 pm • Permalink •
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Kaivalya: I've added you as a friend as you've probably noticed by now. It's interesting seeing the mix of music that others listen to.
Martin Polley: As a matter of fact, I hooked my SliMP3 back up again after a long-ish break after a house move, but I had no idea there was a plugin for last.fm. I'll check it out - thanks!
Forest Pines: I've added you as a friend too - we have quite a few artists in common, I think, but some I haven't heard of, which is great. I've just checked the book, and no -- it's not the same picture, but very similar. Mine is a Public Domain image from the 1911 Unabridged Webster's Dictionary (see my about page for details).
Dick Davies: I haven't tried it, but I was under the impression that it just scrobbles tracks rather than also allowing you to play last.fm music, but I might have misunderstood. I use CoverSutra to scrobble tracks, but I'd like a way to select and control tracks played from last.fm via iTunes or CoverSutra.
Jonathan Briggs:
Is it like scrumping?
by bsag @ 05/03/2008 7:11 pm • Permalink •
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Iron and Wine is (are?) great......good find. Look up his earlier stuff, plus the album he did with Calexico, which at first I didn't like, but really grew on me.
http://www.last.fm/user/cdb7575
by Cameron Booth @ 19/03/2008 4:54 am • Permalink •
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