Sell me on...Last.FM

[bookem_dan-o]

I noticed a lot of you guy's and gals in the Post Your Desktop thread are using Last.FM.

Now, I consider myself to be as much of a girlfriendless tech/music geek as the next girlfriendless tech/music geek, but I don't quite understand the appeal of Last.FM. All it seems to be is a music-centric version of Twitter (which I also don't understand the appeal of), tossed in with some of the recommendation features of something like Pandora.

I loved Pandora when it first came out, but I started to get bored with it, because it just recommended predictable stuff that "makes sense" relative to my chosen favorite artist. "Hmm..so you like Yo La Tengo? Then you'll probably like the following songs by The Velvet Underground, Pavement and The Violent Femmes". The reason why I love WFMU so much is that musical curveballs are constantly thrown at my ears by most of the DJs I listen to, and generally, I like what I hear. And I don't get the feeling that said curveballs are eclectic for eclecticism's sake, which is why I hate Radio Paradise and any other radio station that proclaims itself "eclectic" (the other day at work, my coworker had RP playing on his computer, and I had to endure the sheer ridiculousity of hearing Joy Division's "Digital" played back to back with The Belle Stars "Iko Iko").

Maybe I'm an elitist, but I don't trust the masses–even (or rather, particularly) the trying-desperately-to-be-hip Web 2.0 masses–to recommend music to me. Does Last.FM have anything to offer to someone like me, in that case?

Also, I've wondered about how the scrobbler plugins in iTunes handle non-music things like Podcasts. Since I listen to more podcasts on my computer than I do music (that's why I bought a friggen iPod, duh.) it would be pretty dopey to be constantly updating my Last.FM profile with the last 20 Poster Children podcasts I listened to.

Sell me on this!

[bruce]

you can easily turn off the scrobbing funtion when playing podcasts with your mac

[Sarah]

I don't even know how Last works.  I only registered on it to make Laurie happy, as I've said elsewhere. 

[Laurie]

I think there were, what, 13 members of The Jukebox before I started that thread. I remember that there were not enough members to trigger weekly charts. Now? We are legion.

Also, Bruce, if you forget to close your last.fm app, you can always delete the scrobbled podcasts if you so wish.

I personally like looking at my listening habits. It's fun. Plus, as a subscriber, I get to see all of the random people who visit my profile. Swedes keep dropping by. I love it.

[Sarah]

Swedes are fags, Laurie.  And if you tolerate them, you must be a dyke.

[bobby.]

Swedes are fags, Laurie.  And if you tolerate them, you must be a dyke.

...or a fag enabler!


-if you have any OCD compulsions whatsoever, it's for you.
-you are recommended music by people who like the same stuff as you.
-it'll shatter any thoughts you might have that your taste in music is unique (one of my top 'neighbours' is a 16 year old from the Ivory Coast, another is my friend who lives around the corner)
-the show listings section is good -> keep track of what you're going to, and who else will be there!
-I dunno.. it's just interesting!

[Rainer]

I'm glad that BemD started this thread because I finally got to the point where Last.fm would actually stream entire songs.  For some reason known only to the gods, whenever I clicked on a last link from the FOT board, I was dropped into some strange preview clip (i.e. 15 seconds and goodbye) mode.

As far as I can tell, LAST doesn't have the 5 changes per "station" limit ... that's nice.  Unlike Pandora.  But with Pandora, you can enter "Velvet Underground" as a channel and then, five songs later, be listening to a Hootie song. Love that.  Makes me feel warm.

[John Junk]

I'm still in the 30 second preview zone of songs.  It blows.  As a non-subscriber it kinda feels like an elaborate version of Itunes.  i.e.: another music-buying-enabling thingamajig.  As far as I know, I can only listen to music "similar" to bands I like, and not the actual band's songs.  I can get on a radio station of "Artists similar to Pavement" and hope to hear a Pavement song, but not necessarily the Pavement song I want to hear.  So far, the main thing I like about it is listening to radio tagged "french pop" or "afrobeat" or some other genre I'm not familiar with, and then listening to what are probably the big hits of that genre with little explanatory bios about them.  I'm not really sold on Last.fm either, truth be told.

[buffcoat]

What are the degrees of separation between the VU and Hootie?

Maybe VU - REM - Hootie?

Somehow the transitions are lacking.

[bookem_dan-o]

you can easily turn off the scrobbing funtion when playing podcasts with your mac

Do you have to disable it manually, every time you listen to podcasts?

I was hoping that it would automatically detect that you're listening to a podcast and know not send the track to the scrobble servers, or whatever the hell they're called.

[bruce]

well i dont have last FM on at all times. So when playing the few podcasts I listen to I just keep it closed no biggie.

[Rainer]

What are the degrees of separation between the VU and Hootie?

I cannot remember the particular route Pandora took to get from pill-rock to Frat-rock, but it did happen, strange to say.

Another fun transition was the Strangler's "No More Heroes" to The Fixx's "Red Sky Tonight."  Actually, I think the Fixx band are playing with Jean Jacque Burnell now.  Scratch that.

[bookem_dan-o]

OK, I'm sold on Last.FM...it does seem to appeal to the obsessive-compulsive list-making/statistics-geek side of my brain.

I'm such a ditz, though, that I didn't even realize I had signed up for an account back in November...I never scrobbled until now, though.

Now, what's this crazy Myspace thing that the kids nowadays are talking about?

[John Junk]

Is it me or is there nothing to really do on it unless you pay the $3 a month?  Although I must say I have enjoyed listening to "Roots Reggae Tag Radio".

[evan (giggles)]

i signed up when dave from knoxville offered to be my friend. otherwise, i would have just used it to look at my own listening habits and probably wouldn't have even noticed the social-networking aspect of the site.


i also resent the original girlfriendless / music geek comment, as i clearly fit into both categories. reading that sentence was akin to PFT remembering he was molested by his parents when he was younger during that mr. show sketch with the lie detector.