Last.fm anyone?

[YouAre_GivenToFly]

Anybody else use this to track their listening habits? If you've been doing it for awhile it can be pretty interesting...

http://www.last.fm/user/DanCarr

[el_chode]

Yes, it is far superior to that pap known as Pandora.

I added you

[kotchishm]

How does it work?  Pandora is getting old, M.I.A. came on my Raconteurs station today, i mean WTF

[el_chode]

I never liked Pandora. I did some empirical testing actually, it went like this:

On both stations I would put on Dinosaur Jr radio and see how it responded. I was looking to see which direction of music it would take me - 90s alt/indie, or 90s alt mainstream. I was also looking to see the frequency of songs that were not Freak Scene or Feel the Pain (if you're not a Dino Jr fan, they're probably the most popular along with their Cure cover). Finally, I looked to see the reptition of Dino Jr as an artist.

It went like this:

Last.fm - 9 songs b/w Dino Jr tracks, with the majority of them being standard cuts from their big 90s albums and not as much of the newer stuff. The other tracks were Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, Pavement, Pixies, etc.

Pandora - 5 songs b/w Dino Jr tracks, and the majority of it were the 90s alt hits - Candlebox, Cherub Rock, Interstate Love Song, Man in the Box, etc. Songs that I totally burned myself out on in my high school bands and to this day don't stomach very well.

Also, Last.fm tends to play a lot more live cuts when possible.

It works by tracking what you listen to on iTunes or whatever media player you use (mobile devices as well) and building a profile of your preferred types of music. Then it looks to the people you add as friends and uses them to sort of round out the edges of stuff you'd most likely be into as well.

I have to issue one warning though. Lets say you're in the mood for some Zeppelin. DO NOT PUT ON LED ZEPPELIN RADIO. Instead, try Yardbirds or Cream. Reason: every frat boy asshole who has Whole Lotta Love to listen to while smoking his cheap bong, but also listens to Ja Rule when he wants to try and think he's cool will corrupt your library with shitty music.

Never put in a big band. This goes for Nirvana, Radiohead, Hendrix, etc. You'll get crap mixed in. Just dig a bit deeper.

[kotchishm]

I never liked Pandora. I did some empirical testing actually, it went like this:

On both stations I would put on Dinosaur Jr radio and see how it responded. I was looking to see which direction of music it would take me - 90s alt/indie, or 90s alt mainstream. I was also looking to see the frequency of songs that were not Freak Scene or Feel the Pain (if you're not a Dino Jr fan, they're probably the most popular along with their Cure cover). Finally, I looked to see the reptition of Dino Jr as an artist.

It went like this:

Last.fm - 9 songs b/w Dino Jr tracks, with the majority of them being standard cuts from their big 90s albums and not as much of the newer stuff. The other tracks were Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, Pavement, Pixies, etc.

Pandora - 5 songs b/w Dino Jr tracks, and the majority of it were the 90s alt hits - Candlebox, Cherub Rock, Interstate Love Song, Man in the Box, etc. Songs that I totally burned myself out on in my high school bands and to this day don't stomach very well.

Also, Last.fm tends to play a lot more live cuts when possible.

It works by tracking what you listen to on iTunes or whatever media player you use (mobile devices as well) and building a profile of your preferred types of music. Then it looks to the people you add as friends and uses them to sort of round out the edges of stuff you'd most likely be into as well.

I have to issue one warning though. Lets say you're in the mood for some Zeppelin. DO NOT PUT ON LED ZEPPELIN RADIO. Instead, try Yardbirds or Cream. Reason: every frat boy asshole who has Whole Lotta Love to listen to while smoking his cheap bong, but also listens to Ja Rule when he wants to try and think he's cool will corrupt your library with shitty music.

Never put in a big band. This goes for Nirvana, Radiohead, Hendrix, etc. You'll get crap mixed in. Just dig a bit deeper.

Wow cool.  Thanks for the description.  I used it periodically on my xbox but not too often.  I'll need to download the app and delete Pandora ASAP


Starting with Dino Jr mainly to sneak some Built to Spill in there

[el_chode]

I'm loyal because I was an early adopter of it back when it was called Audioscrobbler only.

On the website you can make combo stations and do a Dino/Built to Spill station that will really focus it.

And one last point - it builds a "library" of what you listen to so that when you put on your library music, it will play songs you've already heard, so it's sort of like having your iTunes on shuffle wherever you are except you can't pick the songs.

[Crispy]

I'm still a last.fm guy too, though the only time I listen to it anymore is on my xbox, messing around the house. I find "My Neighborhood" to be a good choice, but the sprinklings of weirdness that I don't like happen fairly often -- still, it's a great way to get introduced to music I haven't heard of. My Morning Jacket radio works well (duh), and I've tried Wilco, Neko, Stars, and Secret Machines radio with good results. Like choder sez, use more obscure names to weed out more nonsense. I also like using the shuffle technique of My Library (or My Radio Station)  too -- things that you listen to more often and most recently are more likely to get played.

crispyinstilly if you want to add me

Edit: Messing around in the settings, I just found that it now has a "Christmas music filter"!  :)

[ManNamedTruth]

I've had trouble with lastfm not scrobbling plays from my ipod, wondering if anyone here can help. I know i have the newest versions of itunes and lastfm downloaded and it still doesn't work, the lastfm FAQ wasn't much help. I deleted my ipod once to start from scratch and it worked once and scrobbled everything i recently played, and then didn't work again anymore.

[el_chode]

I've had trouble with lastfm not scrobbling plays from my ipod, wondering if anyone here can help. I know i have the newest versions of itunes and lastfm downloaded and it still doesn't work, the lastfm FAQ wasn't much help. I deleted my ipod once to start from scratch and it worked once and scrobbled everything i recently played, and then didn't work again anymore.

Mine is sporadic. It will and it won't update. Or it will update and not tell me it's updating. Or it will not update for weeks, and then it will update a month's worth of scrobbles at once.