anyone on last.fm?

J

joanofarctan

abc
There's personalised & tag radio (I have 'minimal' radio on in the background half the time), a huge wiki, tune previews, album artwork and other bits and bobs at last.fm. There's also a journal facility where you can pontificate to your heart's content with embedded artist/label links.

Different approach to pandora - this tracks what you listen to in your own media player. The music it recommends is pretty alright because it's based on people's listening habits and tagging, so it favours associations captured from user-inputted data over ai algorithms. Those algorithms never come out right, because they ignore the fact that musical associations are complex social phenomena.

Disclaimer: I've just started working there (precisely because it doesn't suck).
 
D

Don Rosco

Well-known member
I love Last.fm so much, i've subscribed. Definitely one of my favourite ways to track down good music. I'm donrosco there...
 
J

jed_

Well-known member
yeah i'm jed_ there. i like it but it only seems to chat around half of what i actually listen to . i dunno if this will work but...:

 
J

jed_

Well-known member
that's my "most listened to" for last week. as i said i don't completely trust the stats but i reckon it's roughly correct
 
D

Don Rosco

Well-known member
You can get a wee software doofer for logging the tunes you play on your ipod. I don't know any more than the fact it exists though..

I think the charts are moving over to a new system at the moment, and should be more reliable in the future.

Ah, here you go: http://www.last.fm/forum/21713/_/113919
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
I'm not there or any other one of those sites.

Why not?

Well quite simply because often I don't want to hear
something "that person x and y listened to and they like Z".

I want to hear something else - the opposite, not this x or y like Z and
therefore you must like A stuff. I want to be taken somewhere else
than some half-decent Scritti Politti soundalike (and I'm talking the Postal Service here).

I would much rather hang out here to be honest and stretch myself a bit -
all those music recommendation sites are about putting us all in little x,y,z boxes
and contrary to K-punks belief I find that the dissensus crew is not about this.

But good luck in your job and all.
 
T

throughsilver

Well-known member
Ness Rowlah said:
Well quite simply because often I don't want to hear
something "that person x and y listened to and they like Z".

I want to hear something else - the opposite, not this x or y like Z and
therefore you must like A stuff. I want to be taken somewhere else
than some half-decent Scritti Politti soundalike (and I'm talking the Postal Service here).

I would much rather hang out here to be honest and stretch myself a bit -
all those music recommendation sites are about putting us all in little x,y,z boxes
and contrary to K-punks belief I find that the dissensus crew is not about this.
Click to expand...
I'm with you regarding the recommendation facet, but I just dork out at the stats of what I've played by whom.

I am easily pleased on occasion.
 
J

jed_

Well-known member
i don't look at the recommendations either. i just like the fact that it logs my own stats, i just wish it did it more reliably. if there were a way that software inside the computer itself could do this i wouldn't use last.fm. i'm not interested in it as a social tool.
 
D

Don Rosco

Well-known member
Ness Rowlah said:
I want to hear something else - the opposite, not this x or y like Z and
therefore you must like A stuff. I want to be taken somewhere else
than some half-decent Scritti Politti soundalike (and I'm talking the Postal Service here).

I would much rather hang out here to be honest and stretch myself a bit -
all those music recommendation sites are about putting us all in little x,y,z boxes
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Through my own station, other people's, and tag stations I find lots of new stuff on there, or at least stuff that's new to me. Some of it's really good. What's not to like?

Obviously, it's not the be all and end all of discovering music, but it's damned useful. Have you tried it?

Edit: Wish it had a BLOODY pause button though
 
Last edited:
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
Don Rosco said:
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Through my own station, other people's, and tag stations I find lots of new stuff on there, or at least stuff that's new to me. Some of it's really good. What's not to like?

Obviously, it's not the be all and end all of discovering music, but it's damned useful. Have you tried it?
Click to expand...

Yeah - I have tried it and that other one as well (Pandora).

Probably more than 6 months or so since, so I might give
it another go in time. I might not have given it enough time and data - much like
when I bought "Das Boot" on DVD from Amazon (my first movie purchase on there)
and I got nothing but crappy WWII movies as my recommendations for quite some time ...
 
D

Don Rosco

Well-known member
Ness Rowlah said:
when I bought "Das Boot" on DVD from Amazon (my first movie purchase on there)
and I got nothing but crappy WWII movies as my recommendations for quite some time ...
Click to expand...

I know the feeling, I put Hawkwind into Pandora and it gave me back Bon Jovi. I was pretty horrified. And it had never heard of Spacemen 3!! I've had a lot of joy out of Last FM though...
 
F

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
I listen to Pandora a lot at work - its just easier than bringin in cds, and with skipping, personalizing, and pausing, pretty user friendly.

however, they lack a lot of the music i am lookin for and so i have tried last.fm but i cant play it without it "skipping" constantly. constant stops in the music. doesnt happen with pandora.

any insight as to why?
 
N

Ned

Ruby Tuesday
I think Last.fm is far better than Pandora because the Pandora 'music genome' thing is horribly misconceived IMO. Just because two songs have the same time signature, tempo, instrumentation, mood etc., that is absolutely no evidence that if I like one I'll like the other. Think of all the bands that sound exactly like My Bloody Valentine that aren't 1% as good... Or like Loefah...

It actually reminds me of The Sims, if anyone played that. In The Sims, to make friends, or fall in love, you just had to click on someone to talk to them over and over again, occasionally tell a joke. That is an autistic programmer's idea of how human relationships work, and Pandora is an autistic programmer's idea of how people appreciat emusic.
 
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