having a Last.fm account? My friend has been bugging me to get one for ages and I haven't because idk and I'm thinking about getting one but I don't know anything about it except the basics of what is does. so. should I?
Pros: +finding new artists that you may like +seeing just how much of certain artists and songs you listen to +learning about nearby events with artists you like or might like Cons: -user tags
The pro would be your friend will stop bothering you. The con would be your friend will start bothering you about your music tastes.
No. In seriousness, I don't know anything about Last.fm but if it seems like a service that appeals to you, you should try it yourself to see if you like it.
Ayyoo last.fm is super rad and I'mma tell you why I like music. Kind of a lot. I keep my tunes rollin' basically anytime my computer is on, which is basically always. SCROBBLING. I listen through iTunes because I can't be arsed to set up anything better & I have an iPod so it's convenient. The last.fm scrobbler will run in the background, auto-launch when you open iTunes, and basically just chill back there. It tracks everything you listen to and logs it on your last.fm page in semi-real time ( if you take a look at mine I've been rocking the same song for the past half hour and damn is it good ). So this is a nice pro in that you can basically just forget about it if you don't really care that much about last.fm either which way. Jammin' out to the Pocahontas soundtrack tonight? That's cool, we all do it homie. Don't want your friends to know? That's alright, no shame man but if you're self-conscious or don't want Alan Menken as your top-played artist you can just hit a few buttons, turn off scrobbling, and sing all night to the blue corn moon. View attachment 36063 I am told they've updated their iOS app to also scrobble--I never had any luck with it, but then, I haven't tried it in at least a year. GRAPHS. I am a graph nerd. Kind of hard core. So not only can last.fm generate some lovely visual examples of my favorite artists, I can always generate some nice listings of my favorite albums, sweet ass tag clouds (though, as some point out, the tagging system can be ****), and more. COMPATIBILITY. Got friends with last.fm? That's cool that's cool. Want to check out how similar your musical tastes are? Head over to their profile and have a look... View attachment 36065 YOUR LIBRARY. I don't like Spotify or cloud music storage for reasons I won't describe, but sometimes I'll end up on someone else's computer stuck with only their music selection, which just so happens to be the entire Fleetwood Mac discography. I can get down to my Stevie but some days I'm cravin' my tunes. I can head over to my last.fm profile and listen to a radio station (more on them later) of just music I listen to. It's not as nice as having your musical collection anywhere you go, and you don't have very much control over it (bar skipping songs), but I'm not in this situation a lot, so it works out just fine for me. I can do this for any one on last.fm so if you want to check out some of your friend's tunes without bugging them for recommendations, you can. Similarly, if someone bugs you for recs, you can point them in this direction. RADIO. Finding new artists can be hard, and last.fm can give you a lot of Pandora-esque radio options. You can listen to your Recommended Radio (self-explanatory), enter in a tag or genre and get some popular stuff from it, or head over to an artist page and listen to that artist's radio, which will include their songs & similar songs. Pretty shweet. It does have ads but not many and they're not too annoying imo. Anyone can put their music on last.fm, also, so you can find independent artists in your favorite genres too. BLASTS FROM THE PAST. Once you've built up a scrobble log over a few months, you might want to check out the "blast from the past" section and remember oh damn, why did I ever stop listening to them? EVENTS. Part of the reason I don't go to shows is because I can't keep track of every band's tour schedule. Last.fm, having a huge log of all your favorite artists, can give you recommended shows in your area. View attachment 36066 From here you could also find people going to the same show, maybe set up some carpools or meet some new people if you're feelin' super daring. OTHER STUFF. Artist pages have all kinds of fun stuff when you're logged in. View attachment 36067 Free music recommendations. View attachment 36068 "Hey ... what kind of music do you like?" "abubdsfjdkfds HOW CAN I EXPLAIN here is my last.fm page" And there's shitloads more to find on last.fm for yourself, this is just stuff I like. TL;DR VERSION. Most of the time you won't even notice it's there but it can be nice to have when you need it please do
Misty, your love for Last.fm knows no bounds now that you wrote up that advertisment. You've convinced me to try it myself now.
I DON'T CONSIDER IT AN ADVERTISEMENT i secretly just want more last.fm friends let's talk about music guys
Also, I heard from a source I trust that scrobbles may be reported to interested parties. That is, interested in whether you legally own the music you're scrobbling. If that bothers you, you may not want to partake - but it's optional, so you can have an account without it. Ever since they started replacing all their free tracks with 30-second demos (or forcing you to roll it in the radio) I kind of just stopped using my account, and eventually closed it. Now I go on there exclusively for research. It's pretty good for that, though; their database is comprehensive, if somewhat hampered by its open-source nature. Usually I'll look up a band on last.fm and listen to them on Grooveshark or Youtube. Thankfully my man Calis still has ALL HIS SHIT UP THERE FOR FREE YE YEUH
The thing is that there's not really any way for them to tell, is there? I could very well be ripping my mp3s from a CD I purchased and then tossing them into my iTunes. Likewise, if I buy music it's usually from Bandcamp. How could they ever know that I actually purchased those songs? Unless there's some embedded THIS WAS BOUGHT thing in the file, ierno bout technology that much ha. Given that last.fm is such a big name in music sites it wouldn't surprise me. If y'all have any alternatives to it for sure let me know, but I don't know of any other site that says "okay ..., you want to use your bloated iCrap music player? that's cool, we'll still track you."
you've convinced me. I'm going to hope that this isn't a thing or else I am well and truly ****ed. I own like 4 physical cds, and have not bought a single thing from any music provider since like 2006. I plan to buy albums I like by my favorite artists but I've currently got other things going on that require my money so buying physical copies of music isn't really an option right now.
I used to be paranoid enough to think it mattered. Now I just resist it on principle, because I'm one of those stuck-up self-righteous douchebags who does things like that. But I may find myself renewing my account again sometime soon for the hell of it. if only because your enthusiasm for it is adorable c': Also re:Calis he has a song with my namesake and gOD IT'S SO PERFECT. It's like I have my very own theme song <3333
I am actually the threshold beyond which no compatibility survives I listen to so much shit it's unreal haha
