Last.FM - what am I missing?
Mar 2, 2007 at 5:21 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 13

blessingx

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I'm sure I'm missing something here. I signed up for Last.FM and let my library run continuously for most of a day while being scrobbled. The result was recommendations for Neil Young for Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke for Radiohead, Silver Jews for Pavement, etc. Nothing wrong in that, it's just the same recommendations as lots of other sites that allow you to type a band in. I know I must be missing something as lots of members here link to it. Is it the "clubs" that are most interesting? The radio? What else am I missing? Is there a tutorial somewhere I haven't found?

My account.
 
Mar 2, 2007 at 10:54 PM Post #2 of 13
i don't like it... getting Radiohead from The Beatles doesn't make any sense. at all. the recommendations just aren't that accurate, and nothing will be accurate when you base it purely on what people listen to
 
Mar 2, 2007 at 11:40 PM Post #4 of 13
I like the fact that is does weekly tracking of what you listen and gives you a new set of neighbors. So if start listening to a different type of music for a while, I can see what people are listening to based on my most recent listening preferences. It also has enough info about the Artist to get a background on them besides how they sound. The concert calender is nice too.

I tried iLike for a while but there no info on the Artists and it only matches you up with people based on your total listening habits. Much easier to use than Last.FM but also much more lacking. It also had a horrible message interface that just put all new messages on the main page. Maybe they updated by now.
 
Mar 3, 2007 at 1:00 AM Post #5 of 13
Anyone a pro with L.FM? Ive had it for a few months, but lately ive had a ton of problems. It wont scrobble. I got the plugins or whatever and again, it doesnt work. Any ideas? The help section is pretty lacking.
 
Mar 3, 2007 at 1:28 AM Post #6 of 13
Last.fm was a little too invasive for me, not always convenient, and I didn't really like the software implementation. Oh well, I already have too much music to listen to anyway.
 
Mar 3, 2007 at 3:37 AM Post #7 of 13
I use last.fm mostly to see what my friends are listening to and what other people that listen to the same stuff I do are also listening to. I did discover Mogwai based off a last.fm rec though, so that was pretty good.
 
Mar 3, 2007 at 6:07 AM Post #8 of 13
If I am using it to find new music, I'll see what folks I have a high compatibility with have been listening to (i.e. look up the artists on their top list that I've not heard of). But the best recommendations I've gotten on that site are ones that I've had other members tell me directly after seeing my playlist.

That said, I prefer it for the charting/tracking, and finding like-minded music fans, more so than getting recommendations.
 
Mar 3, 2007 at 6:22 AM Post #9 of 13
Similar artists are calculated using a 'many users who listen to this artist also listen to..' algorithm. It's flawed because many users, like me, listen to a whole variety of genres, and just because they've like rock and jazz throughout their music appreciation hobby doesn't mean they like listening to rock AND jazz during the same listening session. Unfortunately without a more stringent way of calculated similar artists, such as the 'did you like it?' method Pandora uses, more accurate results are impossible. My advice is use Pandora if you want to discover new bands that sound alike. I use Last.fm as a way of keeping track of my listening habits and to track the most popular tracks from individual bands, not to discover similar artists, although that has happened successfully sometimes
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Mar 3, 2007 at 8:11 AM Post #10 of 13
I've always used it in conjunction with foobar2000. If you use it that way also, makes sure you have the latest version off foo_audioscrobbler.dll
 
Mar 23, 2007 at 5:43 PM Post #12 of 13
I use it only for statistics. It's nice to see what bands I've played the most etc.
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