Thursday, May 26, 2005

Last.FM Too?! Oh, my!

I've had a couple of blog postings about AudioScrobbler, which is able to keep a record of which music you've played locally, give you statistics about your music habits, and then find people with similar music taste. If you mine this data, you can then learn about other artists which you have a high chance of liking.

However, I just noticed that AudioScrobbler is just one half of Last.FM, which incorporates all of the features of AudioScrobbler but goes even further!

With Last.FM, it will build a custom radio station for you and as it plays songs will learn from your preferences to further customize the radio station. It becomes your personal station.

Now, here's the fun part. You can listen to OTHER PEOPLE'S radio stations as well! Rather than just SEEING what other people listen to, you can listen to what other people listen to. As you listen, there's a little window up that allows you to add those songs to your profile, say that you "love them," or say that you're "banning them." Thus, listening to other people's radio stations allows you to further customize your own.

It's pretty sweet. And if you're very paranoid about downloading music, this way you're being completely legit. Last.FM is 100% legal and every song you listen to can be added to your AudioScrobbler profile just like you played it locally.

There are lots of other neat things about these two that I haven't explored yet. Could it possibly be even more fun?

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