Last FM

= one of the most popular Social Music sites

URL = http://www.last.fm

Description

Material from http://thinnerism.cc/2007/11/26/music20-overview-–-part-5-sticksel-miller-jones-lastfm-and-the-social-music-revolution/:

How it works:

"So how does Last.FM award you for being interested in new music? First of all, they “scrobble” the songs you listen to in your mediaplayer, which are assumed to represent your musical taste: the said Audioscrobbler-Software (given that you downloaded it here) memorizes every title that blows through your computer devices´ virtual membranes, as well as the content you consume while using the Last.FM radio service - whether through the Last.FM desktop client or the webbased Flash Player. That way your personal listener profile is called into existence. Recalling the number of listeners Last.FM accomodates (20 million ) along with more than 700 Million Songs (September 2007) being “scrobbled” every month, suddenly asking a like-minded friend for musical advice reaches a whole new dimension.

Type in an artist or a keyword (= tag; i. e. ’sunday morning’) and you´ll experience that kind of friendship from a global network of music fanatics." (http://thinnerism.cc/2007/11/26/music20-overview-–-part-5-sticksel-miller-jones-lastfm-and-the-social-music-revolution/)

Characteristics

For users:

"Personalization: Customize your personal radio station even more by clicking the ‘love’ or ‘ban’ button. Find like-minded people by comparing your music taste with other users’ through the ‘Tast-O-Meter’. Watch recommended high-quality music videos. Specify a location and a radius, and Last.FM suggests events, gigs and festivals that you may want to see in your area. Listen to various types of radio stations: your neighbours’, user groups’, your friends’, your recommendations (based on what you´ve listened to), similar artist radios, etc. Unfortunately - due to copyright restrictions - AGAIN - their are no multiple artist stations anymore, where you could tweak your radio channel even better by entering more than one artist.

Sharing: Embed your recently played tracks, artist radios etc. into your blog or Community-Profile to show your friends. Last.FM generates a profile for user groups, cumulating the members’ listening habits to chart the group’s overall tastes. As a group member, submit recommendations to all the other members of your group. Write or edit the biography of your favorite artists (your content will be licensed under GNU Free Documentation License)."

For musicians:

"When was the last time you could actually see, who is listening to your music? Well, with Last.FM you know – visit the profile pages of your most active listeners and get in touch. Keep track of a list of Top Fans, portraying who consumes your tracks the most. Get access to weekly airplay statistics. View statistics on the most popular songs of yours. Would that knowledge have impact on your single strategy – if you still think about that kind of stuff? Interested in what keywords your listeners associate your music with? Is that the image you wanted to achieve? See what artists your fans listen to in ‘Similar Artists’. Use this as a help for strategic marketing strategies. Introduce yourself and your music to fans from similar artists via messaging. Encourage your fans to add your tour venues to the event section – they will automatically be listed on your artist main page, together with other details if provided. Get your fans to submit reviews and photographs of past concerts. Provide free downloads to stimulate exposure. Change the Amazon-link that Last.FM provides and direct listeners to your prefered point of sale." (http://thinnerism.cc/2007/11/26/music20-overview-–-part-5-sticksel-miller-jones-lastfm-and-the-social-music-revolution/)

History

Described here at http://thinnerism.cc/2007/11/26/music20-overview-–-part-5-sticksel-miller-jones-lastfm-and-the-social-music-revolution/