so, probably the coolest web enabled tool/service that i’ve starting using in 2008 is last.fm. on the surface it’s basically a social music site, but it is so much more than that. you can type in the name of virtually any artist and it will start a radio station based from that artist. after the first track you will get other music that is “similar” to it. if you have an account (free or for-pay if you want more features) you can love/ban tracks that will alter the upcoming songs based on your taste.
the genius of last.fm is with their technology called audioscrobbler or simply scrobbling. if you have a device or software that supports scrobbling–and virtually anything you can think of is already supported–your songs will be tracked and pushed back up to last.fm via your account. i mostly use itunes and an ipod which are both supported. when i sync my ipod back up to itunes at the end of the day, the audioscobbler software searches for listening activity on the device and then pushes it back to last.fm.
now all of this might seem creepy or downright scary to some of you. i think it’s one of the most interesting musical experiences i’ve ever had. think about it: you have a silent partner who is faithfully (and without judgement) taking down what you are listening to and then allowing you drill around in the resulting data. for example, i know that my most listened to artist in the last week was Faded Paper Figures, and my most listened to track overall ( since September 2008 ) is currently This Place is a Prison by The Postal Service.
anyway, i could go on forever about this, but if you haven’t looked at this yet (and i feel like i’m years late to the party on this one), you must try it out. they have signed deals with most of the large music labels and have access to over 3.5 million tracks. so, there is probably something for you…
