For those who don't know what Last.fm is, Last.fm is a free internet radio and music-listening tracking site. Their plugin, coined "audioscrobbler," is a tracking device for various media players (WinAmp, iTunes, etc) and your musical tastes, frequency of listening, top songs, top artists, and recommendations are recorded to a social music profile.
I must say that I am quite addicted to Last.fm. I use a third-party plugin with my Rhapsody service, and I use the last.fm radio player. The radio is a great way to discover new music from artists similar to your listening tastes. The plugins doesn't record what format your music is in (mp3, wav, mp4, wma), so those who download music will not be incriminated for using Last.fm.
However, Last.fm has been gaining popularity over the past couple months. As compared to MySpace, some users turn Last.fm into a competition. The competition doesn't stop at the number of friends and comments (via shoutbox for last.fm) for this music-listening service. Some euthusiastic fans compete to become "Top Fans" on artists pages, or to have a higher track play, most groups, most forum comments, etc. As far as the Top Fans and most played goes, some users have even resorted to cheating to obtain higher numbers.
But for what?
There's no trophy for the being a top fan of an artist. There's no certificate of achievement for the most friends or comments. Last.fm is not a competition. Enjoy the music service; its a definitely a social music revolution.
Last.fm: The New MySpace?
By Meg is a fun killer - Posted on November 7th, 2006
