A few years ago I was heavily into Battlefield 1942, a first person shooter for the PC. As I played more and became much more competitive, I joined the High Plains Strike Force
gaming clan. The clan had a forum for everyone to make use of. In the general section I came across a link to a social music service posted by one of the members.
The name of the site was Last.FM and it was geared towards streaming music while tracking your history. I started off using the service to pump music to my stereo so that I would have something commercial free to listen to while playing pool. Over time I found myself using it more and more.
Some time later I landed a desk job which gave me access to unrestricted internet. Not having much interest in the local radio station, I opted to use my Last.FM account to set the mood of my day. Using the service for roughly nine hours per day, I really got to see what it had to offer.
When I started using Last.FM for hours throughout the day, I decided to sign up for $3.00 per month and take advantage of the bonus features offered. Being able to browse other peoples loved tracks and libraries made for a wide mixture of content that held my attention. On the days when i just hit play, I quickly found that there was alot of repetition, even with over one-hundred artists programmed into my stream.
Even with the repetitiveness at times, it was much better than hearing the same twenty-five song played over the radio all day long. The lack of commercial interruptions made for an even more enjoyable listening experience.
Since signing up for the service back in 2006, I have racked up a startling 95,300+ streamed tracks. Over the years Last.FM has had its hiccups, but I’ve been happy with it and continue to use it on a regular basis. After purchasing my iPod Touch, I was pleasantly surprised to find a mobile client available.
If you haven’t tried Last.FM yet, I’d recommend giving it a try. The free service gives you access to lots of features that are sure to keep you entertained.
My Recently Played Tracks
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Have you tried the Last.FM service, and if so
What did you think of it?
6 thoughts on “My addiction with Last.FM”
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yep. I had been using Blip.fm the last few months & liked it a lot. Then one day they disabled uploads. So I was free to choose a new music service. I saw you twitter about last.fm one day so tried it out. Been using it for about a month now. It has its pros and cons. One con is that the Stations play strangely. lets say I choose to listen to the Led Zepplin radio station. You’d think I’d hear a lot of Zepplin, right? In fact you dont’ – they play artists that are similar to zepplin, but no much zepplin. Of course I could just not know how to do it. But ifs its there, its not very user friendly.
drmlabs,
Last.FM needs to follow the same guidelines as a traditional radio station in order to provide free content. Artists can only be played so many times in a given time frame, so the system pumps out similar music to keep you occupied.
I’ve found it most useful, and entertaining, to program a handful of artists into a station and get a medley of music.
No streaming allowed at work and I usually do all my web surfing while watching/listening to hockey, so I don’t see me trying any such thing any time soon. Now if I were back overseas where we’re subject to AFRTS, it would be a very welcome change. I think I’ll tag it in delicious so I don’t forget about it.
Thanks Walt.
I’m partial to Pandora myself, but great story!
I agree with Mike in WV… Pandora is my usual go to but I think I will give Last.FM a test drive
I think im the only person who doesnt use last.fm. I really like Pandora and Slacker is starting to take over – especially since they released an iPhone app.