Last.fm has a feature called Audioscrobbler that monitors your listening habits and uses this data to provide you with customized information about music. It can help you find other people with similar taste in music, recommend other artists or albums, or make you aware of upcoming shows that might interest you. This last feature clued me in to the news that my favorite Swedish dance-pop diva, Robyn, is coming to the Paradise this month.
I almost missed out on this piece of info , however, because of another Last.fm feature: the ability to share your playlist with other users. Once you've listened to more than 50% of a track Audioscrobbler adds it to your personal listener database. The list of tracks that you've played can be displayed to other Last.fm users in real time or it can be displayed after a configurable delay period has passed. Furthermore, if you decide that you don't want that track in your playlist/database you have up to two weeks from the time it was added to remove it.
When I first saw the delay and removal features I wondered why anyone would use them. Why would I want to hide my playlist? This evening when I was deep into a teenpop and dance-pop listening spree its use became clear. Did I really want to sully my diverse but comfortably skewed towards the obscure and avant-garde playlist with teenpop? I've confessed my love of sugary, super produced pop to friends before and been met with strange looks. What would my noise and black metal loving Last.fm neighbors think? Ultimately, I decided not to self censor and now I have the opportunity to go see Robyn.
Thank you Ashlee.
No comments:
Post a Comment