Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #25 – 2008-12-14 13:12:32

I use it for discovering new music, talking with friends about music and especially for checking concerts in my city.

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #26 – 2008-12-14 16:27:33

Discovering new music / personalized radio station.

Cheers!
SG

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #27 – 2008-12-14 17:09:04

I use last.fm for stats and personal radio.  Sometimes the suggestions given find some new artists I haven't known about.

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #28 – 2008-12-15 00:33:54

I initially started using Last.fm back in 2005 for collecting statistics, and now use it for making my playback history available to friends, viewing brief biographies of artists, music recommendations and OS independent collection of playback statistics.

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #29 – 2008-12-15 15:14:19

Although I registered in 2004, I really didn't start using it until this year, when the last.fm foobar2000 plugin by nausea came out (foo_lastfm_radio). The main reason I use last.fm is to have good/personalized music radio stations without the (/with less) inconveniences usually associated with radio (ability to skip tracks, listen to "related" music) and find new music easily. Now I'm quite addicted to it.

I don't really care about my personal statistics but it's something nice to have and the whole last.fm thing only works because of that. I scrobble what I listen in the last.fm radios and in case I wanna find something I heard before, I know it's there. I do check other members statistics on rare occasions (groups and individually).

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #30 – 2008-12-15 18:23:38

1. I'm lazy. I'm so lazy I can't even be bothered to load music on to my DAPs. We've had an iPhone for 6 months and it hasn't seen a single song loaded on to it, same goes for other DAPs in my house. I like how I can just fire up the web page and listen.

2. Availability. I mostly use it at work. It is otherwise hard to bring in CDs or a DAP or what not (security reasons). I can just as easily fire it up at home and continue. Or on the iPhone, etc.

3. Discovering new music. I mostly just want to hear new, interesting things. I have discovered a few artists that I really like that I otherwise wouldn't have known.

4. Playing music you otherwise wouldn't find easily available. Like another poster mentioned, I like Classical and Flamenco guitar. Not going to tune into a real radio station in my area to find that.

5. Interactive experience, more than just listening. I can kill songs, etc., not stuck listening to anything. I can find all sorts of info about the bands directly on their web page.

6. Community. I can see what other users think of tracks and post my comments, share info, etc.

I'm totally not into any of the statistic stuff. I don't think it makes sense anyway given my complaints below ...

My only real complaint about last.fm is that it's choice of what to play me via neighbourhood radio and recommendations is very questionable. Maybe it is just my account getting into a funky state, or my tastes being a bit too diverse. It will get into funks where it will try and shove electronica down or female vocalists down my throat even though I ban it every time it comes up. Sure some neighbour might like that, but it should figure that out. It will play deep purple over and over and over, though I have loved very few tracks of theirs. It seems if unless you ban something, it thinks you really like it. I'm not sure the love the track button does anything because the stuff I actually love rarely gets played. It won't play certain artists that I do love, ever, unless I listen to for them specifically, I guess because they are a bit rare.

In summary I love last.fm, just wish their track picking engine was more intelligent.

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #31 – 2008-12-15 20:17:51

reference for myself to see what I listen to
checking out people who have similar tastes and seeing if they have any artists I do not know then checking out those artists 

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #32 – 2008-12-15 22:55:19

I use it for both personal stats and community features. It's nice to find other people with similar tastes in music

Why do people use Last.fm?

Reply #33 – 2008-12-19 14:20:15

It's all about recommendations.  Last.fm serves up a constant stream of new bands for me to check out.