Thursday, July 23, 2009

Music Online (Review Part 2 - lastfm)

Yesterday was day 2 of online music findings. Pandora was a let down, so I was hoping Lastfm would be better.

1. you must sign up for an account, again similar to the Hypemachine and Pandora, but this sign up took significally longer than Pandora's and required lots more info.

2. After the lengthy 'interview' process of the sign up. I was redirected to my profile's page, and given many options. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was ready for my streaming music, and it was not easy to start and / or find.

3. There was an option on the main page to import your itunes library into lastfm! which, I didn't have any of my music here (the dilemma that started this search for the best streaming site). But something I have to give props to lastfm for.

4. I then chose a multi artist radio station and entered the same artists as before (on Pandora) - Radiohead, Pixies, Santigold. *gotta keep the same rules to run a legit study / review* Quickly to learn that lastfm only allows for a 3 artist entry... lame.

5. Off the bat Lastfm nailed me. Playing hits by the editors, the strokes, lykke li, vampire weekend, oasis, phoenix, florence and the machine, and of course the 3 artists I initially typed in.

6. But what about when I'm not into that particular song? well I have as many 'skips' as I want. and the same 'heart' option when I love a song, and the more I heart things the more tailored the radio station became. I also have the option to ban a song, thus not having to listen to it then or again.

7. Lastfm also shows similar artist at the bottom of the page which you are able to then go to their page and listen to those hits.

8. But my biggest complaint is the lack of a pause button. I often need to pause (since I'm at work I have work things to do) and then want to resume that song, but Lastfm instead stops the whole radio station and brings you back to your profile page. Lame! then once you find your custom multi artist station again (difficult to re find) it chooses a new song! so unnecessary.

I did overall enjoy the choices of songs, and the controls on Lastfm. Its allot more in depth than Pandora. But maybe not a complete replacement for Hypem or my itunes library. Overall Lastfm I give you an 85% (out of 100%)...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Last.fm is pretty great. I've been using it since about 2003 or so, when it was Audioscrobbler. Honestly, I use it more for the cataloging of the music I listen to than for the radio, but I agree it has a pretty good selection. It is indeed pretty impossible to find the same song again, though. I'd actually give it an 87, so your score is faulty ;D

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