Radio Waves

While reading blogs for the 23 things program, I noticed that several of our bloggers had added a badge to their blogs for last. fm. Toward the end of the project, with many bloggers cramming to make the deadline, I had a lot of reading to do. I thought music might make the task more enjoyable so spent a little time investigating last. fm. Much as I didn't want another login and password, I wanted some music other than top 40 so I broke down and signed up, downloading the small application necessary, after a preliminary test.

What a treat! I heard some music on TV that I was in the mood to listen to, plugged in the artist on last. fm after setting up my account and had several hours of enjoyable oldies beginning with the Righteous Brothers and had nothing hit a sour note all night. I told Pam about it the next day and we both enjoyed the background music as we worked that day. She added herself to their network and downloaded a quilt badge of her favorite group. Since I have eclectic taste, I opted for a badge that showed my listening list.

Since that time I've plugged in different artists depending on what I feel like listening to and haven't been disappointed. The only disconcerting music is Christmas tunes that are occasionally in the mix when it's nowhere near Christmas...even so, good tunes.

Being able to listen to a mix of music based on your listening habits, personal to your taste, is a real joy. There are many other facets to this musical social networking site, but I haven't really spent much time exploring that. I've just been enjoyed being able to choose the tunes I want on demand, sometimes old rock and roll, sometimes blues, sometimes jazz.

Learn about scrobbling. Scrobble songs you listen to on your computer or iPod automatically. Start scrobbling yourself, and see what artists you really listen to the most. Songs you listen to will also appear on your Last.fm profile page for others to see. This scrobbling helps last fm organize and recommend music to you. You can also see what other people are listening to and find friends. Tune in, it's great!