Valhalla Island

Today I discovered Last.fm. I think I remember using it or something very similar about 6 months ago. The one I used back then had a time limit before you had to pay for it and if I had the money back then I would have, it was that good. Today I find out that it’s gone back to being free. After using it all afternoon I have to say it’s just about the best thing in the world.

It works by first asking you for a band or style of music you like. You type it in and then it starts playing songs of a smililar sound or songs that other people have also liked, that like the music you typed in. As the music is playing, oh I forgot to say you have to download thier little music player or get a plugin for something you already use. Anyway, as the music is playing you have these little buttons down the bottom.

One of the buttons is a little heart, one’s a next track button and one is a cross. If you like the song they’ve chosen to play you then you click the little heart. If you really don’t like what it’s chosen then you click the cross. By doing this it slowly begins to learn what music you like and gets very good at picking music you might like to hear. The more music you listen to and the more you rate the smarter it becomes. The more people that use the service make it smarter when first choosing the music that you like.

On top of all that it complies all the music you listen to and puts it in a playlist with your favourite artists, genres, your most played songs, all things like that. You can see mine here.

So far it’s played me some songs that I’ve never heard before that I really really like. Some Alkaline Trio and Mae especially. As well as that, it’s pretty damn good at picking music you like. About 10 minutes ago it played Box Car Racer - Cat Like Thief which could be my favourite song and has been for years. For streaming audio the quality is impressive.