So, I was messing about on the Internet this week trying to do a bazillion things at once, and I somehow stumbled upon the Radio link at the top of the Last.fm home page.
Ok, let me backup. Last.fm is an audio scrobbler, which is a funny phrase that means it tracks all the music you play on your computer. (Well, all the music you play in programs supported by the plugin, like iTunes, WinAmp, etc. I think it can also download your iPod stats.) I’ve used Last.fm to track my songs for years now, and you can see my stats here. (Please ignore the Bieber. I was just experimenting. I didn’t inhale.)
Ok, back to where I was. If you click on the “Your Library Radio” link in the sidebar of the Radio page a widget loads that starts playing songs that you’ve scrobbled. It’s like having your MP3 collection with you anywhere, which is handy for me because I keep all my music on an external hard drive that I don’t like to lug to coffeeshops. It doesn’t play your whole library because they are limited to songs they have the rights to play, and I assume the artists all get royalties, but it’s still pretty damn cool. I was listening to it at a coffee shop this week and forgot I was listening to a stream and not my hard drive until an ad came on.
This is so awesome that I cannot believe someone hadn’t told me about it before. If you’re not a Last.fm user, it’s probably significantly less awesome since you don’t have any tracks scrobbled to your library. There is also room for hilarity because the widget shows pictures of the artists while it plays their songs. When I listened to a Kylie Minogue track I felt like I was watching soft porn.
If you do use Last.fm, I hope I’ve enlightened you a bit today!
Speaking of radio, I will be on it (the old school version) a couple times in the upcoming weeks, assuming that my cell phone signal doesn’t drop out mid-sentence. Here is a post with the details. I had a great interview on KERA in Dallas yesterday, but OMG it is quite a mental marathon to talk about yourself for a whole hour, particularly when a side effect of the headache medication you’re on is dry mouth. I drank a whole glass of water and wanted another one. Sometimes I wish I could send in a stunt double to do this stuff for me, hopefully with cuter hair.
AF says
March 1, 2011 at 3:54 pmHehe – thanks for explaining what last.fm is. I could never be bothered to look it up. Cool about you being on the radio.
Kristen says
March 1, 2011 at 4:42 pmThe water helps, but you may want to consider gum. According to one of my Dr.’s, the side effect of dry mouth is often caused by the salivary glands not working as much/hard. To help relieve it, it helps to chew gum.
I know that after learning this and always having gum on me, the dry mouth side effect doesn’t seem as bad.
PastaQueen says
March 1, 2011 at 4:48 pm@Kristen – No worries, I am a big consumer of Extra sugar-free gum! I didn’t want to crack my gum on the radio though, so I only had the water. My dentist told me to use the gum that has xylitol in it, too, because that’s supposed to help prevent cavities. Evidently saliva helps protect your teeth from decay, so dry mouth can help lead to cavities.
Leann Sheets says
March 2, 2011 at 6:52 amPandora radio is pretty similar to last.fm
I like it a little better because it introduces you to new music based on your likes. Just a suggestion. :)
Shanie Matthews says
March 2, 2011 at 10:32 pmThanks for the info on last.fm…music is so important, the more ways to get it the better (:
Great site, btw! And congrats on living your dreams!
Cheers!
mom taxi julie says
March 4, 2011 at 11:58 amI haven’t heard of that one but I LOVE Pandora. I listen to it everyday at work.
Wobble says
March 8, 2011 at 7:19 amIt’s not free for people outside of the US. But you can get around it by having a US proxy.