Playing with last.fm integration
You may have noticed the last.fm widget on the side of this site. I haven’t played with it much, but recently I’ve had several reasons to.
- I replaced the firmware on my iPod with Rockbox. While it’s a sick open-source, completely customizable replacement for most MP3 players that I would suggest any geek plays with for a while, it just didn’t get along well with my battery. I thought the battery was ruined and would hold 0 charge forever, however after 8 months of inability to confront my fear, I was able to restore it back to the original OS and I no longer have any power problems. Now I have parted ways with the mini Zune that I had a secret affair with for a while. The Zune can do nothing in the way of last.fm. The iPod however can.
- Consolidation of music on 2 laptops and 2 external drives to 1 TB hard drive allowing easy management.
- Fast new laptop that can handle Songbird with many plugins. This is an incredible media player. It’s built on Mozilla and everything is plugins. I like plugins. Look at the features and some of the top add-ons. Seriously.
Anyway- it was time. The main driver is actually how sick I was of the same 8 GB of music on that wonderful little Zune. I’ve been listening to a lot more music of all types lately as well as playing and writing. I’d like to go to shows and find new music. If only there was a website that could monitor my listening habits at home through all of my favorite players, on my blackberry, on my ipod, streaming over the intranets live, etc. and offer me new music. Wait, I’m already an estranged user of such a technology. Alas, I am back at last.fm and apparently the community of developers has grown exponentially with the open API golden age of the Third Millennium.3.0.
Find me at last.fm.
lasttweet
Hey there twits. Want to make sure everyone on the intrawebs knows the last (up to 4) profound thing(s) you’ve said? Check out lasttweet.com for a last.fm themed widget that you could really drop into any place that widgets go.
Last.fm Global Matchup Mashup
This is an interesting concept. Take a Google Map and plot a user’s compatibility with the listening habits of other countries. Apparently I’m Albanian by musical preference.
Average Age Calculator
Wondering if you have more in commone with a 14 year old girl or an 89 year old man. keef.co.nr has finally made it simple enough to figure out.
Quilt.fm
This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Creates a visual quilt with your favorite artists or albums. It even makes it easy for you to switch over to your friends’ quilts.
Thank you Evan Hanson.
soundamus
The concept here is they take your artists and let you know when they’re releasing new material. My favorite part of this site? Not only do they offer iCal (a standard whose steady adaption is very pleasing), there’s a quick link to add to your Google Calendar.
Pandora.fm
If you’re a Pandora user, or like myself a former one distracted by the magic of last.fm, this is a great app. The technology is built on the research of the Music Genome Project. It’s an incredible concept that attempts to “capture the essence of music at the fundamental level.” It learns your preferences based on the specific properties of the music you rate as opposed to corellations with other users. This integration allows you to use the Pandora engine while posting (or “scrobbling”) to last.fm.
The Hype Machine
Just found out about this site while looking for last.fm tie-ins. It’s a great concept for the blogger / music-snob. I think the idea is it creeps about the blogosphere grabbing blogs and the songs they’re associated with. You can find great blogs and music by keeping an eye on the “latest” and “popular” sections which are the intranet’s “hottest” songs and posts respectively. The Hype Machine lets you roam all the while scrobbling to your last.fm profile.
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