LastFM - you really should try this..

Ever wondered what that list of songs is at the top of my blog? Well, those are the songs that I've listened to most recently on either my home or work computer. LastFM tracks the songs I listen to, and creates a bunch of nifty charts for me, showing me the artists and songs I listen to most each day, each week, each year.

I've been discovering a lot of artists for myself this year thanks to LastFM - us forty year old dads don't tend to have a clue when it comes to new music (at least, that's what my daughter thinks - dads can't possibly be cool, can they?)

What IS cool is that I've got a bunch of Epinions friends who use the site too, and LastFM shows me what they're listening to as well. We've got our own group on the site, and we get a weekly chart of the most popular music among all of us - it's interesting to see what we have in common, and to discover new music through the listening habits of our friends.

Other fun stuff includes Recommendation Radio and Neighbour Radio - two "stations" I can listen to on my computer, created by LastFM based on comparing my listening habits to those who share similar tastes as myself. I can tell LastFM to make my Radio match the artists of my neighbours, or I can set it to give me more esoteric choices that it thinks I might like. I can tell Recommendation Radio to keep or trash artists that it offers me, and this refines the list of what I prefer to listen to even further.

Maybe someday, LastFM will start recommending what I want for dinner...