Improving Last.fm Experience, part 2

See part 1 here.

This is a continued review of a recent LifeHacker article on Last.fm tweaks. Items 1-5 were covered in part one. Part two covers items 6-10. Results & opinions shown below the cut.


6) Add Music to Facebook: I'm not a part of Facebook, so this one doesn't really apply to me.

7) Rip Tracks: "theLastRipper" application was very easy to install from the link provided by the article. You have to set preferences & login to your Last.fm account before you begin. But, I was up and running within about ten minutes. Very easy to do. This was especially helpful for some of the music types that I can't find easily in local stores.

8) Eclectify Your Playlist: If you go here & enter your Last.fm username, they provide you with 5 similar artists for your top twenty artists. Sounds confusing but it's a snap. For the eclectic rating, anything below 80 is considered "limited". My output is below (bold = artist I'm not familiar with):
My eclectic score is currently 51/100

The 51 related artists for my profile are AC/DC, AFX, Aerosmith, Autechre, B.B. King (2), B.B. King & Eric Clapton, Basement Jaxx, Boards of Canada, Buddy Guy (2), Cream (3), Creedence Clearwater Revival, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Eagles (2), Elmore James, Elton John, Eric Clapton (2), Faithless, Fatboy Slim (2), Four Tet, Grateful Dead, Guns N' Roses, Howlin' Wolf, Jimi Hendrix (4), John Lee Hooker (2), John Lennon, LCD Soundsystem, Led Zeppelin (9), Leftfield, Lynyrd Skynyrd (2), Moby, Muddy Waters, Pink Floyd (2), Queen (3), Rainbow, Robert Johnson, Squarepusher, Stevie Ray Vaughan (2), The Beatles (6), The Chemical Brothers (3), The Doors (3), The Future Sound of London, The Kinks (2), The Orb, The Prodigy, The Rolling Stones (10), The Vaughan Brothers, The Velvet Underground, The Who (7), Underworld, Van Halen

I will be investigating the bold artists in the near future. I do like this feature.

9) Give Your Music Time to Develop: Obviously, this isn't a quick step to improve my experience. But I can say that tagging, classifying as "Loved", etc do improve the experience. Although I've only been a member for a month or so, there has been real improvement. I think if I apply the other tweaks and keep up with the tagging, my experience will greatly improve. So, tagging = time-consuming but worth the effort.

10) Use Other Services to Further Seed Your Playlists: Looking at the other options provided, I don't really want to join something else at this time. My main motivation for Last.fm was the "Supernatural" station that other fans of the TV show have created. While I'm sure the other services are fine enough, I am very unlikely to use two or more services. I greatly prefer to go one place and be done with it.

So, these five weren't as interesting to me as the first five. But items 7 & 8, I wholeheartedly recommend. They are useful ways to expand your listening experience.

See part 3 here.