Saturday, September 22, 2007

Improving Last.fm Experience, part 3

See part 1 here.
See part 2 here.

This is the last part of my review of 15 Last.fm Tweaks (link). Items 1-5 were covered in part 1. Items 6-10 were covered in part 2. The final part discusses items 11-15, including mashes and widgets.

Results & opinions shown below the cut.

11) Integrate with iTunes: I do not use iTunes so this is not applicable.

12) Combine with Pandora: Like I stated last time, I don't think I'll use more than one service.

13) AutoHotKey It: This appears to be for Windows so it also doesn't apply to me.

14) Mash It Up: The LifeHacker article provided 2 sites for mash-ups with Last.fm.
a) Last.tv is actually pretty cool. It plays music videos for any Last.fm username you input. Using myself, it started with a couple duds (instruction videos?) but with the third video it began showing music videos of bands on my playlist. Nice little feature.
b) Mainstream-o-Meter: Found here, measures how mainstream your music tastes are. My results:
Last.fm-Mainstream-O-Meter result
jal4568's top artists:

1 - The Doors: 55% mainstream
2 - Creedence Clearwater Revival: 34% mainstream
3 - The Beatles: 101% mainstream
4 - Eric Clapton: 43% mainstream
5 - Led Zeppelin: 71% mainstream
6 - Pink Floyd: 77% mainstream
7 - The Who: 49% mainstream
8 - Jimi Hendrix: 52% mainstream
9 - Queen: 75% mainstream
10 - The Beach Boys: 45% mainstream
11 - Deep Purple: 33% mainstream
12 - The Allman Brothers Band: 15% mainstream
13 - Muddy Waters: 9% mainstream
14 - The Kinks: 33% mainstream
15 - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: 6% mainstream

jal4568 is 49.40 % mainstream
c) Another good one: Snapradio (shows pictures to go with your music)

15) Extensions, Widgets, Etc: I really like these. The ones linked to in the article weren't very interesting to me. However, Last.fm has an official widget page that lets you generate your own. Some examples are below.
My music quilt:


My top artists music chart:


Plays Songs Under my 'Surf Classic' tag:



Overall, this groups of tweaks didn't really apply to me. The widgets are awesome however. I can definitely see myself playing with those in the near future. The Last.tv mash-up is also nice. I am quite glad I went through and tried these tweaks. I've already noticed an improvement in music quality and variety.

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