Smetty’s Radio

I really like Last.fm and just subscribed to their “become your own radio station” service. Welcome to Smetty’s Radio!

Until today, I was listening to the “Neighbour Radio” mode.

Neighbours Radio is a radio mode in which it (last.fm) will tune into a station made up of all people listed as a neighbour to that person (any user on the system). With Neighbours Radio, it’s easy for a user to discover some music that may be similar to the music they like, and as such help broaden their music tastes (last.fm FAQ).

Yes, I do like to broaden my music taste, but I want to listen to some specific tracks (the music I like) as well. But can I listen to a specific track on Last.fm? The answer is no, unless the label has specifically enabled the track for full-length preview.

Last.fm is licensed as a radio station, and so we can’t legally provide on-demand services (last.fm FAQ).

If I want to listen to the music I like and see this reflected om my profile, I will have to install their software.

With Last.fm on your computer you can scrobble your tracks, share your music taste…

Scrobbling a song means that when you listen to it, the name of the song is sent to Last.fm and added to your music profile.
(last.fm FAQ).

Installing the last.fm software takes only 2 minutes. iTunes and Windows Media Player plugins are available during set-up, other players can be added later.

This screenshot (click to enlarge) shows Windows Media Player playing a song. The last.fm software shows the artist, the track, the album, the tags used by other users to label the track, an “about the artist” + “similar to” this artist information.

“My Profile” gives an overview of what I recently played, loved and banned, my tags, my friends, my neighbours and a few radio modes.

Playing the song in Windows Media Player and scrobbling it with the last.fm software gets immediately reflected in my online last.fm profile:

By installing their software my online profile will be more up-to-date. Installing this soft is also required if you want to play your own Loved Tracks and Personal Radio.

Loved Tracks Radio is a radio mode which is a Subscriber benefit, much like the Personal Radio. Tracks that will feature on this radio station are tracks that the user manually marks as “loved”. To mark tracks as loved, a user must be using the Last.fm Application.

Personal Radio is a subscriber only feature that gives you an insight into a user’s entire profile. This station’s content is built up based upon every song that the user gets scrobbled to their profile, via a plugin or the radio service (last.fm FAQ).

I paid a monthly subscription (2,5 euro) and by doing so I created my own radio station. Smetty’s radio is born (!) and you can listen to it for at least one month. Another advantage: subscribers can listen to the Personal Radio of anyone, but non-subscribed users may only tune into the Personal Radio of someone that is subscribed.

My own radio station for only 2,5 euro/month. I like the idea.

Being responsible for my own radio station now, I will try to be a good DJ. Smetty’s Radio (Personal Radio and Loved Tracks Radio) is a mix of what I hear on last.fm and the music I like. I’ll try to make it a lovely, not-too melo and 70-80’s based, radio station. Hope you like it.

[tags]social music, lastfm, last.fm, personal radio[/tags]