Milkduds

Finding new music with Pandora and Last.fm

July 6th, 2006

Just wanted to share a recent find on the Net. If you are looking for a good mix of music, or to find music similar to an artist you already like, try Pandora or Last.fm. Pandora has one of the best Flash menus/navigation that I’ve ever seen. It is simple, yet very functional so that the most novice Internet user can find it easy to use. Panodra knows what to play based on the Music Genome Project. Last.fm takes a little getting used to and isn’t nearly as usable as Pandora, but provides more features and a history of what you listen to. It also provides recommendations (like Netflix). The more you listen, the better your recommendations get. Last.fm gets their data from other users tagging each song or artist and from Audioscrobbler data. I’ve been using Last.fm more lately because I like that I can more easily manipulate what I want to listen to. The only big drawback to Last.fm is the fact that you have to download and run a separate player to hear any music. You only need a Flash-enabled browser to use Pandora.

So obviously, as the post title says, these services really help you to find new music based on the tastes that you already have. This can be good and bad, in my opinion. These services will help you find music based on what you already like. However, some of the best music I’ve found was by accident or someone else telling me to listen to it and it was COMPLETELY different than what I was used to.

Entry Filed under: Music, Technology