Join the Social Music Revolution

I’ve just stumbled on a new Web 2.0 site that I’ve got to tell you about. It’s called last.fm, and it does for music what del.icio.us does for bookmarks; Install the small plugin file, and it tracks the music that you listen to with programs like iTunes and Windows Media player; it then uses this info to provide you with your own ‘Radio Station’, playing you tunes it reckons you might like, based on the listening habits of people that listen to the same music that you do.

Brilliantly, it can also play you music based on tags, such as ‘drum and bass’, or ‘electronica’ etc, or crazy things like music listened to by fans of a particular artists, and loads of other interesting variants on artists, tags and listening habits.

I’ve been listening while I work to my own personal radio show, and have heard a wicked mix of stuff that I’ve mostly never heard before; but generally am completely into; I only pressed ‘skip’ once, and that’s before it’s spent time analysing my on listening habits; try it out, you’ll love it.

Also, importantly, it lets artists upload their own tracks; although a couple of my tracks were on it already – as people have been listening to them from their own CD collection, I’ve uploaded a few of my latest tunes, ready to be slipped into the mix on someone else’s personal radio show.

I’m blown away by the proliferation of brilliant internet-based ideas at the moment, what with Skype, Feedburner, Netvibes, Second Life,del.icio.us and now last.fm, we’re being flooded with new ways to communicate, share learn and discover from user-based content, all from the safety of our computer.

The future’s here, now, and it’s what you make it…

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