Whether it’s Japanese psychedelic rock, obscure Scandinavian indie-pop or Appalachian folk that rocks your boat, the question is always the same: how do I find it?
Well, the answer to your endless quest for fresh, new, exciting music may just lie in the music social networking website LastFM.
LastFM uses a small software application to track what music you are listening to on your computer and then uses this data to build up a music profile for each user.
Once you have your own profile, you can track your listening habits, network with users who have similar tastes and discover a whole new world of sonic goodness, all based on what you like.
United Kingdom-based LastFM was launched in 2003 by Richard Jones, Felix Miler and Martin Stiksel, who at the time were running an online record label called Insine. Today it boasts a whopping 50-million active monthly users.
Stiksel says LastFM was formed out of a need to promote their artists but took on a life of its own when they became interested in how people discovered new music when they were swamped by so much choice.
“LastFM is the ideal place to discover new music and find out about gigs in your area,” says Stiksel.
LastFM generates its revenue through advertising on the site; by securing a cut of all CD, download and live ticket sales obtained from the site; and monthly subscriptions, which offer users additional features such as their very own online radio service.
I signed up with LastFM a couple of months back and, through my network of musical neighbours, I have discovered bands such as JG Thirlwell’s industrial merchants Foetus and Helldorado, a Norwegian rock band inspired by spaghetti westerns and surf rock.
I discovered Helldorado through my LastFM friend Gosatango, who happens to be Jaxon Rice, the lead singer of Johannesburg rock band The Diesel Whores.
“As a recording artist, it is really cool to be able to go into LastFM and see who is listening to your music, and what tracks they like the most,” says Rice. “I have connected with fans around the world through this feature.”
Rice is a paid-up subscriber to the service, which gives him access to his neighbours and his own custom- built LastFM radio stations, which he says is his favourite feature.
“I spend most of my day listening to various custom-built LastFM stations,” says Rice.
“The ability to fast forward, ban tracks and add other songs to my recommended list means that traditional radio now seems so redundant that listening to it almost always results in disappointment.”
A colleague at the Mail & Guardian, Yolandi Groenewald, is also a big fan of the customised radio stations.
“In a country where indie and alternative music get little or no play on radio stations, I have also enjoyed the customised radio stations LastFM create for you, which are dependant on the kind of music you like,” says Groenewald. “I have discovered great artists by simply tuning in while cooking or reading at night.”
One of my musical neighbours is Dogzilla, a 29-year-old male from the UK, whose favourite feature is the events section.
“Being able to see gigs in my local area by bands I like is a genius idea, especially as I moved fairly recently and am still a bit out of the loop when it comes to knowing when and where to look for live music round here,” says Dogzilla.
Another of my neighbours is Velcorobot, an 18-year-old American, whose favourite feature is being able to track what his friends are listening too.
“I can see if they’ve been listening to a band I haven’t heard of, and then I can ask them about that band and discover more music,” says Velcorobot.
“It’s quite interesting to see how what you claim to be into compares with what you are actually listening to,” says El_Deano, another neighbour. “Often, the two don’t quite match up to what you would expect.”
“Through the recommendations given to me as a result of my listening habits, I have discovered the exciting world of math rock, in particular bands like Don Caballero and Q and not U,” says El_Deano. “LastFM also gave me Blonde Redhead and Wolf Parade, two other bands I have come to enjoy greatly.”
“I think that a lot of these discoveries have come from reading other people’s journal entries, particularly those with reviews of recent albums,” says El_Deano. “Often they can be a bit more insightful than magazine reviews, simply by virtue of being written by ordinary people who like music.”