Rubberband Wound

I subscribed to Last.FM last weekend. Just one month for now, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be in it for a while, especially at $3 a month. I’ve had an account for a couple years now, and the Last.FM monitor has been quietly figuring out what music I like, and what else I might like. Now that I’ve subscribed I have access to a few ‘radio’ stations based on tracks I’ve marked as ‘loved’, tracks my musical neighbors enjoy, and tracks that the Last.FM gnomes think I’m going to enjoy.

So far, they’ve been right on the money.

In fact, my biggest gripe about the whole thing is that I can’t pause a track, and tracks don’t get scrobbled (added to my listened tracks on Last.FM). These two things, when paired, keep me from getting up from my desk sometimes - I want a track to go down in my history for further influence on the music I’m served. But when it ends and is sent off to the servers, the next track comes up right away. And usually it’s so good that I don’t want to hit stop. Since I can’t pause, my choices are two - listen to the track and take the chance that this happens again on the next too, or hit stop and hope that the track comes up again soon. What I wouldn’t give for the ability to just hit pause!

So yes, I’m happy with Last.FM. Install the Audioscrobbler app, let it watch what you play, and then see what else they suggest to you. If, like me, you don’t bring an iPod to work right now, or if you like not having control over what’s next (I have musical ADD), it could be right up your alley.