One of my most successful recent discoveries has been Last.fm and for good reason too - Last.fm is a real breath of fresh air in the crowded social media environment of the internet and really is remarkable. It’s a free way to listen to and to share your own music and it’s a brilliant tool for the budding musician.
So What Is It?
Last.fm is a website that consists largely of user-produced online ‘radio stations’. You sign up, you fill in a box of what artists you like seperated by commas (I literally just copied and pasted the list from my facebook page) and Last.fm puts together your ‘music library’. One that’s done you can download a little application that will play you random tracks from all the artists which are in your library, as well as playing you loads of ‘recommended’ artists based on what artists you like.
I was skeptical of how well this ‘recommended’ stuff would work as all the ones I’ve tried in the past have been pretty poor - but I’m pleased to say that the Last.fm system is absolutely brilliant and really does play me songs which I haven’t heard before.. and like!
I now have the music player open in the background all-day every-day at work and it’s become a staple part of my waking hours.
Why It’s Useful For You, The Artist
Well I’m probably preaching to the converted here for the most part but it’s useful to you because you need to stay on top of the music industry and “what’s hot” - and by that I don’t necessarily mean what’s in the charts at the moment!
Here are 5 good reasons why you should sign up to and actively use Last.fm
- You can and will discover at least one new artist every day.
- You’ll broaden your musical tastes and knowledge.
- You’ll meet and network with loads of other people in the music industry who may be able to help you.
- You can promote your own music through a personal profile
- It’s brilliant for inspiration when you’re writing songs.
How Last.fm Can Make You Famous
It can’t. Like anything else in this world it takes a lot of hard work and effort, though I’m sure you’ve heard that so many times by now that you’re sick to the back teeth of it!
It’s basically like a really good facebook that’s just for musicians, once you’ve set up your profile page, people will be able to listen to your music, add you to their library, comment on your page, see your recent activity, upcoming gigs, music which you listen to, most popular songs, and the list goes on and on and on!
Take a look at Reuben’s profile to get a better idea of just how much you can offer your listeners.
Is It Important?
You bet! From what I’ve seen so far (and granted I’m a latecomer) Last.fm is going nowhere but up! They’re doing a really outstanding job with the site and have already launched multiplatform applications to support their software, including the recent iPhone app - which I have to say - is genius.
Sign up now, or regret it later! Definitely some more specific Last.fm posts to follow at a later date.
What Do You Think?
Are you using Last.fm ? Are there any great features I’ve missed out? As an artist what would you say has been the most influential thing that you’ve done with your Last.fm profile? Drop me a line in the comments below!
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