Maddieman's Last.fm Journal

Exploring your scrobble history

Wed, 1 May 2013 10:49:09 +0000

On my profile I have the following charts:

2013

2012

All time

See more

You can find your own scrobble charts on our hidden "explore" feature, at the following location:

http://www.last.fm/user/_/library/explore

You can explore specific years, months, and even specific days.

http://www.last.fm/user/_/library/explore/2013
http://www.last.fm/user/_/library/explore/2013/April
http://www.last.fm/user/_/library/explore/2013/04/30

They go all the way back to when you first joined last.fm; for example here's my first day of scrobbling:

http://www.last.fm/user/Maddieman/library/explore/2008/09/08

You can copy your charts into your about me section by right clicking on the chart, and opening the image in a new tab. Simply copy the url in the address bar, and paste it into your profile, with [img] BBCode.

My top albums 2012

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:48:08 +0000

1. Health - Max Payne 3: the Official Soundtrack (626)

2. Somegirl - The Velvet Hour (441)

3. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (421)

4. Terami Hirsch - A Broke Machine (411)

5. Somegirl - She's Full of Secrets (384)

_____

6. Lana Del Rey - Born to Die (374)
7. Dragonette - Galore (229)
8. The Mummers - Tale to Tell (219)
9. Somegirl - I've Been Known to be Completely Wrong (203)
10. Mylène Farmer - Anamorphosée (159)
11. Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill 2 OST (157)
12. Poe - Haunted (149)
13. Poe - Hello (147)
14. The Mummers - Mink Hollow Road (142)
15. Portishead - Roseland NYC Live (136)
16. Dragonette - Fixin to Thrill (136)
17. Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man (132)
18. Garbage - Not Your Kind of People (113)
19. Jesca Hoop - Kismet (104)
20. Portishead - Portishead (89)

Is Christmas actually getting later every year?

Fri, 7 Dec 2012 22:26:10 +0000

We all like to grumble about how Christmas is getting earlier every year — at least as far as supermarkets are concerned. But is this true for people’s listening habits? This afternoon we decided to take a look at our data, which curiously suggests that perhaps the opposite is true…

Like all of the best ideas, this graph came about it after a few rounds at the pub last night, and may or may not be scientifically valid. But it is scientific, which means it’s true.

christmas science

Last.fm Discover on Xbox Live

Thu, 1 Nov 2012 17:58:47 +0000

Last week Microsoft rolled out another dashboard update, and this one includes an integrated web browser for gold accounts. Unfortunately, the Last.fm web player won't run because flash isn't supported. :|

However, one thing that does work is our html5 based Discover app.

http://www.last.fm/discover

If you've never used it before, Discover is a personalised music player that introduces you to bands from around the world by letting you browse through musical styles that you may already know or want to learn more about. Crucially, the Discover app focuses on independent music from over half a million artists and labels who have uploaded their music to us directly via the music manager.

This means it's advert free -- you can play, pause, skip forwards, and backwards without restriction; and should be available to everyone who can access the Xbox Internet Explorer app (i.e. xbox live gold accounts). While testing, we found a couple of slight issues, for example, the volume control doesn't appear to be working correctly, but I figure you can always use your tv remote. Otherwise it works pretty well.

You can read more about discover here:
http://blog.last.fm/2011/12/15/announcing-lastfm-discover

How to remove swearing on Last.fm shoutboxes

Wed, 3 Oct 2012 23:16:10 +0000

It occurred to me that the Internet would be a better place to live in if everyone cursed like Captain Haddock. After all, it's pretty hard to take someone seriously when they're calling you "a dunderheaded anthropophagus".

So, over one weekend I quickly adapted a user script to replace the most offensive comments I could find with Captain Haddock curses.

You can get it here:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/149563

(Chrome users - to install you need to download the js file, open the Tools -> Extensions page, and then drag and drop the file onto your browser).

I used the Radiohead and Muse shoutboxes for testing, and it should also work on Youtube. It *may* cause some oddities with genuine words - I'm trying to weed these out while keeping the script fun and useful. I was also genuinely surprised at how tricky certain words are to substitute. Source code is obviously not safe for work. ;)

Enjoy! :)

4 year retrospective (draft)

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:18:21 +0000

Last Saturday marked my 4th anniversary as a Last.fm member. In two months time, I will have worked for the company for 2 years.

Introducing... FIP (and scrobbling Radio stations with boxsocial.fm)

Wed, 9 May 2012 15:06:16 +0000

FIP is Radio France's best kept secret -

The concept behind FIP has scarcely changed since its founding: music interrupted by traffic updates and cultural information with a short news broadcast at 10 before the hour, with no advertising. The broadcasts are presented by live announcers from 7 am to 11 pm, after which a robot replays parts of the music broadcast the previous day.

FIP’s programming is an eclectic mix of musical genres: chanson, rock, world music, classical music, film music, jazz and more, but connected with a theme. FIP is one of the few stations with this type of programming in the world.

(From the fip tag wiki)

Just check out those playlists: http://www.fipradio.fr/archives-antenne

This is a dream station for anyone who likes discovering new music - you literally never know what is going to be played next, but their selection is always varied and of a high calibre. News is minimal and adverts are non-existent.

You can listen directly on their website, or you can download their desktop app:

http://www.radiofrance.fr/boite-a-outils/widget/ (installation is in french, but is fairly straightforward)

Does it scrobble?

Yep, twifip was kind enough to create an account that scrobbles their playlists in realtime. The downside is that some songs have poor metadata (especially soundtracks) resulting in mistagged artists.

To scrobble, you need to use boxsocial.fm, an app created by one of our web developers, which lets you clone the scrobbles of another user. This is ideal for listening parties and scrobbling from radio stations like bbc6music

To scrobble:

1. Visit http://boxsocialfm.com/
2. Click join party and auth. your account.
3. Enter 'twifip' as the party you want to join and confirm.

(or bbc6music if you want to scrobble that - a full list of radio stations that scrobble can be found here)

NB: boxsocial will continue to scrobble even if you close the page. Be sure to visit the site and click on 'Leave party' to stop scrobbling to your account. Alternatively you can revoke account authorisation in your account settings here: http://www.last.fm/settings/applications

Retroactive scrobbles

Alternatively, you can scrobble retroactively with the awesome Universal Scrobbler:

http://universalscrobbler.invitationstation.org/
(choose "Another user" in the menu)

Introducing... Somegirl

Wed, 4 Apr 2012 22:01:18 +0000

My current obsession: Somegirl
Tagged as electronic, synthpop, female vocalists

What I like about this artist is how, quite by accident / bad luck, each record is fronted by a different female singer, which gives it a very different personality and feel from the last. Their last album, The Velvet Hour, features Laura Mitchell from Endless Blue. Unfortunately there's not a lot of their music on youtube, but I've managed to track down a couple of songs from each release to give you an idea. Most of their music is on Spotify though - definitely worth checking out if you like any of these.

I've Been Known to be Completely Wrong

She's Full of Secrets

The Velvet Hour

Traces to Nowhere

EDIT: More music can be found on soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/elektro815/tracks?page=1

RQL / Combo FM Cookbook

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:40:31 +0000

You can create your own custom Last.fm stations using our Radio Query Language and tburny's Combofm website.

http://combofm.de/

Popular Recipes

Adventure Radio: Friends + Neighbours + Recs [tune in]
(Mainstream and repetition turned down)

Un-Adventurous Radio: Library + Friends [tune in]
(Mainstream and repetition cranked up)

My (Recommended + Friends + Neighbours ) Jazz Radio :: [tune in]
(rec:Maddieman or neigh:Maddieman or friends:Maddieman) and tag:"jazz"

My (Recommended + Friends + Neighbours ) Electronic Radio :: [tune in]
(rec:Maddieman or neigh:Maddieman or friends:Maddieman) and tag:"electronic"

My (Recommended + Friends + Neighbours ) Female Vocalists Radio :: [tune in]
(rec:Maddieman or neigh:Maddieman or friends:Maddieman) and tag:"female vocalists

Trendsetter radio [tune in]

We tried to find out which users were consistently discovering artists and records before they became popular with mainstream audiences. This radio station combines the libraries of the top 5 trendiest users vs the top 5 trendiest staff members at Last.fm.

Blasts from the past radio

listen

Forgotten Recipes

Classical (popular composers): http://t.co/iUVYwe87
Dance / Electronic: http://t.co/ovI6NbT9
Ultimae Records (and similar artists): http://t.co/8R2SMpjy

Using Groups - getting the most out of Last.fm [Draft]

Fri, 4 Nov 2011 12:39:18 +0000

One of the most overlooked aspects of Last.fm are groups. Many artists on Last.fm have difficulty with the concept of Last.fm artist pages and wikis, as they're user generated and not owned by the artists. Group pages, on the other hand, have a much closer relationship to the MySpace / Facebook page format you may already be familiar with.

In this short article, I'm going to attempt to highlight some of the key promotional benefits to artists and labels.

What's a group and how do I make one?

As you might guess, a group is a network of last.fm users themed around a common interest. You can find them here: http://www.last.fm/community/groups

Anyone can create a group, and if you're a well known band or artist, you'll probably find that your fans have already created a last.fm fan group for you.

e.g. http://www.last.fm/group/radiohead (over 15,500 members)

Nevertheless, I would recommend that you create your own official group.

You can do so here: www.last.fm/community/groups/create

Leading a group is like running a page on Facebook or MySpace. Users will join, and you can interact with them in a number of ways.

What are the benefits for promotion?

Moderators won't hunt you down - Groups are a fine way to promote your band because users have to join, or opt in, to receive any messages you might send them. If they don't like it, they can simply leave the group. Note that it's not appropriate to then spam links to your group on the website - you shouldn't have to anyway. Likewise, groups are not an excuse to advertise non-music related products or brands either.

Direct contact with your fans - your core fans will likely join the group to show their support. You can then contact them via the shoutbox, group forums, or send out a group message (or newsletter).

Connected Artists - This will connect your group to artist pages. It's probably best pick artists that are relevant to your band (e.g. like 'influences' on MySpace). Only the most popular groups will appear on the artist's front page, so I wouldn't recommend connecting to Radiohead, Coldplay, or The Beatles unless there's a genuine connection to these bands.

Word of mouth promotion - Your group will appear on the profile page of every member that joins - like a badge. If any of their last.fm friends or neighbours visit their profile (and remember, neighbours are into the same kind of music as your fans), there's a good chance they'll see your group and possibly join as well. Word of mouth is more effective that traditional advertising because people are much more likely to accept the opinion of a friend or neutral party, than the obvious bias of an advert.

Journal connections - Last.fm allows users to write their own journals and event reviews. If your fans are writing positively about your band, you should definitely take advantage of this. At the very least, you can give them a bit of recognition by accepting any journal submissions that are made to your group. Again this will strengthen any connections between your band, your group, the user, and their personal network of friends and neighbours.

Sponsored Groups - We offer sponsored groups to certain partners and organisations. Sponsored groups have a more dynamic front page, better customisation, and branding options. To contact Last.fm about sponsored groups here.

Some examples:

http://www.last.fm/group/BBC+Radio+6+Music
http://www.last.fm/group/Tastebuds.fm
http://www.last.fm/group/Label+Love
http://www.last.fm/community/groups/sponsored

____

Last.fm is all about connecting people via similar taste in music, and encouraging music recommendations. Although it's tempting to abuse this, please don't spend your nights spamming Last.fm when you could be writing music or something. Let your fans do the hard work for you.

Above all, I can't stress enough that the more you positively engage with Last.fm's community, the more you will get out of it.

You might also find the following pages helpful:

http://www.last.fm/forum/6666/_/357486
http://www.last.fm/help/faq
http://musicmanager.last.fm/help/faq