Jenny - Practicum Post #5

So, weeks ago in my presentation about last.fm, I said that I didn't see the benefits of using last.fm instead of a site such as Pandora. In the last couple weeks, I have noticed that Pandora and last.fm have even more similarities. Prior to my presentation, I hadn't used last.fm for long periods of time. Last night while cleaning our house, I noticed that after a certain amount of time, last.fm asks you if you are still listening just like Pandora does. After noticing yet another similarity, I decided to spend a little time exploring more of the benefits of last.fm. Here are a couple things I found:

1) Last.fm gives you the option of sharing, tagging, or buying the track from the radio stations you create for yourself. If you choose to buy the track you have the choice of purchasing it from iTunes, Amazon or 7digital.

2) Slightly below this, last.fm shows albums of artists similar to the song that's currently playing on your radio. If you so choose, you can click on the albums and you will be taken to those artists homepages to listen to more of their music.

3) On the right side, there is a graph that shows you the number of times that you've listened to the specific song that's playing in the last couple months, allowing you to track how popular it is on your playlist.

4) Last.fm suggests radio stations that are similar to what you are listening to. On Pandora, you must create all your own radio stations based on an artist or song you like. There aren't any pre-made playlists that you could choose to listen to.

5)Lastly, at the bottom of the page, comments from other users are shown so you can see what they have to say about the song. While at first I found this to be unnecessary, I now think it is a great way to increase your social network on last.fm. On Pandora, you don't have the option of choosing to make friends. This allows you to interact with people that have similar music tastes, allowing for the possibility to explore other artists and songs that you might not have otherwise taken into consideration. You can do this by leaving them a shout or looking at their recent loved tracks.

While it has taken sometime, I have to admit that last.fm is growing on me. I think I was just reluctant at first because Pandora is what I have been using for years. I think the social network aspect of Last.fm allows for a greater exploration of different music genres.