I haven’t directly recommended a site since I started writing this blog, I don’t think, but this one deserves it because to my mind it’s a jolly good idea, well-executed (barring the capacity problems they’re having just at the moment) and useful. I always like to discover new music, and this seems a good way to do it.
Audioscrobbler is basically a database of what mp3 tracks its users have listened to, and how often. It’s much like the stats iTunes keeps, but with key differences: it has plugins to transmit the data to the server for all the popular mp3 players (and several unpopular ones too :->) and because it’s centrally based, it can track the listening habits of people who listen to music on many different machines, like me. The sky’s the limit on what groovy things can be done with the data, but the core coolness is that I can click on a song or an artist, see who else listens to them a lot, and in turn see what those users like. Maybe I’ll find something new that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. It’s better than Amazon’s “people who bought this also bought” logic because that doesn’t take account of why someone would have bought something. I still get recommendations based on the fact that I bought a Tracy Chevalier book or two, despite the fact that they were gifts for my girlfriend. I even bought an Eric Clapton CD for her Dad, but I sure as eggs don’t want any of his stuff myself.
So here’s what I’ve been listening to so far. By the way, I love the way they hijack well-known advertising slogans and shoe-horn their name in there: there’s a different one each time you load their pages. My favourite one so far is “Help - I’ve fallen, and I can’t reach my Audioscrobbler!”.
