I haven't really played with LastFM so my comment will be biased, but I just wanted to say that I think Pandora is a valuable experiment in itself. Their approach is particularly unique among the "competitors".
Any site that has a large enough community to draw comparisons from can make recommendations based on group preferences and there are already many examples out there. LastFM is apparently one of the better offerings of this type.
The Music Genome project is worthwhile in itself, and Pandora is a side effect. I don't really mind that it requires time because a human expert has to listen to the music and analyze it... I will end up finding a lot of obscure music that fits my tastes than I might have otherwise discovered. The type of analysis that LastFM does will bring me music that's already more popular because a significant number of people in my "group" will have had to like it for it to be suggested.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with LastFM's approach compared to Pandora's... I just wanted to give Pandora some props for being unique and giving a valuable service to "serious" music aficionado.
akaRaff
· 3 years ago
Thanks for continuing this discussion. There is so much talk out there about music piracy and such that it is quite nice to hear folks talk about the more day to day things like sharing and exploring new music. I think both of these services, in their own special ways, help to facilitate that. At least they do for me.
enjoy,
raff
Christopher Sisk
· 3 years ago
As a musician and owner of a web-based record label, I think the most important feature of Last.FM is the way they allow independent musicians and record labels to add their music to the last.fm catalog.
Labels can enter relationship values to other, more popular artists, and have their music streamed along side those artists. This allows labels to target people who listen to similar music. This is one feature that is rarely discussed and one that Pandora will probably never be able to duplicate. At least not on the same size scale as Last.FM.
Robert Oschler
· 3 years ago
How does Pandora assign these "genomic traits"? Are they using some sophisticated sound processing algorithms or is it based on tagging by human listeners?
Pete Cashmore
· 3 years ago
Robert,
It's the latter - trained musicians listen to the tracks and "tag" them appropriately.
Robert Oschler
· 3 years ago
Pete,
Thanks. Hopefully some day they create a Web Services API. I didn't see one mentioned in their FAQ.
M_Mickey
· 3 years ago
They are both great! The "killer" feature of last.fm is the ability to make your custom stations with only your chosen music, and share it. Pandora is very american. Last.fm picks up new artists and trends alot faster.
So i would say Pandora is very good as a background radiostation. Its really good at picking similar music. Maybe pandora is the new muzak?
iTodd
· 3 years ago
Finally tried last.fm... The player almost NEVER runs smoothly for me (maybe my connection?)... but Pandora's always runs just fine. That is such a deal breaker because the whole point is that I want to actually listen to the music.
Overall Pandora is more simple but it actually seems to be playing out the long tail a little too much... Last.fm seemed to give me stuff I'd still never heard of but was somewhat more mainstream,, like albums or tracks of people I'd heard OF, but not actually listened to.
ian c rogers
· 3 years ago
Todd Beapre just posted re: how Yahoo! Music's offerings stack up against Pandora and Last.fm.
What kind of pandora-mandora? Last.fm is the best!
SerenityLife
· 1 year ago
Since February 2007 I have been using last.fm primarily to listen to my own extensive music collection then recently I realized that you can "streamline" an album to the last.fm system and listen to it in its entirety. That is the glue as to why last.fm works best for me because if I want the album, I can either buy it from www.iTunes.com, www.emusic.com or wherever my heart desires.
I have discovered a lot of artists this way and I even have made some wonderful friendships with people all over the world through last.fm who have introduced to new artists.
Radio feature wise I prefer www.pandora.com only because it is easier to use. I enjoy reading the notes on the attributes of the albums, songs and artists that I am listening too. I am just an average joe and not a musician but I now understand how some artists "listen" and "feel" music.
noncrisisusa
· 1 year ago
"Steve Krause has contributed to the ongoing primordial dwarfism vs Pandora discussion with an excellent and in-depth post. He writes:"
How does Pandora assign these "genomic traits"? Are they primordial dwarfism some sophisticated sound processing algorithms or is it based on tagging by human listeners?
haknot
· 9 months ago
Pandora is more real. last.fm is big business. many squawks about the last.fm and riaa data handover flap show customer concern. Read more squawks at http://www.musicplayer.me.
All Comments
Any site that has a large enough community to draw comparisons from can make recommendations based on group preferences and there are already many examples out there. LastFM is apparently one of the better offerings of this type.
The Music Genome project is worthwhile in itself, and Pandora is a side effect. I don't really mind that it requires time because a human expert has to listen to the music and analyze it... I will end up finding a lot of obscure music that fits my tastes than I might have otherwise discovered. The type of analysis that LastFM does will bring me music that's already more popular because a significant number of people in my "group" will have had to like it for it to be suggested.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with LastFM's approach compared to Pandora's... I just wanted to give Pandora some props for being unique and giving a valuable service to "serious" music aficionado.
enjoy,
raff
Labels can enter relationship values to other, more popular artists, and have their music streamed along side those artists. This allows labels to target people who listen to similar music. This is one feature that is rarely discussed and one that Pandora will probably never be able to duplicate. At least not on the same size scale as Last.FM.
It's the latter - trained musicians listen to the tracks and "tag" them appropriately.
Thanks. Hopefully some day they create a Web Services API. I didn't see one mentioned in their FAQ.
The "killer" feature of last.fm is the ability to make your custom stations with only your chosen music, and share it.
Pandora is very american.
Last.fm picks up new artists and trends alot faster.
So i would say Pandora is very good as a background radiostation. Its really good at picking similar music. Maybe pandora is the new muzak?
Overall Pandora is more simple but it actually seems to be playing out the long tail a little too much... Last.fm seemed to give me stuff I'd still never heard of but was somewhat more mainstream,, like albums or tracks of people I'd heard OF, but not actually listened to.
http://ymusicblog.com/blog/2006/02/10/yahoo-music-personalization-primer-pandora-lastfm-soundflavor/
Last.fm is the best!
I have discovered a lot of artists this way and I even have made some wonderful friendships with people all over the world through last.fm who have introduced to new artists.
Radio feature wise I prefer www.pandora.com only because it is easier to use. I enjoy reading the notes on the attributes of the albums, songs and artists that I am listening too. I am just an average joe and not a musician but I now understand how some artists "listen" and "feel" music.
How does Pandora assign these "genomic traits"? Are they primordial dwarfism some sophisticated sound processing algorithms or is it based on tagging by human listeners?