Managing Last.FM's "Mountain of Data" 139
Rob Spengler writes "Last.FM co-founder Richard Jones says the biggest asset the company owns is 'hundreds of terabytes of user data.' Jones adds, '... playing with that data is one of the most fun things about working at the company.' Last.FM, for those who have been living on Mars for the last two years, is the largest online radio outlet, with millions of listeners per day. The company surpassed Pandora and others largely due to its unique datamining features: 'Audioscrobbler,' the company's song/artist naming algorithm, can correctly determine a track even with tens of thousands of false entries. Jones says sitting on that much data has even helped police: 'thieves listening to music on an Audioscrobbler-powered media player have helped police in the US, UK, and other countries track down users' stolen laptops.' Does sitting on a mountain of data make Last.FM powerful enough to start making a stand against the record industry? CBS certainly thinks so — they bought the company for £140 (~$200) million last year."
Re:So... I've been living on Mars? (Score:3, Informative)
Well, Amarok has a config menu entry with a big old icon with the label "last.fm" on it. Everyone who ever used Amarok had to pass his's cursor over the label "last.fm", which has been there for a few years, mind you. Other media players also support last.fm, whether through a plugin or even built in. So you may have not been living under a rock but you sure were quite a bit distracted. For at least the last 6 years or so.
On a side note, I've made a point of turning on the last.fm plugin for a simple reason: it build popularity charts directly from the user's preferences instead of some unscientific, corrupted, payola-based sales chart. It bugged me how some artists were put on the top of the charts although no one was really listening to them. With last.fm the charts were compiled directly from the user's input and that meant that bands like Queen and Pink Floyd are still topping the charts even though they don't come near the "official", record company-compiled charts. That was very refreshing.
But now that I've learnt that last.fm is not only tracking down contributors but also is owned by one of RIAA's record companies... Well, let's just say that the plugin is off and will never be turned on again.
Audioscrobbler, and now last.fm, is a beautiful concept. The 200 million they got from it is more than deserved. Too bad it's being corrupted by the RIAA's companies. Maybe the sudden appearance of trash like kayne west and britney spears on the top of last.fm's charts has something to do with it.
Re:The real danger (Score:3, Informative)
Yet another reason to use Amarok...
On his iPod?
GP was talking about the iTunes play counts, not the Last.fm play counts. Every app/plugin I've tried (including the official Last.fm app) either scrobbles at 50% or allows the user to configure the percentage. Yet another reason to be free to use whichever media player one prefers...
Re:The real danger (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So... I've been living on Mars? (Score:1, Informative)
Maybe the sudden appearance of trash like kayne west and britney spears on the top of last.fm's charts has something to do with it.
The current top 10 in last.fm's artist charts:
1. Coldplay
2. Radiohead
3. The Beatles
4. The Killers
5. Metallica
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers
7. Muse
8. Linkin Park
9. Nirvana
10. Pink Floyd
Sure, it's not just free jazz - there are a number of "well-known" names in there, and arguably, it's all mainstream. But Britney Spears and Kayne West it's not.
(And Pink Floyd, which you specifical mention as having "been there" in the charts in the past, with the implication that these days are gone, still are. FWIW, Queen also still is, at #18 - not too shabby, either.)
surpassed Pandora ... (Score:3, Informative)
The company surpassed Pandora and others largely due to its unique datamining features: 'Audioscrobbler,'
I'd say they surpassed Pandora only because Pandora locked out all non-US users a while back. For people who just wanted to listen to music and find out about new artists, Pandora was so much better IMO, last.fm has a clunky, overloaded UI and is too much like myspace ...