As mentioned in the HN submission, Last.fm went through a redesign already over a decade ago. It stripped so much functionality that the site became useless except for merely tracking one's own listens, and there were already libre alternatives for that.
Last.fm is one of my go-to examples of how the internet has become a lonelier place. The old Last.fm was deeply linked with real life: it would show upcoming gigs in your town along with members who might be attending, and you could easily meet people in your own location who shared your own tastes in music. Where does a person find music-related socializing now?
> You could easily meet people in your own location who shared your own tastes in music. Where does a person find music-related socializing now
I'd say Instagram serves the role of Last.fm you described (for better or worse). But really you can just go to the gigs and talk to people. That's guaranteed people in your area with similar interests.
This is true, and I hate it. All the local DJs I enjoy post their gigs on instagram and nowhere else. All the fans I know use instagram to get updates about where the shows are happening.
In practice I just wait for my friends to tell me where the music will be, but I also hate the whole setup deeply and want instagram to die in a fire.
No seriously, like 18 months ago I solved this exact issue in my corner of the world by simply creating a static website and putting them there on a calendar and now I'm like a microcelebrity of my own running a "brand" that every organiser knows of.
I also hate meta but unfortunately it's where many scenes live. Path of least resistance for venues, artists, to share their shows. I would disagree with the other commenter who said to "be the change". I've seen dozens of event aggregating sites and what they all lack is actual people using it. We live in Meta's hell, but everybody's there (speaking as Gen Z).
This is avoidable if you have a specific niche though. A lot of groups online and in cities give me hope. What kind of music are we talking here?
I used to love Last.FM and was a paid subscriber. Their neighbourhood radio was a great way to find music
rateyourmusic.com is also dead to me now. And MusicBrainz is an excellent resource marred by horrible user experience and a primary focus on listing every issue of an album in every country and in every format (who the hell wants that?)
That's not a Last.fm issue, that's a general trend that affects everything.
People don't blog on their personal sites any more, blog comments don't really exist any more, MySpace / Tumblr like sites are not popular any more and people don't share everything private on social media any more as everyone realized that the internet is not always a friendly place and there's enough public cases where this fired back.
The same also applies to the platform itself, opening yourself up to more user contributed data is often a real headache as you need to moderate it properly and that needs resources too. Ask Meta's moderator team how much fun they are having.
Your comment made me wonder if there could have been a world where MySpace would have acquired Last.fm and dove deeper into the music angle. MySpace had a niche thing with music that Facebook in my eyes never achieved. I hated Facebook when it launched, MySpace in my eyes was superior, I could connect with some of my favorite artists, though I rarely directly messaged them, except one time...
Fun personal story about MySpace:
One of my favorite rappers at the time Temperamento (Puerto Rican rapper) was going to do a song with a rapper from Puerto Rico (MC Ceja - his eyebrows are distinct) I had songs from in my first Cassette tape I ever had. They had some weird falling out, because my favorite rapper lived in the states most of his life, and the rapper from Puerto Rico did not like that he wanted to do a Mixtape, which was very hot at the time here.
Anyway, he announces he's not going to like it, but he might drop a diss to the other rapper, I was excited, but bittersweet, but I gave him all my support, I mentioned his older disses, he had stopped dissing people for like a year or two to make regular music. I noted one of my favorite disses he ever did, named the rapper, and the song track.
The next day, the diss drops. "My fans want me to do to you what I did to x" and the track playing was from the same diss I mentioned.
Years later, I messaged him on Instagram, he still remembered my message.
Things you can't get out of Facebook or Last.fm that MySpace could.
No idea, but people in that scene get killed, there's a lot of connections between some reggaeton artists and local drug lords, including being funded by them and protected by them. By insulting every rapper you can lash out against, chances are high, you will anger some very dangerous people, think of like angering a cartel boss' favorite celebrity that he built up and funds.
Connecting through music has been a part of every relationship throughout my life.
I actually connected with people through last.fm in real life. I remember the site telling me that I had a lot in common with someone so I sent a message since we lived in the same city. After lots of chatting through the site we eventually met and dated for a bit.
Lovely - not my typical reaction to a 500px wide, gray, monospaced site, but I suppose it is lovely that it isn't a 5MB creature like we expect nowadays.
> Page size around 85 KB
If they compressed their favico the site would be closer to 5KB!
For those now following the Last.fm so closely, in May of this year they became independent again (https://support.last.fm/t/last-fm-is-now-independent/118591) after being owned by CBS for a very long time, which is very exciting and I'm glad it wasn't just shut down by CBS.
35 comments
[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 32.7 ms ] thread> (period can be: 7day, 1month, 3month, 6month, 12month or overall)
> Recent tracks
> Loved tracks
> Top tracks
> Top Artists
> Recommended tracks
> Recommended tracks in JSON format
https://github.com/xiffy/lfm
average legacy PHP backend :)
I'm wondering why my recommended tracks are different between the two feed formats? Same uid as here.
Also, my JSON feed doesn't seem to validate and is not served with the proper MIME type.
Not even a good first-party export, gotta use some hacked together third-party one to get your data out.
[0]: https://github.com/gabehf/koito
[0]: https://listenbrainz.org/
[0]: https://github.com/FoxxMD/multi-scrobbler
Last.fm is one of my go-to examples of how the internet has become a lonelier place. The old Last.fm was deeply linked with real life: it would show upcoming gigs in your town along with members who might be attending, and you could easily meet people in your own location who shared your own tastes in music. Where does a person find music-related socializing now?
My best friend cold-messaged me on last.fm 18 years ago: "wanna exchange music? add me on MSN: ..."
I'd say Instagram serves the role of Last.fm you described (for better or worse). But really you can just go to the gigs and talk to people. That's guaranteed people in your area with similar interests.
In practice I just wait for my friends to tell me where the music will be, but I also hate the whole setup deeply and want instagram to die in a fire.
No seriously, like 18 months ago I solved this exact issue in my corner of the world by simply creating a static website and putting them there on a calendar and now I'm like a microcelebrity of my own running a "brand" that every organiser knows of.
I think it's possible for 3rd parties to add to Resident Advisor.
I also dislike Insta only events. I still have facebook where I follow up on some venues. But just a few websites with calanders would be coolio.
This is avoidable if you have a specific niche though. A lot of groups online and in cities give me hope. What kind of music are we talking here?
rateyourmusic.com is also dead to me now. And MusicBrainz is an excellent resource marred by horrible user experience and a primary focus on listing every issue of an album in every country and in every format (who the hell wants that?)
Please email me (<username>@gmail.com) with any feedback or to rant about music apps in general!
People don't blog on their personal sites any more, blog comments don't really exist any more, MySpace / Tumblr like sites are not popular any more and people don't share everything private on social media any more as everyone realized that the internet is not always a friendly place and there's enough public cases where this fired back.
The same also applies to the platform itself, opening yourself up to more user contributed data is often a real headache as you need to moderate it properly and that needs resources too. Ask Meta's moderator team how much fun they are having.
Fun personal story about MySpace:
One of my favorite rappers at the time Temperamento (Puerto Rican rapper) was going to do a song with a rapper from Puerto Rico (MC Ceja - his eyebrows are distinct) I had songs from in my first Cassette tape I ever had. They had some weird falling out, because my favorite rapper lived in the states most of his life, and the rapper from Puerto Rico did not like that he wanted to do a Mixtape, which was very hot at the time here.
Anyway, he announces he's not going to like it, but he might drop a diss to the other rapper, I was excited, but bittersweet, but I gave him all my support, I mentioned his older disses, he had stopped dissing people for like a year or two to make regular music. I noted one of my favorite disses he ever did, named the rapper, and the song track.
The next day, the diss drops. "My fans want me to do to you what I did to x" and the track playing was from the same diss I mentioned.
Years later, I messaged him on Instagram, he still remembered my message.
Things you can't get out of Facebook or Last.fm that MySpace could.
Wild world.
(All of this—and these people—are supposed to be cool?)
I actually connected with people through last.fm in real life. I remember the site telling me that I had a lot in common with someone so I sent a message since we lived in the same city. After lots of chatting through the site we eventually met and dated for a bit.
Page size around 85 KB, bullshit around 0 BS, loaded in 140 ms on my end.
> Page size around 85 KB
If they compressed their favico the site would be closer to 5KB!