last.fm

[filkertom]

I am going to ask a favor.

I don't usually like doing this sort of thing, but I really can't see any easy way around it. And, no, don't worry, it's nothing more than a few mouse clicks.

I'm trying to get a little more prominence in a few different online venues. One of them is last.fm, an online radio station where I've gotten a surprising and gratifying amount of play. I thank all of you who listen to my stuff online there, and it's you folks I'm asking the favor of.

Next time you're there, I would greatly appreciate it if you would tag me as "geek music" and "geek rock". And maybe just "geek".

Seriously. Those seem to be the tags that would get me into the same general listings as Jonathan Coulton and Weird Al and a whole bunch of the "right" folks, which is where I think my stuff belongs. I've got a number of other tags, which are accurate and even flattering but which mire me somewhat in the nether regions of the nebulous "male vocal" catacombs.

I mean, Justin Timberlake is a "male vocalist".

That's all. Just... next time you're at last.fm, tag me as "geek rock", "geek music" and "geek". (Any other tags you find descriptive, such as "singer-songwriter", "pop culture" [great idea, selenesue], "computers", or even my name, are appreciated as well.)

Thanks.

Comments

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Geek. Check. I've never been to last.fm before, what's it about?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Like I said, it's an online radio station, kinda like Live365. They even have their own software, which I have never used so I don't know how well it works. If you're a person who listens to online radio, then it may be another very cool thing for you... or it may not be your cup of tea.

The reason I'm asking about this is I found out a few weeks ago that I had a page there, and it got some small but noticable amount of traffic. And I thought, Way Cool. But the people I consider my peers, e.g., Coulton, Weird Al, even some filkers, are getting much more notice simply for being in the "geek" category. And the three I mention seem to be exactly where I want to be.

Again, I emphasize: I'm not asking everyone to go sign up and pimp me. If you go there already, I'd appreciate the tag. If you go there and like it and sign up, I'd appreciate the tag. If you don't want to... I promise, that's just fine. :)

[bathtubnz.livejournal.com]

It's a audio tracking service, tracks everything you listen to, recommends other artists you might like, and people who listen to similar stuff as you. Generates radio stations according to your preferences but I haven't tried that out. just sold for hundreds of millions of dollars to NBC.

For example here is my page http://www.last.fm/user/BathTub/

One of the things I like the weekly charts, as they generated by cumulative stats of all the users, they are a lot more interesting than the normal ones.

http://www.last.fm/music/

[bathtubnz.livejournal.com]

Oh and bit of a music wiki as well.

http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Smith

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

OK, have signed up for an account and may actually use it. Have added the three tags you suggest, plus POP CULTURE. Looking at the top songs, from CAT MACROS to Harry Pottering IT'S CAN[N]ON, even TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY...

Okay, I see connections that nobody else sees sometimes, but it made sense to me.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Very much appreciated. I really hope it isn't that much trouble, and doesn't seem unduly obnoxious or... I dunno. Heh. I could start another thread on this. Maybe later I will.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

You are not unduly obnoxious. The fly-by-night publicists who call me five times a day asking me to list their no-talent events five weeks before the event, those are unduly obnoxious. You have a LONG way to go to reach that level. Peace.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

I usually don't do last.fm. The only reason why I got an account there in the first place was so that people wouldn't confuse me for the other 'Dj PaRtICLe'

But I'll do what I can :) Thanks for the heads up

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And thank you. But, as I implied, if you don't use it, there's no reason to go over there. :) I'm not trying to beg... I'm asking regular listeners to just add to the tags.

[bathtubnz.livejournal.com]

Sure, I log in fairly regularly, time I dug a bit deeper!

Also been meaning to do something about Sudden Death, apparently there are at least 3 bands with that name, and someone keeps changing the description to their preferred one.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I asked the last.fm people about artists with the same name, as the "other" Tom Smith (the soulful-ballad guitar wizard) is in there with me. And, for the moment, all that really can be done is to note that there are other artists and make room for 'em, which is okay by me. I do hope they expand the listings at some point to account for that.

[sdelmonte]

Done!

Though when I typed in "Geek rock" as a type of music to play, the first thing I got was a track from Leonard Nimoy's Trek-era album o' kitsch. Well, could be worse. I didn't get Shatner. Yet.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Shatner's on there. So are Coulton, Weezer, Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, and Lemon Demon.

[real-yoyogod.livejournal.com]

I've been using Last.fm for a while now. I don't know why though. I tagged you.

It looks like I'm you're number two fan there at the moment. I'm also the number three fan for Worm Quartet and the great Luke Ski; number four for Possible Oscar, Rob Balder, and Sudden Death; and number one for Raymond and Scum.

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

I tagged you several times. Hah! You're it. *grins* I did a search on geek rock, and you came up tied at number nine with the Barenaked Ladies. So, it looks like it's working. How does one get one's music there, or does it sort of percolate there after a while if checking digital distribution on the CDBaby options?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Thanks, m'dear! I just started my own page as filkertom a few weeks ago; I don't know how long the Artist Page has been there, but I don't remember starting it, so I guess one of you did, for which I thank you. :) I presume that they've been uploading tracks for awhile, 'cause I sure don't remember doing it. Not that I'm angry at all (although you should remember that I don't have the rights to the cassette recordings or the Digital Acoustic Compilation -- those are owned by Dodeka -- so using them gets even more problematic).

Wanting to upload some more stuff, I ended up signing up as an artist and "claiming" my own page, after which I was able to upload stuff. They want one track at a time, and it's reasonably easy to upload a whole album at a time. The page also takes title and track info from the MP3 encoding if you have that, but if not you can enter them manually.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And, I hadn't thought about that, but some of the stuff might come from CD Baby's digital distro. Dunno. I really have to check, and see where CD Baby has put my stuff.

[deletesoftware.livejournal.com]

The artist pages are generated automatically after a couple of users listen to the artist's music.

And it looks like (in the top 100 tracks list) only the iTom songs are available for listening, no?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Those are the only ones I personally have uploaded so far. Stuff from every album I have is up there.

[deletesoftware.livejournal.com]

What I see at the album pages is just lists with some play statistics. Remember that it's primarily a social network generating statistics and suggesting music, not just a radio server.

[gclectic.livejournal.com]

There wasn't any of your music on there before you started posting your iTom stuff -- just listings of what people had played from their private collections. I had actually often considered suggesting that you put some tracks up there to give more folks a sample -- folks playing "Gclectic radio" will hear artists that I like, but only if their music is up on the last.fm servers -- but I didn't do so 'cause I figure you've got enough folks trying to tell you how to run your business. I'm certainly thrilled to see your tracks show up, though.

BTW, I've added the tags you requested, but I don't know how much difference it will make. "Similar Artists" are mostly based on what music your fans actually play, rather than upon their tags -- it's a classic "collaborative filtering" algorithm.

[nightmarewriter.livejournal.com]

I wasn't a user, but since the RIAA ripped Playercofi a new one, I've been wanting to find something new to listen to. (What the heck was the matter with them listing a set of songs from a particular year, and show you the list of what they were, I ask ya?? Damned studio thugs.... /grumble.)

This looks fun, and seems like a good way to promote my favorite filker, so coolio.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I had already signed up for last.fm and downloaded the Mac version of their player months ago, but I hadn't known about the tagging thing. I'll be sure to do that next time I log in.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

Thanks for telling me about last.fm...I'm excited.