Featured Site: last.fm

With Myspace slowly taking over the world, people are starting to try and cash in on the whole personal internet profile deal. Most sites come nowhere near the popularity that Myspace has achieved, but that's because they are all essentially the same thing, and if everyone already has a Myspace profile, nobody is going to set up a new on and try to get their friends onto some other site that is no different. Enter last.fm. This U.K. based site is actually pretty gnarly; it takes the idea of having a profile page (although with far less features than Myspace, but still holding onto friends, comments, messages, etc.) and adds an emphasis on music.

Almost every band ever has a page on last.fm, with most offering songs to give a listen. But what makes the site so cool is what is called "scrobbling." By downloading a program given by the site and syncing it with whatever music player you use on your computer, it posts the songs you have recently listened to onto your profile page. It also shows what music your friends have been jamming out to. Every week the site also calculates your most listened to music and assigns you 100 "neighbors," who are people with similar musical tastes. You can access their profiles and see what they have been playing as well, allowing you to discover new music, which is the purpose of the site. Every band's page also has a list of similar artists, and surprisingly, the lists are pretty good. You won't get Thursday on the list if you are listening to Saetia, since the tags assigned to the bands are set by those using the site, and most are pretty particular.

Other features include a comprehensive calendar for finding shows in your area, allowing a special place to give people music recommendations, a list of music you have tagged, a list of shows you are going to or went to, an area showing your most listened to band or song, and much more. There is too much to explain here, so I say check it out for yourself if you are into music, which you probably are.

www.last.fm