Last.fm going to charge for radio service

According to the recent announcement:

In order to keep providing the best radio service on the web, we need to ask our listeners from countries other than USA, UK and Germany to subscribe for €3.00 per month.

 and this will be in effect from March 30, 2009. Just how many things are wrong here? Unfairness, bad marketing, no understanding about 'one web, no borders' and um, Economics, just to say a few. Stinks worse than rotten fish, really. The comments section is already full of users expressing incomprehension, shocked disgust and 'good-bye last.fm' messages, and as much as I love the idea of social music revolution (which has been wiped from the logo since last July's update) and the original incarnation, I can't say the same of the new, arrogant Last.fm of the past 9 months and the self-destructing direction it is pig-headedly going, and I don't even want to contribute any more data and am now seriously searching for an alternative radio. And if any site starts to offer scrobbling, I'll desert this rotting ship for sure.

Do you use last.fm, and how do you feel about this? Sound off in the comments! (Or go say something at the blog link above.)

beta last.fm and more

Alright, I'm a last.fm junkie, I like looking at stats, wandering tech forums, digging for easter eggs and extensions, and hopping on the endless 'similar artists' links and read whatever catches my fancy--works for me like wikipedia for some wikiholics, and sucks time like a black hole, xD.

So I installed the beta client yesterday--it's supposed to work just as slick, with improved tagging and some other goodies, but unfortunately it and my Mediamonkey don't seem to go along this time (I emailed and last.fm staff is already investigating), so MM users, don't rush in to test the new water yet. I now have to resort to listen to the rarely utilized radio stations in the client (out of reluctance to let my tracks go unscrobbled...yeah I'm this hooked), and which, delightfully, turned out to be very good! It streams quite smooth (with my not-so-broad broadband service) and the audio quality isn't bad at all. Totally loving it now.

As for tricks, statistic lovers are gonna love this: Extended last.fm stats based on weekly artist charts. Just enter the username and any specified time period, and it will generate a very comprehensive and rather impressive sheet of stats, like this. Sweet eh? =D

Another find is this Open Minded Index Generator--it calculates the so-named OMI by looking at the user's own tags in relation to the top artists of the last 12 months. Even as a lazy and sporadic tagger, I think the work is pretty nice (not that I got a very high score lol). Try and see for yourself. ;)

For the old tricks, see here.

Musicovery

Chanced upon this piece of goodie from folkfurieuse’s blog. In a nutshell it’s an interactive webRadio that picks music for you based on your mood, energy, and the genres and eras of your choosing. Pretty fun to toy around with, streams fast too…and I am settling on Dark and Calm for now…= d

new radio up!

I finally got our own radio up and running (YAY!!), almost a year after we said we would! Still building the playlist, so many items I wish to cram in and dish out....meanwhile I'm taking down the sidebar listing and archive it here.

::Previously Featured & Highlights::

(click for pop-up radioblogs)
7. noir, robert post, keren ann (again), rufus wainwright (again), keane, various OSTs
6. the mamas and the papas, laurie andersen, bjork, this mortal coil, laura fygi
5. U2, radiohead, moulin rouge, guns n' roses
4. yann tiersen, keren ann, alanis morissette, damien rice, gabriel yared
3. stan getz, sting, bic runga
2. anggun, simon & garfunkel
1. rufus wainwright, pink floyd, nirvana

Elliott Smith - Ballad of Big Nothing

Just want to test out the iJigg radio really. Elliott Smith (1969 – 2003) was an American singer-songwriter and musician - "bleak, almost uncomfortably unsparing and yet tragically beautiful make Smith something of a Nick Drake for the indie rock cognoscenti." I'll put up more about him later. Enjoy this first~ =D

Ballad of Big Nothing

Throwing candy out to the crowd, dragging down the main
The helpless little thing with the dirty mouth who's always got something to say
You're sitting around at home now waiting for your brother to call
I saw him down in the alley, having had enough of it all

Said you can do what you want to whenever you want to
You can do what you want to, there's no one to stop you

All spit and spite, you're up all night and down every day
A tired man with only hours to go just waiting to be taken away
Getting into the back of a car for candy from some stranger
Watching the parade with pinpoint eyes full of smoldering anger

You can do what you want to whenever you want to
You can do what you want to, there's no one to stop you
Now you can do what you want to whenever you want to
Do what you want to whenever you want to
Do what you want to whenever you want to though it doesn't mean a thing
Big nothing

Heal my soul

here's my maiden post.
I confess I'm not really all that good at writing music blog entries.
So here's my contribution from my cyber trawling, yes, one of the many that occur when i'm supposed to be revising and writing up my notes....oh well....I need some mentally stimulating music.

The offering:
http://honeysoul.com/blog/radioblogs.html

That's the URL to a site that has an extensive and impressive list of radioblogs.
The genre in concentration is hip hop and soul.
Yes, besides, classical music, anime OSTs, movie OSTs...your looking at a true Hip Hop, R&B, and Soul addict. Certain soft rock groups also appeal to me like Green DAy and Cold Play.

But I must say........ EMINEM RULEZ!!!!!!
oh yeah......... such a pity that he decided to wrap up recently. Well, it's a valiant cause i suppose, him wanting to build a more stable family for his daughter and such.
But..............THE LOST OF THE TALENT!!!! AARGH....

Well, I have his 2CD deluxe edition of Curtain Call if anyone's interested.

Here's one of my favourites...

When I'm Gone

Yeah

It's my life

But all in words

I guess

Have you ever loved someone so much you'd give an arm for?

Not the expression, no, literally give an arm for?

When they know they are your heart

And you know you are their armour

And you will destroy anyone who will try to harm her

But what happens when karma turns right around and bites you

And everything you stand for turns on you to spite you

What happens when you become the main source of her pain

“Daddy look what I made?”

“Dad's gotta go catch a plane”

“Daddy where's mummy? I can't find mummy, where is she?”

I don't know, go play, Hailie baby your daddy's busy.

Daddy's writin' this song, this song ain't gon' write itself

I give you one underdog, then you gotta swing by yourself

Then to write a rhyme in a song and tell her you love her

And put hands on her mother who's a spittin' image of her

That's slim shady, yeah baby slim shady's crazy

Shady made me, but tonight,

Shady's rock-a-by baby

And when I'm gone, just carry on don't mourn,

Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice

Just know that I'm lookin' down on you smiling

And I didn't feel a thing so baby don't feel no pain,

just smile back

I keep havin' this dream –

I'm pushin' hailie on the swings she keeps screamin

'She don't want me to sing,

“You're makin mummy cry, why, why's mummy crying?”

Baby, Daddy ain't leavin' no more,

“Daddy you're lying,

You always say that, you always say this is the last time,but you ain't leavin' no more,

Daddy you're mine!”

She's piling boxes infront of the door tryin' to block it,

“Daddy please daddy don't leave daddy no, stop it!”

Goes in her pocket, pulls out a tiny necklace locket, it's got a picture,

“This'll keep you safe daddy, take it with you”

I look up, it's just me standin in the mirror, these stinkin' walls must be talkin coz man

I can hear ‘em

They sayin you got one more chance to do right, and it's tonight,

Now go out there and show ‘em that you love ‘em ‘fore its too late

And just as I go to walk out of my bedroom door it turns to a stage, they're gone

And the spotlight is on and I'm singin…

And when I'm gone, just carry on don't mourn,
Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice
Just know that I'm lookin' down on you smiling
And I didn't feel a thing so baby don't feel no pain,
just smile back

Sixty thousand people, all jumpin' out their seat

The curtain closes, they're throwing roses at my feetI take a bow,

“and thank you all for comin' out”

They're screamin so loud,

I take one last look at the crowd

I glance down,

I don't believe what I'm seein',

“Daddy it's me! Help mummy her wrists are bleedin'”

But baby we're in Sweden, how did you get to Sweden?!

“I followed you daddy, you told me that you wern't leavin

You lied to me dad, and now you make mummy sad

And I bought you this coin

It says ‘number 1 dad', that's all I wanted

I just wanna give you this coin

I get the point, fine, me and mummy are goin”

But baby wait-

“its too late dad, you made your choice.

Now go out there and show ‘em you love ‘em more than us

That's what they want

They want you Marshall,

they keepscreamin your name, it's no wonder you can't go to sleep

Just take another pill,

yeah i bet ya you will

You rap about it.

Yeah word, ke-keep it real”

I hear applause, all this time I couldn't see

How could it be that the curtain is closing on me

I turn around, find a gun on the ground, cock it,put it to my brain, scream

‘Die Shady!' and pop it

The sky darkens, my life flashes,

The plane that I was supposed to be on crashes and burns to ashes

That's when I wake up, alarm clock's ringin',

There's birds singin', it's spring and

Hailie's out side swingin'

I walk right up to Kim and kiss her, tell her I miss her

Hailie just smiles and winks at her little sister, almost as if to say-

And when I'm gone,

just carry on don't mourn,

Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice

Just know that I'm lookin' down on you smiling

And I didn't feel a thing so baby don't feel no pain,

just smile back