I like when I find things online that actually work. Most things are usually someone’s blatant attempt to monetize on someone coming to their site or using their service…which is fine by me. But, it just makes me take notice when I find something that I actually go back and use on my own because I find utility in it or I like it. Last.fm is one of those services. Last.fm is a music service that allows you to setup any number of “stations” based around one musical artist. I only have one Last.fm station, and it is based on The Smiths. From that their engine uses data from my own play preferences on my radio station (you can favorite or skip songs in their web based player), songs I listen to in Windows Media Player (with their plugin I have installed) and the preferences of other people on last.fm who listen to the same artists. It is akin to the Pandora service that I found a while back and then became a paid service (not sure if this is related or not). The cool thing is that last.fm is amazingly accurate and has introduced me to a number of artists who I have not stopped playing since I first heard them on last.fm…which is the point. You can check out my last.fm radio station (if you like the Smiths =P ) and take it for a spin.

The service is free. But, after a month or two it hit me up for a $25 annual donation (or something like that)….which is honestly money well spent in my book.

tags: cool, internet, last.fm, music