What are MeFites listening to?

December 11, 2007 3:45 PM

We just added some Last.fm stuff to profile pages and tweaked the design a bit.

Last.fm just got the Twitter and Flickr treatment. So if you send what you're hearing to Last.fm, and you have your Last.fm username in your profile, your recent tracks will show up on your profile page. (Check out mathowie's profile to see it in action. He likes Laurie Berkner? haw haw!)

And of course, this means we can do fun stuff like Recently Listened Tracks by everyone and even Top Albums.

We also tweaked the profile pages a bit to accommodate the recent track lists. If you spot problems, post them here. (Metafilter's valuation just skyrocketed!)

posted by pb to feature requests at 3:45 PM (108 comments total)

In my defense, iScrobbler doesn't track my iPhone music plays, so I miss out on hours and hours of stuff. Also, I have a child who likes kid music and my library is the one we play her songs off.
posted by mathowie at 3:53 PM on December 11, 2007

Also, I'm surprised Kanye's new album isn't in the top album pile. It's all pretty bland indie rock!
posted by mathowie at 3:54 PM on December 11, 2007

Neat, thanks!
posted by Paragon at 4:02 PM on December 11, 2007

Meh. I would have omitted the White Stripes and placed NMH higher up. And In Rainbows above OK Computer? Pah!



What?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:03 PM on December 11, 2007

I have this theory that some downbeat/ambient-ish artists get a Last.FM advantage because people fall asleep listening to them and it runs on through the night.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:04 PM on December 11, 2007 [4 favorites]

Snazzy!

Now, to follow a longstanding tradition, I make you feel unappreciated by dreaming of things to add to it (but mollify the sting by wishing for something probably totally illegal in some countries): how cool would it be if we could actually listen to the tracks by clicking on 'em (ie the ones that LastFm allows you to), or even coolio-er, have a MeFi internet 'radio station' automagically playing an aggregation of the top MeFi tracks. Hell, the same thing for MeFi Music tracks, and a third station with a mix of the two. Also, a great big golden pony to worship! I AM MAD WITH IMAGINING INTERNET POTENTIAL!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:05 PM on December 11, 2007

Sweet! Now, some damage control. What have I got there, at the moment?

Thomas Bangalter – Night Beats an hour ago
Cascada – Everytime We... an hour ago
Flow Flux Clan – Shut Out (Scott... an hour ago
Booty Luv – Boogie 2nite... an hour ago

Oh, that'll do nicely. No need to gloss over the stats. :)
posted by soundofsuburbia at 4:09 PM on December 11, 2007

stavros, if you click the track names, you'll get a flash player on last.fm's site with at least a preview. I also wanted previews inline, but as you can probably guess, last.fm is kind of in the business of driving people to their own site so their API doesn't offer it.
posted by mathowie at 4:15 PM on December 11, 2007

Actually, stav, Last.fm does support embedded stations. The Pirate Bay plans on integrating embedded stations into it's site, so I'm sure matt and pb and the gang could do something similar here, if they wanted to.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:15 PM on December 11, 2007

In my defense, iScrobbler doesn't track my iPhone music plays, so I miss out on hours and hours of stuff. Also, I have a child who likes kid music and my library is the one we play her songs off.
posted by mathowie at 3:53 PM on December 11 [+] [!]

What. ever.
posted by docpops at 4:17 PM on December 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

I also wanted previews inline, but as you can probably guess, last.fm is kind of in the business of driving people to their own site so their API doesn't offer it.

That's kinda what I figured, but if monju_'s right, that'd be pretty damn cool.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:20 PM on December 11, 2007

monju_bosatsu, as far as I can tell you can't send last.fm a list of users and get an embedded station that mixes tracks from those users. I've just seen single user stations you can embed.
posted by pb at 4:23 PM on December 11, 2007

Goodnewsfortheinsane: But downbeat/ambient artists have a huge disadvantage because in the 20 minutes it takes you to listen to a track you could be listening to 6 or 7 other tracks.
posted by aubilenon at 4:23 PM on December 11, 2007

er, of more concise genres
posted by aubilenon at 4:23 PM on December 11, 2007

Hey metafilter! Guess what I've been listening to!

- Shit you don't like

- Shit you don't care about

- Shit you're sick of

But I want you to know what it is! You've read my comments, now see what music I like. I'm a unique snowflake and you're sure to be impressed!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if Franklin Fucking Dee Roosevelt was user #666, I wouldn't care what kind of music he liked as long as his spelling was decent and his AskMe question history didn't suggest he was wicked mental.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:24 PM on December 11, 2007 [2 favorites]

Other people's profiles seem to be updating immediately, but I'm stuck at 4 hours ago.
posted by roll truck roll at 4:25 PM on December 11, 2007

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if Franklin Fucking Dee Roosevelt was user #666, I wouldn't care what kind of music he liked as long as his spelling was decent and his AskMe question history didn't suggest he was wicked mental.

So, don't look at it. Jesus.
posted by chrismear at 4:27 PM on December 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

I have this theory that some downbeat/ambient-ish artists get a Last.FM advantage because people fall asleep listening to them and it runs on through the night.

I'm the type of person that can't have complex music playing when I'm really concentrating and coding and stuff. I only listen to the Boards of Canada if I have important crap to do. If I'm just answering email and browsing mefi, I can listen to Spoon or whatever, but when shit gets real, I have to have instrumentals (I listen to a lot of jazz too during those times).
posted by mathowie at 4:27 PM on December 11, 2007

Your favorite website's favorite band sucks.
posted by aubilenon at 4:30 PM on December 11, 2007

It doesn't work for me. Am I doing something wrong?
posted by pombe at 4:32 PM on December 11, 2007

pombe, you haven't scrobbled any songs lately so MeFi doesn't have anything of yours to gather from last.fm.
posted by pb at 4:34 PM on December 11, 2007

I have this theory that some downbeat/ambient-ish artists get a Last.FM advantage because people fall asleep listening to them and it runs on through the night.

I can tell you that Guster is in my top ten most played artists because one summer at camp I got in the habit of listening to Lost and Gone Forever when I was going to sleep. I use it frequently to cure my insomnia, but haven't listened to it while deliberately conscious for quite some time.

No good excuses for the rest my list, though.
posted by PhatLobley at 4:36 PM on December 11, 2007

Ahh, that's because my last.fm install is broken. I must fix that!
posted by pombe at 4:43 PM on December 11, 2007

monju_bosatsu, as far as I can tell you can't send last.fm a list of users and get an embedded station that mixes tracks from those users. I've just seen single user stations you can embed.

Really? A music site I frequent has this, although I think you can only get to it from their discussion boards (look down towards the lower right hand side) and not the front page. Are they lying?
posted by LionIndex at 4:55 PM on December 11, 2007

The fact that NMH is in the top albums makes me feel all happy and full of sunshine and love.
posted by logic vs love at 4:57 PM on December 11, 2007

LionIndex, you can get embeddable players for last.fm groups. (And there is a Metafilter Scrobblers group.) But this situation is different because it's a group on the outside of their system. I'm guessing that Glorious Noise has a similar "side group" where members overlap, but it's not a pure "members group" if you see what I mean.
posted by pb at 5:01 PM on December 11, 2007

Let it be known, to all MeFiers far and wide, that Mayor Curley does not like this new feature. Why he thinks we should care one whit about whether or not he likes it is unclear, though I expect it has something to do with having an ego the size of Greenland.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:01 PM on December 11, 2007

Could we have a way to make this optional please? I sort of preferred just having a small icon link to my other sites.
posted by tracert at 5:02 PM on December 11, 2007

Can someone please tell me what "squee" times about 600 is?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:05 PM on December 11, 2007

Also, small bug: it seems that last.fm info is available to everyone, even when when the visibility option is set to members only.
posted by tracert at 5:06 PM on December 11, 2007

OH CHRIST NO I set up a last.fm feed for my sister-in-law to work out to. My recently played track list is currently the internet equivalent of being caught eating boogers.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:08 PM on December 11, 2007 [2 favorites]

I am so so tempted to pollute the MeFi last.fm music stream with Weird Al, Bonzo Dog Band, pre-"I'm Not in Love" 10cc, Big Bands, TV Themes, One Hit Wonders and Steely Dan.

And lots and lots of Rush and Yes.
posted by wendell at 5:09 PM on December 11, 2007

Could we have a way to make this optional please? I sort of preferred just having a small icon link to my other sites.

Unfortunately, like the Flickr thing, if you add it to your profile, we just display stuff automatically. Having the ability to show/hide stuff would be kind of a pain and confusing in the preferences. You can clear out your last.fm setting to get rid of the list for now.
posted by mathowie at 5:10 PM on December 11, 2007

Hi, we all listen to radio old.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:19 PM on December 11, 2007

My recently played track list is currently the internet equivalent of being caught eating boogers.

Ha ha!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:20 PM on December 11, 2007

Sweet. I noticed this earlier, and was gonna post a MeTa about it thanking you guys, but then I was feeling all ADD and didn't want to have to pay attention to it.
posted by klangklangston at 5:21 PM on December 11, 2007

And, for AV, I'd rather be caught listening to Aguilera, Elliot and Aaliyah than Decemberists and Sufjan any day.

(My recently played is, of course, unassailable).
posted by klangklangston at 5:24 PM on December 11, 2007

Mathowie: There's a iPhone version of iScrobbler, if you iPhone is "jailbroken".
posted by blue_beetle at 5:29 PM on December 11, 2007

Is there a Metafilter group on Last.fm?
posted by mkb at 5:30 PM on December 11, 2007

monju_bosatsu, as far as I can tell you can't send last.fm a list of users and get an embedded station that mixes tracks from those users. I've just seen single user stations you can embed.

Yeah, I was thinking more of embedded stations for the top artists.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:33 PM on December 11, 2007

Is there a Metafilter group on Last.fm?

Metafilter Scrobblers, as already linked upthread.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:37 PM on December 11, 2007

Nevermind my previous comment. I was just being impatient.

This is pretty sweet. There's something wonderfully neurotic about reading everyone's recent scrobbles as they come in.

By the way, what's the next service to get this treatment? Librarything?
posted by roll truck roll at 5:38 PM on December 11, 2007

The white version of Mefi looks very spiffy, dudes.
posted by phaedon at 5:43 PM on December 11, 2007

Having said that, my twitter icon/status are a little disheveled, and you also can't make out the twitter bubble, as before (which might be intentional).
posted by phaedon at 5:44 PM on December 11, 2007

I'm guessing that Glorious Noise has a similar "side group" where members overlap, but it's not a pure "members group" if you see what I mean

That's right. The radio station is based on the Glorious Noise last.fm group, which may or may not contain members of the Glorious Noise message boards.

Nevertheless, it's not just "single user stations" that you can embed. Why not base the station off the Metafilter Scrobblers group and encourage everybody to join it?
posted by elvissinatra at 6:06 PM on December 11, 2007

I like the page of recent Flickr photos by Mefites that you can access if you have Flickr on you social sites list. I was going to ask for something like that. Really, I was!
posted by pjern at 6:09 PM on December 11, 2007

Posted too soon- Does it only ick up the most recent photo, or will it choose from say, the last 6?
posted by pjern at 6:10 PM on December 11, 2007

*sigh* pick up
posted by pjern at 6:11 PM on December 11, 2007

Why not base the station off the Metafilter Scrobblers group and encourage everybody to join it?

Because we'd never get much uptake with it. Right now we have many, many users with last.fm in their profile but only a few dozen in the last.fm group. We were looking for an API-based way to do a player here with everyone's music instead.
posted by mathowie at 6:19 PM on December 11, 2007

I make no excuses -- sometimes I'm just in the mood for Rock This Bitch.
posted by danb at 6:22 PM on December 11, 2007

By the looks of things, MeFi is wicked racist.
posted by deern the headlice at 6:22 PM on December 11, 2007

I found a bug! Yay!

I get an error if I click a user's profile on the Recently Listened Tracks page.
posted by Zero Gravitas at 6:32 PM on December 11, 2007

Right now we have many, many users with last.fm in their profile but only a few dozen in the last.fm group.

Actually, just to be pedantic about it, there are 544 members in the Metafilter Scrobblers group. Don't know how many are active, though.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:33 PM on December 11, 2007

thanks tracert, the public/private bug is fixed.
posted by pb at 6:45 PM on December 11, 2007

Death Cab, Postal Service, Killers, Sufjan...MeFites have *excellent* taste.
posted by Phire at 6:55 PM on December 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Cool. But thank goodness I haven't updated in yonks so nothing is showing - Last.fm seems to think I'm obsessed with Esquerita. (When will they invent a device to plug inbetween your amp and speakers to somehow track what you actually listen to, instead of just the tiny subset of music in computer-type formats?)
posted by jack_mo at 6:57 PM on December 11, 2007

I shut that bullshit plugin off, otherwise it would be at least 30% more C-Bo, Murder Junkies, MDC and John Tesh.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:07 PM on December 11, 2007

I added the MeFi group music player to the recent tracks page, right above all the albums on the sidebar. Hit the big play button and it'll start playing full tracks from songs group members listen to.
posted by mathowie at 7:08 PM on December 11, 2007

cool, but though I'm on last.fm I kinda think Mayor Curley as a point there. It makes more sence when you use it in communities based on musical preferences, like a forum or community blog about a certain genre.
posted by kolophon at 7:19 PM on December 11, 2007

It comes in handy the next time someone tries to claim this place has excellent taste.
posted by yerfatma at 7:22 PM on December 11, 2007

MUSIC-IST.
posted by Phire at 7:43 PM on December 11, 2007

It makes more sence when you use it in communities based on musical preferences, like a forum or community blog about a certain genre.

To be fair, music also is this month's most-used tag so there's obviously interest. If anything, I think having a broad spectrum of musical tastes from a community like this is pretty sweet and better than being specific to a certain genre.
posted by jmd82 at 7:46 PM on December 11, 2007

Also, now jake will see how much I've been listening to that recent MeFi Music post of his.
posted by danb at 7:46 PM on December 11, 2007

I don't have anything to add; I just suddenly, for no apparent reason, wanted to give everyone a hug.
posted by not_on_display at 8:00 PM on December 11, 2007

*hug*

Also, this is a wonderful feature!

But, for some reason it isn't updating in my profile even if it is on my last.fm page.
posted by Kattullus at 8:25 PM on December 11, 2007

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if Franklin Fucking Dee Roosevelt was user #666, I wouldn't care what kind of music he liked as long as his spelling was decent and his AskMe question history didn't suggest he was wicked mental.

So what you're saying is if he hasd pour spellin you'd like care about waht kind of music hims liked?
posted by nola at 8:33 PM on December 11, 2007

How about some Pandora features?
posted by Afroblanco at 8:36 PM on December 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

But, for some reason it isn't updating in my profile

Your last.fm profile updates every 5 min or so, mefi's copy of your last.fm profile updates about once an hour.
posted by mathowie at 8:39 PM on December 11, 2007

He likes Laurie Berkner?

HEY. Laurie Berkner is intelligent, fun kids' music my three year old -- and I -- enjoy.

Also, she's, um, pretty.
posted by dw at 8:58 PM on December 11, 2007

Your last.fm profile updates every 5 min or so, mefi's copy of your last.fm profile updates about once an hour.

From the top album list, I would have thought it last updated A YEAR AGO. Geez people.

(Except the Radiohead of course.)
posted by smackfu at 9:07 PM on December 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Heh, and of course right after I say that, The Postal Service comes up in Party Shuffle. Damn you iTunes.
posted by smackfu at 9:39 PM on December 11, 2007

Furiously trying to get rid of Boz Scaggs from my playlist so I can fit in with all the cool kids.
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 9:47 PM on December 11, 2007

Just like Hercules.
posted by timeistight at 9:55 PM on December 11, 2007

I wouldn't care what kind of music he liked...
Look at me, Damien! It's all for you... no, wait, it isn't. Neat stuff, thanks pb!

I kinda think Mayor Curley as a point there
Hard to tell with the hat on.
Wakka-wakka.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:11 PM on December 11, 2007

I haven't listened to a single lick of music off the computer in eight days. Last song listened to "MeFi Podcast" Also the profile pages look really nice.
posted by jessamyn at 11:20 PM on December 11, 2007

Yes, Mefites, come view my playlist in all its Spice Girls-containing glory. I am not ashamed!

Really, I'm not.
posted by cmgonzalez at 11:23 PM on December 11, 2007

Too bad Pandora isn't available to Canucks without a hack. Sigh. >.>
posted by Phire at 11:29 PM on December 11, 2007

Sweet. I feel confident that my musical preferences will totally blow your collective lilywhite, indie-rock minds, listening as I do such left-field artists as Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire and The Decemberists. Try not to be scared as I introduce you to a whole new musical world.
posted by flashboy at 1:55 AM on December 12, 2007 [2 favorites]

A few years ago I spent far too long hacking together a script that pinged my Movable Type blog with my recently played tracks. Now that shit is automatic and everywhere. PROGRESS.

Awesome. Thanks!
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:06 AM on December 12, 2007

Surely the way is clear to have people's adult friendfinder ads on their profile page ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 2:41 AM on December 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Can you add Pandora? Maybe not with as much functionality as the last.fm/Flickr stuff, but at least as one of the little social site icons in our profiles?
posted by bluefly at 4:49 AM on December 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Woot! Hello from Last.HQ in London, awesome integration. :)
posted by flaneur at 5:16 AM on December 12, 2007

P.S. For those of you with iPhones / iPod Touches - check out MobileScrobbler.
posted by flaneur at 5:17 AM on December 12, 2007

flaneur, you rock the party.
posted by danb at 7:00 AM on December 12, 2007

Now you can all see when I get ocd over a song and play it over and over a million times in a row.
posted by FunkyHelix at 7:07 AM on December 12, 2007

It's all pretty bland indie rock!

Is that really shocking? (I kid. Well, a little bit anyway.)

This is cool

Also, I've been using MobileScrobber to track shit from my iPhone. It works reasonably well. An update just came out. It seems a bit hackish, but such is the life of applications on the iPhone right now.
posted by chunking express at 7:09 AM on December 12, 2007

Actually, the latest update to MobileScrobbler looks to be a big step up from the previous version. It's well worth checking out if you've jailbroke your phone.
posted by chunking express at 7:15 AM on December 12, 2007

/me cranks up the Britney
posted by Stynxno at 7:18 AM on December 12, 2007

"Death Cab, Postal Service, Killers, Sufjan...MeFites have *excellent* taste."

Those are sarcasm asterisks, right?
posted by klangklangston at 8:43 AM on December 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

You're self-parodying now, right?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:04 AM on December 12, 2007

One reason why this feature sucks is that it encourages people to post about how they have to do something about their recently played list because it's not hip enough or whatever. And to post about user x's lame play history in contentious threads about music. It contributes to crap comments about music preferences, is what I'm saying. I don't want to read bullshit debates about how "user x's most played is radiohead lol so what does he know about jazz?", nor do I want to hear about how some of you edit the music that you listen to in order to show the world how cool you are. Because of sites like Last.fm, listening to music, even on record in your own home, becomes a social, community activity rather than a personal private experience, and thus has become partially governed by social, community rules--including what it is cool or uncool to be listening to at any given moment. Thus, this feature helps to enable the cult of music as fashion while simultaneously representing another nudge for Metafilter towards Facebook-lite.

Mayor Curley, as good god damned usual, stands on the side of the right and true.
posted by Kwine at 9:36 AM on December 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Kwine, you're complaining about what idiots do. Don't lower the bar, plz.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:45 AM on December 12, 2007

Those are sarcasm asterisks, right?

I'm not seeing the Decemberists on the list, so I'll go with no.
posted by dw at 9:46 AM on December 12, 2007

Hey, I'm an avid fine of those bands and damn proud of it, and you music elitists can stuff it. :P MeFi's got NOTHING on High School and University for making a person totally defensive about their music choice.
posted by Phire at 9:51 AM on December 12, 2007

I hate to say something as dull and obvious as this, but the aggregate face of mefi music preferences as seen in the Top Albums list is by its very nature not a fair commentary on the actual spectrum of music-listening habits of individual mefites. It could reasonably be renamed "Albums that have had at least a fair amount of popular success, and thus to which several mefites have listened", but that's kind of wordy.

The recent tracks listing is a lot more entertaining and schizophrenic, though even that tends to be dominated by whoever is currently running their mp3 player uninterrupted.

This concludes the joyless, curmudgeonly, probably unnecessary defense of the rich musical palette belied by our otherwise neat and shiny new aggregation toys.
posted by cortex at 11:05 AM on December 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Why, cortex, I believe you're talking about a regression to the mean. Where the mean=Radiohead.
posted by klangklangston at 11:18 AM on December 12, 2007

Who have written some mean songs about regression. QED.
posted by cortex at 11:24 AM on December 12, 2007

This is great. Except for the indieflood. Damn hipsters.
posted by cowbellemoo at 11:26 AM on December 12, 2007

oh, wait, damn. my feist is showing!
posted by cowbellemoo at 11:29 AM on December 12, 2007

How frequently are the top albums calculated?
posted by grobstein at 12:34 PM on December 12, 2007

Wow, Boards of Canada at #3 with a bullet.

Do you all mostly scrobble, or browse last.fm? It's not possible to assume what shows up here is representative of real musical tastes if what's recorded are our forays into new genres. Of course, the whitebread indierock makes it look like the former, but hey it could be the latter, right? Maybe I should check those albums out too...
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:37 PM on December 12, 2007

This is cool. It would be pretty awesome if there was a way to make the Flash player on musicfi also scrobble the songs played there, but I'm guessing that would be pretty complex, integration-wise (we'd need to store our scrobbler login info on the site somewhere and then pass it into the Flash movie securely).
posted by whir at 1:07 PM on December 12, 2007

grobstein, the top albums are calculated every 24 hours around 2am.
posted by pb at 1:31 PM on December 12, 2007

This is cool. Thanks, pb/matt!

I'm having trouble with it, though. My profile is linked to last.fm and clicking on the icon brings me to my last.fm page. My profile at last.fm shows that I have been listening to music recently. However, I can't see my list on my profile page. I can see the icon, but not the recent activity.

I restarted firefox, logged out, cleared cookies, did a hard reload, but I still don't see it.

What am I doing wrong?
posted by mosessis at 3:24 PM on December 12, 2007

mosessis, when I visit your last.fm profile I don't see anything listed under "Recently Listened Tracks". Check out my last.fm profile to see the difference. My profile starts with "Recently Listened Tracks" as I write this. MeFi only gathers from the recent tracks list.
posted by pb at 3:35 PM on December 12, 2007

Very interesting. Thanks, pb, I'll investigate further on the last.fm side.
posted by mosessis at 3:39 PM on December 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ah ha. For future reference, one needs to have the setting on the last.fm privacy page set to "show real time listening preferences." and then of course wait a few minutes for the mefi info to update

The More You Know....
posted by mosessis at 4:10 PM on December 12, 2007

great tip, thanks. sounds like something that should be in the FAQ.
posted by pb at 4:19 PM on December 12, 2007