Within the past year or so, I've noticed an interesting rise in
the number of websites where you create profiles for yourself.
Sites like Friendster, which allows
you to create a profile and then add people as friends, or the
slightly more useful thefacebook, which links up
college students - I've actually found it useful in terms of
finding people in my classes to study with or compare class
notes.
However, most of these sites are based strictly on a personal
profile, with a picture, a list of interests, a list of what type
of friends you want to meet, a space for a quote of some sort, and
then some way for your friends to post comments about you.
This week I was shown a new one of "friend" site, Audioscrobbler. You
download a plug-in for your computer, and the names of the MP3s or
CDs you listen to on your computer will get uploaded to your
statistics page on their site. After a few weeks, it generates a
musical profile of some sort, based on the types of music you tend
to listen to often. Then it will suggest songs and artists for you
to look into.
You can also browse other users' pages to see what they're
listening to or join groups of users with similar interests (for
example, the Mac OS X group).
That seemed a bit different and a little bit more interesting
than the typical Friendster/thefacebook style site, so I decided I
would give it a try. I was also curious as to how well it actually
worked with the Mac and what features the Mac version of the
plug-in was missing.
I signed up and went to download a plug-in. Interestingly, the
MP3 plug-in listed right at the top was for . . . iTunes.
They have versions for both Mac (OS X only, unfortunately) and
Windows.
The fact that iTunes was at the top of the list shows how much
of an impact Apple has had on the way people listen to music in the
past few years. Just a few years ago most of these programs either
didn't have a Mac version or didn't have any plans for a Mac
version (for example, when the original Napster was just coming
out, there was no Mac version until a third-party developed
Macster). Those that did have Mac versions were often several
version numbers behind the Windows variation (a certain ISP comes
to mind).
I installed the plug-in and was interested to see it appear
right in the right-hand side of the menu bar, in between the volume
and Adium icons. Clicking on it brings down a list of songs I
recently played with iTunes, an option to send information about
the songs I recently played on my iPod, a link to my statistics
page, and a few other things. Once the song I'm currently playing
in iTunes is finished, the plug-in will automatically update the
information on my statistics page.
My other question: How correct a portrait of musical taste do
you end up with? In other words, does it really show you what you
tend to listen to most?
This is still unanswered for the most part. Right now In Flames
is #1 on my 'Top Artists, which makes sense since I do tend to
listen to them a lot. However, Dry Kill Logic is #2 - and not only
do I rarely listen to them, I don't actually like them that much!
Metric is also in the top 10, along with The Alarm, neither of
which I listen to that often. I suspect that this will even out
after a few more days, and a more accurate picture will start to
appear.
Another interesting thing is the supposed compatibility with the
iPod. I still can't get it to work, but in theory you're supposed
to be able to create a "Recently Played" smart playlist on your
iPod, connect it to your computer, choose "Update iPod" from the
Audioscrobbler menu, and it will send the information about what
you were listening to on your iPod to your statistics page.
The farthest I got was getting the Recently Played playlist
working. For some reason it's not sending the information to
Audioscrobbler, although it's something I'm planning on trying
again before I discount it as a bug or broken feature.
Audioscrobbler is a promising concept, and with one exception,
it seems to work fairly well (and integrate rather seamlessly) with
the Mac. Hopefully as a result of using this service I'll learn
about some music I wouldn't have known about otherwise and maybe
get a better idea of what type of music I listen to more than
others. 
Endnote: I'd call this a software review, but that raises a
question - are sites like this software or just interactive
websites? I think that within the past few years the definition of
software has become more blurred (online games, tax software that
relies on the Internet, etc.), therefore I would have to argue that
it's a type of software since it involves more than just a
browser.
