If you love music, just go to this site

If you love music, just go to this site

Last updated:

Name: Last.fm

URL: www.last.fm

What it does: plays music on the Internet

Cost: free, although songs are available for purchase

Easy of use: easy to medium

If you like music, go to Last.fm.

That's the only way I can describe the website, other than to say it is a combination of internet radio, music on demand, wiki, event calendar and social network.

You get all those things, but the end result is that you get to listen to music you like.

Any visitors to the site should first go to the radio section. There you will be prompted to enter the name of an artist or band you like. The site will then begin streaming songs. Sometimes you get songs by the artist you picked.

Often you don't, but these songs are usually from similar artists. I was originally distrustful of a site that promised to find music I liked based on artist selection, but Last.fm did a remarkably good job in delivering on that promise.

Plus, if there were songs I didn't like, I could skip to the next one. If there was a song I hated, I could ban it from being played again.

There are several ways the site determines what it thinks you will like, but one of the best ways is just listening to music on your computer. Users can download applications that track what you regularly listen to and then send that information to the website.

Last.fm also allows you to search for specific music, although songs that you pick will only play for 30 seconds. Users are of course given the option of purchasing that song directly.

However, music videos, which can be watched for free, are sometimes associated with the song.

Besides the music, there is a large wiki of artist related material.

When you select an artist, you will be given the history, a catalogue of albums and tracks, and even information on when and where the artist is touring next.

You can also see what your friends have been listening to. Anyone visiting my user page can see that I listen to The Bouncing Souls far too often. It's a fun way to share and listen to music.

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