I am fascinated by social software and experiment with applications in a wide variety of domains. My present interest is last.fm. This service provides software for analyzing personal musical preferences and locating others with similar musical tastes. The system works in the background while I listen to my iTunes and accumulates data on my listening preferences. The system then matches my preferences with the preferences of other users. In theory, one benefit is supposed to be the opportunity to locate new music by identifying unique tracks or artists in the lists of others with similar tastes.
The logic is similar to the “discovery” principle associated with social bookmarking. The argument is that search is limited by personal perspective and a social environment can expand this perspective by using the experience of others. With music, you would buy the same artists you already like. By exploring the interests of others with similar tastes, you might discover something you like that is still compatible with your general interests. I have yet to purchase anything “unique” as a result of using this software, but the concept is fun to explore.
Click this chart for additional information on my personal listening habits.
