My Funky Year in Music: 18,599 tracks, 4,188 artists, 5,533 albums (according to Last.FM)

Because I am very much into statistics, I still like using Last.FM, a music database which keeps track of the songs I enjoy via iTunes, Internet radiostations and iPod/smartphone. According to Last.FM’s summary for 2016, I listened to 18,599 tracks by 4,188 different artists and from 5,533 different albums. That makes 55 songs a day and a total listening time of 45 days, 5 hours. Top music genres: funk, soul, country, pop, and blues.

My 200,000th play on Last.FM – or: 50 songs a day keep the doctor away!

Last.FM is not as much fun as it used to be when it was the top music portal, but – as a fan of statistics – I still try to scrobble the music I am listening to. And I was happy to see that I just hit the 200,000th song mark. Since I have been a member since February 23, 2005, this means that – statistically speaking – I listen to at least 50 songs a day.

While writing this, a playlist with my 1,695 favourite Spotify songs is running in shuffle mode. It just reached song #200,000: Marcia Griffiths, „Run Up and Down“ – which brings back nice memories of my Jamaica visits in the ’80s.

Detailed statistics
There is an interesting division: My top artists are funk-dominated, there is a lot of country among my top albums, and Bollywood seems to rule my top tracks,

Top artists (among 17,512 scrobbled)

The 64-bit iTunes vs. Last.FM Scrobbler problem has finally been solved!

If you don’t use the music website Last.FM (old blog post in German), you don’t need to read any further. The current good news only apply to those who use the Last.FM Scrobbler with iTunes for Windows. Since Apple updated the music player of our choice to a version that is fully 64-bit (12.1.0.71, Windows 7), the Scrobbler did not detect songs that were played by iTunes anymore. Last.FM members have been complaining about it in the website’s forum since January 30, 2015.

When I just opened the Last.FM Scrobbler to check my Spotify scrobbles I finally received the notice for an update that had been promised by Last.FM for a weeks. I installed the update, and this did solve the problem. My 64-bit iTunes (12.1.2.27, Windows 7) scrobbles its plays again (including songs played on my iPod). For whatever reason, Last.FM did not consider it necessary (yet) to announce this major ‚bug fix‘ in its Twitter feed.

Wie man das Top-Empfehlungsradio Pandora auch in Deutschland komfortabel nutzen kann

Trotz meiner großen Vinyl-, CD- und MP3-Sammlung versuche ich stets, meinen musikalischen Horizont zu erweitern und dabei auf mir bisher unbekannte Sänger und Bands zu stoßen, die mich ähnlich begeistern wie meine Lieblingskünstler. Es gibt dafür schon viele brauchbare Empfehlungsdienste wie zum Beispiel Last.FM (uralter Beitrag), iTunes‘ Genius und Spotify Radio. Aber keiner hat mich bisher so sehr überzeugt wie der US-Marktführer Pandora. Er klassifiziert Songs nicht oberflächlich nach Genres und/oder nach Beliebtheit, sondern analysiert sie aufgrund von 450 musikalischen Charakteristiken (nach eigenen Angaben).

Schnapszahl vs. Repdigit – 111,111 Plays on Last.FM

I can’t help myself, but I prefer the German term „Schnapszahl“ (schnapps digit) to the mathematical „repdigit“. The latter would make more sense in my case if it were spelled „rapdigit“, because quite a few of the 111,111 plays I just hit at Last.FM have been rap and hip-hop songs.

Qype: Facebook, Inc. in Palo Alto

Palo Alto – Virtuelle Plaetze

Wie ich einst in meinem 500. Qype-Beitrag schrieb, bin ich seit über 20 Jahren mit dem Internet beruflich und privat verbandelt.

Wenn irgendeine neue Community auftaucht, die interessant klingt, schaue ich mir sie kurz an – wobei ich mich (Tipp an Internet-Neulinge!) meist erst mal mit einer anderen E-Mail-Adresse als meiner privat und beruflich meistgenutzten registriere.

N.A.S.A.’s „Spirit of Apollo“ Is a Contender for Best Hip Hop Album of the Year

Mein jüngster Last.FM-Blog-Beitrag:

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to listen to an advance copy of N.A.S.A.’s album Spirit Of Apollo which will be released in the U.S. on February 17, 2009 (according to Amazon.com), and in Germany on February 13, 2009 (according to Amazon.de).

According to its label Anti, >> N.A.S.A is an ongoing creative collaboration between two lifelong music aficionados, Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon, and their friends, friends of friends and musical heroes. While N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America and contains a number of superstar artists from both coasts of the US, it is about as far from a tension-building geographical showdown as a record can get.