The latest internet radio
The “last radio” itself consists of two separate parts - the plug-in for media players Audioscrobbler, designed to “capture” the listened tracks and stream them to a Last.fm server, and the Last.fm Internet service itself, offering the user the most suitable service composition. Both services are united by a mighty social add-on, which allows you to share musical compositions, create your own radio stations and check the musical interests of several users.
Last.fm is a well-known old-timer among musical social networks, and therefore it is not surprising that we decided to talk about the Internet and musical networks with Martin Stixel, the founder and also co-founder of Last Radio.
Radians enthusiasts
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- Greetings, Martin! How did you get the idea to create a Last.fm service, and what is its story?
Martin Stiksel (MS) : Last.fm service appeared in 2003 as a result of the merger of two projects - the AudiScrobbler program, authored by Richard Jones (this program was his graduation project), and a single social platform for music lovers of the world.
- How expensive was the creation of the service - both in monetary and psychological terms?
M.S. : As for financial investments, to be honest, we did not have anything at the moment of the creation of Last.fm. Therefore, we had to seriously work to ensure that the site appeared in the form in which it attracts millions of users today. The first years of working on the project were the most difficult and, we hope, our work will be appreciated by Russian users.
In addition, we solve all the difficulties together! Fortunately, our development team is completely obsessed, in love with their work and very enterprising people who spend many, many hours working on a project.
- What was the original idea of the service, is it possible to highlight some main goal?
M.S. : Our first and foremost goal is to unite people and music! And, perhaps, to be the only and completely unique project in the field of musical social platforms.
- Please summarize, in brief, the main features of Last.fm that distinguish your service from similar ones.
M.S. : The most important thing that makes our service unique is the Audio Scrobing mechanism and providing music recommendations to users. And, of course, the ability to create personalized radio stations at Last.fm.
- How many users now has a service? What are the predictions for changing its popularity in the future?
M.S. : Undoubtedly, music in some way is an international language, understandable in all countries of the world. Today, the number of our users is approaching 15 million per month! But still, the problem of using an English-language website has, until recently, been getting up quite acutely, including for many Russian-speaking users. Now we have removed the last barrier - the language one, and we very much hope that those who have not yet joined the Last.fm music revolution will now do it with pleasure!
Musical compatibility
- Let's turn to the "technical" part. What is the mechanism of the recommendation system? Based on what they are calculated?
M.S. : When you listen to music on your computer (iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player) or iPod), by pre-installing the Last.fm program, each song you listen to is fixed, creating your personal music profile in this way - this is what we call scrobbling. Then your music profile is compared with millions of others, and with the help of the system that we call the “combined filter”, we find users with similar musical tastes, offering music and events that might interest you.
- How does the “Taste-o-Meter” mechanism work?
M.S. : The principle of the “Vkusometr” operation is similar to the action of the recommendation system: the profiles of two users are compared, and their “musical compatibility” is determined.
- What are the plans for the development of the "Last Radio" services?
M.S. (smiles) : Let it remain a secret until the official appearance of our new products at Last.fm.
- It is no secret that music social networks often conflict with copyright holders. Are there any relationship problems with them?
M.S. : At the moment we are at the negotiation stage with various associations representing the interests of right holders, and we hope to soon receive the appropriate licenses so that users can listen to international music on Last.fm.
- What policy does Last.fm follow when developing its service?
M.S. : We believe that people are truly united by music, and it is even more exciting to find friends according to the principle of similar musical preferences, and our task is to facilitate this process as much as possible. In addition, we support and strive to develop the general trend of personalization, an individual approach to each individual user.
Source: TelNews.ru
Last.fm is a well-known old-timer among musical social networks, and therefore it is not surprising that we decided to talk about the Internet and musical networks with Martin Stixel, the founder and also co-founder of Last Radio.
Radians enthusiasts
')
- Greetings, Martin! How did you get the idea to create a Last.fm service, and what is its story?
Martin Stiksel (MS) : Last.fm service appeared in 2003 as a result of the merger of two projects - the AudiScrobbler program, authored by Richard Jones (this program was his graduation project), and a single social platform for music lovers of the world.
- How expensive was the creation of the service - both in monetary and psychological terms?
M.S. : As for financial investments, to be honest, we did not have anything at the moment of the creation of Last.fm. Therefore, we had to seriously work to ensure that the site appeared in the form in which it attracts millions of users today. The first years of working on the project were the most difficult and, we hope, our work will be appreciated by Russian users.
In addition, we solve all the difficulties together! Fortunately, our development team is completely obsessed, in love with their work and very enterprising people who spend many, many hours working on a project.
- What was the original idea of the service, is it possible to highlight some main goal?
M.S. : Our first and foremost goal is to unite people and music! And, perhaps, to be the only and completely unique project in the field of musical social platforms.
- Please summarize, in brief, the main features of Last.fm that distinguish your service from similar ones.
M.S. : The most important thing that makes our service unique is the Audio Scrobing mechanism and providing music recommendations to users. And, of course, the ability to create personalized radio stations at Last.fm.
- How many users now has a service? What are the predictions for changing its popularity in the future?
M.S. : Undoubtedly, music in some way is an international language, understandable in all countries of the world. Today, the number of our users is approaching 15 million per month! But still, the problem of using an English-language website has, until recently, been getting up quite acutely, including for many Russian-speaking users. Now we have removed the last barrier - the language one, and we very much hope that those who have not yet joined the Last.fm music revolution will now do it with pleasure!
Musical compatibility
- Let's turn to the "technical" part. What is the mechanism of the recommendation system? Based on what they are calculated?
M.S. : When you listen to music on your computer (iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player) or iPod), by pre-installing the Last.fm program, each song you listen to is fixed, creating your personal music profile in this way - this is what we call scrobbling. Then your music profile is compared with millions of others, and with the help of the system that we call the “combined filter”, we find users with similar musical tastes, offering music and events that might interest you.
- How does the “Taste-o-Meter” mechanism work?
M.S. : The principle of the “Vkusometr” operation is similar to the action of the recommendation system: the profiles of two users are compared, and their “musical compatibility” is determined.
- What are the plans for the development of the "Last Radio" services?
M.S. (smiles) : Let it remain a secret until the official appearance of our new products at Last.fm.
- It is no secret that music social networks often conflict with copyright holders. Are there any relationship problems with them?
M.S. : At the moment we are at the negotiation stage with various associations representing the interests of right holders, and we hope to soon receive the appropriate licenses so that users can listen to international music on Last.fm.
- What policy does Last.fm follow when developing its service?
M.S. : We believe that people are truly united by music, and it is even more exciting to find friends according to the principle of similar musical preferences, and our task is to facilitate this process as much as possible. In addition, we support and strive to develop the general trend of personalization, an individual approach to each individual user.
Source: TelNews.ru
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4955/
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