lastfm

Last fm

June 2007

Last.Fm's User Generated Nightclub

UPFRONT, One to Watch, june 2007, COMMENTS

In recent months a number of popular websites have ventured from the shadowy world of cyberspace into the licensed trade. The original social networking site Friends Reunited have launched their ‘Big School Reunion’ event, while this month NIGHT visited Profile, the first bar from QSoft Consulting, the company behind the Gaydar online network. Now, Last.fm has created a new club night with a set list based on the listening habits of its online users.

Last.fm, for those not already signed up, began life as a music marketing tool that tracks what a user listens to and suggests new music based on recommendations drawn from the other 20 million users.

Founded by directors Martin Stiksel, Felix Miller and Richard Jones [pictured from left], Last.fm has now teamed up with Ninja Tune to create their first club night at The Big Chill House on Pentonville Road on 2 June. All Last.fm users going to the party will unwittingly decide the setlist for the upstairs room, based on information provided via their iTunes or other music software.

When a new user joins Last.fm, the company’s software is downloaded onto the user’s PC and continuously keeps an eye on what they’re listening to, explains Jonas Woost, Head of Music at Last.fm.

"The software then reports or ‘scrobbles’ this information to us,” explains Jonas. “In return the user receives personalised radio tracklists, music and gig recommendations based on the information provided by fans of the same music.”

Part of the appeal of Last.fm is that it taps the unconscious listening habits of the user.

“Most of the time we’re not conscious of replaying a certain song, and we don’t play what we think of as our favourite music as much as we’d think,” continues Jonas. “If you ask people what they’re favourite tracks are, their conscious response will differ to what Last.fm tells us. Part of the beauty of this is that Last.fm can play or recommend the user to some music which will take them completely by surprise.”

The first of what the organisers hope will be a series of live events around the country, the Last.fm party has been a natural progression for the brand. Beginning life as a simple music marketing tool, the software has grown to include communities of gig-goers and music fans who meet regularly.

“After a while the Last.fm portal began to include gig recommendations from users, and people could check out which of their online friends were going to be at which gig. Over two years a community has built up, providing a musical version of Facebook or MySpace. Now that we have 20 million users we wanted to have a party for all our subscribers. The concept is still at an experimental stage at the moment but we’re really interested to see what the outcome is like and whether it’ll be something we can re-create around the country.”

The organisers expect around 500 Last.fm subscribers to attend the event. Their various music tastes will be filtered into a set list of popular tracks and mixed by DJ Sparky in the upstairs room while downstairs Ninja Tune will be showcasing the talents of Invisibl Skratch Piklz, MC Kid Sister and beat box artist Beardy Man. For now Last.fm will retain the use of a DJ but the company are researching the viability of using a computer to generate a fully DJ-less set.

“I think it’ll be interesting to see what the set list is like. We’re going to have as little interference as possible with the tracks that come up - although we’re using a DJ rather than a computer on the night. You can’t simulate the way a DJ can respond to the audience.”

While websites such as Gaydar, Friends Reunited and Last.fm made it possible to socialise without leaving the bedroom, it’s great to see socialising still taking place in the real world too.

From: June 2007 Issue

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