Musical taste forms the bedrock of the newest global community - and moneymakers are ready to cash in.

words marissa brodney

London-based social music site Last.fm, an online music community of more than 15 million users, was recently sold to US media network CBS for HK$2.184 billion. Are you kidding? $2.184 billion? How on earth did something so big and worth so much slip past my social radar? Evidently, social music websites have become the next big thing - and the next big moneymaker - and in only a few short years.

Last.fm didn’t even exist before 2002, and now it boasts over 15 million users in 232 countries. Why are so many millions leaping to their keyboards and joining in? Online forum PureVolume.com user japanaysian gives a fairly concise explanation: “It introduces me to new music, helps me find gigs, allows me to interact with people that listen to similar music. It also allows me to track my listening habits, and serves as a motivation to try and listen to more and more music as it expands the bands I’m familiar with.” If all that isn’t enough to reel you in, consider other features like the one that appealed to another PureVolume.com user, missionverdana: “I was just intrigued to see what I’d come up with if I tracked what I listened to, hence I signed up to Last.fm.” This alludes to Last.fm’s unique music recommendation system called the ‘Audioscrobbler’, where a plug-in device tracks the music you listen to on your computer or iPod, transfers that data onto your personal playlist on the site, and then offers you suggestions on other bands to check out - in much the same way Amazon.com gives customers recommendations in response to what products they’ve viewed.

If it sounds complex and hi-tech, that’s because it is. But sites like Last.fm work hard to be user-friendly, and are working harder to diversify the ways any given internet user can benefit from joining in. Online music networking really comes down to three forces - your music collection, other music collections, and the listeners behind all those collections - interacting through different web-based programs.

Music networking sites are established mainly for two reasons: either they function primarily as a means to facilitate social interaction among people with similar interests, or they serve more as a means for people to upload their music collections, stream them over the internet, and access them from elsewhere. To be fair many sites don’t fit entirely into one camp or the other, but a good example of the first is iLike.com while GetMaestro.com is an instance of the second. Last.fm embodies the middle ground, where music uploading and streaming go hand-in-hand with an emphasis on unhindered socializing.

Nearly all social music sites hinge on your creating an account (at no cost), compiling playlists of music you listen to or like, and putting them online for people to see. The differences lie in the nature of those playlists, who sees them, and how people are permitted to respond. Networks like iLike hook you with a near-competitive brand of music-based interaction fostered by the knowledge-rating ‘iLike challenge’ feature, a sort of quiz that lets you publicize your music prowess over the internet for all to see. Here many songs from your posted lists of music are only available to other users in 30-second bites because iLike has to get permission from labels and other licensed copyright holders to let you hear their songs (you’re not accessing music from other users). Playlists advertise your tastes and allow you to rate them against others, and this seems more central to the aims of the site than delving into deep analysis of individual songs.

iLike.com, like many other sites, offers a ‘widget’ or mini-version of the site you can implant directly into online profiles, like those on social network Facebook. But unlike other sites’ widgets, iLike’s has helped it earn the title of fastest-growing social music discovery site on the web. With more than 5 million users, it’s the most popular music service on Facebook. Because after all, who wouldn’t want to lay claim to a programme that lets you advertise your superior music tastes to everyone you know, be aware of who’s going to concerts you want to attend, and occasionally receive free MP3s as an incentive? Well, maybe those few who realize that to receive all the benefits the iLike widget has to offer, they will have to give up a few of their privacy settings.

Now compare all that to websites like www.GetMaestro.com, where the primary appeal of creating playlists is the site’s free software that allows you to stream all your MP3 files onto the internet and then access your music collection from any other computer, so long as the computer streaming your music is up and running. The main idea is that we’ve all become too bogged down with the technological devices (iPods, blackberries, etc) we carry around all day, and could use a service that lets us access our entire music library on the go without the need of a portable player. Maestro’s got a patent pending, and an ever-growing following. It is the desire for a different sort of practicality that sites like Maestro are successfully tapping into - a desire for mobility, as much as the desire to connect with others and stay informed.

How are websites bridging the gap between social interaction and your own personal music listening? Some, like Mog.com, let you add streaming music from other users’ accounts to your playlists. Others like Last.fm let you personalize a streaming ‘radio’ sent out over the internet (hence the ‘fm’ in Last.fm). Many let you upload music and videos you have personally produced, which makes them invaluable sources of publicity for indie bands. Sites like iJigg.com divide users into indie artists/bands and listeners to encourage the uploading of personally produced files made by serious artists who want to share their music with you. And some, like AmieStreet.com, include buying systems where the price of a listed song rises as the song’s popularity increases.

Most of these sites state plainly that they’re looking to introduce users to new music - so you don’t have to be a seasoned connoisseur to break into the online music scene. And if you have no idea how to start building a playlist, relax and make use of features like FineTune.com’s ‘I’m Lazy’ button which instructs FineTune to construct a playlist with songs it thinks you might like. These sites are also eager to give you music recommendations and publicize artists.

And here, too, is where the ‘social’ component of social music networking comes in - website bloggers are ready and eager to help fellow music lovers discover the labels they love. Last.fm blogger 09Project explains that “the other and perhaps biggest benefit of this site is also finding new music. I do listen mainly to non-mainstream music, and it is often hard to find new bands to listen to. Since I have been here I have found many.” It’s also evident that the information component of music networking isn’t lost on those who already know what bands they’re interested in: GoLiveWire.com user kryptkeeper51 explains that she blogs to “stay updated on... favourite artists with release dates, concert dates, and interviews.” Websites like Mog.com make keeping to the fore on such-like events even easier by posting information in a ‘Latest Music News’ section featured prominently in the centre of its homepage.

But perhaps what’s most important to really understanding social music is not to think of the online music arena as just a diverse collection of successful websites. That fails to take into account the way web-based music communication has become the new social sphere for at least enough people to cause major US television stations to take notice. “‘Website’ does not sum up what these sites have to offer at all,” offers LiveWire online forum user Hawaiinchuck, who spoke with us about what he gets out of music blogging. “I am addicted to these ‘websites’,” he shares, “because they give me an outlet nowhere else in today’s society lets me have.” And so it goes beyond tools that make listening to music convenient and the roles these sites have adopted as informational resources. It’s the social scene of the future, as Hawaiinchuck understands. “The people that will be reading my blog,” he says, “will be mostly made up of people who listen to the same music I do. Because they feel that they automatically have something in common with me.”

A common love of music doesn’t mean, though, that online circles won’t be any less vicious than social circles off the internet. While it’s probably unnecessary to completely dash romantic notions of bonding with newfound friends online over emerging indie labels, it’s also pretty sad to realize social music sites have successfully formed a whole new arena in which to judge people one doesn’t even know: now, the world-wide web makes it easy to develop prejudices based on a person’s music preferences. ‘Playlistism’, a term coined by United States’ Wesleyan University student Stephan Aubrey, refers to discrimination based on a music listener’s posted playlists - and can sometimes be so pronounced users delete posted music or inflate their lists with more popular bands. It’s an ‘Oh, that person listens to the Backstreet Boys, he must be really lame’ kind of thing. “Most of the time I judge people by their musical taste, to be honest,” says TeenSpot.com user Misohelio. “I think it’s fine if people judge me by the music I listen to,” he continues, “because I listen to good music.”

And now it’s your turn: try a few. We’ve provided you with a list of some popular sites to help you start out, but remember that you might have to bounce around a bit to figure out which music community you like best. These global communities were once the social networks of tomorrow, but as the media networks know, they’re here now and thriving. Thriving, and waiting to add your playlist to the conglomeration.

bc would like to remind you to take care when posting your personal information to the internet. Identity theft is a global problem and, while privacy settings may help mitigate the dangers, the best defence is not putting up sensitive personal data at all.

www.last.fm
See what it means to ‘Scrobble’. Check out the new blog, upload your music and video, access streaming files and try out the widget.

www.iJigg.com
Tagline: Discover great music. A place where indie artists and bands can publicize their music - comment on, rate, and download new songs by indie groups.

www.mog.com
Share your music library with other users and access their streaming files, comment, listen to copyrighted tracks (without downloading them), read user reviews and learn latest music news.

www.ilike.com
Try your hand at the iLike challenge. Link iLike to profiles on Facebook or MySpace, install on iTunes to get song recommendations off your tracked playlist.

www.finetune.com
Listen to FineTune radio ‘stations’ managed by the site, customize playlists, embed music players into your online profiles or desktop.

www.amiestreet.com
Tagline: Music lives here. Another community for indie artists and bands to post their music, with a buying system that makes more popular songs more expensive (up to about $8). All songs are DRM-free, meaning you can copy to play on other players. Store your music in the online library.

www.getmaestro.com
Use Maestro Connector to stream your MP3 files onto the internet, and then access your collection from anywhere. Access your friends’ playlists too!

www.pandora.com
Only available in the US now, (due to licensing constraints, so use a US proxy server to access it) Pandora’s Music Genome Project categorizes music through attributes like tonality and vocalized harmonies - it recommends music based on a musical genome it creates for you.

www.purevolume.com
Tagline: We’re listening to you. Bands and artists get their own websites to promote their music. Watch videos, view rankings of signed and unsigned artists, opt to pay for a PurePlus membership, listen to exclusives, listen to PureVolume radio, shop at the store.