iLike for iTunes

[pzarquon]

Since we've talked about Last.fm here (as a way to automatically share what we're listening to), I thought I'd mention iLike, a "social music discovery service" from the guys that brought you GarageBand. It also uses an iTunes plug-in to help you share your playlist, track your friends' playlists, and find new stuff that you might be interested in based on your tastes.

It's in "alpha," meaning even more preliminary than a "beta" service, but looks interesting enough. What's missing, versus Last.FM, is the web widgets you can use to share your latest songs and picks on other websites.

My profile is here... though I've yet to populate it with any tracks. For starters, though, you can browse through dozens of bands and pick the ones you like.

[pzarquon]

Re: iLike for iTunes

Ooh. This absolutely beats Last.fm.

I couldn't really give it a whirl 'til I could get home and install the iTunes plug-in. It integrates wonderfully. An hour of use and it already seems like a natural part of my music library. Track rating information and recommendations -- both commercial and free, indie artists -- come up automatically. So if I'm listening to Dance Hall Crashers, it suggests and lets me sample Save Ferris, as well as four indie artists I've never heard of, but whose music I can get for free if I like it.

In fact, I was happy to see that this thing knows iTunes so well, that it fully populates your "top tracks" and "top artists" from the historical data in iTunes. In other words, I didn't have to start from scratch like in Last.fm. iLike already knows that I've played 1,158 TMBG tracks, for example.

Oh, and there is a widget to share your latest tracks and favorite artists on an external website (from your blog to your MySpace profile).

Sheesh. How am I going to play with this and Google Reader? Maybe I'm just in a very technologically susceptible mood.

[lavagal]

Re: iLike for iTunes

I swear to gawd, Ryan, you are the most amazing cyber explorer I know. How can I not look into this now? You should be on some kinda Internet Mystery Shoppers payroll.

[LocalMotion]

Re: iLike for iTunes

i signed up to be notified when they went live with this months ago... i guess they didn't get the emails out. this is very cool service...

Here's my profile

[mel]

Re: iLike for iTunes

Doesn't work if your Mac is using OSX 10.3.9 or older.

[LocalMotion]

Re: iLike for iTunes

Doesn't work if your Mac is using OSX 10.3.9 or older.

any particular reason your still using Panther and not Tiger?

[mel]

Re: iLike for iTunes

Power Mac G4 doesn't have DVD drive. Haven't bought Tiger because of that and I think think the Apple offer to exchange for CDs long expired.

[scrivener]

Re: iLike for iTunes

I may be hooked. Here's me, if anyone's curious.

[liberty]

Re: iLike for iTunes

Thanks for the heads up, Ryan. My new favorite music scrobbling website! Great integration with iTunes. Only thing is it doesn't take iPod submissions (yet)... a recommendation we could make to the people running the site.

Ooh, and here's my profile.

[pzarquon]

Re: iLike for iTunes

I swear to gawd, Ryan, you are the most amazing cyber explorer I know. How can I not look into this now? You should be on some kinda Internet Mystery Shoppers payroll.

Story of my life. I spread the word and evangelize stuff for nothing but the satisfaction of being a geek... and ensuring I don't geek out alone! Still, I must be in a technologically "susceptible" state of mind right now. I'm staying far, far away from the Apple Store.

Doesn't work if your Mac is using OSX 10.3.9 or older.

D'oh. Didn't realize that. So even if your iTunes is up-to-date, your OS version can hold you back? Hope they do work back from Tiger eventually... though I'm sure their focus right now is fleshing out the feature set for those already hooked up.

Only thing is it doesn't take iPod submissions (yet)... a recommendation we could make to the people running the site.

They're definitely receptive. I've seen the CEO replying to blogs about iLike, and know that things are being tweaked and added pretty quickly.

I'm sure when I signed up yesterday morning, there was no "web widget" to share your stuff on other websites... but by yesterday afternoon there were several (Blogspot, MySpace, etc.). The only thing missing is an image-based widget like Last.fm had, so you could include your stats in a message board signature.

What are "iPod submissions"? You mean, incorporating playcount data from your iPod as well as iTunes? Doesn't your iPod playcount data become part of your iTunes data whenever you sync?

After a day of use, I'm having a blast. I love the suggestions, even though some obviously don't click with me (or even insult me... Jason Mraz? Please!). And while the indie artist matches aren't exact -- I presume the sound similarities will improve as more data gets added -- I have definitely found a couple of songs I like from bands I'd never heard of. And those tracks are free!

[scrivener]

Re: iLike for iTunes

I thought this was pretty cute:

[pzarquon]

Re: iLike for iTunes

Heh. Yeah, right now it's a pretty small universe. But it's growing exponentially. In fact, things are updating slower overall now than they were on Tuesday, the day of launch. Hope their slick Web 2.0 code scales well!

That's one good reason to spread the iLike bug, though. If there's a large number of Hawaiian music fans feeding artist data into the system, other users are more likely to be "recommended" Hawaiian artists. And it'd hopefully spur them to broaden their artist database (since a lot of the Hawaiian artists I've fed into iLike don't have any data, or samples).

[Fat Jeff]

Re: iLike for iTunes

OK I've jumped in here

I'm enjoying the fact that so much of what I've listened to lately isn't on thier listening database...always the music snob

Still a pretty new site...as I type I can say that I'm Cheap Trick's #1 fan. Gee, how many people have said that, now I have proof...for, well a little while I guess.

[pzarquon]

Re: iLike for iTunes

Ah, welcome to the madness, Fat Jeff!

It takes a while for the system to calculate "Top Songs," which I think is among the most interesting statistics compiled, but "Top Artists" will do. Cheap Trick, Jimmy Buffet, The Beatles, Green Day and Wibb Wilder? I'm apparently a fan of They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Björk, The Cranberries, and Kealii Reichel.

Interesting, the disparity between who you'd name as your favorite artists and what the raw numbers say. Though I figure my results are due to which artists I import in full albums rather than individuals songs... and my insistence on the most random "random" shuffle (rather than favoring top-ranked songs).

I'm enjoying the fact that so much of what I've listened to lately isn't on thier listening database...always the music snob

Well, actually, entries are created for artists as soon as a couple of users show up with them in their playlists. (Hell, there are entries for my wife and I thanks to podcasts.) The artists for which there are song samples are considerably more limited, though, seeing as they have to have licensing agreements in place to do that.

Definitely a new site, but already lots of geeky fun. Can't imagine what they'll be doing a few revisions from now.

[liberty]

Re: iLike for iTunes

What are "iPod submissions"? You mean, incorporating playcount data from your iPod as well as iTunes? Doesn't your iPod playcount data become part of your iTunes data whenever you sync?

Yes, iLike will update play count data every time you sync your iPod. I meant submitting tracks played on your iPod to be displayed on your "recently played tracks" list.