Audioscrobbler

As information retrieval tools and methodologies become more and more refined, delivering more and more accurate results, I grow more and more worried. Worried that we are eliminating all chance and coincidence from our online lives. Worried that we will end up learning only what we already know. Worried that my carefully constructed virtual world will end up a stagnant pond. Back in the real world, if your circle of friends is wide enough, or merely sufficiently awake to their surroundings, you'll come away knowing something new with every interaction. Mechanisms such as collaborative filtering may go a long way to re-inserting back into the mix the serendipitous or, as Donald Rumsfeld quite eloquently put it, "what we don't know we don't know."

That's probably a needlessly pompous introduction to Audioscrobbler. Audioscrobbler uses a plug-in to track what you're listening to, creates a playlist for you, and compares your listening pleasures with other Audioscrobblers.

I heard about Audioscrobbler from the Dan Hill's cityofsound blog. Hill points out that Audioscrobbler could be made even more useful if listeners could be weighted and recommendations evaluated based on whether I trusted this person's judgment, or whether the listener was just some moron who stumbled across something I happened to like too. He also makes the great suggestion that we need to be able to use Audioscrobbler with our iPods, where most of the listening takes place. To this I would also add one other suggested improvement. I often end up listening to WFMU's MP3 stream, rather than my own collection of songs. Almost all of the programs on WFMU now have automated playlists.....Wouldn't it be great if Audioscrobbler could track automated playlists from online radio stations? Wouldn't it be great to have Arbitron-like numbers for people who listened to, and enjoyed, music?

One more point Hill makes, that bears repeating. He talks about suddenly becoming conscious of what he was listening to, and playing his favorite songs for Audioscrobbler. Back when we all wanted our friends to understand what made us tick; now we've shifted that same anxiety to our software.

Posted by Chris Hodge at May 25, 2004 01:34 PM | Links to this post
Categories: Information Studies | Interaction & Collaboration