I’m pleased to report the Leftover Cheese stream trickles again, thanks to Last.fm. It’s a new stream from a new provider. Our focus was live and unrelased material from bands in and around the jam scene. You can see the original playlist here, and download select MP3s from that list. And if you happen to be a Live 365 preferred member, you can still listen to the stream and hear it commercial-free.
Our new stream is compiled from albums I’ve pre-selected at Last.fm. Since any track might be played from the disc at any one time (Shuffle play), there’s more discovery involved for the listener. This new internet radio model has a lot in common with photo sharing site, Flickr, where users share their personal photo albums with friends and strangers alike. Last.fm enables users to share their playlists with the world.
I’m kind of surprised iTunes hasn’t moved forward with a service of this sort. Perhaps they will, after absorbing the impact of being beat to the punch. Maybe the British chaps behind Last.fm will sell to Apple and forever more reside in country castles, where they spend their time gardening and riding horses. Whatever happens, Last.fm is a bold new entry on the geek freak scene. I welcome it with open arms.
Here’s more good news. Our Last.fm stream is available at 128K. The old stream was 56K, barely passing for high fi. Plus, I didn’t need to spend countless hours loading song files to a remote server. I’m not paying through the nose either. In fact, Last.fm is free to join. In order to make this stream available, I had to make a donation. At Live 365 I was paying $65 a month to make the stream available.
Labels, if you’re listening, deliver your entire library to Last.fm at once. The longer the tail, the better.