DaChispa

I think I am finally beginning to get the benefits of data tagging from a personal viewpoint. I’ve just started using www.last.fm as my music centre on the PC. I’ve done a couple of searches on artists I like and have been interested to see the ‘similar artists’ list that comes up (based on tags). The facility that I particularly like is that you can play the ‘artist name radio’ (eg Oasis radio) which just plays, uninterrupted, a selection of similar music to that which you have searched on (eg Oasis in this example). What this has done for me is almost to recreate my musical history online. I put in an artist from my schooldays and suddenly every tune I remember for that time is playing and I have an (albeit aural) Proustian experience. It has also led me to discover artists that I previously didn’t know about and concerts for some that I didn’t know were playing. A real bonus!

In conjunction with this, Amazon has just introduced its MP3 store so if I find a song I like, I can easily purchase and download it (you can do this at last.fm as well, I just like the Nectar points from Amazon!). Again, I have finally realised that I don’t need to purchase CDs for the one or two good songs – I can just take the ones I want. Once I have a good in car i-pod player, my life will be complete! Slightly behind the rest of the world, but it just wasn’t something that was relevant to me before now.

I guess the lesson I have re-learned this week is that technology is only as useful as the need you have for it. Until now, managing my music wasn’t something that was of particular interest to me – but now I can build memories and easily follow undiscovered paths – and it has changed the way I interact online.