I have a last●fm profile which gives you personalised charts showing what you have just listened to. It works by installing a plugin (Audioscrobbler) to Windows Media Player (or whatever other player you are using) which watches your playlist and uploads it to a server somewhere. It's all "opt-in" so it bypasses the hassle which Apple has just had spying on i-tunes users' listening habits.
You can then use an RSS feed to add this information to a website, and that's how it appears on this blog. I've chosen to show you only the most recent three tracks I've listened to:
a) because you then can't see the full horror of my listening habits, and...
b) last●fm classes "recent" as about 24 hours, so even that disappears soon.
But... it only tracks what you have listened to on your computer... and so provides a completely false record of what you are actually listening to. I listen to most of my music in the car or on my i-river (like an i-pod, but better...) or around the house.
The music I listen to on my computer tends to be very random and it's often stuff that I have downloaded (legally!) or tried to find online for a specific reason. I listen to so little on the computer, despite having nearly all my CD collection on there, that if I listen to an artist twice, they appear at the top of my weekly charts. The other week it was Tears for Fears, because I had been talking about Donnie Darko. You make the connection.
Anyway, Andy got me thinking about my vinyl collection. My singles are all in the loft, about 500 of them (some of them picture discs and flexi-discs and 33rpm EPs) but my LPs are still on shelves in a spare room, even though I no longer possess anything to play them on. Most of what I still want to listen to, I now have digitally in one form or another, but I had a fun half hour looking through the gatefold sleeves and feeling the static as I took the albums out of their inner sleeves for the first time in about 16 years.
Not being in the least bit ashamed of my wide (and sometimes crap) taste in music, I am quite happy to share that the last piece of vinyl I ever bought was The Riddle by Nik Kershaw...
...which is in here with the rest of the stuff - a real slice of naff 80s!
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Mike & the Mechanics? Huey Lewis & the News? Michael Jackson after Thriller? The horrors that fill our record collections eh?
ReplyDeleteWhile I can't judge you based on your collection lest I be equally judged and you'll find not one but two Shalamar albums in mine I have to comment on the fact that you have 12" singles filed with albums, what's that all about?
Oh no, something else I've got wrong! I'm already accused of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder because they're in alphabetical order (as are my CDs), now I find I should separate the 12" singles from the albums????
ReplyDeleteI feel the need to rebel.
Next time I wash up, I'm going to chuck the clean cutlery back in the drawer randomly and then see if I can get to sleep that night... ;-)
And what's wrong with Shalamar, by the way?
Ok. The Riddle. What the hell was it all about. Obviously Nick was trying to tell us something before moving on to such classics as 'Wide Boy'. Can someone please explain this to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat i have on at the moment is the new Arctic Monkeys cd. At the moment 'You look Good On The Dance Floor' seems the best song, but i will give it time.
I've got TWO Nick Kershaw LPs! But at least my embarrassing collection is up in the loft.
ReplyDeleteAs an expert in all areas OCD maybe you should take the test to know for sure -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ocdaction.org.uk/ocdaction/index.asp?id=302
Good luck ;-)
But what really freaks me out is that on msn messenger where it tells you what someone is listening to it said you were listening to music at home and I know you were out with Paul because you were on the phone to me when you were at the cash machine... how does that work???
ReplyDeletexxxx