For your pleasure, I have analysed and compared three social networking sites that are based around the consumption of music.
The three sites are:
Last.fm
Groove Shark
Sound Cloud
Last.fm utilises the technology of scrobbling, which involves recording the songs which you play in your iTunes library and iPod, and compiling this information so that you can spot trends in your listening habits. These trends can be shared with other users, via a feature called “neighbours”. Neighbours are users that share a similar taste in music to your own, and is formulated by Last.fm. This implements a social aspect to the site, granting you the ability to meet people to share your interests. Last.fm also offers customisable radio stations in which users can enter an artist name or related tag, and the website will generate a series of songs that hold similar features. The radio is streaming, making it difficult to directly download the music that is being played.
GrooveShark is a website that allows its users to upload music, which is used to compile a library accessible by anyone who visits regardless of whether they hold membership or not. The legal implications of this website are unclear, as much of the music uploaded is not owned by the users. Through your listening habits, the website suggests other music that you may like based on a tagging system. This allows users to expand their music collection. Whilst there is no direct way to download the music to your computer, there are plugins for FireFox that can bypass this and make all of the music on the site downloadable.
Finally, Sound Cloud is a website that is generally utilised by budding and established musicians in order to host music. Sound Cloud allows its users to upload lossless versions of their tracks in order to maintain high audio fidelity. The music that is uploaded can then be embedded into other websites and blogs using the Sound Cloud media player. The uploaders can elect the settings that dictate the way people can consume their music, such as the ability to download a track or the fidelity in which they receive it. A key feature of Sound Cloud is that users can comment on tracks at certain points in the songs, allowing for a beat by beat commenting system unavailable on any other music hosting website.
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