Quick and to the Pointless

Thursday, 16 August 2007
by fiona
filed under About Us and Found On Last.fm
Comments: 15

So far, it seems, our blog has been dominated by announcements, technical tidbits and various other odds and ends. Seeing as Last.fm is actually meant to be about music we thought it was about time that we, your friendly neighbourhood Music Team, introduced ourselves. The rest of Last HQ may lead you to believe that we are somewhat of a side show to everything else that goes on here; but let’s face it, what would we be without the music?

An Introduction

Last.fm is and always has been dedicated to working closely with artists and labels, whether they are making music after school in a bedroom, releasing their first indie album, or are part of a major and selling millions of records a year. If you’re in a band, or run a label, you can join the Last.fm family by registering for a music account.

Our mission then is to make sure you can hear anything and everything you could ever want to on Last.fm. If you consider how many labels, how many artists, how many albums and how many songs have ever been created you may be close to achieving some idea of the mammoth size of this task.

This is us. On the roof.

Matt H, Jonas, Stefan B, Fiona, Helen

A day in any one of our lives might include keeping artists and labels happy (as well as meeting new ones), getting CDs encoded and online, managing promotional campaigns and making sure everything is running smoothly. There’s also research to be done, contacts to be made, phones to be answered, the Music Manager to babysit, a forum to tend, blog posts and newsletters to construct, developers to bribe and perhaps most vitally, tea to be drunk and biscuits to be eaten.

Bands in Bath Tubs

We also like to think that due to the time we spend browsing various artists pages that we spot some of the best oddities on Last.fm. For instance, the vast quantity of photos of bands-in-baths that we spotted earlier today; Liars, Menomena, CocoRosie, The Unicorns, Xiu Xiu and our very own Matt H’s Everyone to the Anderson. He can’t explain it, anyone else have any ideas?

Other recurring themes we’ve spotted include swimming pools (Reuben, Blink 182, Nirvana), the four-way split (Interpol, Fugazi, Grizzly Bear) and the ubiquitous ‘standing in front of a graffitied brick wall’ shot (Pretty much every band, ever). This does beg the question is there such a thing as an original band photo?

My winners are probably Animal Collective, whose highlights include a theme park log flume photo. The Shins as sleeping super heroes and Modest Mouse just seem to take it to the next level by turning themselves into trees, or giants, or a museum exhibition… in the desert.

Comments

  1. Stefan Baumschlager
    16 August, 15:57

    my word! that’s not me in that picture! no way

    Stefan Baumschlager – 16 August, 15:57
  2. Paul Capewell
    16 August, 15:58

    :D

    Paul Capewell – 16 August, 15:58
  3. Anonymous
    16 August, 15:58

    I find the bathtub picture amazing. And the type on here too small to read. And on that the right girl on the picture looks as if she cooked awesome Sunday roast.

    Anonymous – 16 August, 15:58
  4. Max Howell
    16 August, 16:03

    Fiona clearly dressed up for work today.

    Max Howell – 16 August, 16:03
  5. ash
    16 August, 16:07

    have I already mentioned that I would love working with you guys if London wasn’t that awfully far away and that expensive?

    how about building a bathtub swimming pool on that roof?

    ash – 16 August, 16:07
  6. Matt H
    16 August, 16:41

    If I had a pound for each time I asked for a hot tub on the roof… :P

    Matt H – 16 August, 16:41
  7. PocketMumble
    17 August, 00:34

    Another band/bathtub picture
    Aereogramme

    PocketMumble – 17 August, 00:34
  8. wagiloe
    17 August, 17:29

    With nearly perfect certainty they’re all copying emo band From First to Last:
    http://www.last.fm/music/From+First+to+Last/+images/110761

    wagiloe – 17 August, 17:29
  9. Lainagier
    18 August, 01:47

    I like Fiona’s thought bubbles.

    Lainagier – 18 August, 01:47
  10. Simon Plenderleith
    18 August, 15:15

    Modest Mouse are the shit, hoorah for original band photos! :D

    Simon Plenderleith – 18 August, 15:15
  11. Reanna
    19 August, 22:07

    try Jeffree Star now that is awesome

    Reanna – 19 August, 22:07
  12. Steven Gravell
    22 August, 14:16

    Damn you guys linking to images that are going to be deprecated and pointing to the wrong image ids next week. I guess I’m going to have to fix that and try and make it backwards compatible.

    Steven Gravell – 22 August, 14:16
  13. Kimiko
    23 August, 20:57

    Yay for tea and biscuits!

    Are you the folks who take care of getting my favorite music available through Last.fm? And the music related to it as well, so I can actually hear the recommended stuff?

    Is there a way to get similar artists (in musical style that is) actually linked as ‘similar’ on Last.fm if they are from different countries and sing in different languages and such? I find that lesser known artists are often grouped by nationality rather than musical style.

    Or are y’all the worng folks to ask about that?

    Kimiko – 23 August, 20:57
  14. holyroarrecords
    12 September, 19:46

    Cutting Pink With Knives are technically in the bath in their pic. Well, our shower is in our bath…. See.. http://www.last.fm/music/Cutting+Pink+with+Knives

    holyroarrecords – 12 September, 19:46
  15. Hg
    14 September, 08:24

    This bath tub picture of Lupen Crook sprang to mind the moment I read this post.

    The Associates’ Fourth Drawer Down deserves an honourable mention in the swimming pool list too.

    Hg – 14 September, 08:24

Comments are closed for this entry.