I love exploring tag radios. For example, this morning I woke up listening to wake up radio. Then I listened to breakfast radio. Now I’m listening to coffee break. I like how those tags aren’t limited to genres, and I enjoy wondering why something got tagged the way it did.
Our most popular tag radios include chillout and alternative rock but we got a lot more to offer. For example, have you ever tried fado tag radio? It’s improved a lot recently thanks to a new algorithm Norman developed.
However, all our algorithms wouldn’t work without your help. Everyday we receive lots of tags for lots of music. Thank you!! And special thanks to drsaunde, spacefish, and JessiCoplin who are our all time top taggers. Our top three staff taggers (Erik, Felix, and Mischa) are light years away from their contributions. But every tag counts!
Btw, do you tag music? What are your favourite tag radio stations?
Comments
ash
24 August, 12:35
have you discovered any similarities in the songs that are tagged “breakfast”?
to be honest, I always wondered if there was any sense in tags like “breakfast”.
but now that you mention it, it could be fun listening to something without having any idea what you can expect.
first, every time I saw the “seen live” tag I thought: what the heck should that tell me? SOMEBODY has seen them live. so what?
but then I realized that the information that many people have seen a band live is not useless at all …
I wasn’t very creative in tagging up to now.
maybe I should start doing it …
Nectar_Card
24 August, 12:47
Absolutely I tag, and looking over other people’s tags is the most interesting (& idiosyncratic) way of finding new music.
Here’s a couple:
Cheese on Toast – Some late 80’s roller disco action
wherein i compile a comprehensive list of songs about zombies
I am a party girl here is my soundtrack
There is also a group dedicated to people sharing their own streamable tag radio stations….
Subscribers and their tag radio stations
Alex Muller
24 August, 13:14
I’ve always liked the tag radio for scrubs — all the songs from the TV series
elias
24 August, 13:20
@ ash: No, I couldn’t find any obvious similarity in the breakfast station, but it was fun listening to it nevertheless. I’ve always ignored the seen live tag so far, too. But I should really give it a try! And while I’m at it, I’ll probably try the albums I own one as well.
@ Nectar_Card: I agree it’s one of the best ways to explore new music… I’m just about to check out your personal tag stations :-)
Comanescu
24 August, 13:29
Are there any hourly stats for “breakfast radio”, for example? Maybe it’s a name users started to interpret as “surprising playlists”, “things not heard before” a.s.o. In that case, breakfast radio is not listened to only during the morning.
I’m aware of the fact that last.fm is used around the clock by people on all the time zones, but IP’s can easily be classified.
Matt
24 August, 13:35
Pretty much every Sunday, as I’m winding down my evening or making dinner I’ll put on Mischa’s absolutely legendary coffee and cigarettes tag radio. So good.
elias
24 August, 13:45
@ Comanescu: that’s an interesting idea. Unfortunately, we don’t have such stats yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if breakfast radio isn’t something people would only listen to from 7am to 11am (within their timezone).
dikiz
24 August, 13:45
I personnaly use tags only for a few days! I use them as reminders: for example if a friend ask me for french electro artist, if I ever want to make podcast special “french electro”, then I’m happy to find my list already made héhé
James Holloway (headlessness @ last.fm)
24 August, 14:01
I tend to plump straight for the ambient or instrumental tags if I’m working, and I was quite pleased to find the “lesser known yet streamable artists” tag, which seems to be a good way to showcase a lot of the unsigned talent happy to put their music on last.fm for free:
http://www.last.fm/tag/lesser+known+yet+streamable+artists
Oh, and the christmas and xmas tags go down well in the house at a certain time of year.
I definitely need to experiment more with the sort of abstract tags out there. I tend to avoid straight genre-type tags for listening, although these are the ones I tend to apply, somewhat unimaginatively, myself.
A group of us tag songs that we really like with ‘woopwoop’ as a sort of distributed tag-based radio.
It’s like tagging something with ‘thisisgood’, but in a more controllable, and hopefully discerning way, since people unaware of the tag are unlikely to use it by accident. It makes for pretty good and varied listening though it does lean towards certain genres at the moment. We need some more rock, classical and jazz people to start using the tag (and more besides).
Hopefully it’ll grow into something that gives you really excellent music across all genres, as long as people remain selective about as and when they use the tag! Have a listen, use the tag, join the group!
WoopWoop tag: http://www.last.fm/tag/woopwoop
Group: http://www.last.fm/group/WoopWoop
Jonty
24 August, 15:06
And of course, don’t forget the awesome Top Gear tag radio:
http://www.last.fm/tag/top%20gear
Sean
24 August, 17:46
I always just thought of tags as selfish things. I use them to keep track of where I first heard a song but I will have to start checking out some different tag radios and see what they have to offer.
Jessi
24 August, 20:31
I used to tag a lot of stuff early on, but then the fantabulous Tag Editor went away and it’s much more tedious and laborious to tag stuff. These days I intend to tag but I always procrastinate.
I wish my hurdy gurdy tag had enough streamable content to be listenable.
Brad
25 August, 20:08
I like the tag “microsound”.
Paul
25 August, 23:29
My favorite is ‘lazy eye’ radio – Where else will you find Momus, Paris Hilton, Barry Manilow and Cookie Monster on one radio station.
elias
26 August, 14:00
Thanks for all the comments! I’m looking forward to try out all the different tag radios everyone mentioned.
Btw, if you enjoy tagging you might enjoy the the Major Miner game
or the Listen Game.
Both are part of research projects and any contributions you make will help researchers develop a better understanding of music.
Jordan
26 August, 19:30
I’m sad to say that I don’t actually tag, but thus far it’s been an active choice rather than a result of apathy. I’ve attempted to tag music many times, but I always end up deleting them. I am very obsessive about order in lists, and as yet I haven’t created a sufficient system in which I can know precisely where a song will go at any time. When I find that, I will begin tagging.
Hemmer
27 August, 15:59
i love listen to my personal seen live tag radio. reminds me of the good times…
jet
28 August, 10:48
what is tagging? and what does it mean when u embed a track?? im so confused here!
Antonio Fernandes
29 August, 00:06
tagging for me is a dive in the collective subconscious. A move that always gets me inspired..Any idea someone associates with a song can be expressed or linked through a tag.. Try random navigations: choose a colour, a feeling, a value or an expression. Link two words that apparently make no sense.
Then, click on that tag’s radio and make a drawing, a playlist, writte a letter or start cooking and be sure to be surprised!
Agaponeo
29 August, 00:33
I tagged time ago…
This post make me remaind to tag again…
Lately I’m listening more music, more radios…
Tags are nice :).
Paula
29 August, 09:57
Thanks for the mention. :)
JessiCoplin
29 August, 19:33
Hey! There I am! I honestly just tag as a sort of research tool for myself to learn more about music… I’m more about filling in facts such as release years and stuff like that, but I can’t believe I’m a top tagger! Woohoo!
hishou
30 August, 08:59
I started making up tags when it was introduced with the then newer layout & all, but it got to be a bit of a nag when I went back to it.
Not so much out of laze, but more so out of the like of, “what the hell should I call this?” or “god, what would someone else tag this??”
From there, I got too philosophical & entwined in the whole bitter struggle about proper tagging with myself. Humourous really. xD
Ps, just checked; I’ve not tagged anything since December 2005…
o_o’‘ Oh. My. Suppose I should give it another go then. :]
drsaunde
30 August, 19:09
Wow…I am suprised I have made this list. I haven’t tagged anything in at least a year :-)
nasasie
30 August, 23:46
I create highly personal tags purely for my own use. why else would I have a tag called mr superhypergenki-j-pop-freak or please let there be my kind of music – heavy music ? I am always looking for more music to put into my tag-radios! :D
mansheets
1 September, 14:43
Hi,
Great post, exactly what, i’m looking for. I am doing my master’s dissertation for my library and information Studies qualification on the usefulness of tagging for music discovery. Would anyone have time to help a student out and take a SHORT survey regarding your experiences with discovery through tagging, your tagging practices, etc.
Cheers,
Michael
elias
1 September, 14:55
Michael (mansheets), I’d be happy to help. Btw, you might want to (if aren’t already) keep an eye on the ISMIR 2007 conference. There’ll be several publications related to tagging music. I’m also guessing that the tutorial notes by Lamere & Celma on music recommendation (which might include a lot of information about discovery based on tags) will be made available online.
Angela
5 September, 04:27
I really like Triple J which is a tag radio based on an Australian alternative station with really good taste in music. and things like 00s Alternative which is pretty varied and fun. :)
Mikowhy
10 September, 09:04
I’ve just disovered what ‘taging’ is. It’s great idea.
I usually hear Last.fm at work and maybe this is why I prefer something like ‘coffee time’ or ‘work time’.
All the best for stuff – you do very good job. I hope I will be working with you oneday.
Mikowhy
Claudia
10 September, 12:21
if you like you could explore the tag radios of our group, The Special Interest Tag Radio Collective. We have some fun themed tagstations here. Enjoy :-)
~ Claudia (hm_hallo)
www.last.fm/group/The+Special+Interest+Tag+Radio+Collective
Diana
12 September, 16:18
This is a nice find for me, usually pretty energetic: http://www.last.fm/tag/zorax
discordia23
13 September, 18:33
I think tag radio is one the best things about last.fm and I use it frequently.
Nice tags are: tea time, rhodes, saturday afternoon, anything, quiet, far out, ethereal and infinitely many more.
TheConfuzed1
16 September, 18:09
Heh… I tag tracks more often than I listen to tag radio. :)
elias
21 September, 20:22
Btw, we just finished improving some stuff and now there should be a lot more content for “obscure” tags. So if you tried some tags recently and got a “not enough content” error, please give it another try.
LastRites
1 October, 03:37
I love tags, but atm I’m getting no content errors for every tag…even stuff like ‘rock’ .
hmm :o
James
2 October, 00:53
other than my general tag of indie rock that I tag quite a large majority of my music with (obviously if it’s Debussy or Britney Spears I’ll give it a more appropriate category), my most commonly used tag is instantly recognisable, which, oddly, is used exclusively by me. Basically, it signifies any song that I judge to be so unique that the first few seconds are recognised straight away.
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