roddy Posted January 30, 2007 at 10:07 AM Report Posted January 30, 2007 at 10:07 AM I've been using Last.fm for a few days, and it's pretty useful - you download a bit of software and it monitors what music you listen to on your computer, and makes 'people who liked what you like also liked this' type recommendations. However, as soon as you try and work with Chinese music it falls apart. Chinese song titles aren't uploaded properly, Chinese artists are listed on the site under their English name. Or Pinyin. Or Chinese. Or not at all. Tracks similarly. For Chinese music, it's probably usable if you are mainly listening to stuff that is popular overseas, but otherwise it's not that useful. So I was wondering if there were any Chinese alternatives, which will presumably have good coverage of Chinese music and probably do a decent job with overseas stuff too. The China Web Review blog seems to come out in favor of 8box.cn, which I'm registering for in another browser window as I type. So this is half question, half information. Has anyone got any recommendations for similar sites that are good for Chinese music? And if you want to try one, check out the list at CWR. Quote
gougou Posted January 30, 2007 at 10:15 AM Report Posted January 30, 2007 at 10:15 AM A couple of days ago, I did a post (that went by unnoticed ) on 友播. With the exception of a psychological profile, according to which it guesses the music you like, it is an exact copy of Pandora. Quote
roddy Posted January 30, 2007 at 10:36 AM Author Report Posted January 30, 2007 at 10:36 AM Whooooops, missed that. Will, erm, ban myself. I'm finding 8box a little tricky - it's handy for listening to music, but I'm not seeing any 'This music is similar to that music stuff', and as this is meant to be Web 2.0 so I don't see why I should have to go looking for it I'm doing the test on 友播 now, but to be honest I'm tired of music sites now - I've got 200 browser windows open, Russian music has just started playing from somewhere, and I can't find it to stop it . . . Edit: Now it's started playing the Eagles. I swear, it's like when a foreigner walks into a cafe in some random Chinese city and they instantly get out the 'foreign music'. They don't even know I'm not Chinese. Still no sign of the Carpenters . . . Quote
rose~ Posted January 30, 2007 at 12:08 PM Report Posted January 30, 2007 at 12:08 PM Sigh...I hope they will improve the tagging at lastfm.com, especially because they have a 简体 Chinese page now. It's like when you call your friend "Sally Lam" at her company- first you ask for Sally Lam, the secretary tells you there is no-one known as Sally Lam there, you try asking for "Lam Wai Man" but your Canto pronnciation is so out that it's funny or they don't speak it, then you try her name into Mandarin, but still no luck. Finally you realise she left that company last year. It's easy to see why the tagging is so messed up, without even mentioning simplified vs traditional- I think it's art reflecting life If lastfm became popular in China, it would be great to see Jay Chou or Faye Wong (or Faye Wang or Wang Fei or 王菲) on their charts though. I do actually use the site to find Chinese music I like quite well, by looking at the "similar artists" list, but I haven't tried the program yet. Welcome to the Hotel California...such a lovely place.... Quote
zarathustra Posted February 3, 2007 at 12:21 AM Report Posted February 3, 2007 at 12:21 AM It would be great if there was something like last.fm. Last.fm (and many other similar English sites) usually have iTunes plugins. So you don't need to upload or tell them what music you like; it know and then auto recommends similar music. Last.fm does now have a Chinese translation of their site though without a huge population of Chinese users, the recommendations seem slim. Quote
rose~ Posted February 4, 2007 at 08:27 PM Report Posted February 4, 2007 at 08:27 PM I'm a big, big girl in a big, big world... Just helping everyone out since we didn't find a Chinese lastfm... (runs for cover...)! Quote
gougou Posted March 13, 2007 at 04:20 AM Report Posted March 13, 2007 at 04:20 AM Another pandora ripoff. As far as I can tell, they too skipped on the "genetical profiling" and will just play songs by the same artist. Quote
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