Emily Chang - eHub Interviews

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eHub Interviews last.fm

Thanks to Martin Stiksel and the last.fm team for this email interview posted October 19, 2005.

eHub: What is your web application/service about?

last.fm: discovering new music and getting connected to people into the same music as you

eHub: Why did you start this project?

last.fm: july 2003

eHub: How much time do you devote to its growth?  Do you have a day job?

last.fm: pretty much all the time

eHub: How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?

last.fm: 3 core members:  felix, previously of insine.net and the band stimillion; rj, mr audioscrobbler, previously of southampton university; martin, previously of insine.net and austrian radio & television (orf)

mischa, russ, matt, johan, sal, chris, our dedicated co-workers

eHub: What is your design philosophy?

last.fm: feature-driven, we build what our users want

eHub: What technologies are you currently using?

last.fm: profiling & collaborative filtering

eHub: If your project is live, what are the most requested features from your users/community?

last.fm: up-to-date music charts and to see, what people are listening now and sending recommendations to other users or group-members

eHub: Does your user base reside in a primary geographic location or is it distributed?

last.fm: us, uk, germany, canada, sweden are our strongest countries, but Last.fm users are spread all over the shop

eHub: Where do you see the project heading in the next 6 months?  The next 2 years?

last.fm: achieving what our name implies

eHub: What is the greatest challenge to your success?

last.fm: impossible-to-work & confused music licensing regulations

eHub: What is the one thing you need to get to the next phase of the project?

last.fm: the usual

eHub: Do you have a business model?  If so, what is it?

last.fm: selling & promoting music

eHub: If you’re able to disclose this information, how much traffic or usage do you see on an average day?

last.fm: 96,555 of our users listen to music every day, and all of their 5.5 million songs are registered with our service, via plugins & radio

eHub: What is the one thing you’re most proud of about the project?

last.fm: more than 800,000 registered users

eHub: How would you describe the shift that’s occurring with the web right now to future generations?

last.fm: it’s like the transition from punk to new wave: powerchords get replaced by more intricate melodies, but the bullshit from prog-rock dinosaurs is coming back in as well

eHub: What site(s) do you visit everyday other than your own?

last.fm: our corporate firewall filters everything apart from www.last.fm

eHub: How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

last.fm: 2-10

Thanks to Martin Stiksel and the last.fm team for this email interview posted October 19, 2005.

Visit Last.FM
Originally added to eHub on Sep 10, 05

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eHub Interviews is a series with the creators of Web 2.0 applications and services by Emily Chang, author of eHub, designer, and co-founder and principal of Ideacodes, a strategic web consultancy in San Francisco that she co-founded with Max Kiesler.

Also see eHub Interviews in Japanese at CNET Japan