vale[ blog ] diary of the last hollow soul

Yesterday i listened to a collaboration album featuring many bands, and i wanted to see if they were added to my last.fm library (they were). On the home page though, i saw some changes, some i am very happy about. Beside the event and artist recommendations, now there's a new part showing new releases, by default from my most listened artists. I'm really grateful for this feature, because i always had trouble following who has a new album when. As can be seen, my library is quite diverse with loads of artists, so following and remembering each of them is kind of impossible. For example, wasn't it for this new feature, i wouldn't have realised that Pain of Salvation, Gamma Ray and Rage have new albums, even though i really love their music. And of course there is a page where there are the new releases from artists recommended based on my musical taste. Good choice to get to know new artists. The only problem is that artists or labels need to fill out those fields, apparently, and that's no good. Many artists are not present on last.fm (meaning they don't manage their profiles), also many albums are messed up. For example, in my case, what is Spock's Beard's Octane doing there? That album was five years ago! (It's okay when it's shown that it's a re-release or something, but just like that…)
That artist suggestion feature has been there for quite a while, but i haven't used it much. If i'd get bored with my library (highly improbable, but still), then there would be the first to look, but usually i don't check out new music just because it's similar to what i already have. Also, it's not perfect. It should be working on a 3-month or 6-month base instead of whole-library analysis, so that recent taste changes would be better reflected. Also i don't necessarily want more of the music i already have a lot of—rather get to know new ones in genres that i so far listened to not that much. (See, in japanese i write in english structures, in english i use japanese ways. S(l)ick.)
The event recommendations did not change, and it's alright like that. Useful, though many events are missing…