My obsession with music charts... or how Last.fm ruined my listening habits

Back when I lived in Vermont, I came across a website called Audioscrobbler. It was new and neat and provided a way to keep track of what you listened to. Instantly I was hooked.

Now back then you had to listen to a certain number of tracks before it would start creating all the neat charts and lists and I remember not being able to wait. In fact I think that I listened to more music on my computer than I normally would have just to try and reach that minimum sooner.

Ever since then it has been one of my most visited websites. Since then it morphed into Last.fm and was bought by CBS. And since then I think that it really has warped how I listen to music.

I find several things to be true:

• There are things I will not listen to on a computer because I don't want people to realize I listened to it.
• There are things I will not listen to on a computer because I only marginally like the artist and I don't want them to overtake an artist on my chart that I really really like.