Wolf - Practicum Post #5: Using Last.fm For Info on Concerts/Events

Initially, I was hoping to compare and contrast my experience in connecting between two media-based social networking sites, YouTube and Last.fm, where I sought to examine how the two sites created community as it pertained to similar interests in music. Though I concluded YouTube had a wider breadth of music in its catalog given its greater popularity, most of my observations going forward will likely be about Last.fm simply because I felt it was a much better site in providing social networking, a key component of media-based social networking. I’ll likely divulge my reasoning in my paper, but for this particular post, I felt Last.fm had a more useful, responsive community that could help me find the answer to my question.

In addition to serving as an online radio/music player, Last.fm has a listing of different concerts, tours, and festivals where nearly every notable artist is playing. Last month, I knew Bruce Springsteen was coming to Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Friday, Sept. 7 for his Wrecking Ball tour and didn’t want to miss out, as Springsteen’s my favorite artist. However, after failing to get tickets, I was happy to find out that Bruce was adding a second show on Sept.8, and found out tickets went on sale on May 5.

I knew I wanted tickets, and from the article, I knew that I would have to pay good money to see the concert. Being a college student, my bank account is kind of slim, so I was hoping to get a cheaper ticket, so long as my seat location wasn’t terrible. I didn’t know how the prices varied from location to location within Wrigley Field, and couldn’t find any information into the pricing structure, so I went to the event listing on Last.Fm. The page indicated users who marked themselves as attending the event, while also posting a map on how to get to Wrigley. Still, I wanted to know the specifics of the seating pricing, so I posted in the “Shoutbox” on the event page, where users can discuss the event. I was hoping somebody could provide insight.

Lo and behold, I received a response within a day from another user, big_mike7.

Although the link wasn't everything I wanted (The response was after tickets had initially gone on sale for Sept. 8, so it provided a link to the secondary market where tickets were more expensive, rather than through the direct seller Ticketmaster), it was nice to know that somebody was willing to help me out simply because he was a fellow Springsteen fan. The overall trend I noticed with commenters on Last.fm compared to YouTube is that the users on the site are much more knowledgeable about the music industry, the artists' biographies, and provide greater insight than commenters on YouTube. From what I've seen in the comments on YouTube, many of the comments are glib statements like, "This is awesome!" or "cool man." Last.fm users on the other hand seem like superfans who have specifically taken the time to talk about the artist with others in this online community, whereas YouTube comments seems more whimsical. Though big_mike7 didn't provide exactly what I wanted, the gesture was greatly appreciated. (I did end up getting what appear to be decent seats for about $80, so I'm pretty content and excited for the Sept. 8 concert.)