huzzah for last.fm's rec engine. even with a wide spread of genres, it recommends very well. the configurable level of obscurity in the engine is pretty great, too.
agreed. I think it works so well because they didn't try to beat the system with crazy advanced prediction algorithms but instead just harnessed the listening habits and preferences of people who use the service. That's why I really want to work on a mashup of Last.fm, probably Seeqpod, and a link to a place to buy tracks if someone has that desire, all wrapped in a design I've thought of that I think would be pretty cool to use
I think that mashup already exists. last.fm lets you stream and buy tracks...
how about generating mixtapes of recommended music w/ download links to itunes, emusic, etc? last.fm lets you play your recommendations, but you could use their api to get streamable tracks, mix in other music apis for recommendation QA or range, and maybe annotate entries w/ data from onellama (radio station api).