More on Music

Yet another online music service, plus a nifty CD-trading site.

You remember a couple of weeks ago when I talked about music and my obsession with jazz? I wasn't surprised when I was deluged with e-mail from dozens of you telling me about Last.FM, a nifty service I missed. And a PR flak suggested I try La La. And folks, I'm ga ga about it. Here are the details.

I'm not crazy about the site design, but if you can muddle your way through Last.FM , the end product is terrific: a day of listening to your favorite music as well as musicians with similar styles--commercial free.

I listen to my picks all on a small Last.FM player I downloaded. The player's neat and simple . There are three buttons I use often. The heart icon tells Last.FM specific cuts I like so that it can supply more of my favorites. The middle button skips to the next selection. The third icon--the circle with the slash--bans the track so I won't ever hear it again. About the only thing I don't like is that I can't minimize it to the system tray.

I'm sure there are tons of fascinating things I can do on the Last.FM site. And one day when I have the time, and the patience, I'll plow through everything. In the meantime, all I want to do is listen to music, so I created a quick step-by-step.

Start by clicking on the "Create your own music profile" icon. On the next page, create a profile and then download the player.

Back at the main page, click the "Your own personal radio" icon. In the "Enter the name of a band or artist you like" field, type in a handful of your favorite artists (separate each with a comma). Before you click the Search button, highlight all the entries (Control-A) and copy them to the clipboard. (That's because I once misplaced a comma and I was asked to start over. Right--the contents of the field were gone.)

When Last.FM completes the search, click the red "Play Music Like These Artists" button to launch the player.

The next time you want to play that radio station, launch the Last.FM player and click the options icon on the right--it's a little wrench. Choose Change Station and on the History tab, under Custom Stations, you'll find the list you created.

What's annoying is I can't find a way to alter the list.

I'm sure I'll hear from you with all the things I missed about Last.FM. While you're composing that e-mail, I'll be listening to tunes on the Last.FM player.

Dig This: Take a minute and watch David and Dania's quick change act; calling it impressive doesn't do it justice.

The best one is the "Good Morning America" video, the one on the bottom shelf , outjogged to the right. Drag and drop the video onto the TV to view it. [Thanks to Chuck H.]