me and last.fm

[wobbler]

Some of you old timers know very well who I am and what remixes I've been releasing during the past years. Some of you might also know that I have a small page on Last.fm, and that there (unfortunately) is another band on there that wear the same band name as I do (wobbler). That other band is a norwegian prog-band.

Now, I really don't think much of it all. Last.fm can't really (from what I understand after emailing them) do much about the conflict of band names. But: I just got an email from one of the band members in "the other wobbler" asking me to delete myself from Last.fm. The guy also wrote that "in the end it's all about the ownership rights" etc. I responded back to him giving him a brief description of my own history.

Facts are:
- I was the first to register myself/wobbler on Last.fm
- I have a registered company here in Sweden with the same same
– I have sold production music for various clients
– I have remixed commercial artists under the name Wobbler
- I am registered on various websites that sell music
- I am probably well known in the C64-remix community

The reason for me posting this message here is to get your support. I just today saw that the "official band image" on last.fm had been deleted, and was replaced with an image of some guy playing guitar. I immediately created and uploaded a new image (a glossy ball with the swedish flag), and made that "the official image". What I really don't like in this story is that people seem to take things in their own hands, deleting stuff that I uploaded etc etc.

I haven't heard anything back from the prog-band since my reply to them, but I really hope that this won't escalate into some kinda lame war. So, if you can... please give me support in this issue. I don't know how really, but.. well... now you know my own situation.

The addy to the page is: http://www.last.fm/music/Wobbler

cheers!

- markus / wobbler

[Analog-X64]

In my case, the person contacted me for MySpace Musicians Page and it turns out they have a TradeMark Registered on the name, and in the end with the help of Chris Abbott (Thank You), we came to a settlement, and I changed my name to "Analog-X64"

Now what I dont understand is how the other group was able to delete stuff from you're account?

[wobbler]

Now what I dont understand is how the other group was able to delete stuff from you're account?

Exactly what I wondered. However, the only image I had on Last.fm (the official one) was gone when I checked earlier today. Strange. Can an image be "voted off"?

[Romeo Knight]

It looks like yours and the band's stuff has been mixed into one account. I get music by you and at the same time pics and descriptions of the prog rock band.

Weird.

[wobbler]

It looks like yours and the band's stuff has been mixed into one account. I get music by you and at the same time pics and descriptions of the prog rock band.

Weird.

It's really not strange. Last.fm collects information from any user that listen to a song. The scrobbler-application then sends ID3-tag information to Last.fm, and then display the various songs. So, if an user listen to a C64-remix made by me, it's displayed on the wobbler-page. Same goes if anyone listens to a song of the prog-band. We share the same band name, and Last.fm don't know how to separate our songs and therefore merge all songs with the band name Wobbler on the same page.

But then, *listeners* of a band can interact/upload stuff on to the info-page on Last.fm. It seems like someone actually managed to delete my (the official) band picture. I then re-uploaded a new image (the swedish flag). All other pictures are prolly uploaded by fans of the prog-version of wobbler. I haven't personally been arsed to upload anything more imagewise myself.

[LMan]

That sucks big time.

[leoni]

yeh, what LMan just said..

[wobbler]

Yeah, well... at the moment there's only one thing I can ask you to do: listen to any C64-remix that is correctly id-tagged with "wobbler" as artist, and perhaps to vote for the image found here:

http://www.last.fm/music/Wobbler/+images/4135749

=)

[leoni]

done!

[C64GLeN]

I've noticed things like this happen for a lot of c64 remixers who share their names with other artists, but I've also noticed that there seems to be a lot c64 that use last.fm as the tracks most played are the c64 stuff.

[agent4125]

This really looks like something their admins should sort out. It's not doing their visitors any good, and I bet it happens quite often. They need a way to disambiguate artists, sort of the way Wikipedia handles it.

[wobbler]

WTF! I just got this message from an "admin" on Last.fm:

From: HairMetalAddict
Subject: OFFICIAL NOTICE: Disputed Artist Name
Date: 29 Feb 2008, 23:51
An artist to which you are affiliated (Wobbler) is a disputed name. That is, there is more than one artist with that name.

Because of this, allowing "official" images as uploaded via the Music Manager is unfair to other artists of the same name, particularly if the other artist(s) are more popular.

For this reason, you are prohibited from uploading images via the Music Manager for this artist. All images must be uploaded from the artist's Images page, in the same manner as any other user would upload them. (Note: Your "Tracks Played" on your user page must be 20 or more before the ability to upload in this manner is possible, for abuse prevention. If you have less than 20, you must play more tracks first.)

This leaves the image up to voting, which eventually permits the most popular artist to have the primary image on the page.

Until such time that same-name artists can be seperated,this is the way things work. Note that the artist image page has been added to a watch list for same-name artists, and if any official images uploaded from the music manager appear there will be no choice but to treat it as abuse of last.fm services now that you have received this official notice on the matter.

Official FAQ Notice on this matter

HMA
Last.fm global moderator


P.S. There are also rules concerning artist images. The gist of which are that an artist image should be an image of the artist. That's a no-brainer. If you're found uploading flags again as artist images, it will be treated as abuse.


My reply to this guy was:

Erm... I don't have time for a long answer atm, but check the number of plays I have of my tunes on/via Last.fm. The plays vastly exceeds the norwegian prog band's tunes. In other words, I *am* more popular than the "other wobbler". Ok? I really can't see what gives you the rights to delete and block my ability to upload images for me as an artist? I have been in contact with last.fm earlier, ad shall surely take this issue further.

=========

Does anyone have any idea/tip on how to bring this nasty issue to an end? Read the background of my presence on Last-fm earlier in this thread. Cheers!

/ wobbler

[Chris Abbott]

But what if the popularity changed for that other band in the future?

Also, what gives them the right to do anything they like is: it's their website.

I think what you have to do is accept the situation and stop caring.... that's pretty much the only option available, sucky though it is.

Chris

[C64GLeN]

Put an image on here, and I'll uploaded it on last.fm. I'm sure we can get enough votes to get it back as primary image.

[Vosla]

But that won't be a solution at all, just bickering.
There MUST be something like a hearing to get to an acceptable solution for both parties. Any other 'solution' is not acceptable and last.fm would drop from my list faster they you can type 'commercial artists first'.