I think you're OTM about the Last.FM profile usurping the role of “hey, look at my music collection.” There's a certain type of social interaction that used to involve having people 'round to your apartment where they could peruse your collections of music, books, and videos. Ostensibly, you'd curated all these collections to sort of offer some kind of insight about you. And these collections really had to be managed, if for no other reason than the sheer limitations of your physical space; you can only store so many CDs.

But, nowadays, all these types of interactions take place online (Facebook, Last.FM, Twitter, etc.)– and there are no longer any real limitations on physical space. 10 years ago, if you saw someone's music collection, and it was heavy on, say, Black Flag, Fugazi, the Dead Kennedys… you could glean quite a bit of information about this person, from their preferred method of dress to their political leanings. But today, simply seeing a person's iTunes Library won't tell you anything at all, really… A person's iTunes library now is likely to have not only Black Flag and Fugazi, but also Britney Spears and MC Hammer, Pavarotti and Leadbelly, Johnny Cash and Slayer. And that doesn't tell you anything, other than “this person likes to have options.”

It's not about “what have you got?” anymore, it's about “what are you listening to?” and more specifically, “what are you listening to RIGHT NOW?”

I wonder if a listener profile – i.e. Last.fm – and number of followers, i.e. people who think you have great taste in music because they can see that profile – can make up for the lack of ownership, psychologically? I.e. building a profile, instead of a physical collection?

I think you're OTM about the Last.FM profile usurping the role of “hey, look at my music collection.” There's a certain type of social interaction that used to involve having people 'round to your apartment where they could peruse your collections of music, books, and videos. Ostensibly, you'd curated all these collections to sort of offer some kind of insight about you. And these collections really had to be managed, if for no other reason than the sheer limitations of your physical space; you can only store so many CDs.

But, nowadays, all these types of interactions take place online (Facebook, Last.FM, Twitter, etc.)– and there are no longer any real limitations on physical space. 10 years ago, if you saw someone's music collection, and it was heavy on, say, Black Flag, Fugazi, the Dead Kennedys… you could glean quite a bit of information about this person, from their preferred method of dress to their political leanings. But today, simply seeing a person's iTunes Library won't tell you anything at all, really… A person's iTunes library now is likely to have not only Black Flag and Fugazi, but also Britney Spears and MC Hammer, Pavarotti and Leadbelly, Johnny Cash and Slayer. And that doesn't tell you anything, other than “this person likes to have options.”

It's not about “what have you got?” anymore, it's about “what are you listening to?” and more specifically, “what are you listening to RIGHT NOW?”

I wonder if a listener profile – i.e. Last.fm – and number of followers, i.e. people who think you have great taste in music because they can see that profile – can make up for the lack of ownership, psychologically? I.e. building a profile, instead of a physical collection?

Steve Jobs was right when, years ago, he said, “People want to OWN their music” — but that was several years ago… I don't think it's true now. And it will become less and less true as we move forward.