Prompted by Martin Belam’s list, and to avoid the utter boredom of reinstalling OSX now that my Mac Mini’s internal hard drive has given up the ghost a day before Christmas, here’s my top ten blog posts of 2007, thanks to Google Analytics.

I don’t get nearly the number of readers that Martin gets, and interestingly my recent appearances on the BBC Internet Blog (and links from it) haven’t altered my blog traffic significantly. In fact, most of the traffic to james.cridland.net has been related to a BBC Backstage gadget I’ve written, bringing feeds of BBC Weather to iGoogle. But, here’s the most-read blogs.

1. Fantastists and lazy journalists
Back in March, I looked at a story that the press failed to adequately check before printing, while I checked on it by, um, typing things into Google. I don’t comment on this story any more, and almost feel wrong even linking to it, but it’s clear that others still find it interesting. I wish Ryan and his family all the best.

2. When a perfectly valid credit card won’t work
Highly confusing, this one. This is just a rant, in January, against a credit card (one I don’t have any more, I think), but has clearly caught some search-engine love.

3. iPlayer on GNU/Linux
Welcome news about the BBC iPlayer, with a screenshot from the Ubuntu box in the kitchen. Oly posted in 12 December, but the third most popular posting of the entire year.

4. Review of the O2 XDA Mini S
A review of one of the most hateful phones I’ve ever had the misfortune to have to own. Curiously, my idea (held within this post) of how wifi should work on mobile phones is entirely how the Apple iPhone works. Interesting, too, how much of what I say is fixed with the iPhone.

5. I move to the BBC
My announcement from May, which many linked to. This posting has the record for the amount of comments on this little blog - 37 comments to one post. I ended up leaving Virgin at the end of June, and starting at the BBC on 9 July.

6. DAB+ in the UK
From March, a posting which appears quite high in a search for “DAB Plus” apparently; berating WorldDMB’s Quentin Howard for saying DAB+ would “never come to the UK”. He was wrong then, and while there are still no plans for any DAB+ broadcasting in the UK, he’s still wrong now.

7. How to auto-fill your iPod and train it for better music
From January. I mean to write a follow-up; but sadly have lost my iTunes library thanks to a failed hard-drive today, including all my information about the songs I like. Sigh. Will have to listen to lots more music, then.

8. Channel 4 and DAB Digital Radio
From March: an enthusiastic post about the (winning) Channel 4 bid for the second DAB multiplex. I wonder how many of the promised services will actually make it on-air? Virgin Radio Viva’s certainly not there… and it had a nice logo, too…

9. The Apple TV versus the Sony PSP
A long blog entry from March, essentially saying that if you allow people to hack your products, they’ll sell more. The Apple TV has, of course, sunk without trace; while the Sony PSP has lived to see another day.

10. iGoogle BBC Weather gadget
The source of most traffic to james.cridland.net these days. Bizarrely, Hereford appears to be the most popular place that people want their weather for.

11. Pandora - available to the US only? Or not
A rant about Pandora (who don’t pay PRS/MCPS and PPL licences) still being available in the UK.

12. talkSPORT nicks my little UK flag
…and I’m happy. This blog posting made me add the flag to all my sites again. Ah.

13. DAB audio quality from Ofcom
94% of people say that DAB audio quality is just as good if not better than FM. Worth a blog post.

14. Sky Anytime
I discover this catchup service on my Sky box. Seems to me that we’ll be much better services by proper IP-delivered catchup services. BBC iPlayer seems to fit the bill rather better these days.

15. The story of last.fm
To coincide with their sale to CBS, I witter on about how they don’t pay any licences to the music collection agencies, and just went ahead and made a business (while PPL, MCPS/PRS just stood around and did nothing). Nothing has changed.

16. DAB Slideshow
A photograph of the UK’s first DAB Slideshow services. The BBC has since added some slideshow services, but I don’t own a radio capable of decoding them.

17. Facebook - goodness, it’s good
I discover Facebook. In May of this year. And it’s quite good.

18. Getting rid of out-of-office replies in Gmail
Quite a few rules to rid yourself, mainly, of out-of-office replies. This post needs updating.

19. Logitech Harmony review
A long-term review of a remote control. No, seriously, it’s in the top 20.

20. Google Charts with PHP
Only posted in December, this is announcing a free mostly-port of some Google JavaScript code (which does the same job in PHP). The power of open-source strikes again.

Might I wish you a happy and safe Christmas.

Photo: Stuart Meldrum. Used under licence.

Martin Stiksel is a quiet man. He’s balding, dresses in the understated and almost scruffy casual wear of young London companies. He speaks quietly with an Austrian accent, and smiles a lot. He’s a very nice chap.

I had a public argument with him once. But he warmly greets me whenever I see him: whether at his offices in trendy North London, or at conferences. Softly chiding me for using his services in ways he didn’t forsee and doesn’t altogether approve of; asking for, and sharing, information about our businesses; thoughtfully thinking about my answers.

As of this week, Martin is also a multi-millionaire: £19m came his way this week in a new personal fortune, courtesy of US broadcaster CBS, when they bought the company he founded with Felix Miller and Richard Jones. That company, launched in 2002 and now with fifteen million users, is the music website last.fm.

Of everything that’s been written about last.fm’s sale, one point has been missed, apparently: the not insubstantial point that the company has made it’s fortune by not playing by the rules.

Commercial radio doesn’t have “listen again”, the main point of the impressive BBC Radio Player. If you’re a fan of The Geoff Show, you can only listen to the podcast, and not the entire show, music and all. And, that’s been the case with virtually every single commercial radio station. There’s no licence arranged with the RadioCentre, unlike with podcasting, so therefore it’s difficult and arguably even impossible for each radio company to pursue a separate deal. And, because there is no deal, there’s no way to “listen again” to the wealth and breadth of commercial radio output - leaving that to the BBC to exploit. This isn’t through lack of trying, I should add.

What’s possibly rather surprising is that last.fm also has no such deal. Sure, they recently - very recently - signed a few deals with Warner and EMI, but most of what you hear on last.fm’s jukebox music services is not apparently licenced. Again, last.fm has been trying to get a blanket deal for a long while, but not managed to get the likes of PPL to agree. They’ve built their business on telling the record companies to go away and come back with a deal that makes sense; and producing their service anyway. A business that, this week, was worth £142m.

So: commercial radio couldn’t get a licence, so didn’t launch new services.
last.fm couldn’t get a licence, but launched anyway, and built a great business.

It’s slightly irritating if you follow the rules and pay many millions of pounds to record companies, that the record companies appear not to take action against services like last.fm - and allow them to produce a great business while ignoring the rules. Copyright payments aren’t on the basis of an honesty tax; and concerning that the record companies see them that way. There’s no legal argument for witholding payment; there’s certainly a moral one.

I note that one station has quietly launched ‘listen-again’ services within their radio player, despite the lack of a RadioCentre-brokered deal. Could be that someone else is thinking the last.fm way too. Wonder what the record companies will do?

At the beginning of this, I mentioned I’d had a public argument with my newly-minted acquaintance. I asked him, in a Guardian conference in 2005 (three years after he launched), what music deals he’d signed. He replied to say he had not signed any deal with the record companies. I asked him whether that made him a glorified pirate radio station. Probably not the fairest of questions - but perhaps quite truthful. He quietly shrugged.

At Internet World 2007. Watching Paul Brown, MD Europe, Pandora Media

Taking us on a tour of Pandora. A little boring for me, given that I use it.

Says that his service is all about ‘Discovery’. Irritatingly calls it radio. It’s not. It’s a music jukebox. Grr.

People on average make 25-30 stations, based on artists and/or songs. Interesting: I think I have about five in my Pandora.

Talks about the problem of search-blindness within iTunes, and how this fixes it.

Says that the “Backstage” area - more info about the tracks, seemingly totally lifted from AMG with no additional content and precious little that is unique, is being quite popular. I don’t quite understand how, but anyway, that bodes well.

Says they aren’t focused on community. But they have an interesting new profile system. “Last listened-to”, etc. Looks worth looking into.

Explains how the music genome project works: I heard all this on an old Leo Laporte podcast (Behind the Net, or something) so nothing new for me. Picture of a typical music analyser on the screen who looks like a spotty geeky student. However, interestingly they appear to have tweaked this recently to use collaborative feedback a bit (which I seem to remember Westergren specifically said in the podcast that he wasn’t going to do).

Stresses that Pandora isn’t just “about the hits”. (Probably a main point of difference with Last.fm).

Expresses that they want to be across all platforms: in the car, on the mobile, at home, etc. (That bit’s a little scary: but then, of course they -want- to be on those platforms, but they’ve precious little else to say.)

Nicely, Westergren does a tour of the US visiting listeners. Says he’s doing this to meet the listeners, but I reckon there are other reasons. Not sure yet what those might be.

Figures. Yay.
Registered users: Mar 2007: 6,141,172 (not now 6.5)
Mar 2006: 1,474,032
Launch Nov 05

Briefly mentions expansion plans: Canada, Continental Europe, UK. Mobile: a key area. Classical music is coming too. ‘Further consumer electronics partnerships’.