iLike is one of a growing number of services that offer to make recommendations about music you may have not have heard based upon the music you’re listening to. The vast majority of these services (Pandora being the main exception) function by comparing listener’s tastes with each other, and making suggestions based upon statistical analysis. At the same time, being all Web 2.0, these companies are keen to offer some form of social function based upon shared musical tastes. As iLike claims:

Check out what your friends are listening to, browse the libraries of people with similar tastes, and get Free MP3 downloads by new artists matched to your own music tastes… Share music libraries with your friends, browse and sample their most played songs, and compare your compatibility scores… Auto-organize your iTunes library, share your music tastes with friends, and get music recommendations directly in iTunes.

Although this is very similar to Last.fm and Mog’s offerings, iLike does things a little differently in terms of its interface. This is because, rather than the standard web-based interface, installation of the free download results in a drawer appearing to the right of the main iTunes window, as illustrated below:

The drawer has its pros and cons. It’s very convenient to be able to see music recommendations for the artist currently playing. If iLike is able to propose similar music for a particular artist, it will list up to five tracks in the upper half of the drawer together with ‘free music by new artists’ in the lower half. Each track has a little play button beside it which automatically pauses iTunes and plays a 30 second sample. Clicking the arrow to the right of the listing takes the user to the relevant track on the iTunes Music Store, if it’s available. Two other tabs provide quick access to any Friends you may have made on iLike’s website, as well as providing the ability to customise your music profile and accessing the user’s iLike homepage for messages, recommendations, etc.

A user’s iLike homepage provides a fairly standard array of lists and options including:

• Recently and most played songs
• Friends
• People with similar tastes
• Playlists (in early preview form)

All of this is cleanly and intuitively executed. The disadvantage of the iTunes drawer is that it uses up valuable screen real-estate, whether or not this is an issue will depend upon the resolution of your monitor. On my Macbook Pro (1440 x 880 pixels), it’s just about okay. As stated earlier, recommendations are dependent upon analysis and comparison of other users’ listening habits. This is where iLike is less useful and often less accurate because they clearly have a much smaller database of user’s tastes. Although iLike was reasonably good on a fairly wide range of music including, pop, rock, acid jazz, jazz and funk amongst others, it did fail to come up with any suggestions for less mainstream music. The screenshots below are variously for electronica, world music and techno artists:

As iLike’s user base grows, this will gradually improve and the usefulness of the interface is likely to persuade some potential users to try the service out.The sidebar is stated to work only with iTunes on Mac OSX and Windows XP, Vista is in the process of being tested and a Windows Media Player version is in preparation (currently it tracks usage, but lacks a user interface).

Recommendation: iLike is well worth trying although the most accurate and in-depth recommendations remain the preserve of Last.fm. The social side of the equation is probably better served by Mog. However, the instantaneous nature of iLike’s recommendations - where they are available - is a definite advantage.

Link: iLike
Link: MusicInterface’s iLike homepage
See also: Overview of music recommendation services

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