The New Allmusic: D/D?

My question is this: do you think AMG realized that the only things that read it are either web scraping robot front ends to various music metadata software that didn't want to fork over the six figs for the 'real' SQL db, or human eye robot front ends to music dorks that don't mind the now SEVENTEEN clicks to get from ILM query to 'Jason Falkner played bass on that one'? And so they designed for their target market?

We would have been convinced, had Elvis Telecom not posted links to a guy who built a multi-browser version in under two hours, and a business announcement talking about the links between AMG and Microsoft...

I reckon the AMG web development team have ignored some of these facets:

see:
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php

It's a total disaster...almost like they made it bad on purpose, because things like this don't just happen by accident.

I am beginning to buy into the conspiracy theories here, though - the inflated click statistics and the bot-foiling structure. There's nothing else to explain it - certainly not 'we're only a small company' - it hardly takes any resources at all to solicit feedback from core users in a systematic fashion.

Dear allmusic fans-

As you’re aware, we’ve recently relaunched the allmusic site with expanded content and functionality and a whole new look. It is an ambitious undertaking and one that hasn’t gone off without some snags. We are working hard to fix the problems and ask for your patience while we work through this transition period.

We’ve been on the net since 1995 providing a free music reference resource. We would hope that through our ten years of service we’ve earned a little patience from our users as we work through the transition to the new site and some of the difficulties we’re experiencing. We’re a small company with small company resources. While we’re flattered by our users’ expectations, our resources are limited. We’re a small company from Ann Arbor, MI, trying to provide a great resource for music fans.

While we can’t respond to every piece of feedback we receive, we do read every bit of it. Feedback from our users is very important. We appreciate the time you take to share your thoughts with us. The following are some updates on the site and some responses to your comments.

SLOW RESPONSE TIMES
We are experiencing some response time delays as we did not anticipate the more than doubling of our traffic with the relaunch. We are working to add servers to handle the capacity and to get all of our servers properly balanced. This site is bigger and more complex than the old site. The speed difference won't be very noticeable once we get everything in peak form.

SUPPORT OF NON-IE FOR WINDOWS BROWSERS
Optimizing a site of allmusic’s complexity and size for all browsers and operating systems is no small feat. This isn’t a simple “brochure-ware” site of static pages. While we would love to optimize the AMG sites for all browsers and all operating systems, we simply don’t have the necessary resources to do so. Despite some users flattering comparison of our site with that of Google, Amazon and Yahoo!, we are a small company with limited resources. So, we had to pick the most widely used browser by our users (over 87%) to optimize the site for and then work on compatibility issues with the other major browsers as we go forward.

We are concentrating on making the site more accessible through Opera, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. We know how important it is to our users and we’re moving quickly.

REGISTRATION
The allmusic site remains totally FREE to our users and only requires registration for access to new Premium Content. If you are uncomfortable registering, we understand and invite you to continue to use the portion of the site (roughly equivalent to the former site) that does not require registration. But we would like to take a moment to explain why we have introduced registration for Premium Content.

The AMG websites are FREE sites that are marginally supported by only advertising and product sales. To attract advertisers and retailers, we need to provide them with basic demographic information of our users so they can determine if our site is a fit for their products. We provide this information only in the aggregate (i.e. 60% of our users are male) and never pass on any individual user information. Please read our privacy policy for more information. Without these advertisers and retailers, the AMG websites would be out of business. Registration is a common practice among free publishing sites such as the AMG sites (i.e. NY Times, LA Times, etc.) that fund their enterprise through advertising and product sales. AMG is in line with common Internet practices and, as a good Internet citizen, zealously protects the privacy of our users.

TAB FORMAT
We realized when we designed the tab system that we would make some folks unhappy, but we felt the trade off was worth it. If we stuck to the one page approach it would limit our ability to add additional information. That design approach (one page) just doesn't scale as we expand content. And it's a real problem with artists with extensive discographies. We think that once folks take some more time on the site, they'll see that there is much more information available now than there was on the old site. The addition of the Songs and Credits tabs are both good examples of information that just wouldn’t be possible in a one page format.

Thanks for all your feedback. Together, we can make our service better than ever.

Sincerely,
AMG

Links that appeared on TWX:

A version of AMG that actually works

A potential explanation, for the conspiracy inclined.

my memory of the web publishing biz from my time in it way back in
so if users now have to click three times as many pages as they used to, and therefore "see" three times as many ads as they used to, the site can turn over its ads three times as fast and make three times as much money.

the old days of two or three years ago is that advertisers buy a certain number of clicks when they buy an ad. advertiser gives website money, website keeps ad on site until it's literally been seen X number of times.

though i assume that somewhere along the way the advertisers would start saying "wait a minute..."

my memory of the web publishing biz from my time in it way back in the old days of two or three years ago is that advertisers buy a certain number of clicks when they buy an ad. advertiser gives website money, website keeps ad on site until it's literally been seen X number of times.

so if users now have to click three times as many pages as they used to, and therefore "see" three times as many ads as they used to, the site can turn over its ads three times as fast and make three times as much money.

though i assume that somewhere along the way the advertisers would start saying "wait a minute..."

There are a number of ways to buy online advertising - per view (impression), per click, per actual transaction subsequent to click - but in any of these cases, the advertisers are going to be most interested in AMG demonstrating that the people viewing/clicking the ads belong to the demographic/psychographic groups that the advertiser is targeting. They are most likely less intersted in whether or not the site is designed to generate more or less views/clicks . . . they just want qualified people in the numbers that they've negotiated.

Does "strategic opportunities" actually mean anything, for those versed in corporatespeak?

The Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000242.php

I wasn't trying to be a smartass, at all. In businesspeak anything involving "strategy" almost always means "buying somebody out."

Strategy can relate to Organic Growth [without Strategic Acquisition.]

Organic Growth
http://www.exemplas.com/performance/147_2028.asp

it's true.

"strategic opportunities" sounds to me like "surgical strike." funny how corporatespeak and pentagonspeak have so much in common.

i'm not trying to make this amg thing more than it is.

i really liked amg, i thought a bunch of their reviewers were great, and i liked the simple and easy to use interface, even if it sometimes meant long page loads (i.e. for elvis presley). i use a lot of different computers, so it's unfeasible to keep logging in and out, not to mention the fact that the new interface relys heavily on graphics, thus leaving out all of us who still use (sigh) modems. so i would have to say dud, on the available evidence. maybe it'll improve, though.

their coverage of Polka---tragic.

I'll bet this has something to do with Microsoft's coming iTunes ripoff.

yeah, they always had huge gaps of course, how could they not? the least one could say is that they were always improving, though not at an even pace necessarily. i hope that advance hasn't halted though i suspect it has. better coverage of salsa probably wouldn't show up on the performance reports.

the lies and obfuscation of the (hastily-removed) apologia really seem to signal the end.

The old AMG...only a memor-eee...

Memories...Light the corners of my mind...misty water colored memooorieeess of the way we were...

That's hardly fair - you had less to work with.

http://www.mp3.com

they license a lot of Allmusic's material (although some info is not available), so you can use it instead. it's not as good as the old Allmusic, but it's a lot faster than the new one.

http://www.allmusic.com/old

until someone changes the directory permissions.

Especially on looking up Doom Metal. this album i've never heard of got 5 stars from 2000? i downloaded some tracks, it's fairly good, but is it worth 5 stars for such a jokey album?

or is this like that moronic "Who Dat?" thing.

Thulsa Doom - Seats Are Soft but the Helmet Is Way Too Tight

i can't afford the time for (and am not impressed by) the new grapics. From the old high content-per-screen site to the new too-many-clicks site, some costing ten seconds, with loads of intermediate rubbish

yeah DUD.
so was it too good to be true before, a free lunch ?
this new thingie is a real idealogical defeat for the values inherent in indie and so many other musics that AMG (the exception) covers

(can "Premium Users" customise out all this extra baggage with their site preferences ? i haven't had the time to try. i haven't found a "text only" but perhaps it's more reasonable to expect a "text with old-fashioned lo-bandwidth pictures or banners" option)

i'd pay a small-to-reasonable premium (as i do with so many other sites) to avoid most "suggestions" (the pictures) and all "latest" content(the ads) even if i usually don't want to register with _anyone_ connected to the music business. I sure hope AMG doesn't now go down the demographic modelling line just for those advertisers

Frank, if you like it more power to ya. I'm never going back. Microsoft's tit doesn't taste good to me.

They could have charged for their service as it was. Big deal, I would have forked over a couple of bucks a month or whatever.

According to Alliance Entertainment's press kit:

AMG customers include Barnes &
Noble, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Real Networks,
BlueLight.com (Kmart), CDNOW, Best Buy,
Circuit City, Blockbuster, Ticketmaster,
Yahoo!, AOL’s Spinner and MovieFone,
ARTISTdirect/UBL.com, and MTV
Networks Europe.

Are they gonna offend AOL (owner of Netscape) and Yahoo! to get in a monogomous fuck fest Microsoft?

All the extra clicks, the unnecessary flash, the lack of flow to the pages, the extra scrolling, ugly design (the old one looked so much better!), it doesn't display right in opera, and I could go on and on but much of it's already been mentioned. I liked the compact design of the old site. It was so easy to get information at a glance. I hope they realize how much this sucks and change it soon.

So (you might say), use Safari or something else. And yet, with Safari, my log-in is erratic. Sometimes it "remembers" me, most often it doesn't, so I have to constantly enter my e-mail addy and my password.

The AMG site has always behaved differently in my browser from most sites, even jealously commercial sites like Amazon. I've always just asumed it's an information gatherer. How else could it be so so slow (as it always has been)? If it's gone upmarket (blah blah about increasing servers etc.) i see no reason at all for it to still be that slow.

That is unless there's still multiple server and client stuff going on during the loads, and since i've crashed the site in a number of ways, i have no reason to assume the site isn't accessing a variety of databases depending on the data. Whose databases ? Clients databases ? Is that an exhaustive list of clients above ?

I can think of a few other organisations who'd be oh so keen to access AMG user data, outfits who could only be either a friend or a foe to AMG.

And the speed here is orders of magnitude slower than the previous site, doubtless due to all the extra clicking being undertaken.

It should be used in university courses on how not to design an information based interface.

It does, yes. At present, I have no other thoughts to offer on any of this as I had nothing to do with the redesign beyond beta testing briefly -- it worked fine with Safari on my Mac, and I was one of many testers.

I am, in fact, on a Caribbean island and I intend to spend tomorrow afternoon doing nothing but sitting on a beach for seven hours, relaxing in the sun and/or shade and reading a book. Yay me. Seeya all soon!

So, now that AMG has made itself COMPLETELY FUCKING USELESS, what is the best web alternative??

See, they knew what was wrong with the site -- terrible colors, cheezy unnecessary graphics, 1997 image maps, a generally dated look, etc. But they didn't know what was *right* with it -- very decent information architecture, clear tables of data in readable font sizes, excellent at-a-glance scanability, etc. And in fixing what they thought was wrong, they broke what they didn't know was right. It's a classic novice mistake, really, and from where I sit completely understandable (I'm not much more than a novice myself, though I have purchased a lot of books about this). I was at first incensed that they would slap an "IE optimized" warning on the page, and rightfully so, but they took that down within a day or two, fixed the Mozilla CSS bug, and really seem to be making an effort to make it work the way everyone wants it to. They have, sadly, already married themselves to a design with inherent usability problems -- kind of stumbled backwards into it, really -- but that does not make them bad. It just makes them kind of clueless.

They may have to leave this design up for a year or so, just for consistensy's sake, but it won't last much longer than that, and they will have learned from their mistakes.

Who gives a shit how "cheezy", "1997", or "dated" it supposedly was anyway, though? How do any of those things have to do AT ALL with how GOOD the site is? And in what kind of numbskull's imagination do those adjectives even MEAN anything? And how is that washed-out new lavender color less "terrible" than what was there before? I will never, ever understand those who fall for the scam of "updating" technology for the mere sake of updating it, as long as I live.

We're trusting these people with our music facts but don't even know the difference between between i.e. and e.g.!!!

I've written an extension for Mozilla Firefox that, when installed, alters the display and functionality of allmusic.com. Specifically, it does the following:

It cleans up the horrible JavaScript-only links sitewide, thus enabling 21st-century browsing techniques such as tabbed browsing and opening links in new windows.

It hides the annoying Flash spinner thing atop each page.

It changes the functionality of the "Read more..." links on band and album detail pages. On the old AMG, band and album pages contained full reviews. Now, they feature only the first few sentences, with a link to "Read more..." on a separate page. The extension changes the functionality of that "Read more..." link so that, instead of taking you to a new page, clicking the link will dynamically load the full band/album review and insert it inline.

>Yeah, get the ten CD install of Free Bltfzpk 5.4x. Don't forget the Excrement 01.1 action web accelerator add-ons, people. And you'll need the CrummyFree compiler, although that usually comes with Bltfzpk. Support is excellent.<

as for AMG, a conserted effort by all the PCs in China to simultaneously hit on Britney Spears might Mariah-Carey-ify her (eg schoolgirl with mouse ears fried in electrically-lit Xmas-holly romp), duet with Lemmy in an electric chair,.. and maybe creat a ripple in AMG central, whomever that is.

Well color me a numbskull. It's marketing, is all. Colors. Shades. The emotional appeal of design. Trends and fashions. Frivolous? Yeah, certainly in this case, as it the redesign interferes with the usability of the site. But trendy colors and updated-looking graphics sell adspace. It's not a stupid idea, not if you want to make some scratch off your work.

i hadn't read the previous few posts, but it didn't take me a second to guess who this came from.

the "read more" thing is a big annoyance that, i imagine, could be easily fixed. perhaps his nedness can convey these constructive criticisms to those in power?

They could be conveyed, but I have no guarantee they'll be acted upon.

JESUS H! And I was just randomly guessing!

You have the special 'anti-Canadian' AMG virus.

I still can't get the links to respond -- i click and, nothing (x10).. grr..

i changed my setting as per the instructions -- AMG is now my very first "trusted site" even , which seems like a somewhat mighty concession in itself, but still no "search" or "go" buttons seem to do anything -- my firewall blocks pop-ups, so is that the problem ? i hit a button and no bytes even get sent. It just really doesn't like me.

is there something really simple i should know ? is this in permanent revolution mode still ?
it feels like i have to do something like put in "a quarter" or some such thing to get the ball rolling .. am i just not on their demograph radar ? have my callous comments regarding the new site up-thread resulted in designers setting me up my very own "front door" ? essentially, wtf ??

feasible ?
they'll have me if you put in a good word won't they Ned ?

also, when an album's got a glowing write-up (with a few song mentions) but is missing tracklisting...
maybe they've sorted that now though?

Am I even supposed to have one?

(Seriously, I was asked to send a bio when I first signed up; maybe that was something the started asking after you were already onboard?)

http://www.allmusic.com

has it been hacked ?

Through traffic monitoring of our websites we have identified your IP address accessing allmusic.com at a rate and speed inconsistent with the noncommercial and personal use permitted by our site's Terms of Service. As a result, further access to allmusic.com has been denied. Because IP addresses can be shared by numerous users, your access may be being denied based on the aggregate use of your IP address rather than your own individual use. To ensure that this is not the case, simply create your own individual user account by becoming a Registered Member of allmusic. [Click on the “Register” button in the upper right hand corner of the home page.] Once you’ve become a Registered Member and are logged in, you will once again have full access to allmusic, and will continue to have access, as long as your usage remains consistent with our Terms of Service. If you are already a Registered Member of allmusic, simply ensure that you are logged in when you use the site. Thank you.

Are they forcing me into becoming a registered member now?

Occasionally visit to see if things have improved (no) AMG may as well not exist for me anymore.

I prefer rateyourmusic:

superior information architecture / information design / usability
faster more uptodate content re forthcoming releases
added features such as: top rated albums by year
http://rateyourmusic.com/albums_by_year

ability to have your account on RYM and create your own content [such as lists, reviews]
e.g my list for:

2005 Albums
http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view/list_id_is_14969

Does a worthy alternative to this site exist?

allmusic.com redesigned again and it's being a turd

...and yet another Allmusic revision. I think it gets worse every time. Still, very useful information, too bad someone can't help them develop a great interface.

what happened to Rovi?

i'm not a fan, site looks like a generic database and search gives you a lot of irrelevant results. in the past it'd usually pull up the correct band or album right away.

I thought last year's redesign was the best it's been since the original layout a decade ago.

And away all of that goes with this most recent redesign. As much as some people hated last year's reboot, at least it worked. This new one is actually broken in its functionality.

It's pretty bad.

jaw-droppingly bad

actually, i do like how the similar albums tab is a bunch of album covers

MOG LINKS

MOG’s in the house; if you fakin’, get out
MOG’s in the house; if you fakin’, get out
What is it? Yeah, it’s the M-O-G
And we some real-ass hustlers, you better believe us
Yeah, and we takin’ the crown
So if you fakin’, get out, ’cause we ain’t playin’ around
Who is it, man? It’s the M-O-G
And we some real-ass hustlers, you better believe us
Yeah, and we takin’ the crown
So if you fakin’, get out, ’cause we ain’t playin’ around

The impostors launch their flash but they just ain’t got no soul
Silicon Valley geeks in it just for the dough
They don’t know Jimi from Joni, don’t know Dylan from Neil
They just know what’s on the Billboard, and they think it is real
We’re sick of your bullshit and your hype and your cheese
I mean come on, you are not going to last – bro, please
‘Cause when the MOG dog bites, it’ll never let go
It’s gonna tear your ass down, make you reap what you sew
I’m not going to name names, suckas know who you are
Y’all are lackin’ in the game, man, not up to par
What we do with 12 people takes you 210
You can never reach the level of the MOG, my friend
Y’all should’ve known better, music isn’t the same
As biotech, software, and video games
If you fakin’, get out, because we takin’ the crown
If you fakin’, get out, because we takin’ the crown

Yeah, it’s the M-O-G
And we some real-ass hustlers, you better believe us
Yeah, and we takin’ the crown
So if you fakin’, get out, ’cause we ain’t playin’ around
Who is it, man? It’s the M-O-G
And we some real-ass hustlers, you better believe us
Yeah, and we takin’ the crown
So if you fakin’, get out, ’cause we ain’t playin’ around

This game is not for suckers, you stupid motherfuckers
So if you are a sucker, get out. Bounce.
Now. And start selling some hedge funds
You guys are snakes in the grass, not legends
Y’all might have got bigger way mo’ faster than us
But all the real music fans see through your B.S.
So take your notes and try to copy, we ain’t chippin’
You know we been up in the game for years like Pippen
So take your Soulja Boy, your Fergie and your Lohan
We want Nas, Jay-Z and Snoman
And yes – you will die a slow death
And M-O-G will be there, we will take your last breath
We gonna cover you with dirt and cover you in the bog
And swear no one will remember you like spiral the frog

http://idolator.com/5213231/mog-leaps-into-battle-weaksauce-rhymes-in-tow

Selena Gomez’s 10 Best Selfies

They've had MOG, Spotify and Rdio links on the site for at least the past year. Seems iTunes has been added with this most recent redesign.

A redesign which is awful, by the way.

cool new layout, cool new radio buttons

album art mouseover: 'click to embiggen'

somewhere back there in the permanent redesign salt mine there is a human being at work

David Jeffries gives all rap albums a 3.5 and it's really fuckin dumb. Kellman needs to review more of those

what's with this User Reviews tab? are they competing with rateyourmusic now?

http://www.allmusic.com/album/ok-computer-mw0000024289/user-reviews

Even today, OK Computer is still relevant in the wake of Social Media and the decreased emphasis on human interaction in a world rule by massive companies.

otm

Oh, wonderful! Yet more music reviews by people who clearly shouldn't be doing them. Don't get me wrong, everyone's entitled to an opinion, art is subjective, rating is arbitrary and so on and so forth. However, if I want plumbing advice, I don't ask a fucking dentist. As much as everyone is entitled to an opinion and willing to give their opinion, only an idiot would treat all opinions equally. I look forward to people giving 1-star reviews of canonical albums and writing "CUZ IT'Z SHIT! LOLOLOLOLOL!!1!!"

http://www.juniordentist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/dentist_patient_nightmare1.jpg

^ Yeah, that about sums it up!

sure does

in theory I have nothing against amateur review sites. I use rateyourmusic a lot to discover obscure albums, and I'm really not concerned with whether the reviews are publication quality — all I ask is a short semi-literate blurb to the effect that 'this album exists, here's what it sounds like, it might be worth listening to' *dashes off to slsk or youtube or blogs to track it down*. there's a lot of music that professional writers have never reviewed (on AMG or elsewhere), so I'm willing to wade through a lot of shoddy amateur writing and batshit opinions on rym to find a handful of new artists I wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

however I have a feeling AMG's amateur reviewers will mostly tackle canonical dadrock stuff that's already been written about ad nauseum rather than filling holes in AMG's database, so I don't see this new feature amounting to much.

I look forward to people giving 1-star reviews of canonical albums and writing "CUZ IT'Z SHIT! LOLOLOLOLOL!!1!!"

this is the opposite of the problem of "amateur" reviews

unregistered completely otm and true to my own experience

nv otm as well, rly

seriously.
the surround ads on the opening page are making getting into the site impossible.
yes yes i know i can use chrome/ghostery, but i have started using edge as W10 is a lot happier resourcewise when using Edge.
but, the fact is, allmusic is virtually unusable in edge.

allmusic's 'similar albums' recommendations are quite odd sometimes. i just clicked out of interest to see what they thought would be similar to prince's dirty mind, and they advised i listen to maze, roy ayers, and midnight starr (all of which are fine and good, but not really similar to DM!)

Went to browse the site just now and came up with this:
http://i.imgur.com/nkDdtbw.png

Which renders the site unusable on a desktop.

agreed.

They must really be hurting in the budget department.

Sad.

Working OK for me (uh-oh, no Ad Blocker)

grossest ad blocker blocker i have ever experienced

yeah, this is the first time I've been asked to disable Adblock and Ghostery simultaneously. not sure why they've taken a sudden interest in my browsing habits but I guess I should be flattered

apparently All Media Network was acquired by an adware/malware/spyware company called Blinkx in April 2015, which explains a lot...

sad. allmusic used to be the spot!

Just removed it from my bookmarks for the first time in nearly twenty years as an internet user.

RIP AllMusic.

oh bummer, this sucks.

also just realized that i can no longer even remember what it used to look like, back when it was a good functional website in addition to an incredibly deep, rich storehouse of information. :-/

http://i.imgur.com/WMA0wkq.jpg

from 2001, courtesy of archive.org

for the curious, here's what it looks like today on mobile (goin' mobile) while you're attempting to look up the linear notes for a latter-day gentle giant record:
http://i.imgur.com/vut5bcv.jpg

#TMRW

would someone just kill me already

in 2001 i was still usually viewing it on a text-only browser so all those crazy yellow tags are news to me

seems as though most of us are pretty old news, where's the mod that handles board descriptions

usually give entitled adblock crybabies short shrift but the allmusic ads are just insanely obnoxious, and purposely so. idk how anyone can think this model works

love this gall on the paid subscription intro page

Improved Site Speed
We work with dozens of ad networks to get the most relevant ads for you. By removing these you will get a vastly improved experience.

usually give entitled adblock crybabies short shrift but

lol hubris

lol extreme case! putz

far worse on desktop than it is mobile so they're p obv targeting a particular victim

Wow, this pop-up basically chases you away for good doesn't it?

What's this SupportFreeContent plugin it wants you to install?

Aside from the horrendous user experience, has any of the actual content gone away? It gave the impression that it's more incomplete, but maybe that's just the perception as it's just more difficult to get at the information.

Okay, I admit in my memory, old-school AMG was not quite that hideous. But it worked, and very fast too...

AMG seems ... exactly like it's been for the last few years? The ads are obnoxious, but I'm not having any more difficulty finding content or noticing any content that is missing.

^this

AMG still works well. type in anything you're looking for into google like this:

allmusic.com Hoobastank best of hoobastank

it's always near the top.

there is no reason to ever visit the allmusic.com front page

i don't understand why anyone would opt for allmusic when there's discogs. what am i missing?

Bios? Album reviews from ppl who can write?

Just as long as they haven't done any harm to Ned.

^^ otm.

Bios? Album reviews from ppl who can write?

― Le Bateau Ivre

that erlewine "goats head soup" review, that's a real winner

use a private window, it turns off ad-block and tracking cookies get deleted

Just as long as they haven't done any harm to Ned.

Writing from my isolation chamber I wish to say oh wait.

I mean, I do use Discogs as a specific tool for purchasing and collection organizing, very handy with that. But yeah...no reviews, unless you count comments.

^ This. The two aren't really comparable imo, not in how I use both anyway. I've enough issues with allmusic but to be fair, it has taught me a huge lot. Clicking on artists names and reading bios, discovering links between musicians especially. I went online in 1995 and it was already around! Discogs is great, but serves a very different purpose for me, mainly the marketplace and pressing-info. Discogs satisfies the completist in me when it comes to certain artists I truly want to own everything from, but for the information it's still allmusic all the way tbh.

i just wanted to see which beatnuts albums were good : /

Discogs has definitely been handy for me in terms of filling gaps in compilation series this year -- and at a good rate too. The drill down on specifics makes it handier in comparison to, say, Amazon Marketplace, and while I do order from both regularly as well as crosschecking in terms of price, generally Discogs gets the nod precisely because I can find more things, often obscure ones, in comparison. Good deals seem to turn up more often on Discogs too, but often in a fluke sense -- still, when that means half off of an out of print box set, hey.

But again, the AMG is not set up for that and does not exist for that. A fusion of the two would be an interesting site indeed, but I feel it would be overkill, perhaps?

I think that would be overkill, yes. They are different beasts and I prefer them to stay that way?

ok thanks, i was wondering if i was actually missing something. i've never had any use for 'consumer guide' reviews. bios i can usually get better / more info from wikipedia.

I can see that. Tbf it's also just something I got used to, from since before Wikipedia ever existed. Maybe their bios are better now?

The AMG books were a welcome replacement for my tattered Trouser Press guides for bathroom reading 15 years ago. Is there anybody working on print compendiums like this anymore?

(Because, if there's one thing I want in my bathroom, its Ned.)

Ah, print record guides! Ah, humanity!

I've I've found rateyourmusic.com has replaced Allmusic for me.

rym has this kind of "wikipedia" thing going for it, with all the benefits and problems that entails. it's true that of late i've found more music there than i have on ilx, which used to be my go-to place for music.

there are some cool lists on rym, that's mostly how i browse it

Because, if there's one thing I want in my bathroom, its Ned.

Teh passion.

there are some good lists, but so many of them are totally free of any sort of further explanation or context, and when they contain thousands of entries it gets exhausting.

i do the genre charts a lot, particularly when i'm looking for the most acclaimed works in a genre i'm not familiar with. occasionally i make lists but it's pretty tedious work and my tolerance for tedium is in direct proportion to how much i'm getting paid for it.

Because, if there's one thing I want in my bathroom, its Ned.
Teh passion.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, August 20, 2016 12:35 AM (1 hour ago)

RYM: useful in theory. The community is the problem. I got on one of the narcissist mods' bad side a few years ago and got banned as a result, and now they ban me any time I re-register, like I'm on a "WANTED" list. Doesn't even matter if I use a new IP, someone recognizes my pretty specific taste and alerts the mod I offended, lol

I just use RYM as a little corner of the internet to ramble semi-coherently about stuff I've heard. I've never had trouble w/ mods since I mostly keep to myself but the general userbase kind of annoys me sometimes. Occasionally if I'm really bored I look at the forum, and it really makes me appreciate how (largely) peaceful ILM is - not that RYM is the worst by a long shot but there's only so many times you can read some arsehole in his early twenties spouting received wisdom as Objective Fact before you want to punch the screen.

the reason i've tended to give the rym forums a wide berth is that i think i'm maybe a little too much of an elitist for them. they're just full of people asking dubious questions in garbled english, people arguing about "SJWs", people talking about their drugs, people who won't shut up about dream theater and/or radiohead. that's more brain filtering than i'm up for most of the time. it's too "internet".

but they're kids, you know! that's how kids are.

Plus from what I've gathered, RYM is nothing compared to /mu/ when it comes to insufferable kids talking about music.

not from what i've gathered, but i've also gathered that it's got a lot of overspill from /mu/

RYM is right in the middle of the venn diagram of /mu/ and tumblr

god RYM is another internet reification of awful opinions into something pretending to be Truth

dunno about the forums, just mean the concept and the lists, the lists

Unfiltered lists from RYM reflect overrepresented demographics (there's a lot of metal and prog, for example). The "custom chart" and friends/favorites functions on RYM are essential for getting lists that are closer to my own tastes (an intersection of shambhala, indie 'gaze, avant-jazz, etc). But adding/culling favorites to get a better poll of people like me is really time consuming.

i do see internet culture in general a little bit differently, that advocacy for "truth" long ago ceased being part of it. the "ha ha only serious" ethos dates back to at least the '80s, but only lately have the 4chan alt-right started applying it to racism, for instance. the pretense here is not "truth" but "lulz".

lists in the internet era are imo largely an exercise in recontextualization, a digital outgrowth of mixtapes not vulnerable to dmca takedowns, a necessary evil in an age defined by data overload and sorely lacking in understanding, possibly a first step towards that elusive understanding, but in few minds a substitute for it.

rym for me is good for the would-be omnilisteners, people who have indifference to genre ingrained in their professed ethos, although seldom if ever in practice, as well is, really, for the genre obsessives with a completist bent. there's this one guy in particular who has a deep, deep obsession with midwestern aor/prog, which is not a genre i have a particular love for, but his deep love for the music is contagious. that's social music, i can get behind that.

i'm at a point where i can regularly get good stuff out of that site by basically poking it with a stick a little bit.

>there's a lot of metal and prog

Well... the RYM charts are big on buttmetal but all the good stuff's unrepresented. There's a small clique that knows what's up but, like, Death's 'Symbolic' being the top rated death metal album on their charts just gives me the heebie-jeebies

Rate Your Music has always been a major indicator to me of people who think they are a lot more knowledgeable than they actually are. Like, it strikes me as being for people who want to intellectualize music over just enjoying it.

You're probably all mostly right in your criticism, but I reckon I should probably speak up for the only site I spend more time on than ILX - there's plenty of users who make the site worth using and it's a great place to actually discover stuff (far better than here if I'm honest) especially if you're willing to read a little bit. Just do what I do and ignore charts, the consensus is always turgid and bland as fuck no matter where you are. Just look at those Acclaimed Music polls that we're running.

my least favorite thing about RYM are the users who just discovered & started identifying with "poptimism" this year and are really parochial about it... I'll take all the objective elitists in the world over them.

yeah i mean people can bag on the site all they want to but i just found five great records there in the last hour without really trying.

Using the RYM charts is definitely improved for me by filtering out genres I don't care much about.

I guess I don't understand why everyone is talking about it like it's dead? I just went there and looked up the debut album of the forgotten power pop band Artful Dodger and it seemed p much the same as it's been for awhile?

Doesn't work if you use a certain ad blocker, I guess?

Oh, I don't have an ad blocker on at work but it's fine the ads weren't too bad but some ppl are really babies about any ads I guess

anyway just try it you will be fine everyone and reading a review of a post-peak steve winwood album before you know it!

I DONT WANNA

arc of a diver bro read that shit

I gorged myself on AMG in high school, haven't been able to stand the design since

Would dig a collected AMG works of Andy kellman or Ned raggett book

Too kind.

The Collec-Ned Works, Vol. 1

compnednium

The AMG Omnedbus

^this

The Consumned Guide

Tempting ideas.

Since Allmusic is now blocking people with ad blockers I would like to restrict Allmusic from appearing in my search results for album reviews. Is that simple to do?

i think if you type "-allmusic.com" (not including the quotation marks) it'll exclude it.

on google anyway.

so just preface it with a dash in other words.. or something

A Sentimental Neducation
xp

Ned, Just Admit It: Raggett on Cali Punk

RYM users, can you elaborate a little on how you find good music there? This is what I do whenever I'm there: browse through some lists, click an album title I don't know, read some reviews, check out YouTube for some tracks. Is that it, or are there better ways to find more stuff?

i do it just slightly differently. i look for albums i find interesting and like, see what lists they're in on the sidebar, click on the lists with interesting looking titles, browse through the lists to see if they're interesting, and then hit youtube for the ones that have potential (sometimes based on the cover as not all of them have reviews). sometimes i'll find users whose reviews i find interesting and see what other records they like that i haven't heard of.

Arch: Over the past 4-5 years, I've "curated" a list of about 700 RYM users with sympatico tastes. I'll find them from among those who highly rate obscure albums/singles I love, check to see that they have made over 1000 ratings with a diverse spread of scores, then add them as a "favorite" (a nonconsensual friend). When some I find some release highly overrated "by my friends" compared to my tastes, I'll cull the raters responsible (which the interface doesn't exactly facilitate). Over time, my favorites list has stabilized and pretty closely reflects the mix of genres I care about. Every few months I'll run a custom chart of current year releases "As rated by my friends", usually excluding parent genres I've zero interest in. Import into a spreadsheet, cut out low rated but popular (and hence, ranked) releases, or in subgenres I couldn't exclude (eg, I can't exclude "Indie Rock" on the site because I'm interested in shoegaze, which is considered a child genre). That leaves me with 2-300 releases to sample on YT etc.

Thanks you two, that sounds... promising.

Sanpaku, is there a way to keep up with the ratings of your favorite users instead of having to generate a big list every so often?

User ratings are incorporated in the rankings once every two weeks or so, and you can easily just click your bookmarked custom chart query (I have em for albums, eps and singles in my browser). There's a running sidebar of reviews from individual friends on one's "homepage". But there's no way of looking at how friends in the aggregate have rated releases for the past month or such (like, say, anydecentmusic). The reason I have to dig so far down is that it's the only way of finding obscure but good August (etc.) releases when the chart is already crowded with releases from the past 7 months.

Cool, I was browsing the site earlier today and I already found two great songs I hadn't heard before ("When It's Over" by the Wipers, and "Talk About the Weather" by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry). Time to register an account!

.. and "Talk About the Weather" by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

good call.

The Ad Blocker blocker has been removed.

no it hasn't

Huh. Well it has been on my end.

(using Firefox)

hmm, I use Firefox too, but the adblocker warning pops up the instant I enable Adblock Plus or Ghostery.

Try Ublock Origin instead of Adblock Plus - it's better and much less bloated.

It seems a bit intermittent. I get the pop up on Chrome at work, but not on Chrome at home, and they both have ABP installed.

ffs I added allmusic to my Ublock whitelist but it still won't let me into the site. Grrrr.

Haven't had any problems with Ublock for months, but since this morning I'm seeing the notice again. They must have changed something in the code. It will probably be fixed when one of the third-party filter lists get updated.

Just found out that you can skip the ad blocker notice if you disable all JavaScript (including inline scripts) on the site. It also speeds up the site immensely, although some images aren't displayed and things like the discography browser won't work. But the main content is perfectly visible.

http://tedium.co/2016/09/20/allmusic-database-historic-importance/

I finally set AdBlock Plus to make an exception for AMG and lo and behold they seem to have gotten rid of the most egregiously awful video ads that were the point of objection in the first place. Cool.

UI still sucky/slow compared to its heyday, but what a treasure trove nonetheless. I was feeling deeply adrift in my record shopping without it.

I can't use the site at all. Whitelisting the site doesn't work. I even ran a different browser with no adblocker installed and it wanted me to disable it.

Likewise for me. It's completely broken.

personally i have found that things have not been too bad recently,
but todays visit saw the return of the surround ads.
ie. the ads that go around the whole page, take an age to load causing the page to jump all over while they load, and totally look shit.

It is quite distracting when you have two gigantic deodorant cans either side of your page. I abandoned AMG a while back, but sometimes I'll use a different browser without adblock if I have to. Yep it is fucking awful.

I've started noticing albums that are invisible/passed-over in the discography browser, though they have entries - e.g. Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic and Hall & Oates Big Bam Boom. Very weird. Both also have no album art though I'm sure they used to (and why wouldn't they?). Very weird and annoying. I worry things are really starting to break down behind the scenes.

That's...odd. I know both of those very much had reviews at one point.

They do! Sorry, I wasn't clear - you can totally pull up the individual entries. They've just fallen out of the discography.

Ad Block blocker is back with a vengeance! I go to "Disable on allmusic.com" and refresh the site only to have it tell me that I still have it enabled.

Friendly lot, you AMG folk.

lol I miss early 2000s AMG

Memories, corners, mind

I too got blocked by the ad-block blocker when I tried to look something up yesterday but Chrome also popped up some malware warnings so I just noped out of there

RIP AMG in its late 90s/early 00s form

I think everyone should boycott this type of shit progress.

If you use uBlock Origin (and you should), you can disable all Javascript on the site, inline and third-party. You'll lose a little functionality, but you won't see any more ads or notices.

your not kidding it's a proper take down The Man adblocker is that mother!

Yep I'm getting "disable ad-block" pop up even with adblock already disabled, and malware warnings. RIP allmusic.

agreed : RIP.

uBlock Origin, as recommended above does a right job on Allmusic guys

It does the trick, but I'm so tired of having to go all David Copperfield on websites to function. The pop-ups, the annoying adds, the cookie pop-ups, the 'sign up for our fucking newsletter' stuff. Seeing ads while logged in at ilx. I know this is all 'society is in the gutter' but ~the internet~ is p much dead to me these days.

LBI hits the spot.

LBI probably doesn't use uBlock Origin.

I hardly ever see anything of the things you mentioned. And when something does get through the filters, 'Block element' is just one right-click away.

This was still bothering me, because I did turn off the blocker for them and it wouldn't let me in. Googleing I found the solution, well it works for me.

https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues/182

The part about blocking first-party cookies on allmusic.com and sidereel.com works.

in chrome it is under - settings - show advanced - privacy settings - content settings - manage exceptions.

The site seems fast too with that.

just when i thought the allmusic experience could not get any worse, they prove me wrong.
f*cking ads that pop up and have to be clicked through to get to the review.
truly awful.
if i created an account and logged in, would there be less advert excess ?

You have to be an advertiser to log in

Use an adblocker like uBlock Origin, no ads for me on Allmusic.

yeah, i re-enabled my ad-blocker - all ok now.
i thought the site prevented viewing if you had ad-blockers enabled.
but seems okfor now.

brave browser has an ad blocker blocker blocker.

this fucking internet shit is getting to be like the most pointless chess game ever.

(i highly recommend brave browser, btw)

a few weeks ago they stopped letting me use my site search shortcut, claiming i was using it as an api. ok i will not go to your website, congrats.

today they are 404

i followed a tip from (I think) Marc Masters that if you subscribe, all the ads go away and the site runs turbo-charged, and this is indeed my experience

it's a no-brainer when i consider how much I've gained from allmusic over the past, I dunno.... 20 years??

I'm in your skull.