www.rateyourmusic.com C/D?

http://rateyourmusic.com/board_message/message_id_is_228000_and_board_id_is_1

The 'compare' feature is kinda nice, as maybe it will someday turn me on to something great. Nothing yet, though.

What is most interesting about it is that it'll take your collection and match it against similar ones and show you the differences, etc. And the recommendation engine is way better than anything else I've used. It blows Amazon's out of the water (for instance, it doesn't just pick the 15 records that you *don't* have by one artist that you said you had one record by, and then say 'Look, buy these, stupid!')

Granted, the site is lacking in some features and is slow as molasses, but I give it a big thumbs up regardless.

This was totally worth the time, if only to find out that I need Cowboy In Sweden and Secos & Molhados--two albums I didn't even know existed.

Because it is better. "Tales" is underrated, although not among true lovers of prog rock at its most pomp and symphonic. And I have never given a damn about lyrics anyway.

They should steal the rating system from Launch, where anytime you see the name of an artist, album, or track, you can click on the five-star scale to rate it without having to click through two more pages.

The ratings *system* doesn't suck, it's that the *implementation* of it sucks (clicking two/three pages to rate something). I'm sure it's something he's going to fix soon. The database has some good data in it so far, but it needs a lot more people to get involved. I agree, until he makes it easier to just do the 'one click' rating, a lot of people won't bother.

Making an ILM user list - please post your account name! (me: xox)

-- Keith C

so, is this fixed yet? I don't have the patience to even start the process, but otherwise a nice site!

conclusion:
Dud.

classic if you are a teenager who likes metal and emo maybe.

If I bring up 14 Joni Mitchell albums I own I *should* be able to just run down a list with checkboxes/javascript shouldn't I?

And there aren't any kind of Winamp/iTunes plugins? to automatically add stuff to your profile? What are these people on?

How would this work in RYM's format? Sounds like last.fm, which you can add to the now playing field of the profile.

What are these people on?

The site is mainly run by one person (in his free time). Not to make excuses for the site, but suggestions for improvements are taken all of the time.

The go! page is a little faster for rating groups of albums.

It's just that I'd actually like to put my own collection on there but find the length of time it's going to take utterly daunting, and potentially RSI inducing... unless I do it incrementally over a period of months... and then it doesn't feel like fun anymore, but work :/

I did see that go! page earlier, and it's useful, but even that still has unnecessary actions - one to select the album, and one to claim it, why?

The site looks great, and is quick but I'm baffled at how low down the priorites the ease-of-use factor seems to be for one of it's main functions.

I guess the problem is the cataloguing nature of the site. When you click on an album you usually get options for format (cd, vinyl, digital, etc.) and sometimes half a dozen versions (various regions, reissues), with options to rate and review. A compromise could be to just select the default version and n/a for format (with just check boxes?). I'll see if this has been suggested. Are you wanting to rate them?

Thanks for considered answers to my not very carefully considered beefs btw! :)

Perhaps searching for artist and format could be done initially to filtering the choices? Country of origin even, I know (for instance) that 90% of my Björk records would be One Little Indian (UK) and not Elektra (US & Other) releases.

The creation of personal lists is a different function from cataloguing what's in your collection. However the list format may be a simpler and more convenient method of presenting your music interests by year anyway, and you can still place notes / personal reviews on the list pages.

I don't use the rym website for personal ratings, so i am the wrong person to ask about these features.

Check out the singer on the cover. That's your expression that is - when you listen to this album.

I've never even LOOKED at the message boards so I don't know about those. I've also never paid much attention to the general rankings (this record is ranked #17 for 1988, etc., though the SINGLES ratings can be interesting.) I just look up (and rate, sometimes even review) the stuff I like and then sometimes look up other people who like the stuff I like and see what else they like (and take notes if it's something I've never heard or maybe gave up on).

Also, I like the reviews. But then I tend to prefer "real people" music reviews (especially when they're short and to-the-point) over reviews from professional critics. And the reviews on RYM are, I find, a little more varied than those on Amazon. Amazon reviewers tend to be either gushing fans or venomous haters. There's more middle ground on RYM, I find.

http://rateyourmusic.com/~JasonHernandez

So this + wikipedia (and amg I guess) basically makes Discogs obsolete, no?

like Woolworths makes HMV obsolete?

seriously, NO.

I like rateyourmusic fine but it is anything but thorough, detailed, informative as any kind of online catalouge.

Especially so for the kinds of music (dahnce) that don't tend to be consumed in an album format.

AMG made itself obsolete...

I may have been bitching unfairly upthread btw. It DID look like an incredibly daunting process at first but (if you're fast with keyboard shortcuts & window tabbing & can get iTunes to fart out some kind of text list in advance...) I actually found it pretty easy to get my collection on there in the end. ok I needed a spare afternoon but yeah, it's got some fun features and some moderately useful ones too.

The update has certainly made RYM a bit more user-friendly.

my new favorite genre is called ozlo. it's french pop music sung by people whose native language is not french. all we got so far is april march, dick annegarn, and louis phillipe. but yeah: ozlo's fucking rad!!

this is all making rym seem more endearing than I assumed it was just a few minutes ago tbh

there's a guy who exclusively reviews one-off 70s singles from the Midwest, I love that guy

xps. louis phillipe is French!

No true ILMer can seriously root against music obsessives who flaunt their insufferably niche tastes.

sounds like a challenge to me.

No true ILMer can seriously root against music obsessives who flaunt their insufferably niche tastes.

idk posters railing at length against personality traits they themselves exhibit is all the rage on ILX so it's a tough call

True. Literally takes one to know one.

this is all making rym seem more endearing than I assumed it was just a few minutes ago tbh

― the quar on drugs (Simon H.)

it is incredibly endearing! seriously i've found so much rad music through that site. much as i'll bitch about the site, it's not like i actually hate "egyptian shumba" or anything.

my current take is that "zolo" is a retroactively constructed and arbitrary genre - but that's not, honestly, the crux of my discomfort. none of the '80s artists who are currently classified as "zolo" would have identified themselves as such at the time. that makes me uncomfortable to a certain extent, there's an element of appropriation to retroactively canonize, say, kate bush as a "zolo goddess" or whatever, _particularly_ given the demographics of the people who are doing so. it's... the framing, the genres rym praise and uplift and in some cases basically _create_ - the same sort of thing that's been happening with RA of late.

― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, August 5, 2020 12:11 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is my take, too, only far better articulated than it would have been coming from me. I like a lot of the stuff that gets lumped into this category, but the reason for my opposition to it existing as a "genre" is pretty well summed up by Kate's post. I love to go through the lists on there where people obviously put a lot of thought into it (not the "I will out-obscure you now!" ones), and if "zolo" was just one of those lists, then I'd probably be able to live with it. Probably shouldn't have brought it up in the first place ha.

score another one for 'zolo is a nonsense, yours, a fan of lots of 'zolo''

imo It's extremely dumb for them to go through every single release and tag "female vocals" or "male vocals."

However I definitely agree with those upthread who found it extremely helpful that they now embed every Bandcamp release on its own page.

imo It's extremely dumb for them to go through every single release and tag "female vocals" or "male vocals."

― billstevejim

well at least it seems to be done right - records featuring trans women on vocals are tagged as "female vocals". so i approve!

I'm in the mood for some "male vocals" tonight

There's also an 'androgynous vocals' tag. The overall guiding principle is anal, sure, but it seems pretty inclusive to me.

So this Sonemic thing? (Sonic + anemic?) Are they mining the RYM site to make list articles and Spotify playlists?

https://rateyourmusic.com/feature/sonemic-selects-black-sounds/

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2XLwpm5AHRIgSUotLss175

2020 | Sonemic Selects

A curated selection of tracks from the top-charting singles, EPs, and albums of 2020 on Rate Your Music / Sonemic.

A few weeks ago I reported a French black metal album for fash lyrics (the speaker describes himself as an 'eternally wandering Aryan' who worries that Spain will be overrun by 'Berber scum'). Still no acknowledgement to this day.

I don't think it ought to be removed from RYM's catalogue outright, but adding the usual disclaimer does, I think, make a difference:

This page has been marked by our userbase as describing content that contains Nazi/National Socialist material.

RYM does not host, sell, or distribute this material, and we do not agree with the opinions expressed by those who created/recorded it.

We have included these works in the RYM database for reference. It's our goal to document the existence of all film and music recordings, whether or not we agree with the content. We do not believe that an effective strategy in fighting these ideologies is to pretend that these recordings don't exist; in fact, it hinders those who want to speak against it by denying them a forum to educate others about the hateful content contained within the recordings.

If you are involved in recording a project marked by our users as Nazi/NSBM material and wish to refute this claim, then please submit a feedback (bottom of the page) with your contact information or an explanation and we will get in touch with you.

Major site update with tons of new features. The charts are wild and there are new subscription modes.

looks way better than that horrible beta site update i looked at a few months ago, musonic or whatever

Agreed, it's much nicer. Lots of cool touches like easily setting listening, genre tag clouds, a much better organised split between the main chart and esoteric.

one thing I'm not seeing is upcoming releases - my 'new releases' page only has stuff that's been released in the last month or so, nothing coming up in the future. that was my primary way of finding out when artists I liked were releasing new music. did it just move somewhere?

yeah they've improved a lot from last time i looked at the beta, i'm impressed

it seems like the upcoming releases section is gone but there's a lot of people complaining about it in the feedback thread so maybe they'll add it back?

it was really nice b/c basically every artist I'm interested in I've rated on that site, whereas the "upcoming" on Discogs is pretty much all reissues and comps, mostly by bands that are only in my collection because I bought one of their records for a dollar

otherwise new design is pretty nice

oh cool, it's back. guess they listened

It still looks pretty awful on mobile.

oh cool, it's back. guess they listened

Where? In the 'my new releases' section I'm still only seeing like two upcoming releases.

Oh, ignore me. It's in it's usual place. Would be nice if they integrate the two though.

*its...

Not only is RYM woefully lacking in the classical department (loads of missing releases + extra gatekeeping before you can add them yourself – basically a full time job), it’s in the throes of a tiny cabal of pseudo enthusiasts who rate everything between 0.5 and 1.5 and I can’t imagine a more joyless, detestable bunch (their overall taste is usually shit, to boot, as their precious few 4.5s tend to demonstrate).

I was listening to Younghi Pagh-Paan’s Silken Thread (Wergo, 2020) last night and thinking about what a stupidly underrated composer she is and how much I enjoy this particular album, only to check, out of idle curiosity, whether it had been added to the database. Sure enough, the usual suspects slapped a 1 and a 0.5 on it, respectively, and I just can’t imagine keeping up one’s edgelord act for this long.

It’s also trivially easy to correct for, RYM can just silently drop all ratings from people who rate 3000+ albums.

Yeah the different cabals out to ruin most genres are obnoxious, see basically any mainstream pop record too. Not sure I agree with Siegbran's fix though, I mean I myself have more than 3,000 records in my collection and all rated. I'd hate to lose those.

I mean, don't get me wrong. That site is filled with awful people and I'm very happy that I've never even set foot into the forums over there. But I long ago started tracking my collection there and I find it useful for that.

the site does deweight negative ratings from people who give a lot of negative ratings

those classical edgelords need to be uh yeeted into the sun (i believe that's the au courant terminology) tho

Modern Icaruses, truly.

whereas i tend to give positive ratings, so if i rate something low, it fucking means something

looking at you, cigarettes after sex, the worst band in the world

I’m pretty much the same. I don’t actively seek out music I’m unlikely to enjoy so most of my negative ratings are for hyped releases I want to dis numerically (‘cause I can’t help but check some of them out) and disappointments. I also only recently resumed rating stuff after deleting all of my stars a while back so the overall grading scheme skews even more heavily than usual toward the upper end, since I started by re-adding almost every single 4.0+ album I can think of. A couple of years should correct that tendency, though.

I don’t actively seek out music I’m unlikely to enjoy

yeah i put my time in on RYM and one of the main life lessons i learned was that its pretty easy to avoid hearing a lot of music that you hate. anyone with a significant amount of 1 or .5 ratings is automatically suspect imo. i also made a point to not rate anything without posting a review as well, so a lot of stuff that i didnt have a coherent opinion on other than realizing right away that i hated it or it was Not For Me, i wouldnt bother rating it, just move on, so after thousands of ratings i feel like i probably had vanishingly small amounts of 1s and .5s.

Yeah, that’s a solid policy. I only rate something 3.0+ if I’ve heard it at least twice. For lower ratings, life’s just too short, so I don’t bother giving them another spin in most cases, unless it very clearly feels like I’m missing something essential that I could grasp some day.

For instance, if we stick to last year’s chart toppers, I generally like Fiona Apple and clipping. so I felt the need to hear their latest at least twice before giving them a middling rating but I don’t care enough for Lianne La Havas’s blandcore to revise my opinion.

Lianne La Havas’s blandcore

this marks the official opening of EOY hostilities and I am so here for it

I’m sad to report that I’ll be sitting out this year’s main ILM poll so you can expect the rollout’s positivity quotient to shoot up by at least 200%.

i have some bugbears, possibly

la havas is great imo, clipping was equally enjoyable. i can't handle fiona apple for some reason.

La Havas and Apple are both easy to like, it's Clipping I can't seem to handle.
For all the dud responses, it seems a lot of ILXors have an account on RYM. A list would be nice. That way we can generate a Top of the year and also cancel all the polls.

My EOY picks (still in progress for a couple of more weeks):

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/pomenitul/2020-highlights-in-progress/

xp haha. Like some others here, I just use it as a listening log. For that: Classic. Only when the poll here comes around do I really look back, re-listen to more things and try to sort it all out. I don't treat rating seriously (that would mean multiple listens before I've "logged" anything). If I just make it to the end of an album it's getting at least a 3. I've got many 4's to sort out for the poll.

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/o_nate/best-music-of-2020/

still in progress