The New Allmusic: D/D?

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

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.