The New Allmusic: D/D?

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.