Your Reaction to All Music Guide's Site Overhaul?

[NashVegas]

http://www.allmusic.com/

[vi5]

1. Not horrible, but not great either.....no decent pics....

The old site used to have some decent pictures of the bands/artists in question. Now it seems like they did away with it.

Meh.

[NashVegas]

2. They're Probably There ... Somewhere

It's probably no less than 4 clicks away now, however.

They must be getting a lot of bitching, there's a FAQ-type response up, already.

[Magrittes Pipe]

3. Richie's lost his damn mind.

It's horrible.

[arwalden]

4. What is "sw33t"???

[Squeech]

5. It's a mess

Right now it's running at a pace that would shame molasses in January.

Plus they haven't fixed any of the content. I'm in their database, under my right name-- except there are three different pages for me: one as an improvising musician ("Jazz," in their terms) which also mentions my assignments writing liner notes; one as bass player in alternative rock bands; and then one that just calls me "similar" to a couple other people I've played with (and then I follow the links and find somebody else with the same name). I've e-mailed them a couple times that they should merge those pages into one; they have neither done so nor acknowledged my communications.

There's another listing under my name for a viola player; that's not me.

I know a couple people who contribute to them, and they're peeved.

On edit: it's even worse than I thought. All the information that used to be on one page is spread out over several pages, some of which are password-protected. So there goes Allmusic's virtue as a research tool. Morans.

[NashVegas]

6. BIG Morans

I always thought of AMG as the music site for grown-ups. Fans, obsessives, go to an artist's homepage if they want all the detailed stuff, pics, soundfiles, etc. Launch, UBL, etc. have always been there for those who want all the bells and whistles. Can't imagine why AMG thought they need to compete against *that.*

Over the last 6-12 months, I've noticed some editorial inconsistencies; they're allowing too many reviewers to get struck by diarreah-of-the-keyboard when it comes to writing about their local homies. Instead of giving brief overviews, they're writing tomes - for baby bands - overinflating these bands' importance by miles, compared to older musicians with contributions as long as your arm who barely get two paragraphs.

Makes me wonder if they're trying to move more towards a fanzine format, in general.

[bif]

7. Not only do I hate it

I can't get it to work! It tells me that with my browser, some features may not function. I type in a request and wait, and wait, and wait. Nothing happens. I'm on a Mac and neither Navigator nor Explorer worik with the site! Of course, I can't find an email address on the site to ask questions.

[bif]

8. Kick

I thought this was interesting.

[Ann Arbor Dem]

9. I just looked at the site and it's frustrating

I keep getting an error timeout screen or one apologizing for the temporary connection delay. I haven't been able to look much.

What were they thinking?

[Cybergata]

10. I love this site!

There must have been way too many people on the site than it can handle. Try it again. I have found the information very handy. There is information for just about any artists or recording.
:hippie:

[NashVegas]

11. Have You Been There Lately?

I loved the site until this morning.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. The site is now completely unusable, IMHO.

[Cybergata]

14. Ah ha....you are correct!

It is a mess! Maybe we need to complain via email so they will fix the problems. I love this site! I depend on this site.


:hippie:

[Ivar]

13. Not working in Opera?

I am having problems with it in Opera. Anyone tried it with other non-IE browsers?

[Cybergata]

15. Yes!

I didn't have problems with the front page loading in Opera, and I get the same "unable to..." message. I tried using FireFox, and the only difference was that it took a lot longer for the page to load with FireFox. I still agree, Opera is the fastest browser on earth.

:hippie:

[Ann Arbor Dem]

16. I just talked to a friend who works at AMG

They know the site is unstable right now and are working to fix it ASAP. Hopefully it will be soon!

[NashVegas]

17. Instability Is 1/4 of It At Best

When you're going to look up an artist, how important is it to see items like, "influenced by," "followers," "similar artists," get front and center attention when the info you're looking for is about the band in question, not its satellites?

Why did anyone think it necessary to stick an unnecessary Flash animation to take up 1/3 of the browser window at the top - and underneath a banner at that. Lose the flash and I'll put up with the banner, no problem.

Two days ago, if you wanted to read an album review, you could get it in one click from an artist's main page. Now, you have to go to discography, click on the album, then click again for the full review.

If they'd been content with a fast-loading, swifty-usable design, I might not have a hard time with the idea of registering for the charts and stuff.

They should have at least offered a beta before making this switch.

On edit -

I just found this article using Google:

http://www.sitepoint.com/blog-post-view.php?id=181192&ct=1

I'm calling this entry a case study, because AMG's new design is a case study in how not to handle a redesign in 2004.

[Ann Arbor Dem]

18. I wasn't able to get past the first page...

...so I haven't seen the rest of it yet. I liked being able to look at the reviews, etc. with one click. I'm with you regarding the "influenced by," "similar artists," etc.