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.

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.

Good lord, they (or their owners Xperi rather) just laid off Stephen Thomas Erlewine from there. After 32 years! No lie, STE is the reason anyone even vaguely knows my name as a writer on music.

Oh wow, that’s a shocker. I noticed his byline on an article he wrote for AVClub but other than thinking it was good they were expanding music coverage didn’t think anything more of it.

firing erlewine seems impossible, can't believe it

damn that sucks, does not bode well

😳

No lie, STE is the reason anyone even vaguely knows my name as a writer on music.

Extra *s* at the end is a typo

Ned and Tom Erlewine were the first music bylines I learned.

yep, I knew those names from AMG before I joined ILX

Same here!

Holy cow. I have probably read more reviews by STE than any other single critic. Essentially synonymous with AMG.

Trying to remember if there was a gap for me and how long it was between reading Addicted to Noise and Allmusic. Seems that they overlapped for a while.

Ah, both appeared on the intranetz in 1994, but I wasn’t aware of Allmusic until quite a bit later.

Pretty sure Ned was the one who told me that AMG was looking to expand its pool of writers a hundred years ago or so, but I definitely had to go through STE to get hired on.

Holy cow. I have probably read more reviews by STE than any other single critic. Essentially synonymous with AMG.

― the last visible dot (Doctor Casino)

same. i have read soooooo many AMG review/blurbs over the years, and so many of them were written by STE. what an incredibly unknowledgable move by whoever owns it now

xpost Yup that was me and I definitely directed you to him.

Bummer. Like many, STE was my gateway into music discourse and the one who indirectly led me to ILX. End of an era but I hope he’ll bounce back real quick

Even if I rarely click on allmusic anymore, I still will see his byline all the time in the band bios on a certain streaming service

There was once a great screen name here I remember, “Stephen Thomas Duttywine”

I was bummed when I read his Facebook post. I think it’s very sweet you reposted the news. I smile whenever I see AllMusic bylines as so many of the writers became personal friends.

I spent way too much time editing music articles on Wikipedia and while I’m proud of that work and elated Wikipedia is now recognized as an encyclopedia of popular music, I’d readily admit much of that work and attribution can (and should) be directly attributed to AllMusic and, as far as my interests, Tom.

I don’t want to write about the business as all of you are much smarter than me but I suppose Wikipedia’s use of AllMusic is further evidence that open source is unethical or problematic but I’m thankful there’s open source mechanisms to keep the inevitable deletion from occurring.

I’ve always thought of Allmusic as “the place to read STE reviews (plus Ned on goth stuff)” - I’ve never really thought of AMG as a brand in itself. Like, what even is it without him? (Obvs there are other reviewers but ykwim).

To me its brand is “We review every record” (Not literally, but nearly)

"Review by TiVo Staff"...I forgot TiVo bought Allmusic, but I thought they sold them later on?

Probably AI

Definitely:

It's a powerful and often unpredictable set that reminds us that even though it's been a while since his last album, LL Cool J's track record has far more hits than misses.

Was about to look something up on their site and saw the new banner at the top:

https://i.ibb.co/bMFHG8Ln/dying-please-save-me.jpg

How the mighty, etc. (Honestly when they let STE go last year I knew something was up.)

The website banner and STE's layoff are unrelated. Tom was employed by TiVo/Xperi, not AllMusic. (When TiVo sold the AllMusic web property a decade ago, AllMusic became a distinct entity and a licensee of the database, including the metadata and editorial content.)

That sentence makes my head hurt.

Tom was writing for All Music but employed by TiVo, who had sold off AllMusic 10 years ago?

Yes, it's confusing. The AllMusic editors have not been actual AllMusic employees since 2015, when the website was spun off. The editors -- Tom and myself included -- remained with TiVo, which continues to license the metadata and writing to the site.