The new All Music Guide redesign...

[Rudy]

Yes, I'm serious. Their site has had a redesign, effective yesterday. If you've used it before, check it out today and give it a try.

No comments from me yet, until there have been a few replies here.

http://www.allmusic.com

 

[Mr Bill]

I like it. A lot less clunky than the old one. Also allows room for spirited growth instead of stagnation such as our corners face (forums aside, of course).

I went to their Herb Alpert page several times and each time I got a different picture on the main page, indicating they've got some randomization going on which allows for some variety...

A quick perusal of the pages for bands whose IRS pages I'm working on show a lot of improvement over the old -- errors corrected, and (in some cases) more details about releases.

Bottom line -- they couldn't've made it worse than it was.

--Mr Bill

 

[Andrew T.]

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, a design change to this resource is refreshing after staring at the old site for years, and the new site does have a clean and attractive appearance that is a welcome change from the yellow of old.

I find the site a little inconvenient in that I now have to click on the "Discography" tab of a given artist's page to see the list of albums, while on the old site all I had to do was scroll down. However, the information itself is well arranged, and song titles are now supplemented with sound clips (that incidentally I can't get to play on my computer). And, it is nice getting a different photograph of an artist or band each time I reload its corresponding page.

One of my biggest issues with the latest incarnation of the old site, JavaScript being used extensively for links, has not been changed. This design of link is particularly annoying in that it prevents me from being able to open links in new tabs when I use Mozilla or its derivatives (Firefox, Netscape 7) as my web browser. Additionally, no text is visible in the status bar when I hover the mouse cursor over such a link.

I see allmusic.com now requires free registration for access to some features (such as Charts & Rewards, which was previously available to all visitors).

Finally, I wouldn't be surprised if pages on the new site seem to be loading a bit slower right now than they did on the old site, due to extra strain on the servers inflicted by extra traffic trying out the new site for the first time.

My overall conclusion? Neutral. The new site is visually attractive and has some advantages over the old one, but it definately has its share of faults as well, existing and new.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

It's too slow for a dialup connection, which I have to deal with (for now at least). I'll have to wait a while and try it again. It looks nice, I'll give it that.

The site is owned by AEC One Stop Group, where we (at my day job) buy our CDs from, so we have access to a nifty e-commerce site which links to the same info that AMG provides, but without ads, fewer pointless graphix, and much faster. So I'm not complaining. The site has helped me sell hundreds of CDs over the years.

AEC has just redesigned its dealer magazine, too (it's called AMIgo, with AMI standing for Alliance Music Index) and it looks very good.

 

[Rudy]

It's too slow for a dialup connection, which I have to deal with (for now at least). I'll have to wait a while and try it again. It looks nice, I'll give it that.

No, it's not your dialup: since Monday, there are multiple timeouts on many tries in accessing the site. Yes, it's slow because it's loading all kinds of crap that it doesn't need just to make it look "professional" and "corporate". The new site is a resource hog, and their servers can't handle it. I have a 2Mbps connection here and it's slow as mold...when it even decides to load.

For extended album credit information now, you have to register.

And this little tidbit really got under my skin:

"Notice: You are accessing allmusic.com with a browser that is not currently supported. The appearance and functionality of the site could be impacted. allmusic.com is optimized for Internet Explorer 5.5 and above for Windows."

Mozilla Firefox is my browser now. #1 rule of web developing: you develop to web standards, not web browsers. Someone else I know checked it recently and that non-IE message is gone now. Probably due to a lot of complaints (including my own).

Still working the bugs out, obviously...but quite a few other users, including yours truly, think the older interface was a lot more streamlined for getting the information with a lot fewer mouse clicks. Obviously, they didn't bother with any usability testing...with real web browser users.

As someone said: they should have put their money into correcting their listings first.

 

[Mr Bill]

I guess I'm the only guy who likes it so far. It runs fine on my MAC here (with it's browser called "Safari" -- talk about "borrowing" from Microsoft: Safari/Explorer, get it?), which is odd since my MAC usually gives me no end of problems. I'd never call MAC a user friendly platform... AllMusic.com pages load quick as can be, too.

--Mr Bill

 

[W.B.]

The other aspect, I've noticed, is that one has to be registered to enjoy the full aspects of AMG (as Andrew T. had pointed out). This was similar to the period in late 1998 when the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) required registration to add, correct or delete certain aspects of entries, or to add new entries, so as to curb abuse of that system. (Although there are some "phony" entries, i.e. a supposed Columbo TV-movie from 2002, "Columbo: The Man Who Murdered Himself" with Joel Grey as guest, that to everyone's knowledge was never made.) I've been registered with the IMDb since the spring of 1999 (when, coincidentally, I became "connected"), and have been a frequent contributor ever since. One of my main maxims is to make sure that you have all the info on an existing entry before you add it on; and if you're adding a new entry (i.e. "The T.V. Show," the failed 1979 pilot that sowed the seeds for This Is Spinal Tap), make sure that you have every piece of info before laying it on. One thing I cannot stand is when you have two or three things pertaining to an entry -- period -- with nothing else to back it up. The other piece of advice is, don't go overboard. I've noticed that some people have added news broadcasts -- even local newscasts -- to the IMDb, which I believe to be sheer overkill. As are entries for music groups (i.e. Harry James and his Orchestra, The Kingston Trio, Led Zeppelin), which I thought would never have been permitted . . . but I guess I was mistaken, wasn't I?

So just as in 1999 with IMDb, I ended up registering with AMG now.

 

[jww]

I signed up to be an "insider" a while back. What this lead to was getting onto the "beta" version on Sunday!! They encouraged me to make comments, which I did, but with only a 1-day lead-in, I don't see how this could have worked.

I, like others above, am frustrated with the new site. I had no problem with the old! Anyway, besides the excessive timeouts and page loading delays, I mentioned to them a couple of things.

First, when you click on the "read more" link on an album review to expand/finish the paragraph, the song titles and links to listen disappear, meaning another click back to see what songs are on the lp they are reviewing! Another, is the small "star rating" after you pick an lp/cd to see the review - it becomes marginalized at left, with a lot of other info that one might want to see. What is the rating?? It should be HUGE at the top of the review!! Overall, it looks pretty, I guess, but seems to be too busy for my taste! I, too, am disappointed at how many clicks that you have to use to get any info now. Compilations are now on a different tab at the top, etc..

Oh well, its free and has the same (if not more) content as before. I just wish they would have asked me (or anyone else) for comment earlier than a scant few hours before "going live" JWW

 

[Rudy]

Heh...yeah, the whole point of beta testing is to shake all the bugs out well before it even makes it to the public eye. That usually involves weeks or months, not hours. No matter...they made the site worse, so I have even less reason to visit it now.

 

[jfiedler17]

First, when you click on the "read more" link on an album review to expand/finish the paragraph, the song titles and links to listen disappear, meaning another click back to see what songs are on the lp they are reviewing! ... I, too, am disappointed at how many clicks that you have to use to get any info now.

Agree wholeheartedly! Just checked out the new site for myself last night and was really, really disappointed in it. The site was perfectly user-friendly before - now, they've just made everything that much more difficult to navigate. Wish they'd just spent the time fixing all the informational errors or outdated bios instead of doing an all-out not-that-necessary redesign.

Jeff F.

 

[aymnostalgico]

Yes , I found it for myself that it was changed. Today I really got to play with the site and surf it to get a feel to it. I , of course , looked up my favorite producer J.C. Calderon ( Herb Alpert's buddy) and I listed to a few songs not in my collection, so I think it is easier surfing for individual names. I like it.