Huh. So the Lothars are "followers" of Brian Eno....

I actually have never heard any Lothars. I should remedy that....

Also:

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.

Fuck them.

edit: Same warning on Safari 1.0.2. I deinstalled IE on my Mac so I can't try that....

I found the contact page to submit comments. Here's what I wrote:

1. Not convinced yet that the new design is an improvement over the old. Other than the song samples, I'm not seeing why it's better.

2. Why go live with the new design when then are still unfinished pages? In searching for contact info, I found a few populated with latin gibberish.

3. In this day and age, when more and more people are moving *away* from the Windows/IE combination, it's inexcusable that the new design doesn't work on Macs or on Mozilla/Firefox!

4. Worst of all, my own personal entry seems to have been stripped of all my musical credits save for one band. What's up with that? Note: the "worst of all" part is a joke (barely).

Did I mention they were idiots?

I also sent a note to the freelancer who's reviewed the Lothars stuff. He wrote back:

"I'd say, send notes of strongly worded but polite complaint. It will be

So get to it folks! uhhh... as long as you've got IE on Windows...

On another list I'm on the following was posted re:Allmusic - you may find it useful:

Hi, gang ...

While I don't generally advertise the fact, some folks on list are aware that I'm a staff writer for All Media Guide, and I know lots of you have been talking about the newly relaunched version of the All Music site. Since there are obviously some people wondering just what's going on, I'd like to pass along the following, which some of our folks have written to address some of the questions and concerns we've been getting through our user feedback. I understand this won't answer everything for everyone, but I hope it will give some of you a better idea of where we're at.

Cheers, Mark D.

Responses to the major user feedback issues suitable for forums, blogs, etc.

GENERAL COMMENTS Weve been on the net since 1995 providing a free music reference resource. We would hope that weve earned a little patience from our users as we work through the transition to the new site and some of the difficulties were experiencing. Were a small company with small company resources. While were flattered by our users expectations, we are not Amazon or Yahoo! Were a small company from Ann Arbor, MI, trying to provide a great resource for music fans.

SLOW RESPONSE TIMES We are experiencing some response time delays as we work to get all of our servers properly balanced. Additionally, we will be adding server capacity over the next week which will further improve response times. While this site is bigger and more complex than and will be somewhat slower than the old site, the difference once we get everything at peak form won't be very noticeable.

SUPPORT OF NON-IE FOR WINDOWS BROWSERS Optimizing a site of allmusics complexity and size for all browsers and operating systems is no small feat. This isnt 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 dont 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 first concentrating on fixing some compatibility issues with the Mozilla browsers, which are mainly visual, not functional. The main Mozilla problem is a glitch in how tables are displayed. Were hoping to have this fixed in the near future. We will also be working to fix some compatibility problems with Safari (Mac).

We ask for your patience as we work on these issues.

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 intrduced 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 wouldnt be possible in a one page format.

But we would like to take a moment to explain why we have intrduced registration for Premium Content.

I'm really confused as to what denotes Premium Content. I was able to look up the Lothars and Jon just fine, but if I want to read about Ash? Suddenly that's Premium?

Also, All Media Guide is based in Ann Arbor. I know where the building is. I can bomb it for you if you guys want.

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.

Oh my God, they have no idea what they are doing.

I mean, the goal of optimizing for the 87% is right, but, dude! Build to web standards, which will SAVE you time and money going forward, and THEN if you run into compatibility problems with IE, create an IE-specific stylesheet.

Also, AMG makes most of its money from licensing its content, from what I know of the field, so the why-register? argument holds less weight to me.

And the "Latin gibberish" is called, inexplicably, "greeking." It's the standard placeholder text.

And the "Latin gibberish" is called, inexplicably, "greeking." It's the standard placeholder text.

I knew it was standard but I'd forgotten what it was called. Greeking! Thanks.

74 posts mostly about the 'Mats. I saw 'em in Boston at the Channel (where I also saw - at different times - The Hoodoo Gurus and Los Lobos). Bob played naked. I was kind of hoping for the nurse's outfit.

A great greeking resource. Explains where the text comes from and everything.

I am half-convinced that the legend over the entrance to Dr Octavius's lab in Spidey 2 reads "Lorem Te Ipsum" -- I may just have been working too hard, though.

I'm peeved at the new allmusic.com site.

Pages late on a New Pornographers comment: I like the songs, they're right up my alley, but it sounds really loud and noisy to me. Like they're all crowded around one mic and playing with their amps up to 11, and Neko Case is being all yelly. Seriously, I want her to stop singing so loud.

The songs are good, but ... and I age 20 years as I type this ... but it's just too loud!