allmusic.com

[Milestones]

AllMusic.com is my go-to place for information on records. Anyone else finding it a bit difficult to navigate? Maybe a poor mouse and crappy Windows 8 are factors. But these days it's slow and I'm always besieged by ads.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Milestones

[Scott Dolan]

When they changed the software last year it was an absolute mess. IMO, it's actually gotten better.

[king ubu]

Just get ad blocker ... makes life so much easier

It was my go-to-place on the internets for plenty of time, but nowadays often you get more accurate and complete info on discogs, wiki or of course on specialised discography pages. Allmusic is still visitied often, but the lack of meaningful reviews and inaccurate/messy info regarding line ups, recording dates (they keep mixing them with release dates) makes it bit of a nuisance. Some good reviews are to be found there, for sure though - Eugene Chadbourne for one, or this dude calling himself "arwulf arwulf".

[Bluesnik]

It was my go-to-place on the internets for plenty of time.

Same here for many, many years. But in the meantime, and after spending a lot of time without paying attention, I find they have switched from more jugdemental reviews to ones that merely describe whats on the release, without judging. So they don't get involved. But whats very valuable and wasn't there before is the release info that even includes Japanese releases.

[page]

Yes, I find it difficult to find things since they've changed the software. You can't really narrow your search enough now. I use it less often because of that. I do have an ad blocker so that's not the problem for me.

[BFrank]

I use it a lot, but it's imperfect to say the LEAST.

[king ubu]

Hm, actually I think searching is better than ever now - combined seaeches for artist and (partial) album titles never worked before ... and if it still doesn't, going via google does often help.

[Leeway]

Oddly enough, I tend to use their app more than the online site, but I haven't had much in the way of problems with either, although getting around the site can be a bit clunky at times.

[king ubu]

App? Is there an actual app or just the website in the smartphone layout? I use that sometimes as well - again, no big issues at all.

I wonder if those complaining still remember the old yellow-ish layout, c. 2000? Now that did suck, though it had some kind of charm.

[Leeway]

App? Is there an actual app or just the website in the smartphone layout? I use that sometimes as well - again, no big issues at all.

I wonder if those complaining still remember the old yellow-ish layout, c. 2000? Now that did suck, though it had some kind of charm.

It's an actual app (All Music by Rovi). I'm pretty sure I downloaded it from the Apple Store. It functions differently than the web site. If you get it, there's one little trick you need to learn to make sure previous search entries are cleared, otherwise it works pretty well.

[Scott Dolan]

Thanks, Leeway! I've been wondering when they'd release a mobile app.

Gonna check it out!

[Leeway]

Sure thing. I mostly use it for artist searches and then the related discographical information on the fly, like when I'm in a record store. Also will check the reviews for a particular release, when available. I find its artist search a lot better than it's title search. I don't bother with some of its other features, like what's recommended, etc. YMMV as we like to say.

[Chuck Nessa]

Hmm. I stopped using them a while ago.

[TedR]

I mainly use them to listen to music samples that may not be on amazon.

[Shawn]

Wikipedia is good enough for most things, I don't think I've visited the Allmusic site in several years.

[Jim R]

Hmm. I stopped using them a while ago.

For me, I think I can now start measuring "a while" in terms of decades.

Of course, even though I generally avoid the website, I encounter data lifted from there and presented elsewhere. One thing I can't stand is the way they mix in the names of engineers, photographers, producers, liner note writers, etc etc into the list of personnel on a session. Not that those people don't deserve their credits, but can't the musicians be listed sequentially, first? At any rate, I still don't trust them for accuracy.

[Dan Gould]

I mainly use them to listen to music samples that may not be on amazon.

I do that too, but when I leave a tab open I often get an auto-launch video and the audio track messes up whatever snippet I am checking out at the time. Very aggravating.

On the matter of reviews, I find them still to be quite useful on my most recent targets: blues/R&b comps from Ace and other labels.

[Scott Dolan]

I mainly use them to listen to music samples that may not be on amazon.

I use iTune for samples. AllMusic gives you 30 second samples, whereas iTunes gives you minute and a half samples. Makes a huge difference.

[Hot Ptah]

I do not use the site as a definitive resource. I use it for a rough level of information about an album. For example, if I do not know much about an artist's input, AllMusic will at least tell me if this is the one time that the pianist recorded with techno beats behind his solos, or if a particular album is a blues singer's less than great attempt to combine blues with Stax/Volt soul music. I use AllMusic in combination with other online sources, but AllMusic can be useful for concise descriptions of that sort. With other online sources, it can take a lot of reading to get to those kinds of nuggets of information about an album.

[JohnJ]

App? Is there an actual app or just the website in the smartphone layout? I use that sometimes as well - again, no big issues at all.

I wonder if those complaining still remember the old yellow-ish layout, c. 2000? Now that did suck, though it had some kind of charm.

It's an actual app (All Music by Rovi). I'm pretty sure I downloaded it from the Apple Store. It functions differently than the web site. If you get it, there's one little trick you need to learn to make sure previous search entries are cleared, otherwise it works pretty well.

Just received an e-mail from All Music about the app so downloaded to my iphone. It will be a useful resource (along with the Amazon app) when browsing in Disk Union!

Edited July 17, 2014 by JohnJ

[king ubu]

couldn't find an app in the google or samsung stores ... the mobilve version of the website has that ROVI thing too, though, and does look rather differently from the standard site

[sidewinder]

Just received an e-mail from All Music about the app so downloaded to my iphone. It will be a useful resource (along with the Amazon app) when browsing in Disk Union!

I'll be sure to have an I-Pad loaded up with it when I hit town !

[GregK]

Just get ad blocker ... makes life so much easier

It was my go-to-place on the internets for plenty of time, but nowadays often you get more accurate and complete info on discogs, wiki or of course on specialised discography pages. Allmusic is still visitied often, but the lack of meaningful reviews and inaccurate/messy info regarding line ups, recording dates (they keep mixing them with release dates) makes it bit of a nuisance. Some good reviews are to be found there, for sure though - Eugene Chadbourne for one, or this dude calling himself "arwulf arwulf".

Arwulf Arwulf was a DJ on a local NPR station (WEMU in Ypsilanti) for a long time, until he quit a couple of years ago (or he was forced out by the station's slow but sure shift from classic jazz to smooth and vocal jazz). He would play the really old stuff, the very early recordings, ragtime, etc.

[TedR]

I mainly use them to listen to music samples that may not be on amazon.

I use iTune for samples. AllMusic gives you 30 second samples, whereas iTunes gives you minute and a half samples. Makes a huge difference.

I'll definitely try iTunes. Thanks.