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Allmusic has an an interesting history. Founded in the nineties by music enthusiast and scholar Michael Erlewine, it quickly became the major internet music reference resource. Since then it's passed through a dizzying series of multi-multi-million dollar corporate buyouts (Erlewine trousered 3.5m on the way) and is currently owned by media conglomerate Nexxen, which specializes in digital advertising monetization. This banner has appeared at allmusic.com:
"Advertising is no longer able to cover our operating costs." This, from the company that specializes in digital advertising monetization. They employ - as far as I can make out - a couple hundred employees from their premises in San Francisco. I've used the allmusic site for many years, more frustrated than entertained or informed by their often boneheaded opinionating (people get paid for that shit), and indifferent to their marketing strategy of genre sub-categorizations and "mood indicators". For hard-core information I've always relied on wikipedia.
If you feel their pain, and want to make a contribution to a valuable internet resource, give your money to wikipedia.
This post made possible thru "free" internet access.
Music sites?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the PSA; Allmusic lost the thread a while ago, IMAO, but this is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteMusic sites that I feel good about? Bleak. There once was a blog I used in my classes, but it shut down over a decade ago (and I've still used it): https://boogiewoogieflu.blogspot.com/
I noticed that request for help as well, certainly raised my eyebrows a bit.
ReplyDeleteFav music sites?
https://twilightzone-rideyourpony.blogspot.com/
https://babssez.blogspot.com/
a.m.o.
I do remember https://boogiewoogieflu.blogspot.com/, good site!
It would be bad enough if it was just a website dependent on advertising, but the fact of it being owned by a stock market-listed company specialising in generating revenue from internet advertising makes it a bit of a disgrace.
DeleteNexxen International's CEO is Ofer Druker, total yearly "compensation" $3.70M.
In my former, working life, I was an encyclopedia editor (I'm old now) and while I agree with you about Allmusic, don't even get me started on the W word . . . --Muzak McMusics
ReplyDeleteYou've already self-started ... what are your views on wikipedia?
DeleteWhile there is no doubt that my personal experience is colored by the fact that the rise of Wikipedia helped drive me out of my profession (though less so than the corporate greed of Microsoft et al.), it is not my only bias against it. An encyclopedia had to have a number of elements: accuracy, authority, recency, and a measure of just good writing that is open to a number of sources and viewpoints. Far too often, at least in my experience of W, it has failed on all those counts, not to mention the number of spurious entries. I was a managing editor for one of what were termed the ABC encyclopedias (that is, Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, and Collier's Encyclopedia) and we prided ourselves on our diligence and scholarship. Maybe I just feel like a dinosaur with a crowd-sourced reference work so easy at hand, but I think something of real value is lost in the process of discarding such work. --Muzak McMusics
DeleteI use Allmusic, sometimes, but Discogs more often, just to satisfy my completist urge. I still have a whole shelf of compiled review books - TrouserPress, Rolling Stone, Rock Yearbooks etc. There's even a printed All Music Guide. In the olden days these were a useful resource.
ReplyDeleteI used to love poring through the Whole Earth Catalog - which was like an acoustic internet.
Deletetrue dat
DeleteI spent much of the 60s in Ann Arbor. Erlewine and the guys in The Prime Movers were regular patrons of the coffee house I managed, and I still have the hand-drawn astrology charts Michael did for me and my wife, back in those foggy years. I used to have a complete set of the AllMusic Guides, until a few years ago when I realized I hadn't opened any of them in 20 years. I still use the site, mainly to get composer credits which are not always present on Discogs, but it amused me that they've been hounding visitors to "subscribe" so we can write unpaid reviews.
ReplyDeleteI once had an astonishingly accurate reading (from Rick Brown, the singer in The Misunderstood) that changed my mind about astrology. He used a computer program (so claimed no mystical powers) and told me exactly, in detail, how fucked up my life was at that point, and why. Put it down to Rahu, basically. Where astrology is absolutely value-less is in predicting the future (of course), but for seeing a bigger picture, and how we're just cogs in the wheels, it's more useful than an old TV Guide.
DeleteMy printed music reference of choice for many years was Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia.
What immediately strikes me is the "Help!" graphic, showing a group which is fairly active in protecting their Intellectual Property. As one does, when millions of dollars are at stake. So, how much did Nexxen Intl. pay Apple Corps to use that? I know you have to spend money to make money, but I find that pathetic and cynical.
ReplyDeleteD in California
That occurred to me, too. I'm sure Apple Corps' legal rottweilers can claim intellectual copyright. Also, the associations of that cutesy image will only trigger their core demographic - males, mostly, of a certain age, and older.
DeleteAnd who's accountable for the drop-in-the-ocean contributions they'll get from a few befuddled Beatles fans? Where are they held, how are they spent? The whole thing stinks, and is a softener-upper for making the site pay-to-view.
... and, I just checked, the font used for "asking for our help" is the font used on the original US vinyl release of 'Help' ... I thought it was familiar. Somebody call the lawyers!
DeleteClose but not exactly that font. Check the middle bar of the E.
DeleteI doubt the demographic it's targeted to trigger will be checking the middle bar of the E?
DeleteShoot, just send ME some money & I'll make up some stuff about your favorite album.
ReplyDeleteSure! Pleased to help! Simply leave your bank card number here, and that all-important security code on the back (can't be too secure!) in a comment, and I'll begin transfering funds!
Delete