Friday, February 06, 2004
Maybe my search for a new music news site can be filled by the Google Web Directory. So, I go there..
MTV News seems to be more involved with whom rap artists shoot, who is dating who, and what Justin thinks about the SuperBowl ™ incident than new music releases.
In fact, every "music news" site seems to be just the same.
All-Reviews.com is a nice site. They don't have a lot of information, but the way it is presented is good.
PitchForkMedia.com is quite a bit closer to what I was looking for. They have good reviews, information about new music, upcoming releases, and even free downloads of no-name indie stuff. They have a lot of what I am looking for in a site, and it's put together quite well. There are a lot of ads, even animated ones, but they are well-placed and not too intrusive... they are even inviting, at times. Just think of it... an online ad that doesn't rely upon annoyance!
MTV News seems to be more involved with whom rap artists shoot, who is dating who, and what Justin thinks about the SuperBowl ™ incident than new music releases.
In fact, every "music news" site seems to be just the same.
All-Reviews.com is a nice site. They don't have a lot of information, but the way it is presented is good.
PitchForkMedia.com is quite a bit closer to what I was looking for. They have good reviews, information about new music, upcoming releases, and even free downloads of no-name indie stuff. They have a lot of what I am looking for in a site, and it's put together quite well. There are a lot of ads, even animated ones, but they are well-placed and not too intrusive... they are even inviting, at times. Just think of it... an online ad that doesn't rely upon annoyance!
So, there I was mucking around Yahoo Launch, a nifty music and music video site, when I discover that Incubus, a band I particularly like, had released a new CD recently. Then, I find out that Carlos Santana has too! Then I find out that Norah Jones has too! These are all artists that I like to some degree, and I would have liked to have known about them releasing new CDs.
So, off I go to the net, to find a list of recently released albums of some sort, so that I can stay on top of which artists I like have released new music, so that I can sample, then eventually buy (yes, buy. I don't mean the kind of high-tech shoplifting that's so popular now-a-days with these P2P music-stealing services.). What surprised me is the difficulty in finding that sort of information.
First off, I go to billboard.com. That site wasn't much to my liking, because a lot of the information is linked to, but when one clicks on the links, one is taken to a "you have to join to get this" screen.
So, I head over to Google to seek out what will become my future source of news regarding new music releases. My ideal service would be an online service where one can enter artists one likes, and be notified via web or email when there are new releases by those artists, or possibly even by similar artists. Does such a thing exist online? I think it might. Off I go to search for it...
The first place I come across after searching Google for "new music", is nme.com. While I haven't got a clue what NME stands for, the title description of their site promises "all your music news, reviews, pictures, pics, competitions, video, radio, and discography." It seemed like a likely candidate. Click I go.
In the NME.com universe, there are only three colors: black, yellow, and red. Their entire site is decked out in these colors. These colors involve things popping up, dancing around, pictures of cellphones falling down the entire height of my screen, things flashing, and a finger flipping off the internet viewer. Also, on the front page is a picture of one of my favorite artists of all time: Thom Yorke, from Radiohead. Except the picture of him has a big X through it. So, I struggle to look at this site long enough to judge its usefulness. There seems to be some content there... but none of the features seem particularly useful. I see a link (with a red background) about ten pixels high with "new music" written on it. Let's give this a try...
On this page, I'm met with another pop-up window (no red, yellow, or black this time) for something... I can't figure out what before I'm so annoyed I impulsively close the window. The actual content page has more of the same flashing red and yellow annoyances, and under a heading "New Music - Features" has two links: "Listen to Regina Spektor and The Stroke here!" and "Exclusive - Check out the new Keane B-side and the new video!". That's not quite what I'm looking for. NME.com is completely useless, annoying, and not worthy of being the top search result for "new music" in Google. I close the page, only to be assaulted with another popup, this time for eBay.
My search continues...
So, off I go to the net, to find a list of recently released albums of some sort, so that I can stay on top of which artists I like have released new music, so that I can sample, then eventually buy (yes, buy. I don't mean the kind of high-tech shoplifting that's so popular now-a-days with these P2P music-stealing services.). What surprised me is the difficulty in finding that sort of information.
First off, I go to billboard.com. That site wasn't much to my liking, because a lot of the information is linked to, but when one clicks on the links, one is taken to a "you have to join to get this" screen.
So, I head over to Google to seek out what will become my future source of news regarding new music releases. My ideal service would be an online service where one can enter artists one likes, and be notified via web or email when there are new releases by those artists, or possibly even by similar artists. Does such a thing exist online? I think it might. Off I go to search for it...
The first place I come across after searching Google for "new music", is nme.com. While I haven't got a clue what NME stands for, the title description of their site promises "all your music news, reviews, pictures, pics, competitions, video, radio, and discography." It seemed like a likely candidate. Click I go.
In the NME.com universe, there are only three colors: black, yellow, and red. Their entire site is decked out in these colors. These colors involve things popping up, dancing around, pictures of cellphones falling down the entire height of my screen, things flashing, and a finger flipping off the internet viewer. Also, on the front page is a picture of one of my favorite artists of all time: Thom Yorke, from Radiohead. Except the picture of him has a big X through it. So, I struggle to look at this site long enough to judge its usefulness. There seems to be some content there... but none of the features seem particularly useful. I see a link (with a red background) about ten pixels high with "new music" written on it. Let's give this a try...
On this page, I'm met with another pop-up window (no red, yellow, or black this time) for something... I can't figure out what before I'm so annoyed I impulsively close the window. The actual content page has more of the same flashing red and yellow annoyances, and under a heading "New Music - Features" has two links: "Listen to Regina Spektor and The Stroke here!" and "Exclusive - Check out the new Keane B-side and the new video!". That's not quite what I'm looking for. NME.com is completely useless, annoying, and not worthy of being the top search result for "new music" in Google. I close the page, only to be assaulted with another popup, this time for eBay.
My search continues...
