By the way, I'd be interested to hear in these more sane circles whether you folk think I am being unreasonable on this thread: http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=296660# (my reasoning is in the most recent post)
If so, I'll drop it. If not, feel free to add some variation in who bumps the thread.
GP - I don't think you're being at all unreasonable. That said, you've made your point and are likely tilting at windmills now so if it was me I'd move on for my own sanity.
GP - you're absolutely right to push this one if no one else is. Hey, I'll bump it occasionally if it needs it. As you say, it's a "communication ethics" issue. My concern is that the lack of response means there's nothing eMusic is going to do about the site's appearance. All the moderator responses are geared towards tech problems, aside from a few "your concern is noted" answers to things like lost functionality. Will we get clickable composer names or full-length track titles back? I'm not holding my breath.
The day before the relaunch I received a survey request from emu - I completed it as I reckoned that the £5 credit they were offerinf was worth 15-20 minutes of my time. My responses were very positive compared to a couple of other sites I use but I know that if I had completed it 24 hours later my responses would have been totally different. One thing stuck in my mind - there were several questions about the usefulness of the recommended features. To me they were quite valuable. I'd do the same survey again for free now! I've just glanced at the message board - I'm not sure I really want to spend the time reading through many of the threads there at the moment...
OK, thanks, good to know it's not just me. I'll let it sink for a few days and then just bump again if noone has. I'm expecting emusic's next move be to start posting videos of themselves killing puppies on the front page in an attempt to improve their image.
I guess it's about a year now since I dropped eMu. I look at this most recent redesign fiasco as re-enforcing at least a couple of the reasons I originally decided I could/should do without eMu. If I hadn't dropped eMu this would've given me a whole new set of additional reasons to drop them. A couple posts over there mention that this activity by eMu is analogous to them 'shooting themselves in the foot'. I'd go one step further - to me it's analogous to them 'shooting themselves in the face'. So very glad I'm a bystander at his point. I wish those who remain members over there the best of luck in extracting a fair value from their service.
ETA:
A perfect rendition of eMu's apparent technical approach to the situation: Incompetence
A perfect rendition of eMu's apparent attitude w/regards to customer service: Customer Disservice
Just heard a spotify ad that used the phrase "music discovery" inanely twice in the same sentence. Can't be coincidence that emusic tweeters and moderators are adopting the same rhetoric.
Holy cow. GP, I hadn't even looked at that thread, assuming it was sarcasm (and we all know what they say about assume). That is just beyond f**ked-up. It very much needs to be 1. kept at the top, and 2. answered. I can understand how thoroughly this lame redesign would mess up this person's recognition software. That it hasn't been answered speaks volumes.
As lame as the term "music discovery" is, I have to admit that I never really thought of my way of looking for good new stuff to listen to and/or download as a process at all - until just recently that is, when eMu completely disrupted it, and also made it thoroughly unenjoyable.
I still don't really mind the color scheme, though. I actually like dark-background websites, for the most part... but the fact that they didn't realize that by effectively disabling keyboard navigation they'd make the site useless to people using screen-readers is, sadly, just another item to add to the "proof of incompetence" list. Given that they're now using WordPress on the back-end, what they should have done was build multiple skins before they converted, and then given people a choice which could have included one that was optimized for screen-readers.
What a nauseating load of putrid tripe that latest eMu Ministry of Truth exposition is. There were times I fervently disliked these wipes but I truly loathe them now. I despise mendacity.
Tweet from emusic: "Thanks for sticking by us as we work to improve the eMusic experience." Call me obtuse, but I always through you had to "stick by" people when bad things were happening, not while they work on good things. Shouldn't this say "Thanks for sticking by us as we mess up the eMusic experience and try to recover while fobbing you off with platitudes."?
I did a little product research on this whole business, and I found out that Adobe is discontinuing their CRX content-management system, as well as their LiveCycle product, and rolling it all into something called ADEP (Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform) - along with a hefty increase in licensing fees. In fact, fees for an operation like eMu would probably at least double, and quite possibly be as much as $200K per year, maybe more. (WordPress, of course, costs nothing at all, at least up front.)
I possess no hard facts about the timing, of course, but I strongly suspect they were due for some sort of annual payment to Adobe on January 1st, and they really wanted to avoid paying it.
So, if that's true, we're not really sticking by them as they work to improve the eMusic experience, we're sticking by them as they work to improve the eMusic bottom line. I don't blame them for wanting to reduce or eliminate their licensing expenditures, though - in fact, I suspect they'd get a lot more sympathy from the subscriber base if they were honest about why they were converting. After all, nobody likes software companies who jack up their prices with very little advance warning, and apparently in this case there was practically none at all.
I actually think that in Europe the current emusic site is actually illegal, in that the change now discriminates against people such as the blind person in the thread GP is discussing. Under EU accesibility rules an alternative must be offered. Given that we do have a separate EU site based in London, although it is nearly exactly the same (no adverts yet) it is a distinct site under the legislation not a US site being viewed in Europe. It could be an interesting test case.
I think there may be some legal issues on the blind access issue here too - at the very least there could be a potential litigation there. Mods were probably told not to respond until legal looked at. Legal is probably on vacation, but no way legal would respond on a message board anyway.
And that software thing goes right back to the initial price-hike; if they were more upfront with their customers about reasons they bedded to do something, their customers would be more understanding. They talk a lot (or used to) about how smart and loyal their customers are, but they sure don't act that way.
@amclark2 - even if that's the case, you don;t need legal approval to post a one-liner telling the guy you heard his question. (It's not like they could claim they never saw it).
OK, so its the lawyers' fault and they are the bad guys. I can work with that :-). Seriously, it still sucks that a blind user says they can't get at the music anymore and it's stonewalled.
If I remember correctly from last year emusic staff will all have the day off work tomorrow and probably Friday too. So does that mean that nothing new will happen to the site after today until next Monday? If they do have a four day break, they will be the real turkeys round here...
Greg, you remember exactly correctly. It is an interesting parallel that the UMG fiasco last year was also introduced the Thursday before Thanksgiving (admittedly they were 2 days late of their intended date last year), resulting in the same pattern of members being left in the lurch for a weekend with no communication, followed by 3 days of palsied excuses, and I presume another 4 day holiday weekend of neglect to follow. If you're going to stonewall do it in style.
Yes it was the beginning of the end for Cathy Nevin on the boards as she made some lame excuse about Thanksgiving weekend. I have no problem whatsoever with staff being off tomorrow, but at the moment the key people should be back working on Friday as well as the weekend to get things right ASAP, and I include at least one moderator to keep us up to date. But actually, do any of us know any other major, comparible company that has had problems like this two years running?
Emusic just credited me with a free month's worth of credit at my regular rate, set to expire in January. I'll take that as an apology for the bugs. I'll still complain vigorously about the new design and loss of functionality unless it's improved. I wonder how much this has cost them so far?
ETA, it also came with an email warning me not to try to spend it until they contact me again as the site might not be working.
Yeah I got a month's credit too. I believe it is related to emailing emusichelps@emusic.com with your issues. ie not just whining on the message board, although I guess they may do a mass compensation thing at some point also.
Comments
If so, I'll drop it. If not, feel free to add some variation in who bumps the thread.
Craig
ETA:
A perfect rendition of eMu's apparent technical approach to the situation: Incompetence
A perfect rendition of eMu's apparent attitude w/regards to customer service: Customer Disservice
I still don't really mind the color scheme, though. I actually like dark-background websites, for the most part... but the fact that they didn't realize that by effectively disabling keyboard navigation they'd make the site useless to people using screen-readers is, sadly, just another item to add to the "proof of incompetence" list. Given that they're now using WordPress on the back-end, what they should have done was build multiple skins before they converted, and then given people a choice which could have included one that was optimized for screen-readers.
I possess no hard facts about the timing, of course, but I strongly suspect they were due for some sort of annual payment to Adobe on January 1st, and they really wanted to avoid paying it.
So, if that's true, we're not really sticking by them as they work to improve the eMusic experience, we're sticking by them as they work to improve the eMusic bottom line. I don't blame them for wanting to reduce or eliminate their licensing expenditures, though - in fact, I suspect they'd get a lot more sympathy from the subscriber base if they were honest about why they were converting. After all, nobody likes software companies who jack up their prices with very little advance warning, and apparently in this case there was practically none at all.
Craig
Craig
ETA, it also came with an email warning me not to try to spend it until they contact me again as the site might not be working.
The new eMusic site is live and ready for you to explore now. Discovering, downloading, and listening to music is even simpler.
OMG EPIC FAIL, as the young folk say.