It reminds me of Qantas grounding its entire fleet internationally in an act of industrial bastardry last month, inconveniencing tens of thousands and infuriating most of the rest of Australia - then while the whole thing is still raw and still playing out in the courts and politically last week its social media team launched a competition on twitter to win some crap using the hastag #qantasluxury Naturally this got immediately hijacked by thousands of snarky and sarcastic tweets and will be a future case study in tone deafness in social media and marketing.
Just been skimming the message board over there. It seems to me that there is actually more protest than even this time last year. Then it was the regulars having their say. Now it appears to be members who very rarely, and in many cases never, have contributed to the forum before. Even the overall volume of posts seems to be greater. Emusic have had a gigantic mess up. Surely they ought to have seen some of these problems in advance, but obviously did not. I'll stay with them for now - the range of music available is great and I am not paying a lot really. But this time last year, UK and other EU members were 'promised' the majors next year, ie during 2011. Well they haven't got long left to do something and would have announced it by now anyway. But when that time comes I see me leaving fairly quickly if prices rise - which they will have to do. I dread to think how many tracks I have downloaded from them this year - probably around 2500 or more with my 100 per month plan and various Groupon deals. Yet probably 90% has only been played one or two times. So I have lots of good music to listen to. I'll give up on emusic then and just buy a few key albums from other places. The joy has gone because the system is so poor at locating what I want now and I do find it harder to read, being a 60 year old with vari focal lens!
A second rant is about their message board. As we all know once the thread reaches so many messages more are not automatically displayed, so you have to go to newest first, just a pain having to change it. That is one area that needed changing, but of course it is not really income related in the way it might have been a few years ago with recommendations tking up a lot of posts.
OK rant over - I hope all emusers in the States have a good Thanks Giving Day! For me it is a normal work day over here, I can't avoid my marking/grading any longer!
OK - time for a positive comment about emusic. I just went to the home page and there was an article about Paul Motian written by Jonah. I've not seen such a speedy response before to something like this.
I think my eyes are deceiving me: I'm seeing all sorts of per-track prices on 10+ minute tracks. For instance, Pink Floyd's "Echoes" comes in at 79 cents.
ETA: Never mind--as soon as I signed in, the per track prices disappeared.
@BT, yes, that happened to me on the Stockhausen album I posted the other day. The one album-only track raises the overall price by ovre $4. Isn;t that false advertising or something, to have a price displayed, require membership for purchase, and then raise the price by a huge margin when you sign in? Just another glory of the new emusic experience.
Mailman just outed Daniel as the son of emu brass.
I knew it all along. I always thought there was something not quite right about his music recs. I mean, I think mountain goats are swell and all, but who the hell listens to them on an album? Baahing and bleating over looped cello lines screams major label shill to me.
Oh, the injustice of it all! BT, you just made me realize what is so, so wrong with this picture - they have managed to screw up almost every little thing over there, but has anyone posted even a single mispriced box set? No.
Hope everyone is having a good Black Friday.
I've just been glancing through the emusic message board - still just as many complaints, it doesn't seem to have slowed down. But what hasn't helped is that there have been no moderators there since Wednesday. OK I know it was Thanksgiving on Thursday, but do all staff need 4 days off at such a crucial time for emusic? Some input form emusic might have helped stem the tide, but instead it has got worse. Typical of the company and not the first time either - just the same last year....
Friday I decided to put my subscription on hold, only to find out that I couldn't access my account because of the log in loop.
I subsequently wrote an angry email to Emusic:
"Im fed up !
- With the endless log in loops.
- Not beeing able to ad to list.
- Not beeing able to see more than 48 albums on labelpages.
- Not beeing able to see date added on labelpages.
- The absence of the new tag
- Not beeing able to edit my reviews
- Not beeing able to see my reviews posted after the redesign in my profile
- Beeing directed to the main page after log in.
- All the issues mentioned in the Emusic Classical thread on the MB posted by Justin: https://www.emusic.com/messageboard/viewTopic.html?topicId=297054#
+ more I cant think of right now.
But worst of all:
I cant access my account to put my subscription on hold, because of the log in loop. (clearing cache doesnt work.
Im using windows 7, IE 9 - 64 bit.
I simply cant understand why Emusic insists on holding on to the new design.
Im looking forward to your reply."
- I just got this reply from Noah:
"Hi Ib,
Sorry for the delay in my response, and sorry that you're this upset with the design changes. Here's what's happening on the eMusic side.
Login issue - Top priority. We've noticed less login issues from members not using IE.
Add to list & save for later - Known issue that is now being address since download issues have been corrected.
48 albums per page - This was a design request and not a bug, but we've gotten feedback regarding this so I'll definitely pass your feedback along.
Date Added/Reviews - You can't edit your review you can only post a new one. You can delete your post and post again. This is a bug as well is date added.
Not Seeing Your Reviews - I'm not aware that this is a bug, I'll test and report the issue. I'll have to follow up with you on that.
There are a lot of fixes that are being done. I'll update you when we fix them and update the site.
I understand the design is something new to get use to, and it doesn't help when it is accompanied by broken functionality. When search/browse/login is fixed things will be better. I'm sorry for the troubles. Also your account already renewed did you still want me to put your account on hold at all?
Regards,
Noah - Member Services"
- Well, I'm not angry anymore and certainly not at Noah, I think that the mod staff is doing a fine job handeling the difficult situation.
"design is something new to get use to" - that is no doubt going to turn out to be true on some things; some things will turn out to seem a little less obnoxious with use and with bugfixes. That still leaves things like the banner ads and the graphics/text proportions and the inability to see all the tracks on an album that seem to me to be getting more of a pain the more I 'get used to' the site. Not to mention what's going on with the absent recommendation features that are supposed to be coming back some time. I've never really thought much of this is the moderators' fault - the one thing I do hold them responsible for is the erratic communication on the board, where some questions get answered almost at once and others ignored. I should really try to stay away - I keep getting sucked back in to thinking that they listen and posting makes a difference and then getting mad at them when they only answer what they feel like answering. The only thing I can charitably put that down to is that they are being given no time on the board because everyone is on full-time email answering duty. Even then, I wish they would understand how much frustration they could reduce with the occasional quick and simple reassurance that questions have been heard.
"I understand the design is something new to get use to" actually worries me - I hope they are not just going to put all the frustrations with the new design down to us all needing to adjust.
The Ministry Of Truth says that we must adjust. The Ministry Of Truth is never wrong. The Ministry Of Truth does not adjust for it is not the job of the Ministry Of Truth to adjust because it is never wrong. It is the job of the Ministry Of Truth to shape reality and enforce its declared vision upon the misguided who believe in any other vision, and to adjust them.
In other words, we had better start to like the taste of this s**t sandwich because every day they are going to ask us to take another bite.
I've sent them a notice to remove the upcoming Hold from my account, specifying that it is not because I have changed my mind about their recent changes but in order to keep my account active in order to clear out my SFLs as soon as possible to be able to depart.
I do not blame the mod staff, they are only doing what they are told with the information they have. However, people outside the US seem to be having much bigger problems than those inside the US and NONE of these have been adequately addressed, or even inadequately addressed really, either on the message board or in CS emails (I've sent two myself.) Never mind only being able to see 48 albums, for 2 weeks (two! weeks!) I haven't been able to see ANY albums under New Releases, Charts, labels, or Genre. None. Not one. Search has returned nothing all this time too. Not a word from any mod privately or publicly, and the insulting rah rah message up at eMusic Labs doesn't bother to address it even obliquely either.
As to the design, as far as I can divorce it in my mind from the technical shambles I don't mind it actually (but I have a good computer, broadband and no visual issues) - the worst thing is I find red on black very difficult to read easily, especially the tiny label names etc below the album cover.
Interesting - I added a thread about 17Dots on the emusic board, and fairly speedily there was a response from Joe Edwards. Yet the moderators have been absent since last Wednesday now. Actually they normally do a good job there,but I suspect they are all back to their 'day job' - but it is all adding to people's frustrations there. Can't they see that members actually would just like to know what is going on and some timescale? I thought transparency was the best policy these days....
I had some log in issues surrounding the Free Daily Download, but it seems fine now, at least Safari. IE hasn't been made for Macs going on eight to ten years.
Edit: Actually Firefox still gives me issues, making me relog in and never letting me download or acknowledging that I did log in. I had to use Safari to download my monthly credit worth.
@Brighternow, I have a complaint to raise. First you get me to click on a link over at the other place to an album called "jingle farts", thus, erm, enriching my cultural knowledge. Then, much against my better judgement, you further entice me to click on a link to a sound sample of said album. Then the next day I have a student sitting in my office waiting to review her teaching video with me, and I re-open my browser, and the pages I had open reload, and for some reason the sample of someone farting the tune of Jingle Bells loads and begins playing, and I am so flustered that the whole blessed thing has played before I can figure out which process to kill to get rid of it. Not the best enhancement of my professorial dignity that has ever occurred.
If I ever come to Denmark, I think you owe me a beer :-).
Hey! Can any of the technical literati here explain why this works? This work-around was noted over at Nü-eMü in this thread.
Is the replacement of 'www' by 'wmp' some secret web protocol? Is this something unique to how eMu went about implementing their change? Inquiring minds (at least this one) would like to know.
BTW: I found that a revisit to the 'old' eMu site and it's accompanying 'white space' was such a stark contrast to the dark and oppressive Nü-eMü site that it I was immediately reminded as to how absolutely unfathomable it is to me that they ended up with the new site that they did.
Note 1: Someone used the "Nü-eMü" term over on the eMu message boards in a recent post.... caught my eye/imagination.
It's not a different protocol or anything, it's just a different subdomain - they probably implemented the new site by running it on separate servers for a few days, long enough to make screenshots, anyway. Then they just swapped the local DNS entries to direct "www" traffic to the new servers on the day of the changeover. It's actually the way you'd normally do it - you can have any number of subdomains on any number of servers (including just one).
I'd assume the huge, and almost frightening, difference in performance is due to the fact that very few people are hitting the old servers now, but the thing that really strikes me is the new releases - for Alternative/Punk alone, I'd estimate only about half of what's actually coming in is making it onto the WordPress version, maybe less. The page-content is almost certainly in a separate database, but it looks like maybe the artist and album tables are too...? So either they're filtering stuff out, or the new-release queries are significantly different, or there's something wrong with whatever process is putting new releases into the new site's album tables.
The situation is even worse than I thought over there, and that's saying something.
I compared the "old" jazz freshly ripped vs. the "new". It appears something may have happened today during the ingestion process, because freshly ripped jazz just exploded and a whole bunch of albums that have dates on the "old" view that go back a couple weeks are now showing up on the "new" view as just hitting the site. As proof of both how religiously I go through jazz new releases and how questionable my use of time on this planet may be, I pretty much recognize each and every album cover that was there on the "new" view before today and those that are there now that the "old" view recognizes with a date up to two weeks back. There were a couple albums that I didn't see on the "new" view, but I may just have overlooked them. I'm at work and my eyes are tired.
A big concern of mine was what happens if the date field wasn't populating correctly on the "new" platform. The albums would still fall onto the site, but not show up in any date-sensitive searches. There is one in particular I'm using as a test of this, but I won't be able to perform it until this weekend.
But overall, it appears that as of today (because I can guarantee you that they were there yesterday anywhere) a lot of new release backlog just hit the "new" site.
@GP - your post about your complaint to Brighternow was hilarious! I hope you have recovered from the indignity of it all. Thanks for giving me a good laugh!
Comments
A second rant is about their message board. As we all know once the thread reaches so many messages more are not automatically displayed, so you have to go to newest first, just a pain having to change it. That is one area that needed changing, but of course it is not really income related in the way it might have been a few years ago with recommendations tking up a lot of posts.
OK rant over - I hope all emusers in the States have a good Thanks Giving Day! For me it is a normal work day over here, I can't avoid my marking/grading any longer!
ETA: Never mind--as soon as I signed in, the per track prices disappeared.
I knew it all along. I always thought there was something not quite right about his music recs. I mean, I think mountain goats are swell and all, but who the hell listens to them on an album? Baahing and bleating over looped cello lines screams major label shill to me.
Hope everyone is having a good Black Friday.
Craig
funny you say that, since most times, lawyers are the good guys.
How apt.
Craig
I subsequently wrote an angry email to Emusic: - I just got this reply from Noah: - Well, I'm not angry anymore and certainly not at Noah, I think that the mod staff is doing a fine job handeling the difficult situation.
- Now I need to figure out a reply (? ?) . . .
"I understand the design is something new to get use to" actually worries me - I hope they are not just going to put all the frustrations with the new design down to us all needing to adjust.
In other words, we had better start to like the taste of this s**t sandwich because every day they are going to ask us to take another bite.
I've sent them a notice to remove the upcoming Hold from my account, specifying that it is not because I have changed my mind about their recent changes but in order to keep my account active in order to clear out my SFLs as soon as possible to be able to depart.
As to the design, as far as I can divorce it in my mind from the technical shambles I don't mind it actually (but I have a good computer, broadband and no visual issues) - the worst thing is I find red on black very difficult to read easily, especially the tiny label names etc below the album cover.
I had some log in issues surrounding the Free Daily Download, but it seems fine now, at least Safari. IE hasn't been made for Macs going on eight to ten years.
Edit: Actually Firefox still gives me issues, making me relog in and never letting me download or acknowledging that I did log in. I had to use Safari to download my monthly credit worth.
If I ever come to Denmark, I think you owe me a beer :-).
Is the replacement of 'www' by 'wmp' some secret web protocol? Is this something unique to how eMu went about implementing their change? Inquiring minds (at least this one) would like to know.
BTW: I found that a revisit to the 'old' eMu site and it's accompanying 'white space' was such a stark contrast to the dark and oppressive Nü-eMü site that it I was immediately reminded as to how absolutely unfathomable it is to me that they ended up with the new site that they did.
Note 1: Someone used the "Nü-eMü" term over on the eMu message boards in a recent post.... caught my eye/imagination.
It's not a different protocol or anything, it's just a different subdomain - they probably implemented the new site by running it on separate servers for a few days, long enough to make screenshots, anyway. Then they just swapped the local DNS entries to direct "www" traffic to the new servers on the day of the changeover. It's actually the way you'd normally do it - you can have any number of subdomains on any number of servers (including just one).
I'd assume the huge, and almost frightening, difference in performance is due to the fact that very few people are hitting the old servers now, but the thing that really strikes me is the new releases - for Alternative/Punk alone, I'd estimate only about half of what's actually coming in is making it onto the WordPress version, maybe less. The page-content is almost certainly in a separate database, but it looks like maybe the artist and album tables are too...? So either they're filtering stuff out, or the new-release queries are significantly different, or there's something wrong with whatever process is putting new releases into the new site's album tables.
The situation is even worse than I thought over there, and that's saying something.
I compared the "old" jazz freshly ripped vs. the "new". It appears something may have happened today during the ingestion process, because freshly ripped jazz just exploded and a whole bunch of albums that have dates on the "old" view that go back a couple weeks are now showing up on the "new" view as just hitting the site. As proof of both how religiously I go through jazz new releases and how questionable my use of time on this planet may be, I pretty much recognize each and every album cover that was there on the "new" view before today and those that are there now that the "old" view recognizes with a date up to two weeks back. There were a couple albums that I didn't see on the "new" view, but I may just have overlooked them. I'm at work and my eyes are tired.
A big concern of mine was what happens if the date field wasn't populating correctly on the "new" platform. The albums would still fall onto the site, but not show up in any date-sensitive searches. There is one in particular I'm using as a test of this, but I won't be able to perform it until this weekend.
But overall, it appears that as of today (because I can guarantee you that they were there yesterday anywhere) a lot of new release backlog just hit the "new" site.