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Advertising overload is killing your website

You are destroying your website, which has been drowned in a sea of intrusive and annoying advertising. Allmusic used to be my favourite music website, and I used it for many years for teaching and research.

Now, I'd rather use Wikipedia, which has more comprehensive information without the advertising overkill. Your website is dying, and only the website managers can save it. Limit advertising, update information, or your supporters will abandon you.

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26 replies

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JH

I've used AllMusic as a source for hundreds of citations on Wikipedia - I consider it close to definitive in terms of reliability. However, I all but stopped visting the site several years ago because the popups made it near impossible to use, so I in recent years I've limited my visits to quick lookups for a radio show I host and nothing more.

Tonight, I thought I'd give it another shot for an article I'm working on, but after 20 minutes or so I had to bail when an ad wouldn't close - the top-right button was labelled Close but the popup persisted and eventually it took over the screen.

I understand the need to monetize an enterprise and have no problem with ads in general. But your approach, the design of how you're forcing these messages on visitors, strikes me as self-defeating. Anyway, I know I'm defeated. The cost in time is a deterrent and I'm not about to pay ransom, especially since I have countless alternatives. Try something a bit more user friendly, for example, a sidebar that stays there on a PC or bottom bar for phones. Anyway, thanks for all your fine information but not for how you're trying to pay for it.

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JT

Three years since I last posted and nothing has changed. What a shame. It’s dead to me now. Not jumping through any hoops. Such incompetence.

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C

I couldn't agree more. I use the site on a daily basis. Several times a day actually. The intrusive ads just keep getting worse. The latest Amazon ad associated with a redirect to purchase the album I searched for and that I'm forced to close by clicking an X the size of a period is infuriating. If my fat thumb doesn't click the  X exactly right, I'm redirected me to Amazon. 

AllMusic.com, listen to your customers!! I understand you need the revenue, but get it some other way. I don't have the same experience using IMdb or other similar resources.  

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Hi Chuck,

Sorry the ads are so intrusive.

I know you suggest getting revenue another way and we do have a subscription offering that removes all of the ads for $12 a year.
This greatly speeds up the site and makes the whole experience a lot cleaner.

As a power user, this might be of interest to you.
https://www.allmusic.com/subscribe

C

Zac - so unless you subscribe the UX is deplorable? Got it.  Why would you have ads with audio on a music resource site? 

HI Chuck,

Ads that play audio violate our agreement with our advertisers, but occasionally bad ads slip through.

Are you hearing this audio on your mobile phone? Or on a desktop/laptop?

C

Mobile phone. 

C

The ads with audio are often muted, but because they have audio the ad overrides the streaming service's audio muting the streaming service's audio. It took me a while to realize that's what was happening. 

Ah, so the ads themselves don't start out playing audio-on, but when listening to streaming music on your mobile device, it shuts off the music you're listening to?

This was an issue in the past and we were able to solve it, but I didn't realize it was happening again.

We'll work to get it resolved.

B

I came here because the site no longer functions on my phone- it freezes up, overloaded by ad bloat, and I cannot click links. I understand your revenue needs but you have rendered your own website inoperable. I don’t think many people will subscribe to use a site that is obviously not working properly.

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SH

Wow. Just wow. I've just read this whole thread and cannot believe that allmusic is still arguing for this intrusive ad model as necessary for survival. The site is dying, it is completely unusable. It feels untrustworthy to use, like a spam webpage from the early 2000s. Today's new trick is the ad for "A Quiet Place Day One" continuously taking over the whole page, with no exit option. You can watch for the whole 30 seconds and nothing changes - you must close the webpage completely in order to get your computer back. This goes beyond attempts to monetise the site :  it is incompetent, unprofessional engineering that will completely destroy the user base. 

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G

Too little too late. I won’t touch the website anymore. Perhaps you guys don’t realize how irritating and time consuming it is to try and get the simplest info from All Music. There are many alternatives. You have shot yourselves in the foot… badly.  

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AW

The ad situation continues to get worse.  While the online site ads have been out of control for a while, the mobile site used to be acceptable.  Now, it is more obnoxious than the online site.  Every page puts up a large pop up box asking me to listen to Amazon music.  If I click no, and go to another page, the box pops up again.  Now there is the same persistent ads at the bottom.  A banner at the bottom, another ad above that, and the Amazon pop up box.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?  Allmusic, I will NOT pony up for a subscription.  I will stop going to your site.  I am fine with ads, I chose not to pay for a subscription and you need to make money.  The current level of ads is ridiculous, intrusive and makes the site nearly unusable.  I really like site a lot and use it a lot.  I don't care if you contract with a third party to do ads (taking that from an Allmusic reply in other threads), that third party works for Allmusic and you should have some sort of leverage to curtail some of this. 

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We know the site is really saturated with ads, and we definitely understand this sentiment.

The bottom line is that if we reduce the number of ads on the site, our revenue will fall to a point to where we will no longer be able to stay in business.

We are constantly working with swapping out different ad providers and ad models in order to try to find a partner that provides us with higher monetary ad rates to be able to reduce the sheer number of ads on the site. We have not found the silver bullet that solves these problems yet.

Additionally, we've implemented the subscription model you referred to, and are working with affiliate partners to try to generate revenue that way, but ads remain the primary source of income for us.

As a publisher of a website that focuses on music criticism, the news of Pitchfork being folded into the umbrella of their fellow Conde Nast property GQ was on one hand shocking, but on the other hand not surprising. Couple that with the news of Sports Illustrated having lots of confusing issues with licensing between Authentic and Arena resulting in potentially massive layoffs of their (unionized) staff of writers. This follows a 2023 when the mastheads for BuzzFeed News, Gawker, and Jezebel closed up shop.

Times is hard for online publications, particularly ones that are ad-supported.

We recently had to make extremely drastic changes to our sister site AllMovie.com for these reasons and we're doing everything in our power to make sure that AllMusic does not meet the same fate.

If there was a way to make the economics work with fewer ads on the site, you better believe we'd do it.

Thanks for your longtime support, sorry to see you go.

JB

Zac - I used to work for a newspaper on their website so I understand the need for advertising. Perhaps it would be possible to cut down on the number of video and animated ads. There are so many of them that they often bog down my browser to the point where your site is unresponsive and I have to kill my browser.

Hi Jason,
Unfortunately the CPMs are much higher on video and animated ads.
If we could get away with just static display ads we would.

We've also seen where loading AllMusic makes our laptop fans fire up like airplane engines and the browser cache can become loaded to the point of slowing the browser.
We're working with our ad providers on lowering the weight of the ad stack as the ads load.

Thanks for the commiseration around the need for ads.

DB

I feel compelled to echo the sentiments expressed here. I have used and appreciated this site for years, visiting often to read album reviews. It has become a frustrating mess - a maze of intrusive ads that dominate the interface and experience to an absurd level. My enjoyment of AMG has been replaced by anxiety. Is this really how you want to treat your users?

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R

This is problem which has been bugging me for long time now: 
Why don't the people simply use an Adblocker extension in their browsers??

With on simple stroke, all your the aspects that bug you disappear. In fact, people who use adblockers won't even know about these irritating aspects. 

Whilst I saw that the AllMusic site had changed its  layout, it wasn't until I came here that I found out the advertising had become so intrusive. 

So why don't people use Adblockers?
Is it simply because you don't know about them?
Or is there another reason e.g. you like ads for some reason so long as they're not too bad??

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PM

Some sites including this one won't let you continue browsing if you have an ad blocker. You either have to turn it off or you have to make a donation to support the site.

I've run into a hand full of sites that now do this. 

The ads I now hate are the ones you get while scrolling through an article on a site and the article oversteps it's boundaries and blocks part of the article that you are reading. I normally just stop reading and leave the page. 

R

Perhaps it's because I'm outside of the USA (??) but this has not been my experience with using adblockers on AllMusic.

AW

I wholeheartedly agree that the ads are killing allmusic.com.  Running a website the size of allmusic.com is expensive so some amount of advertising is expected.  It is so bad that at times it feels like it is a fake or scam website designed to only generate ad $'s.  I click to close an ad, and it opens right back up.  Scroll down, more ads pop up.  Start reading a section, and an ad pops up.  Move anywhere and ads appear.  I spend more time trying to close and workaround ads than I do actually using the site.  Allmusic is an outstanding resource.  I use it for the reviews to determine if I want to purchase or try an album, research the discography of an artist, read bios, research an individual song, find out what albums a song appeared on, and much more.  Lately, I use the site less and less because of the annoying experience.  In short, ads on the site are expected but the current experience is overkill and ridiculous.  

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A

Exact same experience for me.  It's no longer worth the effort of even checking a review when it entails closing pop up after pop up that covers content.  The reviews are just not good enough to put up with it (but that's a whole nother story.)

AH

Yes, the ads now are at totally ridicules level. I keep getting a McDonlads ad which doesn't come up simply when I follow a link to a new page, but pops up constantly, even when I'm merely reading a single page of the site. I get advertising, as YouTube and all kinds of other sites/platforms have such a thing, but it's now at a level on the AllMusic site that's made it all but unusable... 

DN

There is a point of diminishing returns with constant ads and ones that cover or distract greatly from content. At some point, people get irritated, or the "number of impressions" become too many. I imagine there is some ad guy whose paycheck says otherwise, but most people feel irritation if ads are too prevalent. To paraphrase The Twilight Zone series -- Imagine if you will, a person who once loved their job, then became successful, so successful they can no longer describe the satisfaction they had felt. The cash rained down from heaven providing paper cuts for a somehow still beating heart.

RK

I am a subscriber and am inundated with the demand that I subscribe. I cannot access the site at all. There's an option to login, even though I can see my username profile in the upper right corner. When I do it refreshes the same blocked page. This is how you treat subscribers?

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Hi Robert,

This clearly should not be happening.

Most folks have been able to avoid this weird glitch by just logging out and logging back in.
 
As part of a recent site update we also updated the codebase, and encryption methods changed.  Clearing cache and removing any old cookies might be best way to get everything back working properly (with no old cookies lingering to confuse and conflict with the new code).
https://www.lifewire.com/clear-cookies-for-one-site-4587347
 
If you are seeing ads on previously visited pages, clearing your cache should remove the ads.
or doing a Hard Refresh of the page:
 
If you try any of these methods, do they resolve the situation?
ÍS

This Nirvana , Nirvana , Live(Live) 2019 album is missing on the website...

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KB

I’ve wasted my time trying to write a review for an album I’m very passionate about multiple times. The ads pop up and all progress is lost. That’s ridiculous. It has already happened trying to write this. I just started this account and will be closing it in the same day. I read above how you pretty much don’t care. More or less. I stopped after the excuse of “we’ve had to take more of an aggressive advertising approach.” So aggressive it makes your site insufferable? Good call. Totally makes sense now why your “professional” critic would 1 star Fantastic Planet by Failure. I hope you didn’t aggressively advertise to pay him more. I don’t believe he even listens to what he reviews if that’s a sample of his expertise. He doesn’t have to love it, I realize we all have different taste, but can anyone review an album from the 90’s and keep from saying Kurt Cobain or Nirvana just once? He didn’t invent music. And I like nirvana, I remember when that happened, it was great. But there were other grunge bands that were better. Failure isn’t even grunge and they wanna be nirvana. According to this site that is. The only thing I don’t like about nirvana is the fact there isn’t much to listen to. It’s a shame. Oh, and of course everything I bitched about above. The only part that is kind of their fault is Kurt taking his life. And some think that he was murdered. It sure would have been nice to have had near this much time to write the review instead of complaining about your ads and bad critic. One star? Come on. 

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CK

Good news for you! Presuming you spend $15 to subscribe, and presuming you know how to manage a web browser, you'll see no ads. I see no ads and I've spent hundreds of hours on Allmusic. Use Firefox and install an add blocker.

As to reviewer bias: there are at least 10 reviewers for this site with a variety of perspectives. Generally they have something intelligent to offer.

@Chris Kent: It's even better news! It's only $12 a year!

DN

Hi Khal. I was with you for the first part of your post. I have also tried to get AllMusic to do a better job of managing their ads. That said, I frankly don't know what you're trying to say toward the end of your post. In other words, don't undercut the reasonable parts of your opinion by adding gibberish. It makes it easier for others to pretend nothing you said made sense.

KB

David, I wouldn’t call it gibberish, come on, however it was a rant. I do admit it was irrelevant to the subject, although I was trying to write a review of my own and couldn’t which is what led me here. I don’t feel like every critic or anyone has to agree with me, I just got the impression he didn’t listen to it, wanted to have a “hot take,” you name it. There are also a lot of critics that wen they revisit something from the 90’s it’s always a knockoff unless Cobain, Corgan, or Yorke wrote it. I don’t mention Trent Reznor because if you were growing up in the 90’s, there were so many generic NIN knockoffs after TDS it was comical. And some of that was even decent. Failure isn’t grunge, they cringe at being called that. Tool never gets accused of this, and they’re huge fans of Failure. They used to take them on tour back then. They still collaborate. Just in different ways. I will stop before it turns into a rant again if it hasn’t already. You were ultimately correct. I should’ve stopped after I made my point. This is just the only place ads aren’t popping up and making me lose all my progress. I’m sure you have good critics, and maybe this one that did Fantastic Planet, maybe he was having a bad day or shod knows what. One star though, there’s something off about that. Hey I know, hire me as a critic. I won’t rant, believe it or not I went to school for journalism. I’m just not writing that way here. I tried on my review tho. And gibberish? Come on man. That’s, mmmm I’ll just stop here. Thank you for at least replying. Not so much for labeling it gibberish. ☮️ 

HL

I’m beyond fed up with how bad the advertising has become on this site and have been coming here for years and years and years. Have recommended it to so many ppl in that time but now it’s embarrassing. Can’t even access the information you are looking for because the entire, and I mean the ENTIRE, page is covered with ads. Tried to show my daughter something and had to just close the entire site down and go elsewhere for the info. Please fix what used to be great! 

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PM

I don't mind the ads on your website but lately they have been getting worse. By worse I mean they are blocking things so that you can't even click on an album entry in a discography or choose an item in the drop down menu at the top of the discography page. The ads in question just stay there and never close. They do not have an X on them to close them. If they stayed there for 10 seconds and then disappeared that would be ok. It's almost like you are purposely doing these type of ads to force people to subscribe.

By the way, I had to re sign up for this help site because I never got the email confirmation nor the 2nd confirmation request either. I also had to change my password twice because it didn't acknowledge it the first time I did it. Just pointing out a few more bugs I have encountered in the last 30 mins while on the site. 

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Hi Paul,
We have been having an ongoing issue with one of our advertisers and they are working to fix it.

This is their update today: "We believe we've tracked this down. Bear with us as we make necessary ad server changes to finally fix this issue. Will touch base once this is completed."

JH

I can't even use the site on A Mac via Safari. After only a moment or so the site becomes completely dead and you can't click on anything. Closing the window is the only recourse. Only site that does this that I know of.

iPhone and iPad are the only solution to view the site.

DD

It's not just that there are ads: the ads make it impossible to read the content. I would warn anyone advertising on this site that your ads are hurting your reputation because of the terrible experience you are creating for readers. Allmusic: spend some time navigating your own site. Do you seriously think this is an acceptable experience? 

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We have been having an ongoing issue with one of our advertisers and they are working to fix it.

This is their update today: "We believe we've tracked this down. Bear with us as we make necessary ad server changes to finally fix this issue. Will touch base once this is completed."

B

I agree with ALL of the posts!  Advertising is STRANGLING this ENTIRE website.  So much so that I won't even consider PAYING to get rid of the ads (which is evidently what they want everyone to do!).  This is unfortunate, because the website itself has a tremendous amount of great information.  It is soooo bad, this website often makes my entire browser behave slowly if I happen to leave the window open.  Website: BAD and getting worse!

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We've needed to move to a more aggressive ad model for many reasons. Detailed here if you're interested: https://allmedianetwork.helprace.com/i8-support-allmusic-and-go-ad-free

WL

Zac, is it working for you on balance? It's clear that many users find the advertising intrusive and obnoxious and it is driving them away from Allmusic. Stacked against this is any positive gain the site has made in terms of revenue that can be directly attributed to the model, despite the negative reaction.

I recognise your difficulties, but there's something distasteful about being strong-armed into a subscription. It leaves me with a vague feeling of ill-will towards the site.

I agree that this dilemma is by no means restricted to Allmusic. The debate in this thread could be applied all over the internet. There are many sites in which the user experience has been totally trashed and thrown in the gutter by dreadful advertising.

@Warren

To be honest, it is a delicate balance. We have actually reduced the number of ads on the page in 2021 (eliminating our 1x1 ad unit that would often place the more aggressive ads that float over top of the content at the bottom of the page and in the left sidebar) in an effort to try to gain back some of the users who may have walked away from AllMusic (and to help improve our Google search engine ranking).

The results have been mixed-to-disappointing. We're making less revenue from ads and subscription but have not gained back the audience we may have turned away and while our Google ranking is improving, it still has not made up for the loss in revenue.

I am not at liberty to turn over our full financial reporting but I will say that we're running as lean as possible on the revenue we make from ads and subscriptions. Options for the future include increasing the number of ads on the page (which hurts our Google rank and makes users walk away), somehow increasing our pageviews (tough to do without paying for advertising), or something more drastic like eliminating ads altogether and putting the site behind a paywall (which would infuriate almost everyone who uses the site and would likely not put us in a better financial situation than we are now).

So again, I'm sorry that you and others are feeling like we're intentionally sabotaging the entire site but as you say:

"I agree that this dilemma is by no means restricted to Allmusic. The debate in this thread could be applied all over the internet. There are many sites in which the user experience has been totally trashed and thrown in the gutter by dreadful advertising."

There is a reason this happens on so many other sites. It is a financial necessity.

We're offering a pretty affordable solution at what breaks down to $1 a month. Times are hard and if you simply cannot afford the subscription, we have our (admittedly unfriendly) ad-supported version for free. Honestly, if you simply cannot abide by either option, the internet and modern browser tools have options you can explore. I can't say I'm endorsing this path (because in large part adblocking is what is harming the site), but you should do what you've gotta do.

G

Sorry Zac you need to rethink this site “We've needed to move to a more aggressive ad model for many reasons” is not working. Your website is now sadly unusable for us serious music devotees.  

GH

Agreed.  And i do feel intentionally pushed toward the subscription model.  I got on today and there is a brand new disruption where the user is automatically scrolled down to an ad while trying to read the review.  You can only read a few sentences before being taken off the text. For me, this is counter-effective.  Instead of paying for ad removal, it just pisses me off.  I hate being strong-armed.  By contrast,  I gladly donate to Wikipedia from time to time because i respect their model.  I've not given a red cent to AMG. 

Comment

It seems as though yesterday we had a bad ad that was causing the user to be taken to the bottom of the page. We had never seen this behavior in the past and obviously it is completely not the way we intend the site to run. We're seeing if we can reproduce it now.

If you see this behavior again, please let us know either here in this forum or by contacting support (at) allmusic (dot) com

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

DH

I follow the same policy, donating to Wikipedia every year as they provide much better information about all topics, including music & movies. I would never support Allmusic or Allmovie with their aggressive, intrusive and poorly designed websites overloaded with advertising.

I'm done with AMG.  I've used it for years, decades even but no more.  Why should I pay them when they're willing to make the site unusable UNLESS I pay?  It's extortion.  Bye bye guys.  Wiki from now on.

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Sorry you feel that way David. We're not intentionally pushing people toward our subscription model, but we are offering it as an option.

We've needed to move to a more aggressive ad model for many reasons. Detailed as the first comment here if you're interested: https://allmedianetwork.helprace.com/i8-support-allmusic-and-go-ad-free

G

Ditto David

JT

Did Allmusic get the site straightened out such that the $12 fee results in a smooth, ad-free experience? Does it work on all browsers, including Safari? 

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Yes. The $12 subscription removes all ads from the site and helps to make the site run faster, even in Safari.

Previously we had an issue where if users visited a page, then subscribed, then went BACK to that page, the original ads would display again. We have since modified our process so that once you subscribe, the ads are removed, even on pages you previously visited.

WL

I agree with everybody here. I've used Allmusic going back more years than I can remember. In recent times visiting the site has become a miserable experience. Yes, the subscription is pretty cheap, but I see a lot of people saying that things don't improve a great deal once you've paid. Plus Wikipedia and others already do a great job of providing the information I'm looking for, so where's the incentive to open my wallet?

I know you guys have to make a living, but somewhere along the line you've overcooked the goose. The site is now a mess, the ads are dreadful and intrusive, and you've declined from the first stop on my info hunts to the last.

When I think of everything that's gone into building Allmusic over so many years, I'm saddened by the state of the site these days.

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DC

hadn't been here in so long they had disabled my account and had to sign up again.  but had to use an alternate email as even thought they could not send a password on my old login, attempting to recreate account says that email is already in use.  I agree that the ads make this unusable.  I had come here because a link i had used to a pic of Styx Bassist Chuck Panozzo no longer worked.  through the wonders of modern advertising popups I COULD NOT FIND ANYTHING ON CHUCK ON HIS PAGE.   just wall to wall ads  like others have said i realize you can't live on air, but allmusic.com is sucking all the air out of this room.

K

The site is unusable now.

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JT

I agree with everyone. I'm just done. Life is too short to put up with this. I whitelisted the site and BOOM! Popups and all kinds of crap covering up the content. They won't click away either. Then I discover the pages freeze up and the links don't work, none. You all have made some serious blunders here. I hope you get it fixed before you go tits up, but I'm not waiting around to see. I'm out. Then, I see the reports of people paying $12 and still not getting rid of the ads. Icing on the cake. Why should we pay $12 knowing it changes nothing? Maybe I'll check back in a year or two or three. It's a shame though, I'll miss the old Allmusic a little. But not enough to jump through hoops and it still be unusable.

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Hey John,
Sorry to hear of your trepidation for being willing to subscribe.

It may not make a difference but we've recently put in place a method to try to ensure that people who have just recently logged in and re-visited the same pages are not presented with ads again.

JT

Zac, I appreciate the response, but I think you aren’t hearing what we’re saying. This isn’t an issue that incremental changes are going to remedy. The site is fundamentally broken, both from a policy and implementation perspective. The attempt to force people to subscribe making the site otherwise painfully unusable is wrong because this site isn’t necessary or primary (you aren’t the NYTimes). And then not providing a clean, ad-free experience for those who trusted you and paid the fee is some combination of incompetence and betrayal. You don’t treat customers that way. Customer loyalty is a hard won attribute of sites run with insight, skill and integrity. All music has demonstrated a dearth of all three. 

DH

Agreed ... allmusic has made the transition from an enjoyable & informative site to a maze of advertising overkill. Your formers supporters are not impressed. All power to free sites like Wikipedia, which provides excellent information without an avalanche of advertising 🎵🌟

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DH

I checked your subscription, which is only $12 a year for an advertising free experience. For anyone who uses Allmusic regularly, I think it's a very good investment.

I wish Allmovie had the same option, as I use their website more often and their advertising overkill is extreme.

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