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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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Hi Dale,

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

We also have a subscription version where users can support AllMusic and get a faster ad-free experience. https://www.allmusic.com/subscribe
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B

That's fine if you need "a more aggressive ad model," as many sites do these days. But at least find someone who can design a UI that doesn't result in a horrid user experience. Like many other have said here, I've been a huge user and fan of AMG for years (dating back to the print versions) - but have found myself going to Pitchfork and even Wikipedia more often than AMG bc it's so painful to try and use. And a paid subscription should not be an excuse for poorly designed web site - not that the paid version is much better. Figure it out. Off to Wikipedia to read about Elliott Smith now...

MB

I fully agree with Bob and the others. AllMusic used to be the first place I went to learn about a band or discover new music. Now the site is almost totally unusable with video auto-playing, popover ads that need to be dismissed with every page load. It's an absolutely miserable experience trying to read anything. These are fundamental design principles being violated.

I care enough about the site that I signed up for an account just to share my frustration. Through this process, I just learned about the ad-free subscription, but I'm not sure I trust the designers of this site to not break it. Auto-play in 2021? Please...

I certainly appreciate the need for ad revenue and willingly pay for good content via sites like Patreon. But with the horrible experience a new user has to endure, how do you expect to transition them to paying subscriber? Congratulations, you created a new business model: Punishment Subscription. Pay us or we'll make your experience so miserable that you can't enjoy any of the information you came here to get.

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