1

A Sad Decline

Ironiclally on the very day I renew my Allmusic subscripton, I learn you've laid of Stephen Thomas Erlewine. The site has less coverage of new music than ever before and barely limps along in functionality. Thankfully, there are still places like Acclaimed Music forums that are actually interested in serving their audience. I doubt this site lasts the length of my subscription, and am not sure I'll care if it doesn't. (Also, funny enough, I haven't had to work this hard to leave a comment since the internet was dial-up.)

Follow

3 replies

Votes Newest Oldest

Let me correct you. We have not laid off Stephen Thomas Erlewine.

We license our information from a company called Xperi and they made the aggravating and, in my opinion, foolhardy decision to lay him off.

We will miss receiving his reviews in our data feed. As a friend of his for 24 years I know he will land on his feet, but we will certainly miss his writing.

Comment

Wow, that's a sad news about one of the founding editors!  What's the layoff reason?

@rootsmusic: You'd have to ask the people who laid him off.

https://xperi.com/company/contact/

ND

If that is the case, the information you license from them has degraded to the point of absurdity.  As I implied in my original post, if you can't be better than a fan generated content site, what's the actual point in continuing to exist.  This isn't really about the layoff so much that as night follows day, the decline in Allmusic has been so consistent as to be completely predictable.  Maybe in the next year things improve and I'll be proven wrong, nothing would make me happier.  I've gone from a user who would look at new music reviews on release day to someone who always waits a month to give time for reviews to populate.  I don't mind that when there is new and surprising content, it's well worth the wait.  Unfortunately the new content gets thinner and thinner and the usability of the site is so bad that I can't imagine a new user saying "This is great, need to subscribe to this."  I'm a long time user and still have the old printed album guides on my shelf and it saddens me to see this decline.  Thanks for listening.

Comment

Wow, had not heard of this news. That's very disconcerting to hear, especially considering his ties with the organization. Have many of the other longstanding members of the editorial team been dismissed too?

Given what recently happened to AllMovie and now this, suddenly feeling very pessimistic about the future of the site.

Comment
Reply