The update did bring about some ideas that I'd like to ask your editorial team about:

1. After a previous update like this one, I asked your editors if there were releases in those freshly updated discographies that were also worthy of a new four-and-a-half star rating where there no longer any. They kindly responded to that request - amongst those changes, I still remember Beach House surprisingly being given two 4.5s! I wonder if your team would be willing to do that again. There are now several artists who have multiple four-star albums but nothing in between. Here are some recommendations to help you:

    • Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies 
    • Broadcast - Tender Buttons 
    • Chris Stapleton - Starting Over 
    • Daddy Yankee - Talento de barrio 
    • Duran Duran - Their 1982 self-titled debut 
    • Jill Scott - Beautifully Human or even her new record?
    • Jimmy Eat World - Clarity and/or Futures 
    • King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon 
    • Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence and/or Did You Know There's a Tunnel.. 
    • Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire and/or The Battle of Los Angeles 
    • Sault - Untitled (Black Is) 
    • Sophie - Product 
    • Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz or their debut EP

2. In many cases, the artist's 'Album Pick' wasn't necessarilly the one given a five-star rating. While Zac has previously told to us that being the highest rated album in a discography doesn't automatically mean it gets the 'album pick' I did wonder if there was any incidents in the last week where your team had maybe forgotten to change it. If they had, would they take another look at some of them? To assist, here are a list of artists where the pick is now on a lower-rated non-compilation release:

    • AFI 
    • Ana Tijoux 
    • Bad Bunny 
    • Deerhunter 
    • Dirty Projectors 
    • Fear of Men 
    • Gorillaz 
    • Jazzmeia Horn 
    • Kenny Chesney 
    • Korn 
    • LCD Soundsystem 
    • Lil Wayne 
    • Lupe Fiasco 
    • Natalia Lafourcade 
    • Nathan Salsburg 
    • The New Pornographers 
    • Rosalía 
    • Timber Timbre 
    • Trivium 
    • Travis Scott 
    • Wilco

   Also, Ethel, Kralice and Lankum don't have an album pick. Want to pick one out for them?
   
   Not gonna recommend Cocteau Twins or TV on the Radio here because hopefully both 'Treasure' and 'Dear Science' will get a five-star rating the next time your team goes on a five-star rating spree! ;)
3. It was great to see Prefab Sprout's 'Steve McQueen' with a full five-star rating. However, the US edition of the same album - 'Two Wheels Good' didn't get the same treatment. Please can you update it to match?
4. Amongst all these ratings changes, two albums possibly got caught in the middle and are now listing as five-star albums on the Advanced Search engine despite having different ratings. You may want to check these out: 'Tubular Bells 2003' by Mike Oldfield and 'Delusion of the Fury' by Harry Partch. Can you find out if they've been flagged correctly?

Thanks to anyone who responds and keep up the fantastic work!

Given that we're now at that time of the year where hardly any new releases, I was wondering if your writers would be willing to respond to a request to fill in some of the blank spaces on your website.

With it having been the album's 25th Anniversary last year, it would be great to finally get a review for Flood by Boris - a monumental album, generally considered by fans to be on par with the likes of Feedbacker and Pink.

Another discography currently with some empty spots is Squarepusher's. Both the playful Hello Everything and the much-maligned Solo Electric Bass Vol 1 seemed to miss the chance for a review upon release. I'd still be intrigued to see what your editors think of them.

Of course, if your your editors already have plans to review other forgotten gems in the next few weeks then I'm very much look forward to seeing what they'll cover.

Thanks.

The beauty of the non-UPC releases is that there would be minimal legal issue if you set up an archive of it on archive.org. Granted, there will be a few stakeholders here and there that have probably created digital rights in the meantime. But most of them have simply moved on. They'd suck if they opposed such a wonderful archive anyhow. I'll throw some pennies at them if they fuss, literally.

I believe even the UPC-tied releases which have no digital legacy, would be minimal risk.

I would LOVE to work with you on this. I've done such a lot in this space, since around 2005 and it has gotten nowhere aside from other peoples' avarice or just not being able to commit for understandable reasons. I'm running out of fuel for the fire (i had to sell to gain - selling sort of spreads the word, so then there is less to gain and many others aren't archiving what they gained from me haha)

I'm not hard to find - am ox4productionz on youtube, college_of_rap_knowledge on Instagram & Mr.glmc on Discogs. Please reach out to me to discuss this. It would be great to at least kick start a conversation and put some thoughts together.Someone / some faction of your service at some point, must've had the physical copies as there are crisp 1080x1080 scans of cds, covers, back traycards for a fair few of these non-UPC CD Baby releases.

Their provenance is lost to the sands of time. I've "sort of" not shouted off the roof tops about it all but have certainly left breadcrumbs for years and had private lengthy conversations with people who have surrupticiously spread the word of these type of releases. There is absolutely a space for it. It'd likely feed in with that Jason Scott from Archive and we'd use your resource, mine, and at least half a dozen of the 20 or so people I know with a decent data supply of the physical medium too. 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards

James Ware

Album Title : Ali Hosseinzadeh Singles, Vol. 1

Artist : Ali Hosseinzadeh

Composer : Ali Hosseinzadeh

Type : EP

Format : Digital

Release Data : 2022-03-16

Barcode : 5063010607541

Album Genre : Pop

Label : Ali Hosseinzadeh

Track Numbers : 4

Track 1 : Yerooz Miyay

Time : 3:03

Track 2 : Gerye Dare

Time : 2:52

Track 3 : Sahme Man

Time : 2:48

Track 4 : Afsaneh

Time : 3:14

Track Credits

Yerooz Miyay

Produced By Ali Hosseinzadeh

Guitar (Electric) By Ali Hosseinzadeh

Guitar (Classical) By Amir Tabari

Gerye Dare

Produced By Ali Hosseinzadeh

Guitar By Nima Varasteh

Violin By Nima Varasteh

Sahme Man

Produced By Ali Hosseinzadeh

Guitar (Electric) By Amir Tabari

Guitar (Classical) By Amir Tabari

Afsaneh

Produced By Ali Hosseinzadeh

Genre : Pop

Styles : Electronica, Iranian, Middle Eastern Pop, Persian,

Recording Location : Tehran, Iran

Similar Albums : 

Donya By Arash (https://www.allmusic.com/album/donya-mw0001672827)

Pop Corn By Shadmehr (https://www.allmusic.com/album/pop-corn-mw0003009958)

Tanhaee By Andy (https://www.allmusic.com/album/tanhaee-mw0000233876)

Taj-E-Taraneh By Ebi (https://www.allmusic.com/album/taj-e-taraneh-mw0000592775)

Moods 

Melodic

Yearning

Regretful

Gloomy

Dramatic

Themes

Heartbreak

Loss/Grief

Separation

By linking to external reviews from professional critics, Allmusic would still be the one-stop website for users to find professional reviews despite fewer being penned by Xperi.  It'd actually internationally expand Allmusic's user base, because Xperi's reviews are limited to English and about English albums.  Allmusic has a great need for professional reviews in foreign languages, especially ones about albums in foreign tongues.

Yesterday I went to the vinyl store to check the naivety of the phonorecord industry - or worse - of the consumer. 

Have you guys noticed that "Tate McRae" album just coincides with... Deftones latest ? 

Or is it the same woman ???

Please help me out to uncover this mystery!

Marcio Hendrik

Composer and Editor

artigoaudio.com

I think that Xperi would be happy to reduce its workload for data-entry to only albums that its editors are reviewing.  By reducing its workload this way, Xperi would cut its operating costs.  I also think that Xperi would be willing to pay part of the saving from cost-cutting to a data vendor in order to license the vendor's data (for which Xperi no longer needs to perform data-entry) because Xperi can resell that licensed data to its own customers.  I presume that Xperi would ultimately pass on any net saving to its customers by equivalently reducing the amount that it's charging customers.

1. Allow filter to exclude composer as credited role.
2. Add filter for main albums and EPs.
3. Show editor ratings.
4. Show icon if editor reviewed album.