Last.fm is not handling the feedback well, IMHO

not only does it look terrible,
nothing works!
at least tracks played before :(

i think each user should be able to vote on whether the 'beta' design stays or not

Studogvetmed sa:
Again licensing unfortunately, it is very disappointing. They decreased the number of tracks in the playlist to 200... They also did a very poor job of informing the general populace about this change to licensing it would seem. This should have been mentioned in the blog post of the release, they didn't seem to.

more like they RANDOMLY deleted all tracks above #201 i your playlists - without ANY warning at all! a warning would have made backups possible at least ...

I'm sorry to say I didn't read everything in this thread, but I do have a few things to say.

I never liked the move from audioscrobbler to last.fm. But you know why I stuck around, though I decided not to pay? I could still use the old audioscrobbler. I still do. I tried out getting the last.fm program and really disliked the clunkiness and system resources it used up. The only thing it did was provide things directly from my desktop such as artist descriptions, some functionality for loved tracks and comments and the like - but at a drain on my resources.

See, I'm a graphic designer, and I desperately need my ram for programs such as photoshop and quark. I can't afford to have it be eaten up by other programs. All I wanted was a program that started when I wanted it, and used up very little resources. That would be why I've kept audioscrobbler with my winamp all these years (winamp isn't as compact as it used to be - I still run classic mode though, another throwback choice) Luckily enough last.fm still scrobbled my music plays through the change and I was a happy user. The website layout was great from the beginning in my opinion.

And now I'm afraid I won't be able to use audioscrobbler anymore and I'll have to use the resource hog last.fm program - if I decide to stay! I haven't tested it yet by submitting my scrobbles...I will have to see. That might be the breaking point for me.

My point however, is that it is a very good idea to keep throwback designs. I have read that you "can't go back" because the old interface doesn't "work" with the new interface. Well, we're not asking for it to work in the layout of the new interface - in fact, we'd rather not. Put it up exactly as it was as an alternate version. Are you really trying to say that the coding that allowed say, users to post in each other's shoutboxes is no longer compatible between versions so that people on the old version would not be able to interact with people on the new version? If so, say that and I can understand your concerns much better as a valid point.

I agree with the vast majority that the functionality is pretty awful. I can't understand what made you arbitrarily decide what separated which links go under the dropdown menu in the upper right, and the things on the lefthand side. What purpose is this library? I do not even use a media library, in fact I go to pains to disable winamp's music library feature because it is a pain to keep up to date. For such reasons I loathe iTunes even more and refuse to touch it. Things that used to take a click or less now take many more - that alone is notification of a bad site map.

Don't even get me started on things such as having my profile information displayed prominently at the top - who cares? I'm here for the music charts and artist pages. My user picture, since it's a gif, certainly doesn't seem to be uploaded properly even though I put it through again, and it's displaying huge and fuzzy. Recent activity? Why would that matter here? Do people need to know that I tagged so-and-so artist with "rock"? Why does my tag cloud not operate on plays anymore but instead how many artists I've tagged? That's not a proper representation. How about the shoutbox being a long scroll to the bottom. Placing it on the righthand side would go a long way to evening out the information distribution of the layout. I could go on and on. In fact I've rambled plenty already.

However, I noticed one thing that I love - you mark next to an artist's name on the artist page whether they are on tour or not. Very helpful for me!

Right so this was way too long, so I'll provide you a tl;dr
Keeping backwards compatibility goes a long way in keeping users happy. Take that away while throwing something completely different at us with little heads-up is a sure way to alienate.

Oh! I forgot to mention one thing.

There was someone early on who mentioned that there seemed to be many more complainers this time around than there was for the last change.

You must remember that the userbase has been constantly growing since then! While it may be more users are complaining, it might not be any higher of a percentage of the total users than there was last time. More users - more complainers, but the same percentage both times. I don't know the stats. I'm just throwing it out there.

That being said, please mull over our complaints anyway.

After 10pm? Hehe you do understand the need of sleep for those who work for last.fm do you?

I wholeheartedly agree. I am not liking the new design/functionality either, and will probably shy away from using the site as much as I did.
Shame on you Last.fm, and shame on your evil corporate overlords!

ACK with initial posting.

PsychoDude said...
And there's one thing which I simply don't get, why if you're so upset stay a member? Why not just gtfo, just listen to your music and in case you want it scrobbled somewhere set up your own little scrobbling service. It's not like last.fm is forcing you to stay here or even forcing you to pay, you're here totally by your own desire.

That's a pretty fatuous remark. Those of us who subscribe pay for one year in advance. If the site no longer does what we paid for after 6 months, yes we can "gtfo", but essentially we have been shafted. Imagine you buy a bike in January and the shop that sold you it turns up in June, while your sleeping, and takes back the wheels. Naturally, you would complain. To be told to "quit whining and adapt" Is not a satisfactory response.

Personally I have no problems with the new aesthetics. I just want the "home" page to be useful again - To have "Weekly Neighbours" and to show what they are listening to. That was the fastest and most organic way to discover new music. And that's what I pay for.

Stay chilled
A.

campag said:
PsychoDude said...
And there's one thing which I simply don't get, why if you're so upset stay a member? Why not just gtfo, just listen to your music and in case you want it scrobbled somewhere set up your own little scrobbling service. It's not like last.fm is forcing you to stay here or even forcing you to pay, you're here totally by your own desire.

That's a pretty fatuous remark. Those of us who subscribe pay for one year in advance. If the site no longer does what we paid for after 6 months, yes we can "gtfo", but essentially we have been shafted. Imagine you buy a bike in January and the shop that sold you it turns up in June, while your sleeping, and takes back the wheels. Naturally, you would complain. To be told to "quit whining and adapt" Is not a satisfactory response.

Personally I have no problems with the new aesthetics. I just want the "home" page to be useful again - To have "Weekly Neighbours" and to show what they are listening to. That was the fastest and most organic way to discover new music. And that's what I pay for.

Stay chilled
A.


Disagree, reasons to subscribe:
1. Black icon status
Show off an attractive black icon wherever you appear on the site. - Well, used to be blue, but doubt that's going to kill you
2. No ads
You won’t see them; visitors to your page won’t see them. No one will, because they won’t exist. - Didn't see them, still wouldn't be seeing them
3. Recent Visitors
See who’s been visiting your profile page. - Nothing changed there
4. Personal playlists
Build unlimited playlists and listen to them on shuffle. You can listen to your personal tags too! - Nothing changed there
5. Share the Love
Your “Loved Tracks” become a listenable radio station. - Nothing changed there
6. Red carpet treatment
Get top priority with our webservers and radio servers at peak traffic times. - Nothing changed
7. Top secret beta access
Be the first to know and try what we’re working on and help shape the development of the site. You’ll see a subscriber-only announcement during beta. - Nothing changed

What you subscribe for is to either support last.fm or any of the points on the list, well none of that changed asides from the status icon going from blue to black.


So with your analogy of the bike, it's like you buy the bike so you can cycle on those fancy red biking paths (or at least here in my country they're red :P) and suddenly what happens.... the city turns it to regular gray pavement! What you paid for remains untouched, but your biking experience got a twist ;).

Is it not that as a subscriber you just don't see adverts anywhere on the site, and hence, when logged out - as you're seen as a normal member - you see the adverts on your page as does every other normal, non-subscriber?

Bit long-winded, but I think it's all there.

Just did a check vivnow. When i am logged in i am not seeying adds on your page. They are there when i check it logout.