Music Match Downloads Announced

[plasticparadox]

Re: Close but no banana

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
There is some massively twitchy things about the UI. The forward and back buttons that allow you to move back a page. I've had some funky experiences with it. Example. I did a search for Fast and the Furious. I have the first CD but want to get the music from the second one. I do a search. Click on the album. The site basically tells me they don't have it yet. This in and of itself I don't like. MM has albums listed that they don't even have yet. (Another example is Underworld.) Only after you click on them do you find this out. Massive waste of time and more likely then not to piss someone off. Why even include it if you don't have it?!?!
The problem starts when you go back. First off you have to double click back because of how it displays titles/tracks it doesn't have yet. It quickly renders the top half of the page that displays the title and then renders the bottom half that doesn't display anything. This has the effect of making the back button think it's rendered 2 pages and I suppose it has.

Also you can't go back to the results from your search. It clears that out. And even better it occasionally resets the dropdown field that allows you to select Artist, album, track back to artist even though your previous selection was Album. Even when it doesn't reset itself and stays on album when you click search again it acts like the selection was artist and returns results sorted by artist. Apparently the search bar is also part of the internal web interface. I'm not a fan of this. IMHO the search bar should be outside the web interface and the results should be web based. I suppose it makes the UI easier to upgrade in the future but its still somewhat a sketchy method of doing it.
Speed. I have broadband. I've browsed the site occasionally between 12AM CST today and 11PM CST today. The speed is relatively the same: Somewhat slow for previews. Maybe 5-10 seconds? And page renderings. Heh. Also a good 5-10 seconds. I suppose they could be getting slapped around with new users. What really sucks is that there is no throbber. No method of seeing that its attempting to render the page. So I end up sitting there wondering if the its doing its thing or not. All in all it’s a good first attempt. There IS some cleanup that needs to be done. Its not perfect but from comments I've read from the various boards neither is iTunes. Playing with a friend iBook and iTMS I think the interface between the player and the store is a bit more consistent then MM. The MMS has the definite feel of a rushed product. I think there is going to be some major tweaking to the site and the UI before the end of the year. Honestly I did expect this. I've never been all that impressed with MM. Their software has always been slow, clunky, and a PITA to use. This version of the MM player is a major upgrade. Thank god they got rid of the damn metallic skin and went with this toned down version. I think for the time being I'll use MM as my main player. The question I have is should I shell out 20 when I know iTunes for Windows is coming out. As I mentioned before I like the super tagging utility that comes with this software. Unfortunately in typical Apple style we don't have a clue when and what is going to be released for windows. No features no nothing. So I may just go ahead and grab the plus version.

PS- Another thing I noted. get it while you can folks. I wonder how much they are going to charge per month for this service?

You're being unfair in your review of MusicMatch. The reason that MusicMatch displays albums it doesn't have tracks for, is that it recommends music similar to that.

If you subscribed to MusicMatch MX, the premium radio service, you would understand much better. But let me try to explain.
There are 2 tiers of service for MusicMatch MX Radio; Gold and Platinum. Both give CD-quality sound, but Premium allows you to hear music just from one artist. You can hear every song that a specific artist has put out. With Gold, you can hear some music from that artist, and some similar artists/genres. That's why it displays albums it doesn't yet carry -- if you happen to search for it, the program will recommend similar music.

I realize that this is a Mac forum, but MusicMatch is, in my opinion, the best jukebox available for Windows. We MusicMatch users don't knock iTunes, so don't knock us.

 

[Phil Of Mac]

Re: Re: Close but no banana

Originally posted by plasticparadox
I realize that this is a Mac forum, but MusicMatch is, in my opinion, the best jukebox available for Windows. We MusicMatch users don't knock iTunes, so don't knock us.

In other news, those of us who drive decrepit Yugos from 1978 do not criticize Mercedes-Benz owners for their choice of vehicle, and humbly ask for the same consideration.

NOTE: I am not comparing MusicMatch to a decrepit Yugo, I am simply pointing out an obvious logical fallacy by means of exaggerated analogy. Please do not act like fools and emphasize the wrong part of my argument or I will be forced to punish you.

 

[eyelikeart]

so who's wearing panties around here?

seriously...I've used the MusicMatch jukebox on my dad's HP...it's pretty cool I'll admit...

but as an overall preference...I like the ease of use of iTunes better...

 

[plasticparadox]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
so who's wearing panties around here?

seriously...I've used the MusicMatch jukebox on my dad's HP...it's pretty cool I'll admit...

but as an overall preference...I like the ease of use of iTunes better...

Yeah, so do I. My biggest complaint about MusicMatch is that it's bloated. iTunes is 10 times better than MusicMatch.