23 oct 05
When iTunes added user reviews, everyone said “finally,” and “They should have had them all along.” You know what? I totally disagree.
When they added iMixes, I knew the music store would be overwhelmed with a barrage of junk. And I was right. Sometimes when I’m bored, I find crappy, high-ranked iMixes and rank them with one star. Unfortunately, I have a slightly higher criteria with which I judge a mix, and “a bunch of songs I like” does not measure up.
The thing about reviews is, at least at first, people will only feel compelled to post one if they either really like or really hate the album. So what does that get us? “OMFG I LOOOVE this CD!!!” or “This album sucks and these people shouldn’t be allowed to make any more music.” Ooh. Enlightening.
The thing is, lots of sites have user reviews, but not a lot of them are worth reading. I just think iTunes could have done without. For me, they won’t add anything to the experience, just inessential exclamation points.
James / 24 oct 2005 / 3:21 a.m.
Heh. That’s the problem with this whole “Internet” thing, really; give everyone a forum to express their opinions and you find out just how many stupid opinions are out there ;)
Amazon’s one site that’s managed to do sort of OK with reviews, between the review rating system and the professional/user-submitted distinction, maybe iTunes could take a few more cues from them (though their list stuff still isn’t always particularly useful). Probably the best solution would be some sort of socially-based system where you could mark certain people whose ratings and reviews you trust, and only see those, or see them above everything else. Plus, then they could be all happy hypey (is that a word) web-2.0 social-software buzzword compliant, or something.
Jing / 24 oct 2005 / 2:13 p.m.
i totally agree. everytime i read reviews for anything, there always seems to be that the majority of them are written by 9 year olds who think they’re “1337” because they use IM slang and superfluous exclamation points. this just furthers my belief that the subsequent generation will be substantially more annoying and stupid than all previous generations of human beings. oy.
shaun / 24 oct 2005 / 6:04 p.m.
I am stoked that they added a recommendation engine, though. I just wish it would read my collection rather than only basing it on the tracks that I’ve bought at ITMS.
jason / 24 oct 2005 / 12:18 a.m.
i hate reading a bunch of idiotic reviews. they should have celeb reviews or professional reviews. im with you even though i hate the ipod b/c i don’t have one. !