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#130312 - 11/12/2002 18:01 CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource
FireFox31
pooh-bah

Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
Alas, another great music resource has left us. CDNow.com, the once great internet CD superstore and information warehouse, has sold itself out. CDNow is now running their opperations through the once-competitor Amazon's e-business site.

Why does this matter? Because CDNow was the most complete, relatively accurate, well organized source for any and all information about any CD's which were anything more than obscure. For the past 4 years, CDNow was my one-stop resource for CD track listing, track times, sound clips, release dates, discography information, artist / producer information, and (snide) reviews. Also, the highly linked database nature of the site let me find an artist on a CD and see whatelse that artist had done, browse by record label, or search by title, artist, album, and more.

Oh, and you could buy CD's there too. Which I did all of three times in 4 years. Which is why I guess they went under. Um, sorry CDNow.

So, what's left? I turn back to the CDDB only to see that the elegant pure-text, fully searchable, fast, complete interface of when I last visited 4 years ago has been replaced by yet another mainstream-whoring, Amazon-click-through-linking, still-can't-find-the-producer-of-the-Tribe-Called-Quest-album-I-heard-on-the-way-home-like-I-could-on-CDNow, essentially useless interface.

So, what resource do we discography-hunters, band-influence-researchers, and new-music-seekers have? Please tell me there's something out there that compaired to the ever unchanging, ever easy, ever rock solid interface of my 4 year relationship with CDNow. Oh, and maybe I'll buy some stuff through them instead of supporting my favorite local record store (which, by the way, can get anything from CDNow, and more, in less time... which is why I shop there).
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FireFox31
110gig MKIIa (30+80), Eutronix lights, 32 meg stacked RAM, Filener orange gel lens, Greenlights Lit Buttons green set

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#130313 - 11/12/2002 18:17 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: FireFox31]
tonyc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
www.allmusic.com

Not perfect, but very comprehensive.
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- Tony C
my empeg stuff

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#130314 - 11/12/2002 18:31 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: FireFox31]
DeadFire
addict

Registered: 30/05/2002
Posts: 695
I know what you mean. I was using CDNow, too. But, whenever I couldn't find what I wanted there, most times the allmusic.com had what I was looking for. If anyone else knows of something better, do share, please.

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#130315 - 11/12/2002 18:32 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: FireFox31]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Not to mention the list of hundreds of CDs I wanted to buy listed on their wish list (or whatever they called it) which went bye-bye without so much as a warning.
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Bitt Faulk

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#130316 - 11/12/2002 18:44 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: wfaulk]
msaeger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
I sent people links to things I wanted a couple days ago that's how I found out cd now was gone. You would think they could have waited until after christmas.
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Matt

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#130317 - 11/12/2002 20:33 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: FireFox31]
ninti
old hand

Registered: 28/12/2001
Posts: 868
Loc: Los Angeles
Damn. they had more music clips off albums than Amazon did, and they were Window Media format rather than crappy non-woriking Real Audio. Sigh, yeah that sucks.
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Ninti - MK IIa 60GB Smoke, 30GB, 10GB

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#130318 - 11/12/2002 20:50 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: FireFox31]
Tim
veteran

Registered: 25/04/2000
Posts: 1522
Loc: Arizona
So, what resource do we discography-hunters, band-influence-researchers, and new-music-seekers have?

http://www.google.com

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#130319 - 11/12/2002 21:26 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another reso [Re: FireFox31]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
freedb (probably http://www.freedb.org ) has a forked copy of CDDB before they took the contributed effort of many people and decided to milk it for whatever they could get. I think they have a half-decent search interface, too. I'm too lazy to look now.

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#130320 - 11/12/2002 21:40 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another reso [Re: Daria]
BleachLPB
enthusiast

Registered: 01/11/2001
Posts: 354
Loc: Maryland
CDDB before they took the contributed effort of many people and decided to milk it for whatever they could get

Oh, you meen Gra... err Greednote?
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#130321 - 11/12/2002 22:44 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another reso [Re: BleachLPB]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
escient. gracenote. atria. rational. ibm. potato.

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#130322 - 11/12/2002 23:02 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: FireFox31]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
What are you talking about? Allmusic was waaay better than CDnow was. That site wasn't even accurate most of the times I used it. It would have tracks listed incorrectly and everything. Allmusic is the far superior database.

Besides, I was under the impression that Amazon already owned CDnow. Didn't CDnow, as its own company, go under a few years ago? Maybe it was some other company that snatched them up.

With Allmusic.com and the UBL, you don't need many other resources for music. Granted, ever since Artistdirect bought up the Ultimate Band List, it's not been as good, but it's still there.

What do I see in the future? Allmusic will get a lot bigger, and have a pay version of their service. Have any of you been to a bookstore that uses the AMG database? My college bookstore's record section has listening stations set up. They run the AMG database just as it is online, except that for almost everything they have an audio sample. If they offered this online for a fee, I'd gladly pay it. Hopefully they're headed in this direction.

To sum up, CDnow blew. AMG has always rocked.
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Matt

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#130323 - 11/12/2002 23:14 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another reso [Re: FireFox31]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
I totally forgot until tonight that cdnow is so old they used to have a telnet interface.

Some kids these days don't even know what telnet *is*.

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#130324 - 11/12/2002 23:18 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another reso [Re: Daria]
robricc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
Back in the day when I supported them, I exclusively used telnet to buy from them. I have no idea why, but that's what I did up until they shut it down. Ahhh... The memories...
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80GB 16MB MK2 090000736

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#130325 - 11/12/2002 23:21 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another reso [Re: Daria]
mcomb
pooh-bah

Registered: 31/08/1999
Posts: 1649
Loc: San Carlos, CA
I totally forgot until tonight that cdnow is so old they used to have a telnet interface.

Didn't they even do gopher at one point? I seem to remember accessing cdnow with OmniWeb and having it not recognize the browser and offer me a gopher link as an option. I guess it might have been telnet... Anyway, the crazy thing is this wasn't that long ago, probably 2000.

Oh, and I agree the passing of CDNow is a sad thing. They weren't as accurate or comprehensive as allmusic, but their data was much easier to get to and they didn't do that amazingly stupid javascript link thing.

-Mike


Edited by mcomb (11/12/2002 23:23)
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#130326 - 12/12/2002 09:29 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: wfaulk]
sirmanson
journeyman

Registered: 06/03/2002
Posts: 70
Loc: Tucson, AZ USA
Ditto that one! This post was the first I had heard about CDnow leaving ... Now I have to make a wishlist elsewhere!
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#130327 - 12/12/2002 12:23 Re: CDNow Wishlists [Re: sirmanson]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
I just got an email back from Amazon support re: wishlists:
    If you created a CDNow Wish List prior to December 3, you can still access that wish list by visiting the CDNow Preferred Buyer's Club web site at:

    http://www.cdnowpbc.com/

    You'll find the Wish List button in the blue bar at the top of the resulting page.

    However, please note that titles added to your CDNow Wish List that are not available through the CDNow Preferred Buyer's Club web site will not be available on this list.
Mine seems to be there.
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Bitt Faulk

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#130328 - 12/12/2002 12:46 the good stuff from CDNow [Re: wfaulk]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
f you created a CDNow Wish List prior to December 3, you can still access that wish list by visiting the CDNow Preferred Buyer's Club web site at:

http://www.cdnowpbc.com/


It looks like it's the old CDNow site, mostly.

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#130329 - 12/12/2002 15:27 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: Daria]
bodybag
addict

Registered: 07/03/2002
Posts: 504
Loc: Southern California
it looks like it's the old CDNow site, mostly.

Yeah, except you can't search by anything but Artist or Album. When you do find something, all of the info you expect from CDNow is gone (track length, sound bites, bio's, etc, etc, etc...). I sent Amazon an e-mail a few days ago and got some bullcrap formatted response with the www.cdnowpbc.com link. At first I thought "Awesome, the old CDNow site is still up and running" but I quickly found out that it really only survives in appearance.
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Bodybag - So Cal
Not a Whiner any more!!!

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#130330 - 13/12/2002 19:20 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: bodybag]
FireFox31
pooh-bah

Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
Damn, got my hopes up to see the old CDNow interface. Haha, someone should get a screen capture of that for the graveyard. Where IS that internet (dotcom startup) graveyard, anywhere? I found it once.

As for UBL, it threw me a popup of that Gator spamlaiden Weather Bug. Any site that hosts that [censored] (yes, censored, but sometimes i just have to swear) is off my bookmarks.

Allmusic... Hm. I love how their "featured style" has a cover shot of an obscure old REM album that I love. But can I find the producer of Tribe Called Quest's "Midnight Marauders"? In three clicks or less? Let's see...

Holy crap! That was amazing! I found the answer (or what I thought was the answer) in three clicks or less. And it looks way more informative than CDNow! It'll take some getting used to the interface, but wow. I'm sold on allmusic. Thanks!

Bye CDNow, I'll miss you. Welcome allmusic!

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FireFox31
110gig MKIIa (30+80), Eutronix lights, 32 meg stacked RAM, Filener orange gel lens, Greenlights Lit Buttons green set

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#130331 - 13/12/2002 19:55 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: FireFox31]
ninti
old hand

Registered: 28/12/2001
Posts: 868
Loc: Los Angeles
> Where IS that internet (dotcom startup) graveyard, anywhere?

You mean the Wayback Machine?

http://www.archive.org/
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Ninti - MK IIa 60GB Smoke, 30GB, 10GB

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#130332 - 13/12/2002 20:27 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: bodybag]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
I dunno, I just clicked on one of the albums they "feature" at the top level and there are song clips and a review. So I guess it depends how you look for it and what "good bits" are.

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#130333 - 13/12/2002 23:41 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: FireFox31]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
Wow, I'm always amazed by the number of people who don't know about Allmusic. I've used the site for at least 7 years (for several school reports as well), and have told everyone I know about it. I don't think they advertise at all, which is odd.

Frankly, I'm amazed they've stayed free all this time. I can't imagine they make enough sales from their hard copy books, especially when the same info is available for free and more up to date. I also haven't seen it used in many business applications other than the bookstore I previously mentioned.

I agree about the UBL. Like I said, it was much better before Artistdirect turned it into a small feature of a music store of its own.
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Matt

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#130334 - 14/12/2002 00:02 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: Dignan]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
I bought at least one hardcopy book, because I find it useful to have a static copy to browse. Plus, i listen to mostly older music, so it works out nicely.

I was amused to find that "Cub Koda" wrote a bunch of the reviews, and was himself reviewed elsewhere in the volume.

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#130335 - 14/12/2002 00:10 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: Daria]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
Yeah, that's true. And when he died they had a memorial on the site for a while.
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Matt

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#130336 - 14/12/2002 10:42 Re: the good stuff from CDNow [Re: Dignan]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
I imagine that they sell their information to companies, but provide it free to individuals.
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Bitt Faulk

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#130337 - 31/03/2003 20:39 Re: CDNow.com - RIP 12/5/02 - Gone is another resource [Re: FireFox31]
SE_Sport_Driver
carpal tunnel

Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
Where are you guys buying your CD's now? Amazon.com buh lows and my indie record store can't always get stuff...
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Brad B.

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