Improvements and bug fixes

As expected, lots of people have emailed us with their thoughts, problems and suggestions on the rewritten Magnatune web site. We haven't replied to all the email yet, because we wanted to first provide solutions.

So... below is a list of improvements (all based on emails we've received!) and bug fixes (also emails!) that are now live on the site.

Improvements:

• volume, auto-play and album repeat are now all things you can set yourself, if you want to.

• "add to favorites" feature is now available on all albums

• members who log in are now given a "you are now logged in" main page, so it's clear that you've successfully logged in

• Popular albums are now much more recent (the past two days) and also no longer show recently released albums that are also popular (no need to show the same album twice on the same page)

• "loading" text is now displayed, with a progress indicator, to let you know that you just need to wait a few more seconds, nothing has gone wrong.

• Improved accessibility for blind users of Magnatune

Bugs fixed:

• various people reported reliability problems with the audio player, especially if playing the same album for a while. I think think is due to our trying to store the music in your browser cache. I've changed the player to now only cache the current song, and when you stop/start the song is reloaded. It's less efficient, but hopefully will be more reliable.

• the search feature was leading users of some browser (such as firefox) off the member site.

• the right and left gutters were repeating on long pages, in Firefox

• IE6 users (and users of browsers without HTML5 audio or Flash) are now better treated, with the entire album playing, not just the song.

Comments

[John Mc]

Well, to start I definitely like the new look. Fresh, less cluttered, using more of the available real estate. Love the tabs to easily navigate while still listening. Like the Recommended tab!.

The only thing I miss is a progress bar during play. lots of the songs form artists are 10-20 minutes long, and when listening before I buy, sometimes it's nice to skip to the middle of a song, and currently that's not part of the new format. That's the one old feature I'd love to see brought forward.

Aside from that - all the changes are great! Two thumbs up!

[John from Magnatune]

re: The only thing I miss is a progress bar during play.

There is a progress bar of sorts there, in that the current timing in the existing song is displayed, both on the home page and in the albums page (next to the song name). It's not a bar, I know, but it's similar.

However, what isn't there at the moment is a way to skip around the song, and I agree, that's useful, and it'll be something I add soon.

Glad you like the new look, though!

-john

[Mark Stosberg]

Thanks, John.

A bit more feedback. On the blog, I expected that clicking on "Home" or the Magnatune logo would take me to the Magnatune home page, but instead they take me to the blog home page.

It should be simple to get back to the main site from the blog.

[Stuart Lynch]

I love the look of it. Very unique and original feel. Also works great on my windows phone. The old one was a bit glitchy and would often crash. This is silky smooth though...big thumbs up all round!

[William McEvoy]

I really like the new look (and the little blue guy too!). My one complaint is that I have to hover over an image in order to see it properly. I love looking at albums/cover art, and having to move the mouse over each one tends to diminish the experience.

Thanks!

[John from Magnatune]

re: I really like the new look (and the little blue guy too!). My one complaint is that I have to hover over an image in order to see it properly. I love looking at albums/cover art, and having to move the mouse over each one tends to diminish the experience

William, in an earlier draft, I had the album art on all the pages at full "brightness" but I found there was too much on the screen calling attention to itself, and it was just too much noise. So, yes, I went with a "dimmer" design, where less important graphics are dimmed until you hover over them. This technique is used all over the site, to try to reduce the amount of visual complexity.

-john

[John from Magnatune]

re: A bit more feedback. On the blog, I expected that clicking on "Home" or the Magnatune logo would take me to the Magnatune home page, but instead they take me to the blog home page. It should be simple to get back to the main site from the blog.

Mark, I agree, and it was something I tried to do, but I didn't see a way to change this on typepad. I might need to make a custom CSS template, which I can do, but other things are a priority at the moment!

-john

[Pablo]

Low bandwidth option seems to have disappeared ...
Here in rural Cumbria connections are often very flaky and stuttering,
lower quality is often the best choice, to avoid excessive buffering -
would be a real shame to say goodbye to this option.

[John from Magnatune]

re: Low bandwidth option seems to have disappeared ...
Here in rural Cumbria connections are often very flaky and stuttering,
lower quality is often the best choice, to avoid excessive buffering -
would be a real shame to say goodbye to this option.

Hi Pablo, I didn't know anyone was still using the low bandwidth option.

Yes, I can reinstate that feature. It'll be one of the "play features" (with volume/repeat/shufle) offering "bandwidth: hi/low" and saved in a cookie, so that you can use the site as you normally would, but the lower bandwidth files will be used.

-john

[David Phillips]

Congratulations on what I know must be a major undertaking.

You can put me down as not caring for the blue guy. Doesn't give me a good feeling for the vibe of the site.

I see the site is still using basic HTML authentication. Does that mean we still don't have persistent logins? On my home computer I'd like to stay logged in for up to two weeks, or however long you can get a cookie to last.

[John from Magnatune]

re: I see the site is still using basic HTML authentication. Does that mean we still don't have persistent logins? On my home computer I'd like to stay logged in for up to two weeks, or however long you can get a cookie to last.

I'll be transitioning Magnatune to a different web server technology in a few months, and then it'll be using cookie-based authentication, so that you can stay logged in between visits.

Currently, whether you stay logged in depends on your web browser. Some cache HTTP AUTH logins, some don't. We actually have more complaints about the opposite problem: not being able to get rid of the browser caching of HTTP AUTH !

-john