Tell us your favourite bands, and we'll let you know what their most recent releases are.
Now you'll never miss hearing about new music.
Want to know more about the site? Check out the FAQ.
Q: So what's the deal then, this site tells me about new bands?
A: No. It tells you about new releases by bands you already like.
Q: But that's not particularly useful. I already know what the bands I like
have released.
A: If you like a few bands, yes. As your music horizon widens it's harder
to keep on top of every band you like, especially if they're not in the mainstream
media.
Q: This site stops me missing out on new albums that might have otherwise
have fallen through the cracks?
A: Yes. That's its primary function. But it's also a nice way to view personalised
album collections too.
Q: Sign me up then. Where do I put my email?
A: We don't want your email address. Or OpenID, Twitter or Facebook login
either.
Q: Why not?
A: We just want to provide you with affiliate links for Amazon and iTunes.
We don't want to spam you or track you.
Q: How do I save my data then?
A: You provide us with a unique username that no one else on What's New?
MUSIC uses.
Q: Ok then, what's the list of used or unused usernames?
A: We're not telling you. It's up to you to pick one that is sufficiently
unique.
Q: What happens if I don't?
A: Someone else may enter your username and can delete or replace your data.
Q: That doesn't sound very secure.
A: It's not intended to be. We're not asking for personally identifiable
data, bank account numbers or passwords. Just pick something suitably individual
and you'll be fine.
Q: I guess that means I can't share my collection with anyone else?
A: We realise that you young, beautiful people like to share stuff on social
media. The next version will hopefully address this.
Q: Fair enough. I've picked a username, what now?
A: Now tell us which artists you like.
Q: All of them?
A: Just the ones who are or could still be releasing new music.
Leonard Cohen
managed to put something out a couple of years back but it's looking unlikely
Boiler Room are going to
reunite and put out a follow-up to 2000's perfect
Can't Breathe.
Q: That's still a lot of bands. I have to type them all in?
A: In future versions of the site we plan to allow a last.fm or Spotify username
to populate a list for you. For now though, we ask you to type them in.
Q: How can I remember every band I like? Besides, that will take ages won't it?
A: We have a growing band database (that you will help expand) and an auto
complete text box. As soon as you enter a few characters, the site provides you
with any matches in the database. You can enter as many or as few bands as you like
and come back anytime when you remember another. Even with half a dozen or so bands
you'd be surprised how many releases we can tell you about.
Q: I subscribed to an artist I love and you're missing one of their albums!
Why?
A: If the album was released more than 5 years ago we won't tell you about
it (because we're all about the new music ;) However, we take a mix of the
data from Amazon and Apple's databases. Put bluntly, neither are particularly good
but each have different flaws. Apple's isn't very exhaustive and Amazon have too
many duplicate and inappropriately indexed entries. We've got a set of rules to
try to get somewhere in the middle but unfortunately this means we occasionally
miss out a valid release e.g. iLiKETRAiN's awesome
The Shallows doesn't show up in our service.
Q: Why are there albums on my New Music tab that aren't new at all? Like,
twenty years old?
A: We were a bit shocked to see Pearl Jam's
Ten ourselves. We just ask Amazon and Apple when the albums were released
and if it's a re-release then it might look like an old album is a new album.
There could well be bonus tracks or other new content on the new versions so we
don't think it's a bad thing to tell you about those anyway.
Q: I was asked to select which country I wanted the links from and I clicked
on the wrong flag. How do I reset it?
A: Delete the one solitary cookie for this site and you should be fine.
Q: Wait a moment, why wasn't I asked about countries?
A: We use the very nice Host IP
guys for trying to work out where you're coming to us from. Unfortunately they don't have all the IP
addresses in the world mapped, so if they come back with no answer we ask you ourselves.
Q: Can I get an RSS feed for my username?
A: That would be the best way to communicate new releases I suppose. Again
though, that's a feature for the next version of the site. Until then just come
back and check the site whenever you like.
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: Certainly not to get rich.
Q: Seriously?
A: We're hoping the affiliate links we provide will cover the cloud hosting
and databases. This is very much a labour of love though. It's the first Life Beyond
Fife website and was born out of a genuine desire to have access to a service like
this. Look at this
tweet.
Q: I can tell it's your first website. It sucks.
A: We've tried to make it as profeshneal ¬_¬ as possible but there are only
so many spare hours in the day when you have a fulltime job. If there's something
clearly wrong, please email a brief bug report to <this site's name minus the
.com>@lifebeyondfife.com.
Q: Actually, I think it's awesome. Can I offer you work/props/spam?
A: Less of the latter please, but go on then. Again, the email address is
<this site's name minus the .com>@lifebeyondfife.com.
Thanks for reading, we hope you find What's New? MUSIC useful.