Matt Gorecki

In light of the new, absolutely terrible redesign of thesixtyone, I am taking part in the week long boycott against the site.

The problem here is not that there is change, but the manner in which the site was changed. I’m going to repost my comment from the earlier T61 post because I think it’s relevant.

As a relatively new artist (about a year), thesixtyone has been an amazing place. I met a lot of new people, generated interest in my music and learned a lot from the other artists there.

With the redesign that’s all gone. All of the community and social aspects of the site have disappeared and we are left staring a giant background image. I didn’t go to the sixtyone to look at cover art. I went to listen to music and to discuss it with my friends and fans.

The other thing I find baffling is that they were making real money with tip and album system. Fans were actually supporting the artists directly. It was working. That feature has been buried in this design. And, by burying the discussion between artists and fans, they have effectively killed the primary reason to tip an artist.

The worst part about it is that James and Sam don’t talk with their absolutely fanatical users. There was no mention that a redesign this drastic was going to happen. There was no beta period for testing. All of those people commenting on the T61 Facebook page are their true fans. James and Sam haven’t said a single word.

Some interesting discussions about the redesign:
On Hacker News
On Reddit

Last night I uploaded some of my music to Stereofame. Stereofame appears to take the T61 game concept and pushing it to the max. It’s like fantasy baseball for music. Could be interesting.