Unappealing Record Company Websites

[Bulldog]

For me, the Centaur website is very unappealing with its intrusive and pervasive backdrop.  Any nominations?

[Dr. Dread]

No linky? Sheesh. 

[Que]

No linky? Sheesh. 

Here you are: Centaur Records.

Another nominee: Naïve. The old site was excruciatingly bad, this one looks fancy but navigating it is highly impractical, close to rocket science...

Q

[Bulldog]

Here you are: Centaur Records.

Another nominee: Naïve. The old site was excruciatingly bad, this one looks fancy but navigating it is highly impractical, close to rocket science...

Q

That Naive background is another loser.  Looks like a bunch of burnt toast.  What's wrong with the people who design this stuff?

[Sorin Eushayson]

Those are pretty bad...  The Naive site is... well... naive!  How do they expect us to access that???  It makes my head hurt just looking at it...

I guess they can't all be as cool as the Alia Vox site! 

[Valentino]

That Naive background is another loser.  Looks like a bunch of burnt toast.  What's wrong with the people who design this stuff?

Don't you like blue stairs?

[Wanderer]

The old Brilliant website was quite dreadful (not to mention positively comatose regarding its content renewal). The new one, on the contrary, is really nice.

[Lethevich]

Danacord's site is functional, but hideous in so many ways. Compared to DaCapo, lessons could be learnt.

Altarus isn't going to win any awards for beauty, either...

Can we mention good sites too? Hyperion's is very fine. Simple but effective, and the full booklets on offer (complete with linear notes) is an exceptionally kind gesture.

[The new erato]

The frenchies in general have a preference for lots of flash that makes their sites slow, hard to navigate and use, but oh so fancy. I hate flash.

[Grazioso]

The old Brilliant website was quite dreadful (not to mention positively comatose regarding its content renewal). The new one, on the contrary, is really nice.

I have no love for the new one. It's unfinished and hard to simply browse all their releases.

Note to music websites everywhere: All I want to know is what you have available, what's to be released soon, what's on each disc, and whether texts/libretti are included. Give us audio samples, ideally of every track. That's it. No fluff, no Flash, no fancy visuals or animations. Keep it simple and quick loading.

[ChamberNut]

That's why I like Naxos.  Their website is le que du chat!  0:) 

[Bulldog]

Altarus isn't going to win any awards for beauty, either...

Yes, that site looks like it was developed twenty years ago.

[Brian]

That's why I like Naxos.  Their website is le que du chat!  0:) 

The only hitches with Naxos are that for some reason the discographies of each composer are totally disorganized - so if you are looking at a composer there is absolutely no easy way to find out if they have a certain piece - and the Google search at the bottom is for some reason surprisingly unhelpful. But all told, excellent work there.

I think Hyperion's is my favorite. BIS's is nice but it seems like there are hardly any updates. Dacapo is clean, elegant and very nice.

Boy, are the Centaur and Naive sites incredibly bad!
I notice another bad record label website - Concert Artist - has been taken down... 

[ChamberNut]

The only hitches with Naxos are that for some reason the discographies of each composer are totally disorganized - so if you are looking at a composer there is absolutely no easy way to find out if they have a certain piece - and the Google search at the bottom is for some reason surprisingly unhelpful. But all told, excellent work there.
D

Totally forgot about that Brian.  YES, I 100% agree there.  Good point!!!  They could work on this for sure and tidy that up.  If at least they had a sorting function, to either sort by name or by catalogue number, something!

[Brian]

Totally forgot about that Brian.  YES, I 100% agree there.  Good point!!!  They could work on this for sure and tidy that up.  If at least they had a sorting function, to either sort by name or by catalogue number, something!

Well, Naxos Music Library has an awesome sorting system: CDs are sorted into chamber music, orchestral music, etc., then sorted by label (Naxos first of course  ) and then by CD title. I have no idea how they're sorted on Naxos' main website, but my guess is it involves throwing darts. 

[ChamberNut]

I have no idea how they're sorted on Naxos' main website, but my guess is it involves throwing darts. 

It's a bird's nest on the main website. 

[Valentino]

DG is quite nice. I prefer the unflash choice, though.

I like that the <Title> tag spells Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft btw. Record company names are way to short these days.