BANDWIDTH has reviewed several acts from the Atlantic-Records label. Everyone from Liquid Gang to Philly's Most Wanted has graced our pages. When acts are reviewed, it is an automatic assumption that their label's website would be a helpful source of information. Well you know what happens when you assume? Atlantic Records may know how to cut it in the offline world, but when it comes to the online medium, Atlantic just doesn't have what it takes.
BANDWIDTHI want to see Atlantic Records have an excellent website, but it seems like they have hired someone who really doesn't know how to get the company's image across to the various web surfers from around the world. Right from the beginning, you can tell what makes Atlantic a site not worth clicking to.
When you enter Atlantic-Records.com you immediately notice the nasty colors. I understand that most sites do not want to go to black as most people use the color for websites, but who decided to choose green and purple. Plus the layout just adds to the dismal look. Headlines are very choppy looking and the section for news and events just takes away from the rest of the page. You need catchy headlines that are not so clumped up together and are appealing to people who want to be informed.
Keeping with the layout, Atlantic is smart in placing big banner advertising on the top of their page. The banner alternates from artist to artist letting people know when their CDs will be coming out. That's always good, but why when it comes to basic things, the website does get it all wrong. Different sections should contain pictures of Atlantic artists instead of cheesy icons that look like they came from a cheap clip art CD. They almost lend a childish look to the page. The placement of words doesn't lend well to the site either. You need appealing looking letters and placement. Too much white space in certain sections while others have words nearly on top of each other just should not be.
The front page is the least of their problems. For instance, you can go to the artist page and search for every artist on Atlantic's label. I typed in Aaliyah's name and links to sub-sections quickly loaded. So far so good, but when her biography came up there was no talk about her upcoming CD and there was no talk about her up coming movie projects. In fact, her section looked the same as it did several months ago. She has released two CDs and has a third one coming out, but when you go to her discography section, there is only one CD (One in a Million) listed. I also went to buy that CD at their store, but the item wasn't there. How can the label's store not have their artists' CD for sale? Why even have a link to buy it if you don't have it? Old information, no updates, and unfounded sale attempts really make this site look unprofessional. The artist make a company, so it makes sense to give them a little respect.
Continuing on to the On Tour section, you see more mistakes as you can easily access tour information for every artist that has one, but when you see the listings, there are no links to where you can buy the tickets. Is that too much to ask?
In addition to all this, the Instavid section of www.atlantic-records.com is way too cluttered. The layout is just horrible. I have never seen such a mess. There are artist names all over the place with a small video section somewhere in the middle. It says Instavid, but sometimes, you don't even get a video, but only audio. Shouldn't Instavid mean videos and not just audio? Small things like that really irk me.
Atlantic Records really needs to layout the site the way they had the Digital Arena section. This is the best laid out section and uses nice colors and still avoids straight black. There is a nice mixture of dark blue, light blue and green with big words, nice pictures and excellent layout. You can watch star interviews and really get to know the artists from Atlantic. This section is definitely a new one and should be a trendsetter for the rest of the site. Follow the lead that Digital Arena sets and next time I review this site, I will say nothing but good stuff.
Overall, www.atlantic-records.com is not a site worth checking out. There is limited information on artists, the site is not maintained in the proper way and there is nothing worth checking out if you are a fan of an Atlantic artist. The sad thing is that most fans have the Internet and look to the web to learn more about their favorite artists. They should be able to count on the star's label's website to find out what they would like to know. Unfortunately, Atlantic Records cannot translate successful sales, promotion and stars to the web.
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