Welcome to the NEW Hype Machine!

Written by

in

Long story short: we wanted to punctuate the release of the New Hype Machine with something unusual.  Inviting 10,000 strangers to watch that moment together fit the bill. We spent lots of long nights looking over all the details and getting the service ready for you.  And so we wanted everyone to know about it and see it. So that’s what we were thinking.

To those who joined us and waited – THANK YOU.  At 5:23PM EST we had a whopping 3888 people watching.  Thank you for putting up with us, even while the service was not available.

Looking over the data now, we’d hit 10,000 if we keep the site closed for 39 more hours.  That, however, is simply too long to wait.  And so:

Welcome to the New Hype Machine.  We can’t wait to hear what you think!
Go Play!

Comments

149 responses to “Welcome to the NEW Hype Machine!”

  1. kell Avatar
    kell

    The site seems…well, *greener* than the old one. But the type is too big, now it takes longer to scroll…seems clunkier. The page loaded a lot slower, too, though that might just be a random thing. I’m not sure it seems terribly “new”-ified…?

  2. joe laz Avatar

    awesome job! i love the new look and features. rock on!

  3. […] Thankfully, the Hype Machine folks recognized they weren’t going to hit their goal without a massive effort, so they just launched anyway. […]

  4. Charley Avatar
    Charley

    What happened to the instant playlist creation feature??

  5. Anthony Avatar

    Sorry for the slow loads, too many people playing with it right now. Wayyyy too many. But we love them anywa 🙂

  6. H.G. Avatar
    H.G.

    It’s good — the aesthetic makeover is lovely, and the new features are very nifty. I’ll still use it with great pleasure. But I do miss the playlist creation feature, which just made navigating and sampling the latest stuff so gorgeously easy. The radio, nifty though it is, just isn’t the same. The simple reason: if I think a song sucks, I want to skip it and go straight to the next one!

  7. andy Avatar

    yum yum yum 🙂 matches my tshirt

  8. starra Avatar
    starra

    you guys are awesome…
    and cute!
    starra

  9. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    So glad you decided not to wait, I missed you guys… really did… you help me keep sane at work

  10. Carrie Avatar

    It takes longer to scroll with the larger type.. I preferred the previous style. This one is frustrating! But, I am glad you are back, and will put up with whatever your website looks like, that’s how much I love you guys….

  11. Lode Avatar

    Hi,

    a couple of small bugs/requests:

    * the system won’t accept e-mail addresses with a top level domain longer than three characters. This is a bug, there are many legitimate TLDs that are longer than that. I use .name myself, but there’s also .aero, .coop., .info, .jobs, .museum and .travel.
    * asking for twitter username/password is a big no-no securitywise. Please use OAuth instead. (www.oauth.org, http://www.twitter.com/oauth)
    * similar request along the same line: would it be possible to support OpenID? You can keep your own login system if you want and still integrate OpenID like Dopplr.com does.

    Other than that, it looks quite nice.

  12. DJ Avatar
    DJ

    the rss feed seems to be broken?

  13. andrew Avatar
    andrew

    Bring back the Playlists!

  14. little my Avatar
    little my

    where’s the stand alone player? i loved to just leave it running whilst at work, getting ready etc… now i have to come back to the computer each time for the next track!

    bring it back – please can you??!!

    (also find big font more inconvenient than the smaller listings)

    do appreciate what you do though…

  15. Sliker_Hawk Avatar
    Sliker_Hawk

    Just so’s you know, the links on the menu bar are broken while viewing this blog. They link to blog.hypem.com rather than hypem.com.
    I like the new design..

  16. johnny Avatar
    johnny

    in the previous version there was a player in a different window. Now it has disappeared. How can I see that window again?

  17. vjb2 Avatar
    vjb2

    Elbo.ws envy much?

    Any way to get the old layout back? There’s an old adage about unbroken things and what you ought not do with them.

  18. rural idyll Avatar
    rural idyll

    new site looks nicer but is a real letdown..much more like radioblogclub which is not a good thing..

    namely; where is the standalone flash player which provides us with umpteen songs by the same artist, introducing us to new music, and allowing us to continue searching for music while listening??

    have you really got rid of this feature or just hidden it somewhere??

    please, if it ain’t broke..etc etc

  19. […] : Le site est désormais online pour tous. Enjoy […]

  20. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    Can you bring the player back? I think the large type looks a bit amatuerish. Too much like the Onion’s color scheme.

  21. ian Avatar

    Does the new Hype Machine read zshare mp3 links now?

  22. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    It does look pleasing to the eyes now, but please pretty please bring back the flash playey & instant playlists to load in winamp…

  23. ambiguator Avatar
    ambiguator

    standalone player! bring it back! .m3u playlists! bring it back!

  24. Paulo von Borries Avatar

    i friekin’ LOVE YOU hypem and i tell everyone about you any chance i get!!!
    but WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!? i can’t do a simple search?!?!?!?!?!?
    i get a 404 Not Found error

    The requested URL /search/devendra banhart/1/ was not found on this server.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

  25. don Simon Avatar
    don Simon

    Sorry, but I can just agree with the above. The old page was plain and efficient, and even if some things are just about getting used, the new extra large text that needs scrolling forever sucks, and that neat little player is very missed…

  26. Charles Pilger Avatar

    Please, the old version is online? This new site is very confuse!

  27. Johnny Avatar
    Johnny

    This website is far too S..L..O..W now.

    Speed it up please, otherwise I’ll stop using it.

  28. tigger Avatar
    tigger

    i do’t know how to listen to the music on my windows media player anymore:(

  29. tigger Avatar
    tigger

    i don’t know how to listen to the music on my media player anymore…:(

  30. Andreas Avatar
    Andreas

    I love it! But please fix the personal RSS feeds.

  31. Kris Avatar
    Kris

    This new version is terrible. It went from being a great experience using the old site to having to wade through a bunch of garbage to find what I want, and now half of the things don’t work anymore. I am not pleased.

  32. PardeeTheory Avatar
    PardeeTheory

    I don’t see any improvements only minuses. I only liked this site for the continuous flash player. (I like to have something play while I work.) I feel bad because I have told many people about this site.

    I’ll check back with you guys in a few weeks. You’re site no longer fits my needs at this time. Hopefully it’s something that you will fix. Sad to see a good thing go bad.

    (Yeesh 10,000 people sitting on your page. Your marketing people should be fired)

  33. j Avatar
    j

    i miss the old site already…it was SIMPLISTIC (which is a good thing)…you could also view more searches on a page and not have to scroll through a million.

  34. Krista M. Avatar
    Krista M.

    To reiterate the cliche, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Seriously.
    This used to be one of my favorite stops on my internet rounds and now I might have to drop it altogether. At the very least, please give us a way to view the site the old way.
    Huge thumbs down from me on the changes.

  35. Ben Perreau Avatar
    Ben Perreau

    Quit moaning, moaners.
    I like green. It’s my favourite colour.
    I think the new site smells, looks and touches nice.

    For those of you who don’t like change – welcome to tha’ internets.

    Nice work Anthony and co.
    BP

  36. old hypem fan Avatar
    old hypem fan

    i agree with what everyone else has said in terms of the old site being better. how is eliminating the stand alone player an improvement? bring back the old site!

  37. James Avatar
    James

    PLEASE ! bring back the old style player – at least as an optional method of streaming the music. the site was simple before, and thats what made it so great.

    at the moment, it looks great, but its terribly slow, and far less of a convenience to use.. it should be about the music !

    anyway, keep up the good work, its all a step in the right direction, just dont take away those things we all loved so much about the hype machine.

  38. oliver Avatar
    oliver

    Hey!
    I used to visit yoursite every day… but where did the “or listen in your media player” – link go? Did you get into trouble because it allowed the users to download the songs easily?
    i loved it to play all the songs i found on hypem in my media player!!

  39. steve Avatar
    steve

    i like the way the overall website looks, so great job on that. i think the new additions are great, as well.

    my only criticism of the new site is that some of the older components of the site were stripped. i think it’s been beaten to death, but external player with a playlist was one of my favorite things about the site. actually, being able to use my media player to stream the songs was another great feature that isn’t available with the new blog posts (i DID see it still up for the radio, though).

    still, love the improvements and keep up the great work

  40. dolo Avatar
    dolo

    Please bring back the flash player. Now that it’s gone, I no longer use this site. And judging from the above comments, I doubt I’m the only one.

  41. kjc Avatar
    kjc

    No searching? No player??? what were you thinking?

  42. J. Lawrence Avatar
    J. Lawrence

    Honestly, this new site is terrible. 1, the content is spread out to much. What was 10 pages of info is now 25, and that is unuseful. Also, I can barely get pages to load, so even if I were willing to hit next page 200 times to see a days songs, I can’t.

    Sometimes it just doesn’t work… go back to the old site. Please. Atleast make the text smaller so there are more entries perscreen.

  43. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Ouch. Sorry to say I have to agree with most of the complaints.

    But let me add that I appreciate ALL your work on behalf of this site.

  44. SM Avatar
    SM

    While the new site design is cute, it functions terribly. The pages load too slowly and I can’t even get any songs to load right now. I miss the stand-alone flash player too, and the ability to search for new songs to listen to while another song was playing.

    I guess it’s a good thing I brought a couple of CD’s to work with me today.

  45. Qin Zhi Lau Avatar
    Qin Zhi Lau

    If you guys had waited 39 hours, there would be 0 people left watching the page, not 10,000.

  46. Qin Zhi Lau Avatar
    Qin Zhi Lau

    But I most also add that I love the new design. Good work! 😀

  47. Connor Avatar
    Connor

    Hey,

    Why did you guys embarrass yourself with a failed publicity stunt and then basically change to elbo.ws format? I liked the hype machine for what it WAS, there’s no need for all this stuff. Besides, why would you emulate a less successful website?

    Basically, there should be a way for people to access hypem in the old format!

    Thanks,
    Connor

  48. james Avatar
    james

    I second all the other comments about the stand-alone player. It was the main draw of this site. Please bring it back!

  49. assaf Avatar
    assaf

    why? oh why? I never liked elbo.ws and now there is two of them and no alternative. At least bring back the player so I can listen to an hour of music away from the computer. Please!

  50. Paulo von Borries Avatar

    change is the only constant so embrace it, ride the wave or else drown in it. i think you can improve on the player and bring it back, with the instant playlist creation. pretty please!?!?!?
    i would also respectfully suggest having both versions available to accommodate slow connections/low bandwidth and quicker browsing

  51. rural idyll Avatar
    rural idyll

    please bring back the player, we’ve already started hunting for alternatives

  52. Sean Avatar
    Sean

    OMG, whats the story with the new player,
    It takes forever and you can’t position where you want the track to play at, I loved the stand alone player as did everyone else seemingly, bring it back.

  53. Henry Avatar

    Echoing everyone else. At the very least there’s got to be a skip track function on the search page. It’s what made the flash player so nice to use. Looks nice tho, and I’d get used to it if it had the same functionality as the old site. Been using it at work everyday, now I can’t.

  54. Haley Avatar
    Haley

    It’s nice, but I prefer the playlist option moreover… sometimes you don’t feel like going through pages upon pages for a certain song.

  55. Mithel Avatar
    Mithel

    Bring back the stand alone player. This site is essentially useless without it. Also, the new look stinks.

  56. heather Avatar

    I also miss the instant play list creation feature.

  57. Stormy Avatar
    Stormy

    Quite simply YOU BLEW IT. The stand alone player was, by far, the best feature and now it’s gone. What are you thinking? The site isn’t worth visiting any longer. Sorry, just the plain truth. Please bring it back.

  58. dF Avatar
    dF

    Hopefully by adding to the restless crowd, some change will come! The stand alone player was THE reason for going to this site – now that it’s gone, why bother? Bring it back fools!!!

  59. tasneem Avatar
    tasneem

    Just throwing another log on, but, this is a bummer. Change is scary and brings out the hater in all of us, I know, but losing the stand-alone player sucks. I liked thinking of the player as the “machine” in Hype Machine, like a little music box. Now the music I’m trying to find is buried in a pile of red hearts. I’ll check in for the “You guys really wanted that player back, and we listened, so here it is! Hurrah!” post.

    By the way, wonderful songs I first heard on the old Hype: Thunder Road–Springsteen, In the Round–Cardigans, One Step Beyond–Prince Buster, Up the Morning–Babyshambles, the Ryan Adams cover of Be My Husband.

  60. timmmii Avatar
    timmmii

    i think it’s clunkier and not as streamlined.
    simple is usually better, imho. just ask google.

  61. Aaron Avatar
    Aaron

    Is there still a way to subscribe to Podcasts based on search results?

  62. jt Avatar
    jt

    -Please bring back the old site.
    -The fonts are too big. Remove the text about the songs. Too much scrolling.
    -Did you just copy elbo.ws?
    -BRING BACK THE FLASH PLAYER!!!

  63. L4rgo Avatar
    L4rgo

    way to big. 🙁

  64. oliver Avatar
    oliver

    i still dont get why you removed the function of the site. thats what made it attractive.

    Furthermore you should at least explain, why you did it…

  65. Gazz Avatar
    Gazz

    Where’s the rss/xml subscription links gone??

  66. phil Avatar
    phil

    I too would like to see the stand alone player back, you know it makes sense.

  67. Chris Avatar

    I haven’t read all these comments but I echo all the ones that say things like, ‘bring back the stand alone player’

    I don’t get the green and black and grammaphone icon look. The simple, clean look of before was just great. All the necessary colour came from the sexy American Apparrel ads.

    I get the impression that alot of these changes were instigated by people with no knowledge of existing site usage and preferences.

    Has there been pressure from the music industry to stop people streaming playlists, like with the flash player?

    Please explain the reasons behind all the changes.

    x

  68. Gazz Avatar
    Gazz

    I’m going somewhere else. Any suggestions anyone?

  69. joel Avatar
    joel

    This doesn’t work at all. I can’t make play lists, the music player forces you to stay on the page you searched for. HATE HATE HATE. I like the hearts though.

  70. DJ Avatar
    DJ

    http://hypem.com/feed/time/today/1/feed.xml still not working….perhaps its running at a url?

  71. Chris Avatar

    If we’re too assume that things aren’t going to go back to ‘normal’ then at least give us a progress bar so we can monitor how our tracks are buffering.

    The way it is now, I can’t tell if a track is loading fast or slow and I don’t know if, when I pause it, that it will continue to load or not.

    Throw us a bone yeah?

  72. vijay Avatar
    vijay

    please.

  73. oz Avatar
    oz

    The playlist removal, is this a joke?

  74. ali Avatar

    Guys, loved the old site, hate the new one, like everyone of your loyal users. 2 requests:

    1. please answer us! All the comments are pretty useful but I don’t think I saw a single reply to them by YOU! 🙂
    2. please flip to old site, or bring back the player.

  75. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    I understand the upgrades, and I appreciate the new features, but the playlist seriously has to come back. That feature made The Hype Machine stand out over other sites. It’s not really useful for work anymore because I keep having to go back to the site to pick a new song. Please bring back the playlist!

  76. Ryan Avatar
    Ryan

    What happened??? Blah. Please bring back the old site. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

  77. Lil mike Avatar

    i assume you are reading the complaints…

    i knew the old Hype Machine was too good to last, and I’m sure there are many reasons why you felt you needed to make changes…

    but at least keep the features that were legal & good at what they did…

    ex. why only a list of the top 25 blogs…and not longer like before?

    if people were only interested in 25 things , why does Billboard have a hot 100…

    frankly the most popular 25 isn’t always the most interesting content…or else the list may just reflect the lowest common denominator tastes…britney, carrie underwood etc

    and i hate to say it again, but trading bigger trendier type faces for xml/m3u playlists are a big loss…

    y’all should have kept yer beta mode up for more private discussions longer…

    hopefully all this new comments backlash will lead to some understanding of personalizations , plus/minus & what your visitors liked about the site before…

    good luck and keep on rawkin…

    it’s been great while it lasted

  78. gwen Avatar

    Very cute, social networking is fun, PLEASE GIVE BACK THE PLAYER.

  79. elizabeth Avatar
    elizabeth

    I like the new look and still find your site far less cumbersome than elb.ows.

    The one issue I do have is if you’re going to make the type more readable, do it for the blog info too. (Instead of 8 pt, 12 pt, which would still be smaller than the track name.) And, speaking of blog info, it may come as a shock, but I visit as much to see what’s happening in the blogs as I do for the tracks. And if I’m searching the blogs for specific entries about a particular band or song, I want a link to the blogs, not just links to the tracks (most of which are disabled after a week or two anyway). I actually like to read what the bloggers have to say about an artist or a song, even if their links have expired. So please put the blog links back in the track and artist search results.

    Thanks in advance for the fixes, and thanks for all your hard work. I still enjoy your site the best.

    P.S. I don’t use your playlist or playback features because I’m on dialup and my ISP has pissy bandwidth, so buffering is a pain. But I sure like being able to visit a site that is still modem friendly – i.e., text loads quickly and graphics are minimal and each is less than 100k – too many web designers assume we all have broadband and actually only about half of all web users have access to broadband. So please keep this in mind as you work through your bugs. It’s another reason I’ve used Hype Machine far more than that other site. 😉

  80. Your pal, JIm Avatar
    Your pal, JIm

    Hello,

    Thanks for all the music over the years.

    I’m not too fond of the new site yet.

    I really liked to browse past EVERY song listed on the old page. It seems this new system only lists two or so songs from each blog post, thus missing many songs.

    I fear I’ll miss a ton of stuff that I would never think to search for.

    I’m hoping there can be some kind of middle ground – the best of the old, mixed with the new.

    Thanks again,
    Your pal, Jim

  81. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Sorry guys, I don’t like it as much as the old site. Seems to be very similar to Elbo.ws. I thought the two sites worked very well together, but now there is two sites which have have the same function. Elbo was more blog focused while Hype Machine was more artist based. I miss the old version.

  82. Felipe Avatar
    Felipe

    No playlists, no stand alone player?!?!?! You took 2 steps forward, but took 3 steps back!!!

    I am dissappointed

    Felipe

  83. mycapaciousbottega Avatar
    mycapaciousbottega

    ooh, everything looks so new and so green. I feel all carbon efficient all of a sudden. It is going to take getting used to, like all good things. Makes me green (sic!) with envy though as I want a t-shirt sooooo much now.

    but hey nonetheless HYPEM rocks my world by working hard on my behalf 🙂

  84. nnelly Avatar
    nnelly

    An echo of the bulk of the response so far.
    The stand-alone player and the nice long lists of new tunes to try were your hook and now they’re gone. I’m all for progress but not if it means moving backward.
    Hypem was great – I hope and believe that you guys will listen and perhaps provide a choice – new or retro?

  85. hunta Avatar

    Hang in there guys. Change is hard to take. But listen to the masses — despite the mob mentality.

  86. bubu Avatar
    bubu

    R.I.P. old and beloved Hype machine is dead. Without the flash player your site is almost useless. You guys sold out.

  87. Coterie Avatar
    Coterie

    Another vote for retro-hypem. Love you guys, LOVED the player/playlists, prefered the cleaner format. The player exposed me to music I wouldn’t have listened to otherwise. Now, too much visual nonsense–layout clunky, fonts too big, I don’t need abstracts in my aggregator. I don’t care for elbows which is why I preferred your site. And why so many gramophones? One is enough. Follow Coke, dump “New hypem” and bring back “Classic/Retro hypem.”

    Love you, miss you – Coterie

  88. Coyotesqrl Avatar

    Why?

    And how about jumping in and explaining/defending/promoting the odd choices you’ve made that reduced functionality. I’m only *on* this page commenting because I had to search the new and devolved site trying to figure out how to make it work with even a portion of the power it had before. Didn’t find it. Woo-hoo: I can make wee little hearts. Can’t play the lists those “hearts” should denote in a standalone player, though.

    Fire the graphics designer who sold you the bill of goods – “let’s make it pretty…that’s more important than functionality…who would use your ugly old site” – and give your fans back what they want.

    Last I checked, Craigslist was still the same as it ever was and they aren’t suffering for traffic. Simple *is* better.

  89. another Avatar
    another

    yea, much like everyone else, i truly miss the standalone player… a lot. this site is a lot less effective to me now. 🙁

  90. Ken Avatar
    Ken

    LOOKS good, but it seems to load slower, it takes longer to see what MP3s are posted (more pages to read through), it’s harder to see when the tracks were posted, and I don’t like the new 1 track at a time music player.

    This is still a very useful, one-of-a-kind site, but, in my opinion, it would have been a better use of your money to increase traffic capacity, rather than changing the look and feel of your site. Yes, please give your visitors a choice between the old- and new-look sites.

    If I wanted to use elb.ows, I would go there. But please, don’t go away!

  91. headphonesex Avatar

    Nice one Anthony…. look forward to having a look round the new version…. jamesxx

  92. Lonedog Avatar
    Lonedog

    At this point it feels like piling on but you do deserve and should heed all the CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, which I second. Must all good things succumb to dumbing down?? I guess there is plenty of room for others, with the abilities, to do it even better now that the way has been shown.
    Thanks again for the good times, faithless lover…

  93. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    I liked the old Hype Machine.

  94. […] by the time they actually opened, the number was down to 2600 people or so. Also, looks like people aren’t too happy with the […]

  95. Gayle Avatar
    Gayle

    Oh great sadness. Please bring back the flash player. Please reconsider the clean space efficiency of the old site. Is there no place on the site that notes the track/artist currently playing? Since I often played the machine top to bottom while working on other tasks the player let me easily see what track was playing if something caught my attention. Hate to be negative since I’m sure this was a gargantuan task, but I cannot find the features that made me love this site.

  96. Tusiata Esera Avatar
    Tusiata Esera

    I donated to this site way back when-before it blew up, because it was exactly what i was looking for and had an easy and useful design. But this new site is quite bad. I will go so far as to say I hate the new design. BRING BACK THE FLASH PLAYLIST. It used to be so, so good. Why??? If I were to stumble on this site today, I would never consider donating because it’s simply lost the most powerful feature and is clunky as hell. I want the old hype machine back!!!

  97. what did you do? Avatar
    what did you do?

    keep it simple, stupid! its good advice, i wish you guys would hadnt changed the layout. the old hype machine worked, it was very plain but in a good way, and it had style, i preferred the old look, not that the look of this site really even matters. the stand alone player made this the hype machine. as did the fact that i didnt have to scroll thru little snippets of what i can read on the actual blogs with a simple click! eliminate the fluff, bring back the stand alone player, if you want to keep the green colors and the little heart fine, but please give the fans what they want!

  98. Barb W Avatar
    Barb W

    Where did the flash player go?? I used to use this day in day out at work and at home and now I can’t see what’s going on or jump between tracks… and artist search? – PLEASE bring this features back or have an option to use the old version of the site… seems like many people feel the same

  99. MattyB Avatar

    It seems the overwhelming majority of posters aren’t happy with the changes, and I second all of them. The stand-alone player was so damn useful in using this site that without it, what’s the point? A website redesign should make the user experience faster and more efficient, not slow it down. If we wanted to read the first few lines of a blog post, we’d just click on it and go there to read the whole thing. The simplicity of being able to scroll through many more daily listings on 4 or 5 pages is far better than having much fewer per page. Did the bloggers ask you to change this so that more users would click on a post and visit their blog? If so, you need to find a middle ground so that both of your main user-bases are happy, because right now, one of them isn’t.

    And if you haven’t already, go buy Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. Great book about simplified web design.

    Hope you bring back the old site soon.

  100. Lou Avatar
    Lou

    Totally agree with everyone else. Hard to see the use of the site now, this was one of my favorite sites (note the praise here) for finding new music, but now it’s hard too find any music here, let alone play it. You just have to bring the stand alone player back!

  101. kate Avatar
    kate

    AWWW…. don’t say it.. Don’t say.. the player… OH MY THE PLAYER… oh the player. it’s really gone. wow. who made this decision? Does anyone know any other sites that were like Hypem.com was? I was really hyping this site for the PLAYER

    OMG WHERES THE PLAYER?
    so you can really only listen to one song at a time now? Unless you listen to someone elses selection (new RADIO feature)? I know you might have heard this already but I think I need to add my voice in. I feel like my little musical heart has been broken. Dang. Back to square one.

  102. katherine Avatar
    katherine

    I’m sorry, but I have to take down my blog about this site. Here is what it said before I saw the new site:

    ” October 15, 2007 – Monday

    hypem.com relaunch waits for 10,000 simultaneous viewers

    What can I say, it’s six am and I’ve been up all night studying, listening to the streams of the ever-entertaining Hypem.com. Have you heard of it? It’s like a search engine of mp3s from music blogs, and it strings everything together into a seamless and effortless player available for listens far after mp3s have become unavailable on said blogs.The possibilities for discovering new music have become endless and the process has become so much easier. But, after 3 hours of listening to Radiohead, I refreshed the page to go to something different.. and I got this notification page: http://www.hypem.com/new . It appears I am the 24th person of that needed 10000. So I figured I would let everyone know to check out this re-launch. Please. So I can get my amazing streams back. Keep your page open for the re-launch and blog about this to your friends!! ”

    Maybe you can discern why I was excited about the site!

  103. nick Avatar
    nick

    It feels like you stripped away all the really neat features that i have become so fondly attached too. underwhelmed is the word thats coming to mind.

  104. katherine Avatar
    katherine

    I would suggest if anyone is looking to continue the seamless, easy discovery of new music, go to where I used to go before HYPE, go to 3wk.com indie streams. You can’t skip past songs you don’t like, but at least you can tell what is playing when you often hear a song you do like. :::shakes head.:::

  105. bunny Avatar
    bunny

    i dont mind any of the other changes but seriously how could you get rid of the stand alone player??? please tell us its only temporary and will be back soon??

  106. ed Avatar
    ed

    Where’s the standalone player? I can’t figure out why you would abandon the most useful feature of your website.

  107. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    Hey, nice looking design. Functionality feels a lot more solid and pleasing on the eye. As a web developer myself I’m a big fan of the entire concept of your site. I’d love to see you guys have a play with Adobe AIR and get a stand alone player working in that with some neat functionality.

    Nice one,
    Si

  108. rr Avatar
    rr

    Well??? is anyone here going to get some kind of response from you?? or are you waiting for 10,000 comments?

  109. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Administrators: I’m sorry to dampen your apparent excitement, but this new site is brutal. Were there copyright issues with the good old standalone player? As it stands, the new format is all but unusable. I don’t mind pretty graphics (though I don’t need them either), but please bring back the functionality.

  110. Bonita Avatar
    Bonita

    Hey I really like the new look but please please bring back the stand-alone player.

  111. cormoc Avatar
    cormoc

    Miss the old automatic playlist feature when you clicked on a song. Best way to come across new music while doing other things (like work!)

  112. joyride_fargo Avatar

    Love the new look. Feels much more solid and I like the longer descriptions ripped from the posts.

    I’d kill to have the auto-player back in effect. It was sooo helpful in preparing my radio programs. And what about a way to get the tracks deeper into a post to play. For example, look at PalmsOutSounds remix sundays… only the first song pulls up, but in their ESTAW post, all of the songs are listed. What’s the deal?

    Respect™ – DJ Joyride (f*rgo, ND)

  113. Nils Avatar
    Nils

    I hate the new design. I can’t find anything. Where’s the audio-player?

  114. lying boss Avatar
    lying boss

    man, you just broke my heart. you were my homepage, guys, for all the reasons that elbo.ws was not. and featuring a couple of intro sentences from the blogs? no need.
    is this some reaction to the kazaa lawsuit, that lady that got nailed to a cross by the music industry?
    don’t tell me the lawyers have killed hype machine!

  115. Krista M. Avatar
    Krista M.

    Well, as somebody who doesn’t use the player, my complaints are completely about the new look. Why have us go through 20 pages to see the number of listings we used to be able to see in 5? Also, the fonts are way, way too big. Please bring back the site I knew and loved.

  116. L4rgo Avatar
    L4rgo

    and PLEASE make the playlist show all the tracks in winamp, not only the one currently playing.

    i loved the old playlist, just turning it on and then looking up the tracks i liked later, and play thenm again.

  117. RW Avatar
    RW

    Ugh. Alas for the player, I knew it well. Without it the site is castrated.

  118. Bunnie Avatar

    Man there’s not a thing I like about the new site after my first wandering. All my complaints are the same as everyone else …. font too big, players are missing, can’t search artists without getting that blasted 404 error. i’m weeping into my cheerios right now

  119. Owen Avatar
    Owen

    I can see that many people have the same question. Let me join the chorus of people who love the new look but want the standalone player back, or something that will allow you to skip ahead to the next song. Also, its nice to be able to know what you are listening to. You can’t tell as it is currently set up.

    I do love your work, but I think I preferred the way it used to be, although the look fo this version is a million times better

  120. CEA Avatar
    CEA

    Please allow those of us who prefer the classic format to opt for it. And for gawd’s sake reinstate the flash player. Without it, your website is irrelevant. I feel like I’ve lost my best friend. It is the biggest marketing advance since new Coke was trotted out.

  121. ben Avatar
    ben

    STAND ALONE PLAYER PLEASE.

  122. joel Avatar
    joel

    hate it

  123. daniel Avatar
    daniel

    STAND ALONE PLAYER!!!!

  124. Krëg Avatar

    This new site is a step backward, not forward. Please bring back the stand alone player and simplistic layout. You have tried to pack too much information in to one page (blog text for example), and it detracts from (what I assume is) your goal of delivering great music to the people. You have taken what was once a unique and inventive music site and turned it into a poor-quality clone of dozens of other hard-to-use sites.

    Bring back the old HypeMachine please. I will cease telling my friends about you for now. You are on your own. Repent while you still have an audience.

  125. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Bring back the flash player. Other complaints regarding colour scheme and font size aside (which I’m not stoked on, but I imagine one can get used to in time), the flash player made your site. If the change was your choice, reverse it, and if it was for legal liability, at the very least, say it. The frustration of the masses would likely subside if you took the time to give an explanation.

  126. EmmEff Avatar

    Over a day has gone by… I’m just going to assume that you’re all working hard on integrating the flash player.
    Until then… anyone who wants to use it like they used to check out the links i setup for you. http://www.fiddelke.org/?p=158

  127. milliannbug Avatar
    milliannbug

    i luv the site bt can u bring bak the listen on ur media player option???

    please???

  128. Sean Avatar
    Sean

    Hi troll,

    I saw your link to the Stand alone player,

    How does one choose what song one wishes to listen to or are we limited to the thirty pre-selected?

  129. ROBERTODDDD Avatar
    ROBERTODDDD

    BRING BACK THE FLASH PLAYER

    something beautiful is useless
    and something usefull is often ugly.
    Théophile gautier (french artist).

  130. junior Avatar

    None of this is good. None of it. Sorry. I guess another update in a few years?

  131. dp Avatar

    layout is improved but the font is definitely too bring.

    BRING BACK THE STAND-ALONE PLAYER, that was by the far the most revolutionary thing on the site and most music sites to date. Why is it gone?

  132. chixdiggit Avatar
    chixdiggit

    I guess all good things DO come to an end. I can’t see myself visiting this site now that the flash player is gone.

  133. Anthony Avatar

    We are still working on lots of speed-related issues, sorry for the trouble. -Anthony@hype

  134. james Avatar
    james

    I love the hype machine so much. I glow when I tell people about it. It’s changed my musical life.

    Please oh please bring back the playlist window! it was the best part of the hype machine. songs aren’t even playing in my firefox right now!! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

  135. tim Avatar
    tim

    You guys had changed my life but now… really… guys… we need that player back. no kidding. it takes hours! I am so over it already.. it s a huge difference without it and you should really bring it back. please. no kidding.

  136. […] 17th, 2007 The new Hype Machine aroused much… hype, you might call it. Fred Wilson was enthusiastic. Marshall Kirkpatrick was […]

  137. bah Avatar
    bah

    I think it’s amazing that you decided to bite Said the Gramophone. I expect nothing less from a site that does nothing but lay to claim the work of others. Truly inspired!

    Bravo, asshats.

  138. Loulabelle44 Avatar

    I don’t like it…

  139. Maya Avatar
    Maya

    hmm I can’t say I like the new look. its too big. It takes longer to look through pages…but I still love you guys!

  140. Silent 3 Avatar

    Can’t say I like the new look. I LOVE the service you provide, but this new format takes up WAY to much screen space. The old format was compact AND efficient. I could see what I wanted and get it. This new one doesn’t work as well. But I love the service

  141. B Ross Avatar
    B Ross

    New larger type is horrible. Actually, it’s all sort of horrible. Looks like a site aimed at idiot children. I am so sad that you messed with the clean lines and ease of the old site. This disaster is breaking my heart…

  142. […] new site until 10,000 people were looking at the front page at once (though that apparently failed and they launched anyway). I thought it was a pretty stupid thing on their part. Why would I want to keep that page open for […]

  143. […] que Volodkin e a sua equipa tiveram o bom senso de abrir a nova versão do site muito antes de conseguirem reunir na mesma página os tais 10 mil utilizadores, ficando-se por uns […]

  144. John White Avatar
    John White

    NOTICE TO THE MAKERS OF HYPE MACHINE:

    Please give us back that beautifully simple web site before it was replaced with this horrible horrible design.

  145. Timothy Avatar
    Timothy

    gaudiness

  146. Anthony Avatar

    Sorry guys, this is what you got. 🙂

  147. wadewestwhy Avatar
    wadewestwhy

    i miss the spy feature. i’m also finding everything is chunky and taking longer to scroll. i also find the pop up player annoying.

    bring the old shit back!

  148. firas Avatar
    firas

    How come I cant post to facebook?? I loved sharing music that way.. 🙁

  149. dave Avatar
    dave

    most my playlist tracks (liked tracks) won’t play anymore how comes? its bound to be a copyright thing. cheers