When we initially brainstormed the idea for our homepage, I specifically emphasized one thing: simplicity. Considering we were running a search engine, who better to emulate than Google? When we first released our private alpha in February 2009, the homepage was pretty darn simple. It included two things:

1. Logo
2. Search bar

Over time, we realized that initial members would come to the site and freeze up a la the fainting goats (must watch on YouTube for those who haven’t seen it). Essentially, when you’re presented with too many options, you can’t make a decision.

We figured that we needed to add some prompts so our users could have a little more guidance. At the end of 2009, we released a new layout that accounted for this consideration, but compromised the focus of the page.

Through our association with MusicBrainz, who I affectionately call the “Wikipedia for Music,” we’ve indexed 400,000 (and counting) different artist pages. We lost sight of the importance of our search engine, and the user flow of our homepage brought visitor attention to the bottom of the page.

Now, we’re excited to release our latest revision of the homepage that showcases our search bar. We’ve also tried to do a more succinct job of conveying our mission. Lastly, if you still need prompts, we are cycling a number of artists from different genres that epitomize what we’re all about.

We still have a couple minor (but meaningful) additions that should be rolled out over the course of the next couple weeks. Thanks for reading, and we’re glad to have you along for the ride!