Tuesday, March 17, 2009

New Feature Added to 1970s Music Site

There is a feature on the pages that list each year's Top 40 singles that makes each page a little more functional. Rather than a simple list of songs, visitors now have the ability to hear (most of) the songs as well.

For instance, look at the page showing the Top 40 records of 1971. At the top of the list, you'll see a box with a Three Dog Night CD cover. Clicking that box will play a series of 30-second snippets of every song available on MP3 from the list. Actually, the 1971 list is the most complete; If it weren't for Ocean's "Put Your Hand in the Hand" being unavailable in its original form, all 42 songs listed (two songs had their flip sides listed as well) would be ready to play. Sadly, every year had at least one missing tune. Among the missing are some huge hits like "Alone Again (Naturally)," "Shadow Dancing" and "Disco Duck." Interestingly, The Beatles' two 1970 hits are missing but all of the group members' solo recordings through 1979 aren't. While it's a shame that about 30 of the 400 songs listed on those pages aren't available as MP3s, it's worth pointing out that well over 90% of the songs are.

The new boxes do more than just play 30-second snippets of songs. For those who may know a song by title alone, clicking the box and scrolling down the list will offer the chance to hear what it sounded like. It's great for those who may have forgotten or wanted to have their memories refreshed. At the very least, they play a steady stream of music for almost 20 minutes. Best of all...songs are available for direct download to your computer (no shipping, no wait, no need to go looking for them elsewhere). Most are 99 cents, some are as low as 89 cents, and "American Pie" is $1.94 due to its length.

As always, any proceeds from Amazon sales go right back into the site...I use them to buy additional reference material that will allow me to add more content.