About Cookies and AI
By MICHAEL RICCI
May 17, 2024
234 views
Evolving technologies have always presented opportunities as well as challenges to All About Jazz. The staying power formula (online) is about maintaining relevancy and traffic. We have more than held our own for nearly 30 years, which is no mean feat, but it guarantees nothing. Our mindset is to improve and expand (AAJ) every day. And though most are pulling for us, there are some realities that you should understand, so please read on. Cookies and AIAll About ...
read moreMore AAJ Customization Tips
By MICHAEL RICCI
May 8, 2024
633 views
All About Jazz's longstanding mission is to help you discover artists and their music. We also encourage you to participate on the website whenever possible (e.g. entering contests, answering survey questions, posting comments, sharing a jazz story, etc.). This past week we created a way for you to add your jazz theme song and playlist to your member page. Here are mine. You can add yours--just sign in, click Hi, Your Name," click Update Settings," click the Theme Song" tab, ...
read moreImproving Every Day
By MICHAEL RICCI
April 15, 2024
1,181 views
Not a day goes by that we don't make some sort of improvement to All About Jazz and Jazz Near You. This month, in particular, has seen steady progress and I listed some of the more public-facing additions below. Created a new Radio & Podcasts information and scheduling page (here). Added NEAR YOU" to the All About Jazz navigation bar for fast access to Jazz Near You. Added theme song and playlist options to a member's ...
read moreNavigation Bar Additions & Following Musicians
By MICHAEL RICCI
March 29, 2024
964 views
The All About Jazz and Jazz Near You redesign project is in progress as we work to simplify navigation to help you more easily access the content you value most. As we've mentioned in previous newsletters, you can follow staff writers and filter what content appears on your MY ARTICLES page and your MY REVIEWS page. We've added links to both under the dropdown menu when you click Hi, [Your Name]" (see screenshot below). In case you missed the note about ...
read moreHow To Follow Staff Writers
By MICHAEL RICCI
March 16, 2024
1,277 views
Over the next two weeks we'll explain how to customize your content experience by following musicians and writers at All About Jazz. MY AAJ" has existed for years, but we're adding new functionality and raising its profile to help you quickly find the information you value most. This week, we'll explain how to follow our staff. Following AAJ Writers Once you follow a staff writer, All About Jazz will notify you via website message when they are published. ...
read moreThe new Jazz Near You header is live!
By MICHAEL RICCI
March 5, 2024
1,080 views
The new Jazz Near You header went live today. It's styled after the new All About Jazz header to keep navigation and the look & feel between the two websites consistent and clean. The differences are that the Jazz Near You hamburger icon opens to a different set of essential links; SEARCH takes you to the Jazz Near You search page (which was recently improved to include viewing an artist's entire performance calendar); the green UPLOAD EVENTS tab ...
read moreStaff News Including Album Tips
By MICHAEL RICCI
March 3, 2024
710 views
For those who followed along last year, 2023 was highly productive as we released several new features, expanded our reach, and constantly improved every facet of our platform. We're still on a creative roll, so expect even more activity in 2024. Please read on as I have some important news to share including a few tips: Album Tips When adding album information, ALWAYS select a leader. Sometimes there are co-leaders, but please pick one. This is ...
read moreJazz is big... very big
By MICHAEL RICCI
February 16, 2024
1,497 views
We were dejunking the All About Jazz office last weekend and stumbled across this June 7, 1998 New York Times article entitled (Even) Jazz Makes The Leap to Cyberspace" by the late Terry Teachout. His Jazz is big--very big..." cracked me up. We can only wish. And of the 300+ jazz websites (and growing by the day) that were around back then, only one remains that covers jazz. Talk about staying power. AAJ actually launched three years prior ...
read moreLet's hear it for the new header!
By MICHAEL RICCI
February 7, 2024
988 views
Yesterday morning, the tech team at All About Jazz quietly launched our new header / navigation bar. Minus a handful of post implementation issues, it went off without a hitch. Some of the issues that arose were fixed immediately, while others will take a few days to resolve. Once we complete the AAJ header, we'll turn our attention to the Jazz Near You header. From there, we'll rework the footers and make other sitewide style improvements.
read moreMore on member polls
By MICHAEL RICCI
February 2, 2024
673 views
Long-time contributor Ed Blanco and his wife Pilar just returned from the 2024 Jazz Cruise and from the sounds of it, had a whale of a time. Here's Ed sporting his All About Jazz uniform with none other than pianist and AAJ friend Eliane Elias. It appears everyone loves to view poll results as the Favorite Living Saxophonist article has generated over 6,000 pageviews since last week. Of course, the results would be much more meaningful (and accurate) ...
read more