Your home for all discussions related to the site mentioned in the title. Praise, criticism, questions, answers, technical issues, sharing profiles, etc.
The wiki for those not familiar: Rate Your Music (often abbreviated to RYM) is an online encyclopedia of music releases and films. Users can catalog items from their personal collection, review them, and assign ratings in a five-star rating system. The site also features community-based charts that track highest-rated releases.
I’ve used it probably as long as last.fm (2006) to catalog & rate my collection as well as anything else I listen to (excluding singles), whether I own it or not. Despite the very dated design, I find it very useful for learning about artists discographies, getting a quick sense of what an artist or album might sound like (genre tags, user reviews, comment boxes). I also add to and make corrections to the database very frequently, and find it easier to do so than with Discogs. While I use Discogs to catalog things I physically own and things I desire in a physical format, RYM has a different focus for me despite starting out with the same intent. Whether I own or have heard something digitally only matters not…it’s in my RYM collection and marked accordingly. It’s possibly my most visited website, with a handful of visits each day.
In addition to rating albums/EPs/comps, you can also rate individual tracks which I find helpful when it comes to a lot of DiS threads including listening clubs and Music League. My memory isn’t so good with track names and such, so if I rate things as I listen I can more easily refer to what I’ve rated when discussing something or submitting a song for this or that.
Now that we’ve got the intro out of the way, I’m here today to complain that the site isn’t loading. So don’t bother trying to click that link yet. Anyone else?
One other feature I use that I didn’t mention above, and I’ll admit is redundant with last.fm, is marking what I’m listening to. And I can’t do that yet today because the site isn’t loading. It’s messing with my well-being today.
Good site. I used to be good at updating my collection on there but since I started using Discogs I’ve slipped. Try and update it in bursts now and then though.
The thing I use it for the most is getting a sense of how an artist’s albums are ranked by popular consensus so I know where to start (or purely out of interest)
Use it a lot, good site. Don’t actually do very much actively with my profile, lists and whatnot, but it’s good for lists of new releases, or seeing what the highly rated albums were for a particular year, month, week etc. Also very useful for searching for music from a country (except it doesn’t work for Ivory Coast / Cote d’Ivoire).
Yes, all very good points! Can’t believe I forgot to mention the user list feature, which I use a lot as well. I have many lists already created for favorite albums of the year (helpful for HGWTY threads), favorites of a genre, etc. Over 100 lists, not all public though.
Also it’s nice you can embed Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and YouTube links on album pages so you can really gather a lot of info (and sample the sounds) from one source.
keen to see people’s lists. I have this behemoth “greatest of all time boxset” bookmarked on my work computer I’ll get the link later. Really useful for trying out new genres
I’ve looked at the site a few times over the years but never gone deep. Probably just opened from search results. It certainly seems far more mobile-friendly. Going to create an account to have a look-see.
I’m surprised anyone is still using this type of sign-in method where you have to pick a method and can’t use an email address of your choice. I have both FB and Google accounts but they’re not what I prefer to use for things like this.
I think it is becoming more and more the norm - playing into the hands of evil big tech obviously, but makes life nice and easy both for the user and the host. Guess you could just set up a dummy Google account for such stuff, although not sure what hoops you have to jump through these days with that.
I spent about 45 minutes before getting out of bed this morning looking through and bookmarking albums I’ve never heard of from RYM friends’ year end lists (including some 2023 discoveries lists). And I realized that for years now I tend to get more out of doing this than looking at AOTY lists from popular publications that seem to have more and more overlap.
Also find the format and quick access to info very useful. Genre tags help me decide what to click on (as well as appealing cover art) and I can quickly get to user reviews & comments, and often Bandcamp links for previews.
I’m not saying the success rate is 100% or even 75%, but it feels more efficient and underground.
It’s the best database / music discovery source I’ve found. Lists are great, but the best feature for me is that if you rate a record 3/5 or higher it tracks forthcoming releases by that artist. As you continue to use the site over time that becomes really useful to see what’s coming up. https://rateyourmusic.com/~Jarevo
Missed this thread the first time around! I’m a long-time RYMer too and keep my EOY lists on there, as well as a few reviews and album ratings, but I don’t use it to catalogue my music or for wishlists. I still visit a few times a week to check out others’ reviews.
The best thing about RYM for me are the user lists. I tend to listen to old music in year-specific listening projects (just like @Octobadger’s HGWTY) and love investigating others’ lists to jump into unknown artists, and even genres. That said, the HGWTY threads themselves are excellent for finding new-old albums.
