Navigating the site is confusing

[carol m]

I've been using the site for a while and I find the whole layout very confusing, and many of my friends find the same - so much so that they don't like visiting here.

As far as I can tell I now have 3 pages, all with the same title at the top so that even I never know where I am. I have a member page, which I think is also called a profile page; a band page and a music page.

I still haven't worked out how to have a link from my mamber page to my band page - only by clicking on my name down at the side somewhere. If I click on my 'Main Artist page' on my band page, I don't go to my member/profile page, I just stay where I am. I can't work out how to get my music onto my Member/profile page except as an mp3 plugin for one song only. I only have one song uploaded at the moment, but that's not the point.

Also there is no place where you can go to have any of this explained. The faq and tutorials only answer specific questions but have no overall guide to how the site is set up or what's possible to show on each page eg friends, fans, user stations. Even when you start a band page and upload a song there's nothing to explain how to do it in one place in a simple logical way.

So, I would like to see a Help section expaining all of these things clearly - not in the Question/Answer format where many of the questions are not what I want to know, where I go round and around and still not find what I wanted - and it's just basic stuff I want to know.

If each page that I had, had a different titile at the top, like name:member profile, and name: music and obvious links showing how to get from one to other that would be much simpler and make the whole site easier to navigate and use.

I don't see why we need 3 pages, when 2 would do. And if people have more than one band/artist page, a menu showing different links would be much easier.

Another complication - I forgot to mention it earlier - is calling the band/artist page sometimes a band page, sometimes an artist page, and sometimes a main page, when you're referring to the same thing, I think......more opportunity for confusion - and frustration.

[cmhansen]

Good luck on searching for your answers. I've all but given up on all the pages. I never look at my profile page, because it's hard as heck to find...

I just link everybody straight to my music page and leave it at that. The rest of the pages are kind of meaningless in my opinion. The music page is the most important one.

There are single song player widgets that you can use if memory serves me right. Or you can just use the main widget and place it on your page. I've seen some people be able to do it. Haven't a clue how they did it though...

Hmm... Sorry, that doesn't seem to be much help...
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Chris

Guitar Stuff * Donegal Street

[carol m]

Yes I think you are one of many who do that, the main trouble is you can't have your friends, messages or music stations on the music or band/artist page. If you could do that I would do the same.

Also, I hate to not have a grip on how anything works, or when things clearly need to be made more logical, easier to use, and simpler to find your way around - it's very, very frustrating.

[leprechaun]

The whole thing is impossible to navigate, I agree. There's often 3 or 4 ways to achieve the same thing and only an extreme ambiguous way to get to something very important.

I just randomly click on stuff now until the right thing comes up
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[Thomas J]

i really don't have any problems, although today for the first time in recent memory i've gotten genuinely lost trying to update my artist photo. why is the artist photo in one category, and then photo album in another?
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[leprechaun]

[carol m]

I had a lot of trouble finding how to upload a member/artist photo. I went to My Photos, and amazingly you can't do it from there. That is only for 'Albums' (of photos, not album covers as such). You have to go to your 'Interview' to upload your own member photo. That took me nearly a week to work out.

Aside 1:
why aren't all members artists, or all artists, members? You have to decide this the very first time you try to join, and at that stage I didn't know which I was (!). It's only later you find out you can be a member first, and then decide to be an artist later. (a complex psychological shift too complicated to get into here ).

Aside 2:
What is the purpose of a Band page (where you can't do much except upload your songs) AND a Music Page? They are virtually the same thing, aren't they? And if you navigate away from your profile page you can only go to band page, which means you have to navigate again to get to the Music page - the most important page in my view, and the most difficult to get to.

It's suddenly occured to me that sc might in some way make money or increase their profile for every time I click something within the site???. But that's way too cynical, isn't it?

I suspect it might be something to do with Soundclick selling VIP pages or similar. I have no problem with sc needing to make money, but as it is now, it's totally confusing having 3 pages when 2 of them seem to be virtually the same.

The obvious answer would be to have a Member Page with Friends and Messages and Personal photo albums PLUS a clear link to that member's Music Page (or Pages if they have more than one 'uploading name/band/genre)' and no 'Band Page(s)' at all.

If members wanted to invest in a VIP page, they could just upgrade their Music Page(s).

I'm prepared to believe I still haven't got a good grasp of how this site works, so if I've missed a major reason for it's current layout, I'd be happy to be informed - and I'm NOT being sarcastic. It's a great site that gives access to amateur and beginner recording members like me, but it's definitely not user friendly.