We've "launched," but it's not quite done yet. We will be issuing a series of invites to those who donated in the past. However, you *can* register if you have an invite code OR if you wish to upgrade your account now... so go try to register now. More news forthcoming as we clean up the site.

Even lazy people can eventually get their sh'it together. As we have.

We've been working our asses off getting v2 ready for general launch. Because we had issues last time with too many people using the site (which was quite a downer on my bank account), we're going to limit the way you can get accounts from here.

As we mentioned earlier, we do expect people to pay if they like using this site; we only think it's fair given the work that's been put into it. If you don't like to pay, fine. But we really feel that the new version is deserving of the fees.

So the fee will be $7/year paid over PayPal (or via snailmail check) ... we really think this is a fair amount (it's not that much really). We're just trying to cover server costs really ... not trying to make a killing.

However, we will be using an invite system where you can invite your friends to try out Audiomatch for 30 days for free. So no free registrations; the only free registrations will be THROUGH invites.

So we will launch the site on September 4th at 00:01. We will be e-mailing the list of people who donated to us in the past iteration of Audiomatch and granting them free accounts (based on how much they donated).

So in any case, here is what's new:

1.) Plugin does not suck. We did away with Winamp 3.x support because Winamp 3.x is a load of festering turd. You should upgrade to Winamp 5.x if you like Winamp 3.x. But we will be supporting Winamp 2.x and Winamp 5.x. Still no Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc. player support. And we probably won't be adding that support anytime soon. (Our reasoning: Anyone who is using Windows Media Player to play their music is not the type of people we're targetting to use AM).

2.) Website does not suck. A better network architecture, a scaleable system, etc. The design is a lot better (and standards compliant!) and a lot easier to use.

3.) Images. Originally I was going to let people create their own cool images, but I decided that it's not really feasible. Everyone has a different idea of what a cool image is. So the old default image will be *the* only image generated by Audiomatch. But...

4.) PASSTHROUGH. Passthrough is our own little invention; what it basically lets you do is allow YOUR server to accept a response from AM whenever you play a song. So anytime you play a song, not only does AM receive it, but your specially configured server will receive it. This means you can use PHP scripting to generate your OWN image on YOUR own server. So if you think our image is too plain ... just use the passthrough feature to send the data to your server whenever you play a song! You can also store all your own data and create your own reports if you think our reports sucketh.

5.) Expanded "similar" and "filtered" artists information. We will be able to suggest similar artists based on artists you like.

6.) Better profiling options. We want to let people find other people through Audiomatch. So why not build a pseudo-communityesque feature that lets you view people's profiles, find people based on gender and favorite artists and whatnot?

Hope you're as excited about the new iteration of AM as we are!

Hmm. When will the site ever get done?

We will never know. I'm currently teaching overseas, and the other developer is interning at nVidia. We hope to get something done in August. But no promises :/

Before posting a comment that says one of these things:

1.) "This service is cheap and easy to run. Quit whining and asking for donations."
2.) WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE PAY?!
3.) You suck.

Please read this, an entry written in my personal journal regarding the financial realities of running this site.

I'm hoping that when most of you understand the situation I'm in, you'll understand with a lot more clarity WHY I have to make the decisions I do.

Some of you pointed out that "next week" had passed.

Yes, I have been lazy and busy. However, work *is* progressing on AM 2.0. We keep adding more features and more functionality into the site ... and building upon the old one.

Trust us, the wait will be worth the wait (we hope).

The site should be ready "next week."