# AllMusic

AllMusic|  Logotype an wirdmark syne Julie 2013 |
| Teep o steid | Onwab database fur muisic albums, airtists an sangs; reviews an biographies |
| Available in | Inglis |
| Awner | RhythmOne (syne 2015) |
| Creatit bi | Michael Erlewine |
| Wabsteid | allmusic.com |
| Commercial | Ay |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 1991 (1991) (as *All Music Guide*) |
| Current status | Onwab |

**AllMusic** (formerly kent as **All-Music Guide** an **AMG**) is an American onwab muisic database. It catalogs weel ower three million album entries an 30 million tracks, as weel as information on muisickers an baunds. Initiatit in 1991, the database wis furst mak available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic haes been awned bi RhythmOne syne 2015.

## History

AllMusic wis launched as *All-Music Guide* bi Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, notit astrologer, Buddhist scholar, an muisicker." He becam interestit in uisin computers fur his astrological wirk in the mid-1970s an foondit a saftware company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as compact discs (CDs) replaced LPs an cassettes as the dominant format fur recordit muisic, Erlewine purchased whit he thoucht wis a CD o early recordins bi Little Richard. Efter buyin it, he diskivered it wis a "flaccid latter-day rehash." Frustratit wi the labelin, he resairched uisin metadata tae creaut a muisic guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he foondit *All Music Guide* wi a goal tae creaut an appen-access database that includit aw recordin "syne Enrico Caruso gae the industrie its furst big boost".

The furst *All Music Guide*, published in 1992, wis a 1,200-page reference beuk, packaged wi a CD-ROM, titled *All Music Guide: The Best CDs, Albums & Tapes: The Expert's Guide to the Best Releases from Thousands of Artists in All Types of Music*. Its furst onwab version, in 1994, wis a text-based Gopher steid. It muivit tae the World Wide Web as wab brousers becam mair uiser-freendly.

Erlewine hired a database ingineer, Vladimir Bogdanov, tae design the *All Music Guide* framewirk, an recruitit his nephew, writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine, tae develop editorial content. In 1993, Chris Woodstra jynt the staff as an ingineer. A "record geek" wha haed scrieved fur alternative weeklies an fanzines, his main qualification wis an "encyclopedic knawledge o muisic". AllMusic developit a leet o 1,400 subgenres o muisic, a feature that becam central tae the steid's utility. In a 2016 airticle in *Tedium*, Ernie Smith wrate, "AllMusic mey hae been ane o the maist ambitious steids o the early-internet [sic] era—an it's ane that is fundamental tae oor unnerstandin o pop cultur. Acause the thing is, it dinna juist track reviews or albums. It tracks styles, genres, an subgenres, alang wi the tone o the muisic an the platforms on that the muisic is selt. It then connects that data thegither, in a wey that can intelligently tell ye aboot an entire teep o muisic, whether a massive genre lik clessical, or a tiny ane lik slawcore."

In 1996, seekin tae further develop its wab-based businesses, Alliance Entertainment Corp. boucht All Music frae Erlewine fur a reportit $3.5 million. He left the company efter its sale. Alliance filed fur bankruptcy in 1999, an its assets wur acquired bi Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Equity Fund.

In 1999, All Music relocatit frae Big Rapids tae Ann Arbor, Michigan, whaur the staff expandit frae 12 tae 100 fowk. Bi Februar o that year, 350,000 albums an twa million tracks haed been catalogit. All Music haed published biographies o 30,000 airtists, 120,000 record reviews, an 300 essays scrieved bi "a hybrid o historians, creetics, an passionate collectors."

In late 2007, AllMusic wis purchased fur $72 million bi TiVo Corporation (kent as Macrovision at the time o the sale an as Rovi frae 2009 till 2016). In 2012, AllMusic remuived aw o Bryan Adams' info frae the steid per a request frae the airtist.

In 2015, AllMusic wis purchased by BlinkX, later kent as RhythmOne. The AllMusic database is pouered bi a combination o MySQL an MongoDB.

## The All Music Guide series

The All Media Network produced the *All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide* (at furst lowsed as *The Experts' Guide*), that includes a series o publications aboot mony muisic genres. It wis follaed bi the *Required Listening* series an annual guides. Vladimir Bogdanov is the preses an the main editor o the series.

* *All Music Guide: The Definitive Guide to Popular Music* (1st edition: 1992, 2nd ed.: 1994, 3rd ed.: 1997, 4t ed.: 2001, 5t ed.: 2008)
* *All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music* (2004)
* *All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music* (1st ed.: 1997, 2nd ed.: 2003)
* *All Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic Music* (2001)
* *All Music Guide to Hip-hop: The Definitive Guide to Rap & Hip-hop* (2003)
* *All Music Guide to Jazz: The Definitive Guide to Jazz Music*  (1st ed.: 1994, 2nd ed.: 1996, 3rd ed.: 1998, 4t ed.: 2002)
* *All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul* (1st ed.: 1995, 2nd ed.: 1997, 3rd ed.: 2002)
* *All Music Guide to Soul: The Definitive Guide to R&B and Soul* (2003)
* *All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues* (1st ed: 1996, 2nd ed: 1999, 3rd ed: 2003)
* *All Music Guide Required Listening: Classic Rock* (2007)
* *All Music Guide Required Listening: Contemporary Country* (2008)
* *All Music Guide Required Listening: Old School Rap & Hip-hop* (2008)
* *All Music Guide to the Music of 2002: Your Guide to the Recordings of the Year* (2003)
* *All Music Guide to the Music of 2003: Your Guide to the Recordings of the Year* (2004)

## Reception

In August 2007, *PC Magazine* includit AllMusic in its "Tap 100 Clessic Wabsteids" leet.

## See an aw

* RhythmOne
* AllMovie
* SideReel

## Fremmit airtins

* Offeecial wabsteid