Recommended Web Sites Reactions
Compiled by Lukas Kendall
We got a few responses to our Monday
column presenting one writer's opinion on the best
film music web sites. We didn't include ours in that particular survey,
which calls to mind the poll that TV Guide conducted a few years back on
who was the best Star Trek captain, Kirk or Picard? Kirk won, but both
William Shatner and Patrick Stewart were interviewed about it. Shatner
said that it wasn't very important to him, that both he and Stewart developed
their own characters and each is very popular and successful, and that
the poll was not to be taken as a ranking or validation. "Then again,"
he added, "wouldn't it have been awful if I had lost?"
From: MikeyL7076@aol.com
I just read the article written by Christopher Moore about his top
four websites for movie soundtracks on the web, other than Film Score Monthly.
I agree with most of his choices; however, I feel that there was one glaring
omission from his list. That site would be Christian Clemmensen's Flimtracks
Modern Soundtrack Reviews site at filmtracks.com. This site has honest,
factual reviews of the latest soundtracks, a large amount of reviews of
special releases and compilations, a theme of the month that is devoted
to some aspect of movie scores, and adequate sound files to go with his
reviews. The thing that makes this site special, though, is that Clemmensen
runs the site with his own money and time, and, essentially, he does all
of the work to maintain the site, making it truly one of the best.
From: Katrina Palacek <kpalacek@yahoo.com>
The website article today seems biased towards MovieTunes
and its partners. I have been very disappointed with MovieTunes lately
because they do not include reviews with their listings and it seems they
add new titles only as a corporate scheme to sell their advertisement space.
Their audio clips are poor too.
On the other hand, a friend pointed me to FilmTracks Modern Soundtrack
Reviews a few months back and I have been a regular visitor to that site
as well as yours. You might want to visit http://www.filmtracks.com
and consider them the next time you list recommended soundtrack websites.
They are honest in their views and have a fresh sense of humor. Their "purchasing
links" offer a great chance to price several different online CD stores
for specific scores.
From: "Todd Wong" <toddwong@hotmail.com>
In regards to the article about "four recommended film music
websites," I believe that you sadly overlooked one vital source of
review material on the web, Filmtracks.com. It is reliable in its reviews
of new releases, and tells things "like it is" from an unbiased
fan-based point of view. It has incredible graphics and the writing is
generally very good. It is leaps and bounds beyond soundtrack.net and filmmusic.com
(these sites are confusing to navigate). As for Movietunes, it is an excellent
site for news, but they often put up pages for new releases that have NO
review at all. Filmtracks at least is consistent. When I recently discovered
that one individual was responsible for all the information at Filmtracks,
I was floored.
Also, Filmtracks.com is listed by Lycos
as the #1 source of film music opinions on the web, tied with --you
guessed-- Film Score Monthly.
From: Ellen Edgerton <eedgerto@summon2.syr.edu>
In your article on Monday you speculated:
"Some presume Filmmusic.com's disappearance can be attributed
to the popularity of Movietunes."
As the former webmaster of filmmusic.com,
I can tell you accurately that its initial disappearance had to do with
the fact that I didn't much feel like doing it any more. :-)
I suppose now would be a good time to ask readers for your comments
on our site, and suggestions on how to improve it. We've only been going
for nine months, but we've added a lot of features and haven't missed a
single weekday of getting up a new "Film Score Daily"--in the
process we've built up a pretty cool archive of reviews and material. (Many
thanks to our tireless webmaster, Bill Smith!)
I know some of you guys come back day after day (bless you!), some check
in once or twice a week, and others still are seeing this for only the
first or second time. We are trying to offer content that is timeless (reference
features, i.e. links and articles) as well as timely (the Friday news columns).
If you have suggestions, please send them! MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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