Professional music reviewers seemed to be out of touch with reality and had no clue what people actually wanted to hear. In fact, a lot of them could not even get the genre of the music they were reviewing correct. We set out to find a decent rating system on the internet where we could see what other "consumers" were saying before we purchased the album. Most sites that existed, with rating systems, were meant for retail purposes and not really dedicated to what the consumers were saying. Very few people were using them to rate the CDs, making the information they gathered useless. Other sites are run and influenced by record labels and radio stations. The few sites we found that were dedicated to only music consumer's opinions were also relatively unused and had very basic rating systems. The basic rating systems usually only required an average score. They did not break the ratings down to a more useable and accurate system. The only way for people to say what they really wanted to say was to spend a lot of time writing a review. And to find the album to rate, you had to use a search engine. You were unable to see all of the other albums competing in that genre and year.

So, fed up, we set out to create a better rating system on a site dedicated entirely to other music lovers like us. A rating system that was more accurate and did not require a review to get your point across. Yet the rating system would still be easy and quick to use. And we would put it on a site that was easy to use and navigate. Arrange the albums in a way that they were easy to find. But in way that the user could see ALL of the other releases in that category for that year. While you were rating a CD you would be able to see the other albums that you may have forgotten about or never even knew existed. And you would be able to see if others were giving that album high scores. And finally, it would be a rating system that only promoted the highest rated CDs. You would not have to sort through thousands of CDs to see which ones people liked. A simple icon next to the album to catch your attention would say it all. And of course we would not forget the all important year end BEST OF lists. We spent months developing what we believe is a more effective and simpler to use rating system. And then spent several more months developing an interesting, unique and easy to navigate site to host it on.

Rather than having one very vague question asking for an overall rating, we use very short and easy to fill out surveys. Each survey usually takes less than twenty seconds to fill out. And you only pick the albums that YOU want to rate. The questions are weighted according to what our research tells us is most important to the consumer and a score for the album is then calculated automatically. And instead of making you search through thousands of ratings results, we post only results for the CDs that score above average and excellent. Because, frankly, nobody is interested in the rest anyway. The whole point is to make it easy for you to find the best CDs.

Although there were still, or are still, some interactive and entertaining features being developed, we decided to go ahead and officially launch ScoreTunes.com on October 24th 2004. Giving music consumers a chance to voice their opinions on the 2003 releases before it was too late. And in time for Christmas shopping. In addition to the interactive features, ScoreTunes gives away prizes on a regular basis. A minimum of one CD will be given away at least once per month. And instead of just saying we give prizes away (like some sites do), we actually post our contest winners on our site. In order to protect their privacy, our contest winners name's will never be posted in full.

Sign-up takes only seconds and is free. While some of the demographic and rating information that we collect may be useful to industry professionals, what little personal information we collect from you is kept completely private. You will not get an email box full of spam by signing up at ScoreTunes. We hate spam as much as you do. Please read our privacy policy for more information.