Syncing issues
For the last few days, we have been having some issues with files synchronizing across servers, which led to some broken files and images. Hopefully, these issues are now all fixed and everything should be working correctly.
Thank you for your patience!
Visual Novels Collection Added
Today's update completes our Visual Novel collection that we started adding last week!
Visual Novels
We have been sent in a large collection of visual novel soundtracks. I have gone through this collection formatting it for the site, and it totals over 1700 albums.
I am going to be adding these albums to the site over this week and possibly next, so you are going to see a lot of visual novel soundtracks being added. For those of you not interested in these type of games - don't worry, visual novels have not taken over the site. Or rather they have, but for just a few days.
For those of you interested in visual novels, this site is going to have what is probably the most comprehensive collection of visual novel soundtracks you can find anywhere, a lot of them very rare and impossible to find.
Image Names in Edits and Uploads
When uploading images under My Uploads or when editing an album, you can now change the image name of the newly uploaded image.
This is important, because images are ordered by name on the site, and this changes which will be the first image. Plus, it is always nice to have correct, descriptive names for the images as well.
You can now also mark images as graphic (or NSFW - not safe for work) without having to change the filename.
Marking your name in your uploads anonymous / public
In albums that you have uploaded, you can now make your username public or anonymous. Previously this was only possible when making the upload, before it was posted on the site.
Site News Page
For those of you who want to see previous site updates of the last few years, there is now a Site News page. You can also find it under "Info" in the navigation.
Song Name Rename Changes
Sometimes an album contains 2 songs that have their names swapped, and up until now it was not possible to swap names of two songs using the Song Rename feature in album edit. It was also not possible to rename a song to the name of an existing song, and then rename that existing song to a different name - to do this you had to make two edits. I have now made the programming changes necessary to allow this, so it is now possible to swap song names in a single album edit. I almost twisted my brain trying to figure this out :D
Please keep in mind that Song Rename does not change song metadata. This is a limitation of the programming language this site runs on.
New Backup System
Two weeks ago one of our backup servers failed, and this highlighted a weakness in the site's backup strategy. Namely, due to the sheer size of the site (about 28TB in total), it takes a very long time to copy another backup or restore files from a backup. This caused downtimes for parts of the site for more than a week.
So for the past 2 weeks I have been working on a new backup system that involves more servers and automatic synchronization for files between servers. Right now the site runs off of 1 HTML server and 3 file servers. The file servers synchronize whenever a change is made on the site - whether an album added, a song renamed or image deleted, etc. This means that if we now lose a server to failure, we still have 2 current copies of the site, and we can simply restore the third one without any downtime or worries.
Additionally, the site will have 2 more servers that will store backups that are created manually. These are slightly out of date, but in case there is a catastrophic error caused by the synchronization of the main servers or due to hacking, we will be able to restore from these backups and then add missing files manually.
And last, I do keep a backup of all the uploads sent in on disconnected backup drives.
The site is now backed up multiple times in 3 different datacenters owned by 3 different companies, located in 2 different continents. This was a huge project, but I'm glad I did it, because now I can truly say the site's files are safe!
Shuffle Update
If you choose to shuffle songs in album / playlist, it will now cycle through all the songs before re-playing any of them for a 2nd time. So the play is no longer random, but a truly shuffled playlist.
Discord
Join the chat on our Discord server - click here
Images with Album Uploads
You can now upload images when submitting a new upload through the website.
It is still possible to upload images by adding them to your upload file, but sometimes this was cumbersome. Now it is possible to add the images while filling in the upload form.
If you are replacing an album, it is now possible to mark old images to be deleted or renamed!
Album Info Files
You can now find album info text files linked next to a round "i" near the album name, on the top of the album page. They are also located under My Downloads and with all mass downloads.
Until now, when you downloaded an album either by downloading individual songs or as a mass download, it was missing metadata about that album. These info files now include things such as a description, publishers, developers, platforms, as well as the URL where the file was downloaded from, the change log, and when that version was published on the site. Some album names also have special characters that are not accepted for directory filenames - this name, as well as alternative names, is now available in the info file.
Please note that the info files are still generating and it will take about 7 more days to fully generate for all albums on the site.
My Downloads Sortable by Date
The My Downloads page now includes the date when the album was added to your mass downloads, and you can sort it by date and name.
Alternative names for Developers / Publishers
Since the introduction of the developer / publisher tags for albums, our users have added to the system 7400 publishers on 36,000 albums and 8700 developers on 27,800 albums, for a total of 87,000 individual associations. I want to thank you all for helping out to make the site more easily searchable for everyone!
Since the publisher / developer data is entered by hand, this often leads to one developer / publisher being entered in several different ways. We have 6 different names for DICE, and even lesser known developers / publishers have multiple names in the system.
In order to solve this, I have created an alternative names system for developers / publishers. If under album edit, or when submitting a new upload, you enter a name that is an alternative name, it will upon publishing revert to the main name for that developer / publisher.
Of course, there are now many developers and publishers with similar names in the system, and given that there are 16,000 names, it is not possible for me alone to go through them all. So I ask you, if you notice similar names for developers / publishers, please send me a message with the names (or links to them) and I will merge them!
Thanks!
WEBP File Support
The website now supports image uploads in webp format. This includes both new uploads, and album edits via the album edit interface.
Developer / Publisher in Requests
Requests now include fields for developer and publisher data. Please enter this data if you are making a request.
If you fill in a request, this data is passed on to the upload input.
Playlist Song Order
You can now change the order of songs in playlists by simply drag-and-drop. This will make it much easier to re-order large playlists.
NSFW Images
If an album contains relevant images that are of graphic nature, you can now mark them NSFW (not safe for work). Either add NSFW to the image filename when uploading a new album or image via the album edit page, or for current albums, you can check the Graphic Content checkbox under "Rename Images".
Several people had requested this feature, because they browse the site at work or home, and don't want other people see them randomly come across some album that is softcore porn or something like that.
Minor updates
Several minor updates have happened on the site, too hard to list everything. Playlist loading times were improved, I fixed an error in Random Album Advanced, tidied up search a bit, added change log message to forum post when updating an album. Stuff like that, enjoy the site!
Loop Albums / Playlists
The audioplayer now has a loop button. When selected it allows you to loop whole albums / playlists.
Rename Songs
Up until now, if you wanted to edit song names or fix simple misspellings, or track numbering issues, you had to re-upload whole albums. No longer! It is now possible to edit song names and numbers by clicking "Edit" on the album page and selecting "Rename Song Names / Numbers".
Rename Images
Images on album pages are shown in alphabetical order. If you would like to change the order of images, or you simply want to give more descriptive names to images, you no longer have to delete/re-upload the image. Instead, on the album page, click "Edit" and select "Rename Current Images".
Delete Current Image
You can now request to delete a current album image right from the album edit page!
If you see an album that has a wrong image, a blank image, or simply an image that clearly doesn't belong to that album, you can now click "Edit" on the album page to edit the album as usual, and then, at the bottom of the page, mark an image for deletion. It is no longer necessary to PM me about it. All deletion requests are approved by me before going live.
Albums By Publisher / Developer
You can now click on Publisher / Developer info in album pages, and it will list all albums by that publisher / developer.
I have also made separate pages for a full list of developers and a full list of publishers.
Shuffle!
The audioplayer now contains a shuffle button to play songs in random order! Especially useful for playlists you have created for yourself.
Random Album Advanced
Random Album is a fantastic feature, that allows you to discover new music you'd never think of listening to. However, it often leads to results that are, well, too unexpected. So now, I have created a new page: Random Album Advanced
Using this tool, you can now tweak the "randomness" of your Random Album. Do you want your Random Album to be a Playstation gamerip from the 90s? Or a remix? You can now select the types, years and platforms to limit the results Random Album comes from.
My Downloads
The My Downloads page now contains downloads totals, showing the total number of albums, their size, and length.
Bug Fixes
Two different bugs in search, leading to some weird results when ordered by Relevance, have been squashed.
Also, two different bugs regarding updating of album request status have been fixed. If you have any requests with the status "Working on It" for more than several days, and in the end it has been filled in, but the status still says "Working on It", these bugs are why that happened, and it shouldn't happen anymore.
New Description Field
While most albums on the site are rather self-explanatory, for some albums it is hard to understand what the differences are between it and some similar album, or even what the album is at all.
In order to make things easier, I have added a description field in both album uploads and album edits. So now, when uploading an album or editing an existing one, you can also add a description, if it looks like the album needs one. It will appear on the album page.
A big thanks to all the contributors on the site!
Search Relevance
After checking about a hundred or so search results of different types, I've decided to move on with making Relevance the default search sorting option. I think this will get better search results for everyone.
You can still revert back to sorting by name by selecting that option from the "Search By" dropdown.
If you notice any bugs or have any suggestions, send me a private message.
Playlist Mass Downloads!
I've got an exciting new feature for everyone today, playlist downloads!
Contributing members can now mass download playlists! Click on "Download all playlist songs at once", wait for the playlist file to be generated and download! Songs are in the order they were in the playlist. There is a 2GB filesize limit.
My Downloads
The My Downloads page has been completely redesigned to fit in with the rest of the site!
Requests Being Filled In
Up until now there was a gap between a request being filled (sent in) and me approving it, which led to several requests being sent in by several people.
I have now changed the programming logic there, now, when you fill in a request, right after clicking "Upload Album", the request will be removed from the Requests List and marked as "Working on it". If it is published, it will be marked "Filled In", and if the upload is not approved, it will be returned to the requests list.
Search Updates
I have updated search to allow selecting by album type, platform and year released.
I have also made some minor changes to the search engine, and the character limit has now been removed. That means you can now also do blank searches (just click "Search" without entering anything) and then narrow down the search with the new options.
Let me give you a couple of examples of what you can do now:
What are the most popular NES gamerips of 1987? Click Here
What are the latest PS4 soundtracks that have been added? Click Here
I hope you enjoy the new features! If you notice any bugs or have any suggestions, send me a private message.
Playlists!
One of the most wanted features for the site is finally up and running - playlists!
When you open any album, next to every song you will see a playlist icon. Clicking it will open a popup with your playlists that you can add/delete the song to.
You can view your playlists by going to the My Playlists page.
You can also share playlists by copy-pasting the playlist URL!
I hope you enjoy it, this is a large update I have been working on for a bit! If you notice any bugs or have any suggestions, send me a private message.
Albums By Year & Type
Another update I'd like to release today is sorting of albums by year and type! You can find the full list of years by going to the Album Years page, and you can find all the album types in the left navigation under "By Type".
On each album page you can now click on the year it was released to go to an album listing for that year, and on the type for soundtracks of that type!
Latest Updates
Search has now been updated with an option to search specifically for song names. Before, song names were searched only if there were only a few album matches. That still happens, but now you can select to search for specifically song names.
You can now search for "F1". There are plenty of F1 gamerips on the site, and before it wasn't possible to search, because F1 was shorter than the minimum character length for search.
Search has been updated with sorting options. You can now sort search by popularity, date added and relevance by choosing it from the dropdown menu in the search page.
Relevance is an especially interesting search option. It searches first for the exact match for album name / alternative name / catalog number, then searches for albums starting with the search term, then looks for albums that contain the search term, and lastly performs a split word search. Albums are then presented in this order.
If you have any comments about the search system, send me a private message. Maybe you've found a search that should be returning results, but isn't, or the other way around - you've found a search that is returning results that are incoherent. Go ahead and send me these searches. I also hope to continue tweaking the relevance search order, and one day it may be the default order for all searches!
Latest updates!
The requests list can now be sorted by name, type, year, catalog number and date request was added.
When a request is filled in by someone, but its not yet uploaded on the site, instead of staying "Approved", the request status will change to "Working On It", and it won't show up on the Requests List. This is to prevent multiple people from submitting an upload on the same request. Older requests might take a moment to work this through the system.
Search now searches requests by catalog number.
Change Log is now showing up on changed albums (yes!)
+ other minor changes
Next, I'm looking to make some minor improvements to the search!
Forums Dark Mode
Forums now also have a dark mode - go here or click on the style chooser at the bottom of any forums page!
Change Log!
If you are uploading an album that replaces an existing album, you now need to describe what is being updated in the "Change Log" field.
This can be a simple comment, such as "Updated to FLAC", "Added Missing Files", "Added New Files", "Fixed Tags", etc.
Change Log comments will appear on the album page under a Change Log dropdown. That way site visitors will know why an album was replaced or what exactly was updated. IMO, this is a fantastic improvement for everyone and will allow us to keep track of changes.
Thanks everyone for making the site better!
New Requests System!
The long-awaited, all fresh, completely shiny, new requests system is here!
This is the biggest overhaul of requests that the site has had yet. You can now add requests similarly to how uploads are added, and it ties in with the upload system!
You can post new requests and view requests by clicking here. Once you post a new request, I will look over it. It will either be filled in by me (if possible) or it will be approved, and appear on the requests list.
You can see the new requests list by clicking here.
If you would like to fill in a request by uploading an album, click the "+" button next to it, and you will be taken to the upload form, but with all the basic info entered by the maker of the request already there! Feel free to add or edit that info when you post the upload. Once the request you have uploaded is published on the site, the maker of the request will see it as "Filled In" on his account, and he will get an email notification that his request has been filled in!
Requests now also appear in search! When you search for an album, you will be able to see if somebody has already requested it or something similar to it! Search works by searching both the request name and alternative titles entered.
I think this new system is a massive improvement over the cumbersome way requests were previously managed, and I'm totally excited to get back to work filling in people's requests!
Thanks!
Dark mode!
By popular request, I have added a dark mode for those of you who wish to browse a darker version of the site during the night. Or day. You can find the link to switch between dark/light at the bottom of the left navigation.
All uploads now require at least 1 image!
This is not a huge change, as almost everybody already adds at least one image to their uploads, however, from now on, you need to add at least 1 image to your upload for it to be accepted.
It all makes a lot of sense, as everyone prefers an album with in image anyway!
Thanks to all the uploaders!
You can now view your album edits under the My Album Edits page!
This will allow you to keep track of what you have edited and your edit status!
New Upload Interface!
You can now see your uploads here: My Uploads
Click on the "Add" link to post a new upload.
For the last 10 days, I have been working hard on a new upload interface. The old way of doing things - posting uploads in the forums - was a very familiar, yet a cumbersome way of posting new uploads and album replacements that we had been using for 3 years now.
The old system meant you had to write out tags, which took time and was error prone. Now you can just select the platforms and album type, and type in the other tags - it is much faster! And then I had to copy-paste or rewrite tags you guys wrote in the post, which is another place errors happened. It also meant special characters in album names were impossible, as only Windows filenames were accepted.
Adding an uploader.txt was a cumbersome way to link uploads, and is no longer necessary, as the system now will know which upload is yours. You can now also easily see a list of all of your uploads and their status.
Overall, I think this is a massive improvement, and I hope you enjoy it!
Several updates on the site!
Compact album lists!
Since some of you were missing the old layout, I have made a feature that lets you revert back to the compact album lists for all album listings.
Click on the icons above any album lists to go back and forth between the old compact display, and the new one with images. Your choice will also be saved in your account preferences.
This should also help browsing on mobile phones where scrolling through large lists is tedious.
YOU SEE I DO LISTEN :)
Edit images and Mark as Duplicate
I have added two new options for album edits!
You can now upload album images that will be added to the site and appear on the album page!
You can also mark an album as a duplicate by pasting the link to the duplicate album. Unfortunately, duplicates are a problem on this site, so if you find any, please let me know!
A big THANKS to everyone helping out with album edits! Together we will make this site much more useful for everyone!
Favorite Albums!
I have added a new feature to the site - favorite albums! In each album's page, just above the audio player, you can now click to add the album to your favorites. That way you can save your favorite albums for future access.
Your favorite albums will be available in your favorites page
Segapocalypse! Wave Master, the company that manages Sega's music, has contacted me and asked me to remove lots of albums related to Sega. At the end of the day, over 500 albums were removed, including Sonic, OutRun, and others.
Unfortunately, this even included fan made compilation albums for games that have no commercial releases, which, quite frankly, makes absolutely no sense.
If you were wondering why some albums have disappeared on the site, this is why.
Sorry about today's downtime everyone, an error happened during server upgrade and it went out. I spent the better part of today re-installing the server and setting everything up. Everything should be working now, if you find anything not working please contact me.
July is the month of retro Sega!
Throughout July, I will be adding games from Sega's oldest consoles, the SG-1000, Master System and Game Gear. In total, I'll be adding music from about 200 new games, and replacing music from another 200 games already on the site with higher quality versions.
As usual, non-Sega related requests and uploads will be added on weekends!
June is the month of Nintendo DS!
Throughout the whole of June I will be adding gamerips from the Nintendo DS. I'm looking to add over 1000 games with a total filesize of over 100GB.
As usual, non-DS related requests and uploads will be added on weekends!
May is the month of Sega Saturn and Dreamcast!
Throughout May I will be adding new gamerips from the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast consoles. In total I'm looking to add music from about 800 new games, as well as update about 70 current gamerips to better quality. The total size of the update looks to be about 250GB.
Since Sega Saturn never really became popular in North America, as it was massively overshadowed by Sony's Playstation, it wasn't really possible to find correct track names for a lot of these gamerips. But the music is definitely worth listening to, especially if you did have a Saturn and played these games as a kid. Its been definitely nice to work on this piece of video game music history!
Dreamcast was Sega's last attempt at making it big as far as consoles go, and it definitely had some classic games! My best friend at the time (yes, I'm a dinosaur) had a Dreamcast, so this collection is special for me.
As usual in these theme months, non-Saturn or Dreamcast related requests and uploads will be added on weekends!
April is the month of Visual Novels!
Throughout the whole of April I will be adding music from visual novels. In total I will be adding to the site approximately 800 albums, as well as replacing dozens of albums on the site.
Requests and uploads will be added over the weekends!
Random Album and Song changes!
If you now click on random album, it will automatically start playing that album. At the end of the album, it will automatically load the next album.
If you now click on random song, it will automatically load the next song after the random song has stopped playing!
Please note that automatic play of songs is only possible in the Google Chrome browser, as Firefox does not allow this.
March is the month of Sega Genesis / Mega Drive!
Throughout the whole of March I will be adding games from the Sega Genesis console. It looks like I will add music from around 280 new games, and update 380 games to better quality sound.
Requests and uploads will be added over the weekends!
Email problems!
I just noticed there have been issues with email delivery! If you have sent me an email via the contact form or to a @khinsider.com email address between Nov 19th and yesterday, and I didn't get back to you, then I did not receive your message! If you want to get in touch, you will need to send the message again! Sorry for the inconvenience, something just went wrong with the server.