ABBA On The Web · # 99 June 2009
On
The visitor is greeted by a presentation of ABBA’s eight studio albums in a view that will be familiar to iTunes customers and iPod users. Use the slide to flick through the albums, then click on the album image to listen to samples of songs, or click on links across the top for compilation albums, DVDs where you can see the song videos, or sheet music from the Mamma Mia! movie. Also from the front page are links to various highlights of the site, including the ABBA Story, Picture of the Week, the latest news items, featured articles, and a link to ABBA’s own YouTube Channel, where all of ABBA’s film clips and some television commercials can be viewed in full for free.
ABBA The Official Site includes five major sections:
The Story – the ABBA story, plus biographies of the ABBA members, the musicians that played on their albums and tours, and other collaborators.
Articles – includes the latest news of official releases or events plus articles focusing on particular moments of ABBA history. The News and In Focus articles from previous versions of the site can be found here.
Music – information about ABBA’s albums, compilations, singles and DVDs. There are also links to hear songs, and buy the discs or downloads.
Pictures – several themed galleries of photographs. A new feature here is the Picture of the Week, where visitors can submit their own photographs to be featured here.
Store – where you can buy CDs, DVDs, t-shirts and other merchandise. Swedish residents can also buy download songs or mobile phone ringtones directly from the shop. For the rest of the world there is a link to the iTunes store.
The Music Shop widget can also be saved and added to your own website, Facebook or MySpace profile, though the downloads are available only to Swedish residents.
Navigation is simple with links to each of the five sections and the start page in the top right of every page. Each section plus featured pages within are also accessible from the navigation panel across the bottom of every page.
The new site has generated a lot of discussion among fans, with many praising the new site and just as many seeming to dislike it. There have been complaints about features that are no longer available, such as song lyrics, wallpapers and links to fan sites, or that it offers “nothing new” to long term fans. At the time of writing a poll on the front page shows 55% of visitors prefer this new version, 35% prefer the old version, and 10% have no opinion.
For ten years ABBA The Official Site has served its purpose as an introduction to ABBA and a place for the latest official news. For more on ABBA a multitude of sites are easily found through any search engine or on my own ABBA World site.
