Pollstar, founded way back in 1981, is probably the largest and most authoritative resource when it comes to concert schedules and tour itineraries. As a lover of music, especially live music, it’s been at the top of my bookmarks for many, many years. Even before I was old enough to get into clubs.

Apparently they were online in 1994, which makes them an early adopter of the web by most standards. Kudos to them. The earliest version of their site I can find is from late 1996. That’s probably around the time I discovered them. But since that time their site really hasn’t evolved all that much in 11 years.

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Pollstar. As far as concert listings go nobody could touch them. They had every venue, all the cities, and just about every band — right down to the obscure indie guys. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found out about some of the best shows I’ve ever seen from Pollstar. To express my thanks I’ve given them something very, very few sites have ever gotten from me. And no it’s not the Steve Palmer premium five star endorsement. I gave them my money. For probably 5 or 6 years now I’ve paid the $10 US annual fee so that I can track more than the 5 artists and venues you’re allowed to with a free account. In fact, I’ve got 95 of the 99 available slots filled on my tracking list right now and the only reason it’s not filled is because I recently moved to a new city so I’m just learning which venues I should be keeping an eye… er, ear… on.

But… I do have a beef with them and it’s a big one. While they might have blown the socks off me back in 1997, today their site just ain’t cutting it. In fact, it’s sucking it… hard. I’ve always cut them tonnes of slack because they served up such a tasty platter of precious concert listings (even though it was in the most Web1.0 way possible).

Ok. Fine. Maybe I couldn’t subscribe to an RSS feed by artist, venue, or city. And yes, there was an odd limit of only 99 artists and venues you could track. And fine, you can’t get updates to a mobile device or query their listings database by SMS like Google’s ultra useful service. And big deal, you can’t interact with other users to recommend music or bands to them… or plan to meet them at a show… or post photos after going to a show. And there’s absolutely no sign of a Facebook app on the horizon… so what?

No Ajax… in fact no JavaScript, really.

Tonnes of bloated markup.

Font tags.

Barely wider than 640 pixels.

Yuck.

Not that I’m critiquing their use (or mis-use) of technology, because “technology” isn’t equivalent to “good site”, but these are generally regarded as the tools needed to provide a good user experience.

That’s what it comes down to — user experience. I guess it’s the sheer crappiness and massively untapped potential in how they delivered their listings that really irritates me. I mean, daily email updates? That’s it? To quote Gob Bluth: “Come on!”

Then I got this interesting note in my email box (which, as you guessed it, prompted this wordy rant):

Dear Pollstar Premium Subscriber,

Pollstar.com is in the process of upgrading our site, including many of our online features. Because the changes to Pollstar.com will be substantial, new or renewed Premium memberships are no longer available.

We still offer all users our free auto-notify accounts for five artists or venues. If you wish to continue to receive these free notifications after your Premium expiration date you will need to edit your list down to five selections.

We anticipate launching more new features in the near future and hope you will continue to enjoy using Pollstar.com during our time of transition.

Thank you for using Pollstar!

Don’t you think it’s kind of a weird way to tell me, a paying customer, that you’re upgrading your site? “We’re about to boot your paying ass down to free account status!” But hey, you’re Pollstar and I love you — I’ll patiently wait for whatever super duper upgrade you’re cooking up in total secrecy. Hopefully you’ve partnered up with a smart and creative web firm that really understands user experience that can help you capitalize (as in, you will make more money for doing these things) on the tonnes and tonnes of opportunities available to deliver your content to users in creative, useful and innovative ways that let them share it and mash it up.

Pollstar: the 2007 internet is calling… will you accept the charges?