andreasviklund.com

I have finally initiated the big "reboot week" project that I have failed to get through for way too long now. It will affect a lot of different things in my life, but the most obvious change for people who read this will be the new design and a new structure on my website. I've been waiting for the perfect time to get it all done, to get some new releases out and to launch the new design. That perfect time is here soon, in a few days to be a bit more exact.

To be honest, I have had possibilities to do this major update for months, but I haven't had enough inspiration and motivation to go through the big refreshment process that is needed. I apologize for the long wait, and for not treating this site or you visitors better. I am the first person to say that it is a shame. But I am also the only person who can do something about it. And since you have had patience and helped me when I have needed it, it is time for me to give something back again.

Next week there will be a number of exciting things happening where the reboot will fit in well, so things will really start to happen now. More about the exciting next week later, but for now I need to issue the regular "chaos ahead!" warning:

If this site would look strange at times during the weekend and the beginning of next week, don't worry about it! I will re-build the site live on place, so things will probably look broken at some points. But I will be aware of it and it will only be temporary, so please wait a while before telling me that my site contains errors. Much of the content will be removed temporarily and reorganized, so don't be surprised if some pages disappear or appear to be empty during the next couple of days. Originally, I wanted to prepare the entire update in advance and just press a button to make all changes appear simultaneously. But that hasn't worked very well, so I'm going to make all changes live on the site instead. It is not any pretty way to update a site, but I believe that the result will be good at the end anyway!

Get the music before it disappears!

One of the more significant changes will be a complete update of the music section. It has been a work-in-progress section of the site since this it was launched back in October 2005, and it is still missing huge parts of the content that was supposed to be added. Now I am planning to organize the music in a completely different way and add more content related to my music career. And with this update coming up soon, I need to make another warning:

I can not promise that all songs will be available after this update. I will probably remove a number of songs for different reasons, mainly because there are several songs that I really don't like myself. As it is right now, I have tried to upload as many of the old songs as possible, hoping to have a complete music collection online at some point. But from now on, I will change the direction a bit and try to build a really good selection, putting the focus on the good songs and on related content - and leaving the not-so-good parts of the music career to the past.

Why do this? The answer is simple. If someone visits the music archive and downloads only one song, I want it to be a good one. Thousands of songs are downloaded from my music section every day, and a significant part of those downloads are songs that I am not very happy with today. I would feel better if all songs that were downloaded were songs that I am proud to have created, that would be an amazing feeling. And for you as a site visitor it means less free music to download - but you can be sure that the songs you download are worth the effort since the overall quality will be much better.

If you want to make sure that you have the complete collection of music including the old, boring and outdated songs, you need to download the songs before I take them down (which I will do in a day or two). The music can be downloaded as free MP3 songs (no DRM, no fees, no registrations, no limitations) directly from these pages:

• The Lagoona MP3 collection (1998-2004, 56 original songs and 24 remixes)
• The "Dreams" album by TSEC (released in 1998, 16 songs)
• Andreas Viklund songs (my own tracks from 1997-2005, 39 songs)
• The hidden "live" folder (a small bonus for the true fans, today only!)

The songs that are left on the site will of course remain free, as always. In addition to having them online here, I will also place them on a couple of different music sites that will allow me to offer streaming plays, on-site MP3 players and many other features that I will write more about later.

What do you think?

Selecting which songs to remove will not be all that easy. I could make a quick list of songs that I don't want to keep, but of course I will listen to feedback from you as well. Which songs are your favorites? Which ones are really bad? Feel free to share your opinions, either by posting a comment or by sending an e-mail. All feedback counts, and I appreciate all the comments I get. Feel free to nominate songs for removal, and please be honest. And of course, feel free to comment on the bonus songs mentioned above!