Published
Tue, Jan 5, 2021, 08:00
- It is now easier than ever before to discover new artists, music and events.
We have launched a new site.
As you can see, we've completely rebuilt and redesigned RA. This project—our first major change since 2014—has been more than two years in the making. We've redesigned and rebuilt the site's core technology, while preserving our 20-year archive of artist, events-related and editorial content. It's a brand new interface, which includes improved search functionality, optimisation for mobile browsing and will see the site move from residentadvisor.net to ra.co.
The site was originally planned to go live in May 2020. However the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the electronic music industry made that impossible. We are releasing it now, at the start of a new year, to support the anticipated return of safe live events later in 2021.
This website is a foundation to evolve RA to best serve the needs of the full breadth of communities that make up the world of dance music. Listening to you, our readers, is critical in shaping the trajectory of future development. If you have any feedback or ideas, we'd love to hear from you—reach out to us here: [email protected].
We have answered some questions below. If you have a question that isn't answered, please get in touch with us directly.
Why has RA rebuilt the site?
Parts of the previous site were more than a decade old. The new RA represents a significant update of the technology that powers RA. From today, this allows us to develop new features faster that support the needs of the electronic music community.
You will notice that some things are missing. We have focused the platform’s evolution on the core products and services utilised by our users. This reorganisation and streamlining is instrumental in laying the foundation for future development.
What does the new site do?
The new site is a clearer organisation of RA. Ultimately it makes discovering new music and events better. Our new design system elevates the content we produce and feature on the site. We've redesigned how our event pages work. These pages can now include embedded mixes and YouTube videos. We've also rebuilt artist, club, promoter, festival and label pages, with the aim of making them more dynamic and interactive. And it is now simpler than ever to submit proposals for features, news and reviews. (And if you're interested in writing for us, we created a guide to pitching to RA here.)
How long have you been working on this?
It's taken us more than two years to create the new site, with almost every RA employee contributing, and countless hours of development team time and effort.
Was the Arts Council grant used to fund the new site?
No. The site had been completed and the beta released before we received any Arts Council Culture Recovery funding.
Why this design?
We've tried to simplify the design of the site, and make it as accessible as possible for all users. A huge variety of people are using many types of devices to access the platform in a number of ways. This new design helps best support them all.
I am an artist, what does this mean for me?
Artists and labels have brand new profiles and imagery options, so you can better represent yourself on RA. If you are an artist or label, you can head to RA Pro here and update your profile.
I am a promoter, what does this mean for me?
Promoters have a brand new section called RA Pro to manage their events and ticket sales and access the full suite of event management tools and services. This section already has a host of new features. If you are a promoter, you can head to RA Pro here.
What technology have you used?
The previous version of the site was built on old .NET framework, which limited what we could do. The redesign uses the React framework allowing much more flexibility with our UI. Alongside this, we have implemented a new GraphQL data retrieval technology to speed up our pages, and rebuilt our on-site search function.
Once you’ve had a chance to spend time on the new site, we'd love to hear from you—reach out to us here: [email protected] with feedback, questions, comments or ideas.