DJALCHEMI

Content vanishes from BBC web sites

At the end of last week the redesigned BBC 6 Music web site was launched. In the process of its revamp, the site has lost much of the specialist content that made it unique. For example, the Kings of the Wild Frontier pages that I wrote about here have gone, as have all the interviews from Andrew Collins' page. The audio (and occasional video) of Hub sessions that I referred to here are no longer available and neither are any of the artist profiles.

As I noted in my review of 6 Music as a learning resource, these profiles gave access to interview clips and documentary programmes not available anywhere else. At the time of writing, this BBC page links to the 6 Music Pixies profile, while this one links to 6 Music Smiths profile — though neither are there any more.

Possibly this content has only disappeared temporarily and will be re-published elsewhere on the BBC site. It would make sense to combine all the artist-related material in one place, rather than having, say, Prince interviews and profiles spread across the sites of Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 1Xtra and 6, all of which have probably featured his music. But it would be good if the BBC could communicate its plans and rationale for changes. I said the same thing about material disappearing from the Mixing It page in July, and none of it has yet reappeared. The BBC must have cleared the rights for the material, much of which was just speech, so I cannot imagine this was a deciding factor. We'll see what response there is to this feedback thread on the message boards.