Is it frowned upon to put a link to a video or some page in a review? I see it done in older reviews, but pretty much never these days. I don't recall seeing that in the rules, so I'm going to ask here - is that something I should be dissuaded from doing? Not as a main point or anything, and not at all frequently, but for something so outrageous that words simply could not convey it right.

Would seem to defeat the purpose of writing a review of something if you just tell them to listen to it, but, linking to something other than the music you are relating to could have it's potential use (I recall someone making a mock up the band in question they made in a few minutes to demonstrate that it wasn't complicated music). Or a link to a music vid, provided it isn't the vid itself you are reviewing.

Like you say, seems like something that could be done, provided you in no way rely on the practice or make a habbit of it.

Yeah, it wouldn't just be a link to the music, that wouldn't really be right. Pictures, more like.

Seems like the thing that could be very irritating and gimmicky or could add something to the text, depending on implementation and of course what the link is! Assuming there's no blanket policy against it, why don't you throw the review into the feedback workshop and ask if this instance works?

I haven't actually reviewed anything yet that would need this, but I'd just like to know for reference. Definitely will post something if I end up using it though.

If a link is used unobtrusively I don't see how there could be a problem. If you're linking an image though it would probably be a good idea to try to host it yourself somewhere, given that websites come and websites go, but MA will be here for years to come.

Just an aside here, but the idea of reviewing an album with the music right available is sort of interesting to me. There was a review I approved recently (here) that lists the various parts he's talking about, and though it's done a little clumsily there, it got me thinking about how you might go about reviewing an album with the music available right there. There are movie and video game critics all over the internet who make videos, and it's a useful reviewing tool to be able to SHOW the audience what you mean. I wonder how that might translate into album reviews (but serious ones, not the AVGN "rant about bad games" type).

If something like that were to be implemented, wouldn't they have to be band sanctioned samples? It seems like that would be difficult to moderate and that decent reviews would get rejected for using unapproved samples.

I would deem that largely pointless as vids online frequently get taken down. And I am sure many people who want to hear what you're reviewing will already have opened another tab to do exactly that.

I would make an exception if I could link a review to something really, REALLY funny.