Bring Tha Noize -- the brouhaha at LastFM

In a previous life, I used to write a column called "Sites and Sounds" for a long-defunct web zine. The zine died before the newer generation of music sites like Pandora and LastFM came online. I like them both, though being an extremely opinionated music geek, I am constantly groaning at a recommendation one service or the other serves up to me. I'm probably breaking the Pandora algorithm somewhere along the line. And, in case you hadn't noticed, I clogged up a clean blog template with the album quilt widget from LastFM.

And speaking of clean templates, the original LastFM interface was just that. Until today. The new skin and layout of LastFM has been introduced to widespread hue and cry. On the LastFM blog and forums, it was mostly in English. On Summize/TwitterSearch, it was in many languages. So much for embracing change.

Let's all calm down people. This isn't the "ribbon" in Microsoft Office 2007 which must have single-handedly lowered productivity for Excel users by almost as large a factor as NCAA March Madness. I don't love it either on first perusal, LastFM, but I haven't figured it all out yet. Giving the option for users to default to the old layout would have been a nice touch. Charles Schwab still has the old layout for a user's account position page one click away.

A 100% reversal would obviously be too much of a knee-jerk reaction, but how should beloved brands (household names or otherwise) react to consumer rejection of the new?