A music-making friend of mine pointed me to the site about 6 months ago. I checked it out but not really being into his music didn't really see how this site was any better or more interesting than Myspace.

But when the redesign came out I stood up and paid attention, it just looks so great. For an artist who doesn't have the expertise or money to create a great looking website this is awesome, attractive and functional for sharing their music.

I sent it to a bunch of people I know who work at varying levels of the music industry and they felt the same, a few are creating pages now.

I'd say the redesign / relaunch has been successful in terms of user growth though more consultation with their existing community might have spared some of this backlash.