Should we remove the Related Albums panel?

[Secret Squirrel]

I've been thinking about the "Related Albums" section of the album pages, and I'm wondering if it really adds anything positive anymore. Presently, all it shows is a partial lists of other albums that have an exact match of the product field. The original goal was to show the reader some albums that he may also enjoy based on certain tangible factors -- shared products/artists, classification, style, rating similarity -- but it has proven difficult to develop such a formula, and we really haven't put the time into it.

Unfortunately, what we have right now is misleading, and it has lead to some recent misunderstandings about the product field, particularly whether an original album series should qualify as a product in order to group them in the Related Albums section. Maintainability is also a concern, as there are a couple of bugs in querying the relation: there is little value in maintaining something that is of low value.

Additionally, the related album fields partially duplicates one of the functions of the linked product pages, so it may not be so missed once we have more of the albums linked up.

So, I'd like to see what you all think about one of these 2 options:

1. Remove the Related Albums section entirely.
2. Remove the Related Albums section only once an album's products are linked.