Add me to the list; just started getting this error on my end.

Same error here, it has been impossible to add covers today.

Rob, please try and contact the IA!

I got this error too

http://chatlogs.musicbrainz.org/musicbrainz/2012/2012-05/2012-05-06.html#T19-37-26-499154

It should be working again now.

We should handle this error if possible, and display an appropriate message to the user.

To quote IA about this status code:

S3 returns the 503 slowdown messages when our content ingest layer queue starts getting very large
and a backlog of ingests have accumulated.

This is usually caused by some sort of temporary trouble on the ingest side of our storage system (in this
case, a fan outage caused, high temperatures, and automatic machine off lining took place, significantly
reducing the ingest rate).

These conditions are very rarely the end user's (or api clien's, in your case) fault.

This issue deals with IA having problems. I'll open a new ticket for the error handling case.

Happening again.

I started getting this on http://musicbrainz.org/release/12d50bb1-cff8-4fcd-a2db-bc14d7c8ff86/add-cover-art just now.

Was fixed again soon after reopening

I just got this same issue 5 or more times 2012-05-29 at 2PM - 2:45PM GMT (10AM Eastern). The page still returns the XML just as reported in the original bug:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<Error><Code>SlowDown</Code><Message>Please reduce your request rate.</Message><Resource /><RequestId>52871d35-6a2c-4ddf-a5b2-21c0bc4fcda1</RequestId></Error>

Indeed, I'm not able to upload any covers at all today.

happened again today (sunday 10.June 2012)

Ah got it for first time 2012-06-13_1138 and repeatidely, I cannot actually upload atm.

I cannot actually upload atm.

Me neither.

http://musicbrainz.org/search/edits?auto_edit_filter=&order=desc&negation=0&combinator=and&conditions.0.field=type&conditions.0.operator=%3D&conditions.0.args=314&field=Please+choose+a+condition Looks like it's working atm, closing.

Happening again at the moment - is there a ticket for improving the way MBz handles this error (displaying something along the lines of "We're sorry, the Cover Art Archive appear to be experiencing issues at the moment. Please try again later.")? The XML asking a user to reduce their request rate could be quite confusing.

Yes, there is: MBS-4645

It was fixed, broke again and appears to be fixed again. Who knows how long for.

Broken again since about 15 hours ago.

All working fine afaik.

This issue is back again, unfortunately.

Uploads are working again.

Note that there is already a ticket (MBS-4645) asking for better error messages when uploads don't work. That's pretty much all we can do - the images are uploaded to archive.org's servers, not ours.

I've been getting this error on and off (mostly on) for the last couple of days now.

Nothing we can do about this. If you want the Archive to change the way they prioritise this stuff, maybe you can (politely) send them mails about it? Sadly I have nothing better to offer.

This is affecting me right now.

Please read the comments. There's nothing we can do about this other than to implement MBS-4645.

If I get it right, you are closing it because it is an issue at Archive.org and saying we should contact them and complain to them instead.
Can you give us the contact info please?

The issue is highly annoying as it happens VERY often.

I mailed Archive.org about the issue.
Their reply:

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

Subject: Re: Issues with your Cover Art Archive server QA
Date: Wednesday, May 01, 2013, 01:45:53 PM
From: collections-service@archive.org

Hi <name removed>,

After talking with an engineer there are two things to relate:
1. We will be implementing a feature that lets you know in advance if all systems are clear for uploading
2. What you are experience is, as I understand it, not technically rate limiting. When our content management system is overrun with tasks or a server unexpectedly becomes read only the uploading grinds to a halt (as you have experienced). That is the nature of our system.

That's all I have for now. I'm guessing it's not what you wanted to hear but that is the current status.

Best,
Jeff
Internet Archive Team
collections-service@archive.org