Allow adding artists to Tidal favorites without adding their releases

Feedback Feature Suggestions
1

The title says it all tbh. My use case for this is keeping track of new releases from the artists I like. The Tidal feed shows me that:
image

I’m not interested in ‘recommended’ stuff, I prefer being notified when someone from my favs puts out a new release.

In Roon, I can’t add an artist to library unless I add an album from them. I don’t want to keep thousands of albums I’m not gonna be able to revisit, I want to follow the artists to know when they release new music.

Today, after hearing something I like in Roon, I need to launch the Tidal app, just to add the artist to favorites.

So I’m asking for a way to add an artist to Tidal favorites without artifically inflating the albums library.

2

+1

Somehow I doubt we will get what we want…

3

Indeed, seeing how big the traffic is on these forums, and how ideas get scattered around multiple threads, I’m not super optimistic too:) OTOH we do pay a serious $$$ for Roon, so I’d expect someone to look quite closely at these suggestions.

Last but not least, this is something much simpler and cheaper apps have (take USB Audio Player Pro for instance).

So let’s stay positive:) maybe you could consider upvoting?

4

image
image708×300 16.4 KB

5

Bump:) Still annoying that I need to open Tidal to add artists only. Don’t need thousands of albums in my library, makes it unmanageable.

6

Seems like if you really like an artist, you could add at least one of their albums to Roon.

7

But why? Why should it be compulsory? I also don’t keep at least one book of each author I really like so I don’t drown in them:) There are tons of artists I really like and want to follow. There are even more which I find intriguing/promising, and I also want to know about their releases instead of being tube fed payola ‘recommendations’ by streaming services.

A large albums library seems to slow down the app, and Roon already crashes on me several times a day (the GUI just stops responding and the app shuts down). Fairly annoying given the price of subscription.

It’s also harder to navigate a vast library of albums. For me the albums ‘collection’ is more of a vault of things I’m interested in at the moment or which I plan to check out soon. With so much music available it’s easy to simply forget you found something last week and wanted to play it. So I’d like the albums library to be compact, so I can quickly scroll through it and pick my next listen out of the interesting stuff I’ve found recently or older releases I know I want to revisit.

I don’t get why this should condition whether I can follow an artist. I often find a release underwhelming, but I still want to keep track of what the artist releases next. I don’t want those releases to accumulate, but it doesn’t mean I want to ignore the artist:)

And what happens when an artist’s releases get pulled from the streaming platform? Why should I lose them from my library? It’s not unusual that artists re-negotiate their digital distribution deals, switch distros etc. Another reason to be able to favorite artists accounts, even with no available releases at a given moment.

All in all, I believe there is a reason why platforms like Bandcamp, Tidal, Spotify, Deezer, etc. make ‘collecting’ releases independent of following artists. I check those new release feeds regularly and it’s way more rewarding that the automated suggestions I get. So I see no value in creating this kind of dependency.

I get how making releases the core might be nice for those with large offline collections. Hell, I have 1000+ albums from Bandcamp alone on my HDD! But then I still prefer the logic that UAPP uses, allowing me to jump from my local media collection to my Tidal favorites with two taps, and not creating such artificial dependencies.

Interactions with a physical collection and with a streaming service are two different beasts IMO. I don’t see the point of subjecting them to the same logic, instead of equipping the user with an effective tool for rewarding exploration of the huge streaming catalogs at our disposal.

8

Because that’s how it works. How else would Roon know what artists you are interested in following? It works well. If I can’t find one album I like by an individual artist or band, I must not really like them that much and why follow them? I would not want to maintain a list somewhere in Roon.

9

It’s not a fundamental design decision, it’s inherited from when only local tracks were available.
Roon have said “would we start from here, no” but it is built in to the way the entire software stack works, and as I understand it, needs a complete rewrite to change.
Whilst it is sometimes inconvenient I can only presume that it isn’t seen currently as worth the effort to change.
The pressure to do so is why these feature requests are here :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
10

It’s easy for other apps that just use the API as they don’t actually hold or maintain the services database locally it’s just a window in. Roon does and it’s library holds local and streaming data. When they designed the library right or wrong as it was designed as an album focused library which is why it handles tracks in a similar way to artists. As mentioned by Ged to change this is not trivial in its current form as they made their bed some time ago. Same reason it’s hard to not include multiple accounts which is constantly being requested. Roon would need a complete library mechanism rewrite which is lengthy process as it’s the backbone of the app this isnt something that can or should be rushed. I imagine this is 2.0 change as it would be huge and fraught with issues no doubt.

2 Likes
11

Dunno, maybe the same way Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, UAPP, and probably bazillion other apps do? Like, I could just click ‘follow this artist’ on the artist page? :upside_down_face:

You either ignored or misunderstood the whole explanation of my use case, because it’s quite the opposite, basically:) I find so many releases interesting than such ‘feelings-based’ library would be totally useless and overwhelming.

Thanks both, that’s helpful and informative! I wasn’t here in the days of ‘local files only’. I understand there are some underlying design choices on which the whole architecture rests, and an overhaul wouldn’t be easy.

However, I would be satisified with just being able to manage my Tidal favorites independently. I can see Roon ignores the artists that already are in my Tidal favs, but with no release favorited. I’d be happy if it stayed that way, with the addition of a simple ‘add to favs in Tidal’ button. Basically, a one way sync at least. Then I’m ok with launching Tidal once a week to check the relases feed :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
12

Have a look at how many people moan about not seeing the releases on the day. Your definitely overwhelmed by your opposites there :grinning:

13

Just trying to manage my expectations and not demand the impossible:)

I’m not into chasing the latest releases all the time, it’s not really possible to keep up with everything and have meaningful interactions with the music at the same time imho. All I need is to browse the feed once in a while and pick the most interesting stuff to check out. Other than that, I have enough ‘old’ music to keep me entertained for a few decades at least.

1 Like