As I am using Roon more during my trial, I am coming to appreciate the “Discover” mode. (See? People can change.) Sometimes I know what I want to listen to and sometimes I don’t, and for the latter I gotta admit that I’ve become convinced that it’s worthwhile — pretty cool, even.
That said, “Discover” offers some great calculus and some that’s a little, um, hard to understand. Featured Artists, Featured Performers, and Featured Compositions — great, obviously. Featured Labels — um, fine, though I can’t imagine using them. I also don’t find decade compelling (1970s!!! … jeez, who cares?), but maybe that’s just me.
On the other hand, c’mon, “Released This Month in 1977” is pretty inane. “Hmmm… lemme see… I’d really like to listen to an album released in May! Doesn’t matter what year or what kind of music!” … So said NOT ONE PERSON, ever. Lesson: Just because you have metadata doesn’t mean it’s valuable.
I think that’s the only attribute that strikes me as completely useless, so my vote would be just to kill it. If not, I’d love to see a panel in the Preferences allowing users to decide which of these attributes are applied in Discover mode. Tellin’ you right now that “Released this month” wouldn’t be among mine.
Absolutely incorrect. I often want to know what came out when in a given; especially in contrast to other releases. Kind of like listening to a vintage American Top 40 show. I’m fascinated in retrospect about what came out at the same time. I’ve been amazed at what releases were actually contemporary with each other. For example, I find it fascinating that “Dreams” Fleetwood Mac, “Hotel California” Eagles, “Sir Duke” Stevie Wonder, “Can’t Stop Dancin” The Captain & Tennille, and “Back in the Saddle Again” Aerosmith were all on the top 40 at the same time.
So, yes, Released This Month In… is something I would not want removed.
Hey, Daniel. I’m not sure we disagree — a listing of what was released in May of any particular year would be a cool thing (for 1977 for the Grateful Dead alone… but I digress). I’d check it out as you would — hey, what was popular in May '82, the spring I graduated from high school?
I could be missing something, but I don’t think that’s what Roon actually does. For example, I have a listing right now for Van Morrison’s album, “A Night in San Francisco,” under the heading “Released this month in 1994!” If Roon generated a list of ALL my music released in May 1994, I could delve into that exactly as you suggest, and perhaps Roon would consider modifying this feature in that way. But clicking on that album only takes me to … that album. Just knowing that an album was released in May (could be '64, could be '71, could be '97 — whoopee!) really doesn’t do anything for me, and I don’t understand why somebody would want that.
Does that kind of attribute — the month of release, absent the year — do anything for you? (I’m not being snotty — I’m asking in earnest.) Or am I missing part of the feature?
I had not realized it was limited to just that album as I had seen but never clicked on that “Discovery” result. I guess I had assumed that it brought up a Focus search of the release year/month in question.
Just pulling out a single album is less useful. It is, as I mentioned before, the context of other contemporary releases which are interesting. I was watching a show on 1967 recently and was floored to realize that Sgt. Pepper and The Doors first 2 albums were released in the same year. I would have sworn that Pepper was earlier and The Doors albums later.