Hey all:
So does the addition of this random album sort finally allow some sort of Play Random Album feature inside the app?
Sort > Random and then hit Play on the My Albums page? Or am I missing something?
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It’s not exactly the feature you’d expect when you talk about “play random album,” but this random sorting creates an interesting alternative. Especially if you combine filters and tags to narrow down the displayed album options for shuffling, and save the whole thing as a bookmark.
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Yeah, it seems that it’s closer, but having to re-sort each time to randomize seems janky.
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Indeed. It also has the advantage of letting you choose a result in the first few rows that tickles you more than the top one might (which, depending on your library, could be inappropriate or completely stupid)
On the other hand, automatically re-randomizing every time you go to My Albums would get in the way, too, if you happen to look up something else quickly. Putting something into a menu that is essentially a button is a bit strange, but it does logically fit into “sort”.
I’m excited for this feature, and a lot of the other features in this upcoming release!!
How would you want it to work?
And just in case it’s not clear – the random sort will persist until you “re-shuffle” by clicking in the sort menu:
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Ultimately what he wants, I think, is a single button that queues and starts playing a random album.
Image you go to the main Albums page, and in the top drop down after Shuffle, is Random, which queues and plays a single random album.
You can do that now with Random, click random and then right click and play the first album. However, that requires additional and purposeful user steps. And, I imagine that ruins one of the main points of Random which is the surprise; and not having to make a choice.
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@Rugby Yes, that’s what I’m hoping might exist some day. Seems like a random sort order is at least a step in that direction, but you’ve clearly described the limitations of using it as a workaround.
@mike The sort order persisting does make sense just for an album sort, I’m just hoping it can be extended. My desire for this, and the 150+ votes in Feature Suggestions lead me to build my own app on the API to implement this feature: Roon Random Album App
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@mike
This is a good idea. Now, one thing that concerns me for those who’ll use this as a method to play albums randomly (continuously) via the “play now” button on the album page, will this overload memory by making a massive queue?
Under normal use on the product build it puts all albums in the queue.
Edit: adds ~5k tracks at a time.
An additional safeguard would be suggested to limit this to set number of albums. 100, 200 
Does it? I still think there is a track size limit to the queue, but, could be wrong. Seem to remember the number 5k in conjunction with Q size. But, I’m just back from a pub celebrating St. Patty’s Day 
, so I might be not remembering quite right. 
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Yeah, I had a queue 15 days 17 hours etc
I’m running a reduced library through Roon, so you may be correct.
Edit: Adds ~5k tracks at a time 
Same here (and I also thought the queue is limited to 5,000 tracks), but this is the same for me in any other sort order and not limited to random.
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This sounds interesting, and probably what I want from a random album feature. Will it also work with artists?
It’s easy with the normal sort orders to forget about some music that’s a long way down the list, something I find easier with my physical collection, anything that can give new ways of rediscovering music you love would be great.
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The feature I’m trying to emulate with my app, and would love in the Roon main app, is what Discogs does when you shake the phone with your collection open – serve up a random album.
I’d be ok that if it reshuffles if you leave and return to Albums, at present clicking on the sort then clicking on random feels long winded. I think it would be good if you used a “pulled to refresh” approach where it reshuffles on the refresh. If this is too complex maybe a new button that reshuffles that is displayed when Random Sort is selected but at the top level of the albums UI.
Another approach, which maybe a step too far for some users, is have the “shuffle play” on the albums randomly pick an album and add all of it to the queue… this is how I saw this working is actually how Qobuz does it in their IOS app and allows different shuffle contexts on Albums, Tracks etc. Maybe make this a switch like play button modes in settings to appease those who hate the idea.
It’s great to see this feature in the mix though! Well done!