The DMs are much improved with the use of the Banning feature, but only as far as pop music goes. In the classical realm, they are total duds. I have going on for 800 tracks in my Classical playlist, and the DMs do not in any way reflect my taste. They are formulated for somebody else, ‘but not for me’. The lists are performer-orientated, not composer-orientated or sub-genre-orientated, with the exception of one Mahler-themed Mix. Today there isn’t one single classical mix. They are ‘no more’. A cursory glance at my playlists would suggest I like pastoral, easy-listening, Scandi-noir sort of music: Delius, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams: I’m not that bothered who performs them. I would like suggestions of similar music. Instead, I have been served up ambient music, film music, avant-garde music, for example, by people I’ve never even heard of. If the DMs are made for me, please can they at least try to widen the preferences I already have? If they are not made for me, why present me with them? I would rather just opt out. And yes, I could ignore them, but I’d rather have a go at getting them to be more relevant first, since I’m paying for them.
Furthermore, I’ve just had a glance further down the Home Page: the two Genres for You suggestions (operative term being ‘for you’) are Saxophone Jazz and Guitar Jazz. I hate Jazz! There is not one Jazz track in my 4000-track collection. And then, in the Recommended Artists, I have only heard of three out of 15! Again, the problem is that these are performer-orientated. A cursory glance at my playlists would reveal I am not a fan of solo classical singers, yet some of the Recommended Artists are, indeed, solo classical singers. It might help if we could Ban types of music, such as solo classical singers, piano music, virtuoso, Baroque, or even if we could opt in to, say 19th-Century Orchestral Music. Whatever the case, the current modus operandi is not benefiting at least one paying customer. I regret to say that Idagio and even Apple Classical are much better at this than Roon, but I can’t afford multiple subscriptions.
If you describe your taste it sounds easy for someone who understands subgenres of classical music. For an algorithm it is basically impossible to understand such multi-dimensional criteria as not only subgenre, birthplace of the composer, orchestration, musical form, composer itself and period of composition have to be taken into consideration. Particularly with with era that is impossible as the classification which roon is using is unsharp if you move away from Baroque and Classical period. Even Renaissance and Romantic are not clearly defined.
If you check the ´Similar composers´ section on a composer´s page it already fails miserably in terms of subgenres and period.
In most of cases I would share your initial idea of composer/style/period based recommendations, but at times I would also like to have a performer-oriented suggestion lists.
I suggested a ´ban genre´ and ´ban subgenre´ feature already for all the recommendations, Roon Radio and playlists ´for me´ but I doubt it will be useful for classical music. The subgenre classification is rather unsharp here and it differs from album to album if there are subgenres at all.
Apple Music Classical appears to be much better because the have their own subgenre and period classification as well as editorial links set between them, and recommendations seem to involve a very limited number of choices. That is a different thing than roon needing an algorithm to theoretically take everything into account a user might have or Tidal/Qobuz might offer.
I love to explore new classical music, particularly compositions, but I have lost hope this can be done by an algorithm or AI of any kind. It is simply too complex. Since oeuvre lists per composer and recording lists per composition work so well in roon (at least with Qobuz involved), I moved to these when it comes to exploring new compositions. Sometimes the ´similar composer´ list might help.
Thank you. The whole issue seems to be the inability to cater intelligently for classical music. Just one step would be a big improvement: making the composer the primary identifier for all recommendations. A Daily Mix of, say Sibelius compositions would be a big improvement. I don’t really care who plays them! If I like a composition, I go to the CD reviews on Amazon, cross-reference them with what’s available on Qobuz, and choose the best fit. And a side note about algorithms. Idagio seems to be able to come up with algorithms that work, for example producing a list of Tone Poems when it detects that that is what I like.
Did you try the automatic playlist or starting roon radio from a composer´s page?
Seems to be working both pretty well although the play button brings you solely compositions of that particular composer (as you requested) while roon radio is a bit loose with similarities.
This is the resulting queue list after letting Siblius endless playlist do its roon magic:
Would that be working for you?
I only really listen to Pub Rock from Southend on Sea, a few Jamaican composers and a couple of bands from London.
This means that there are many musicians, genres of music and styles that i dont interact with; but at no point does it occur to me that i am paying for other music.
I genuinely dont think that i even notice other music, but its good to hear other perspectives.
Great idea to be going on with! Thank you.