AllMusic and Rovi are the same company. Just FYI.
Totally agree it is not easyā¦ in fact at this point Iām pretty much settled that it isnāt fixable in the sense that a single solution could be implemented that would satisfy most users. Thatās not the fault of Roon team, didnāt mean to imply that if I did. The problem is that the problem is not visible to folks that donāt have deep collections. That means Roon probably doesnāt see it in test casesā¦ most of these issues donāt materialize in a small library of very popular artists.
So my suggestion is to provide an option for people to supply all of their own meta data. An option - not the only way - an option - for people that care about this stuff. Which may or may not be the majority of Roon users, Iām not convinced that Roon has deep understanding of their user base in that respect.
Anyway great conversation and I respect Roon for indulging a space where cranky old guys like me can put this stuff out there for consideration.
Thatās incorrect. Rovi sold Allmusic to RythmOne. Rovi is now TiVo.
https://business.tivo.com/products-solutions/data/music-metadata
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Wow I missed that one, thanks for the correction Martinā¦ I guess I would say that the quality of the Rovi data - the common source for Roon, AllMusic, others(?) remains very very bad from my perspective.
Iād say it is more inconsistent than bad. Iāve learned things, found artists, and side projects for favorite bands, that I had no idea existed. Thatās gotta be worth something. There is definitely room for improvement, but that data is far from worthless.
We will have to agree to disagree on this one. I was literally just this minute listening to the 70s live album āStrangers in the Nightā by the band UFO. I mean it wasnāt the biggest live album of the decade or anything but it was on a major label and by a pretty big bandā¦ big at that time anyway.
āAll songs performed by UFO or Dieā is the credit I see in the Roon GUI.
Really, itās crap. The Rovi dB is utter garbage for my purposes at least.
Well we can agree that UFO had some very good moments. OMG how many times I saw that album in the used bin!
As with any software topic, Iād rather talk about the music if there is something to be said.
The more I use Roon I come to the conclusion, that the metadata is bad. When I start listening Indie Rock radio Iāve to hear Green Day as Roon thinks that the band is not only a punk band but an indie band. 
I know, I can correct this. But a big enhancement would be track based genres and maybe genre weight for artists.
Some background on TiVo data and how it is maintained and updated.
And more on the story behind it.
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Whatās wrong with that? How can American Idiot be anything other than subversive punk orientation by an independently minded rock band.
And hereās the nub of the problem. No database will be perfect because we all have different interpretations and preferences.
There are issues with the data. Thatās acknowledge, but it probably is the best single source at this time. And as a mechanism to discover new music it is invaluable. If we were to pigeonhole every artist into one genre that feature would be largely lost.
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Well, I never heard someone calling Green Day as an Indie Rock band. Maybe Alternative Rock, but not Indie Rock. I havenāt found sources that claim this.
Itās true that you canāt put a band into one genre, Green Day nowadays is more like Pop-Punk. But you canāt even put many Albums into one genre. Roon seems to behave right here, but the problem ist, that if only one track has a different genre Roon assigns every track of that album to this special genre.
My favorites are that whom ever supplies the meta-data believes that Shostakovich is a rapper and that Ornette Coleman does pop/rock.
Almost everything that canāt be definitively categorized becomes pop/rock, which makes āFocus on Similarā less than useful;
Well that depends on your definition of Indie. Green Day certainly started with an Independent label and even when the hit the big time they went to Reprise which is known for given artists more freedom.
Alternative Rock is pretty meaningless. Itās like saying everything else since whenever. Yesterdayās alternative is todayās mainstream! I donāt think Billie Joe Armstrong would be happy with Pop-Punk. 
I gave up on genres and styles years ago. They may as well be colours and hues. But they areālargelyābeneficial when it comes to music discovery. Actually, I quite like it when radio throws in something left of field into the mix. So, why not have a bit of Kerplunk thrown in with The Strokes, Radiohead, Smiths, Neutral Milk Hotel ā¦ ?
D-mitri Sho-sta-kov-ich know whut ahā mean. Maybe? 
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I totally agree, that it all depends on the definition of genres. For me itās how music sounds. And Green Day doesnāt sound like Tiger Lou or Franz Ferdinand in my opinion. And Iām not alone. I use the Radio feature when friends are at my home. And their WTF-Eyes tell you everything when Green Day follows Franz Ferdinand. 
Personally I also like the surprise but then I use the discover feature. The Radio is more about moods for me. So maybe Roon should do more sophisticated music analysation to determine key and mood like beaTunes does instead of depending on genres. And then there could be two radios in Roon, the mood radio and the surprise radio. 
I hear what youāre saying but I donāt think thatās a realistic goal. Genres and styles change with the times as new influences come and go.
You can hardly day The Strokes, Radiohead, Smiths, Neutral Milk Hotel sound the same yet these are regarded as some of the best independent artists.
Tivo/Rovi/All Music groups alternative and indie together. See this.
One thing for sure we will never all agree on the right genres for every artist.
I donāt mind a negative review of an album from AllMusic. I would, though, like to see reviews from other sources integrated in Roon.
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I would also like to be able to disable album reviews on an individual album basis.
If I have an album in my Library itās because I like it. I donāt want to see one of the ridiculously negative reviews (and there are many) each time I play an album I like: it detracts from the experience of selecting that album.
Being able to insert a positive and useful review from another source would be an advantage.
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I would prefer a greater variety of sources over disabling reviews. I too have had a bucket of cold water thrown on some pretty cool discoveries by reading that Stephen Thomas Erlewine doesnāt like it.
That is not to say the information is worthless. It is highly opinionated. Sourcing reviews from at least one other service, getting at least 2-3 for each album, would be the way to go. I would much rather see resources allocated to more content rather than towards development of a way to disable it.
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