I have been using JRiver/Jremote quite happily for years now. Before JRiver I used iTunes, but when Apple somehow managed to FUBAR that one up I made the switch. Just recently, I have subscribed to Qobuz. My, how times are a-changin’.
I want to use an interface that contains both my local music and Qobuz, but of course we all know JRiver’s pre world war 2’s stance on anything user experience / user interface related, so that’s not going to fly. I am looking to switch yet again. I have tried Audirvana, but somehow, somewhere, that UX just isn’t for me. So now I am trying out Roon. I am on trial day number 2! I really like it,
but…
In Jriver / Jremote, and also in iTunes before that, the way I organise, order, rank, search and find songs in my library / playlists quickly, is by rating them with that five star thingie and the number of plays field/column.
I have imported all my music into Roon, but all songs have their “Plays” field reset to 0, and there isn’t a way to import the Jriver play count to Roon, is there? There is no way for me to use the five star rating thingie; it is pre-set by allmusic, I read.
For those of you who are sympathetic to my “problem”, or for those of you who used to organise, order, rank, search and find their songs in a similar fashion: how do you guys live with Roon? How did you let go of the star-rating and number of plays, because I just can’t seem to get around this one.
Not sure if you are aware but there is a play count on the home screen. Although for now it will start from zero, which is not ideal if you had JRiver counts.
In the side bar on the left > Browse > Home > (scroll down past “New releases for you” and “Your Daily Mixes”) > Recent Listening. This shows the past 4 weeks. Scroll down more and you will see What You’ve Been Listening To. The “All Time” menu on the left lets you choose various time frames, and the “More” buttons for Genres, Your Top Artists, and You Top Albums will reveal more (and you can also scroll in the subwindows, which may not be obvious).
It’s not the same though as seeing automatic playcounts directly on tracks as a way of calculating a kind of rating.
As others have said, you can change the star ratings for albums (but not individual tracks), though sadly only one by one and not for a multiple selection of albums, which would be very handy
I know you can potentially work around the Star issues by using Tags, which can be set outside of Roon. But, depending on your library size that can potentially have a detrimental processing hit to the system.
Thanks @Rugby, I just found out about Roon Tags and I got the star rating working. Question: I haven’t found a way to display files that have NOT yet been tagged. Do you know how to deal with that? For instance, I import a couple of files that have yet been tagged, and forget about them for a couple of days. How do I list / display those quickly, so I can tag them later on?
There is a way to restore the old play counts, but it’s quite a hassle and only for those who really care. And it could take months to finish…
An extreme kind of workaround…
Tag all your tracks with a number that represents your old play count: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 etc.
Then create a zone in Roon to a ‘dead’ endpoint and add all these songs to a playlist. If a song was played 21 times, add it 21 times. Let this playlist play for weeks or months… In the end, you will have your counts back. Not exactly, but close.
I really struggled with this same issue when I first converted to Roon 5+ years ago (I was also coming from an ITunes environment). I looked for all sorts of technical solutions - I did not find anything.
If I recall correctly, I created static copies of some of my favorite iTunes playlists (e.g., “Top 100 Songs Not Played in 6 Months”) and used those to help me with my transition.
Soon enough, I got used to it, and in hindsight I would say that my dependence on play counts was actually preventing me from discovering new music.
My advice: Embrace the depths of Qobuz and don’t look back.
I believe because it creates a kind of an automatic, implicit rating in a way, that I suppose can be useful. Theoretically one could also turn this into stars by software.
It’s not necessarily the same as an explicit star rating, depending on what meaning one applies to that one. Like in my case, I might rate an album 5 stars because I find it really, really good, although I rarely play it for any of a hundred reasons (too challenging, a noise assault, or whatever).
Nevertheless, there is some meaning in the play count as well.
Yes, that’s another one in some cases. There are many reasons, and so the playcount does not necessarily reflect how I rate an album. But it reflects something that someone may be interested in
Absolutely! I wouldn’t correlate play counts and album ratings… Too many times, I’ve set a background playlist on repeat and the stereo may have been turned off but the playlist wasn’t stopped.
That is how I got about 500 hours played of “A Charlie Brown Christmas”; stereo turned off, but album on repeat in Roon played the whole time I was on vacation. LOL.
Even after cleaning all those plays out of History, I get a daily mix recommendation for Vince Guaraldi or his trio once a week.
I had this when running in my speakers. I also cleaned out the history - luckily my playlists were stuff I actually listen to, so did not pollute my recommendations.
It would be nice to be able to add virtual plays to the history. Would let me keep track of my vinyl plays as well.
thanks for sharing!