Later this year, weâll be deploying new infrastructure that allows for the localization of metadata in Roon!
For users that run in languages other than English, these changes should make Roon feel more native, and should reduce the amount of English you see as you browse your music.
Weâll be putting these changes into Early Access in a few weeks and documenting how to submit improved translations and corrections, but we are ready to start getting feedback now!
If youâd like an advance preview of these changes and would like to start giving us feedback, sign up here. (edit: localized metadata is now active in Early Access for everyone!)
We'll be in touch next week with more details once we've enable the functionality for your account.
Iâm going to tag some groups that may be interested in this change, including translators and others who previously expressed an interest in localized metadata:
Speaking as someone who is in Germany (and with native German language) but runs software in English: Please keep this configurable independently from the region and from display language as well. Qobuz in Germany insists on showing German reviews and bios and itâs jarring having to read about the Beatles or whatever in German, at usually worse quality. Even if I ran my UI in German I would want English content for music and surely there are many like that
Before signing up, Iâm concerned about the Artist Names, since I wouldnât want to see âArmas y Rosasâ on my Guns Nâ Roses records. I donât think Artist Names should be translated.
In Latin script I probably agree universally, but Chinese or Korean artists, etc., I canât read or search for in their original scripts, so thatâs different. Surely vice versa a similar problem.
Lots of cases where people around the world â particularly those who are most comfortable using scripts other than roman â would feel more comfortable seeing artists and other data in their own language(s).
Like the recent addition of content sources, the artist name functionality will allow users to independently configure Roon to use (and prioritize) whatever languages theyâre most comfortable with.
I just took a quick look at the data and by default âGuns Nâ Rosesâ will be untouched in nearly all cases.
A Japanese user will also get âGuns N Rosesâ unless they explicitly turn off English names â in that case, theyâll see ăŹăłăș ăąăłă ăăŒăŒăș.
Anyway, weâre just starting to test this stuff so please sign up and let us know how itâs looking folks!
My preference is to use the orginal name for orchestraâs:
Berliner Philharmoniker vs Berlin Philharmonic
Always want to see the German name here for a German Orchestra, different naming in Classical music is confusing enough.
For Non latin languages I do prefer a universal latin name, because I have no Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew keyboard, I prefer that their original name is shown (possible use both as Main artist:
We made a lot of effort to prioritize the artistâs native name wherever possible while still ensuring that the words are at least recognizable to the user.
One of my favorite Bruckner Symphonies boxset only have Germany metadata in Roon, with folder browsing I take me few minutes to spot them with manual eye picking with every Bruckner Albums in Roon Library because of using Sinfonien instead of Symphonies
As someone who speaks three languages and who uses Roon in two countries (not simultaneously) I think this structure shouldnât be overly rigid and should allow for easy switching among languages. For example, I mainly use Roon in English in one country because Iâm usually alone in the house and itâs my preferred language. I use Portuguese in another country because my family members who occasionally use it in my home there are Portuguese speakers.
I do the same. Prefer always the original name. Anf for different alphabets, like chinese or arab, i edit the original name putting both versions like:
Seiji Ozawa ć°æŸ€ ćŸçŸ
Because i like to see also the original name.
and sometimes it can be helpful for searching purpose (like copy and paste ć°æŸ€ ćŸçŸ from browser in search field)
