How do people typically mark artists/albums for future exploration?

Roon Software Discussion
1

New user here. Liking Roon, and it’s helping me find new artists and music to listen to.

However, I’m having a torrid time trying to figure out how to manage all the exploratory activity. How do you do it?

Say I’m listening to Roon Radio and come across a track that I like. I want to explore the artist more, but am not ready to commit yet! My options, as I see them , are;

ADD TO PLAYLIST
This is too much. I just want to remember to come back and have a listen to a few more tracks. I don’t want playlists filling up with content I might not ultimately like.

TAGS
Not even sure what these are. In v1.7, I did manage to set up a tag and add a few tracks to it. But I cant recall how I did that, and don’t see an obvious way to add tracks to that tag (or any other), in 1.8 UI? I think this would be my preferred way of tagginmg an artist or track to explore later, but it’s not obvious.

BOOKMARKS
This is how I’m doing it right now, but that bookmark list is filling quick, and from what I see, I can’t have nested lists, so it’s getting out of hand quickly.

Am I just doling it wrong?

4 Likes
2

I may be in a minority but have found that Favourite Albums and Favourite Artists are perfect for this, unless you have another use for these features.

1 Like
3

Album view → click on three dot icon next to play now button → add to tag → make new tag with “Music to check” → repeat
Then go to tags and you will see the overview of created tags, with in the “Music to check” tag the list of albums you’ve added to the tag.

4 Likes
4

Thanks, that clarifies things a bit, and I can see I can Tag either Artists or Albums.

However, it seems I can only Tag them if they are already in my library? Is that expected behaviour?

I cannot tag an artist or album not added to library - only add to playlist shows up? And If I add to playlist, I still cannot tag the album or artist unless I add to library?

So tagging is restricted to library items (fine if so, just trying to understand)

5

That would make sense. I guess you’re referring to the ‘heart’ icon?

I can see I can favourite an artist already in my library, but when I look at someone on a playlist but not library added, I cannot favourite the artist (heart greyed out), or add a tag…

Screenshot 2021-02-17 at 14.12.02
Screenshot 2021-02-17 at 14.12.021161×768 80.7 KB

If I found this artist on a radio stream or however, I can’t tag them or favourite them. I can add a bookmark, but as noted, that can become unwieldily and cannot be categorised in any way.

1 Like
6

Thanks for bringing up this topic. I am interested in hearing more about how users handle your question.

1 Like
7

This is how im doing it too, with tags.

bookmarks are more for saving complex search/focus filters to save time.

2 Likes
8

You are almost there. The trick is to add the relevant album to your library. At that point, you can include it in favourites or add single tracks as favourites.

If something that I like comes up in Radio, I click on the track, which should open up the album. From there you add it to favourites. Alternatively, you can do this via the artist’s page.

I hope this makes sense but will be happy to provide further explanation if needed.

Enjoy the Roon experience.

9

On the track that I hear and like, I add that track to a playlist called “Albums to Check Out - [genre]”

These playlists can sometimes grow before I get a chance to check out the album. In that case, I will often shuffle the playlist on its own. Sometimes I hear stuff that I don’t know why I saved to playlist in the first place and remove it, but other times I will hear stuff that I am in the mood for them go check out the album. As long as I remember to remove the track from the playlist as soon as I check out the album, I am good.

6 Likes
10

Thanks. That makes sense, for sure.

It’s just the logical flow of adding an album to my library in order to mark it for investigation to see if I like it enough to add to my library seems a little bit counter-productive and ill-conceived to me.

11

Ya. Probably the best way. So far I’ve been adding full albums and that’s a little unwieldily. Adding just the track is probably a good compromise.

It would be great to have a single way to mark an unknown artist for future exploration, with a bonus if it could be categorised.

Playlists ore surfacing as my more likely solution as they don’t require a commit to library.

12

Ditto I have a Tag

@Music To Listen

So it always sorts to the first tag, then I add Albums to that Tag

I periodically Clean Up

13

Thats neat. But the item must already be in your library in order to tag it, correct?

14

Yes I add to library first then add to tag second. After evaluation you can clean up and delete from either the Tag or the Library

15

This is how I started out doing it too, but the exploration wasn’t as fun. I would listen to an album and think “what drove me to check this album out in the first place?” By just adding the track to the playlist, it is a reminder throughout the exploration process. Sometimes that track remains the best track on it and will move it to a different playlist “random tracks I like” or something.

1 Like
16

I also used Tags in 1.7 What I don’t see now is how to delete tags. I would tag an Album to look at and once I did my evaluation would remove the Tag. I don’t know how to do that in 1.8

17

I agree with you entirely that it could be more elegant but deleting an album from the library only takes a couple of seconds. I do this all the time while experimenting.

18

I used to tag but I don’t use tags much. With 1.8 Recently Added gives a really good extended view of additions and that works well for me.

19

I haven’t yet found a ‘perfect’ solution for ‘have a look later’; but being able to add the album and - later - filter ‘recently added but not played’ is workable until someone comes up with a better idea! It’s good enough if (like me) you’re not too worried about a rigorous ‘system’… :wink:

1 Like
20

I just add them to a specific playlist called listen and usually add a date