Recommended albums are they calculated by Valence or Qobuz/streaming services

[c_h_1]

Hello

Are the recommended albums ‘calculated/decided’ by Roon’s Valence engine or by the connected streaming services?

Today I got a trial of Qobuz and somehow finding the recommendations and radio to be better. Not sure if it’s just by chance or coincidence but curious what’s happening under the hood.

[vadim]

Hi @c_h_1,

Good question

Roon’s Recommended Albums, Roon Radio, and other discovery features are driven by Roon’s own metadata and recommendation systems (including Valence) — they are not calculated by Qobuz or other streaming services.

Streaming services like Qobuz provide:

• The catalog (what albums and tracks are available)
• Basic metadata and artwork

But the recommendations themselves — how albums are related, what’s suggested next, and how Radio chooses music — are based on Roon’s metadata graph, editorial data, and listening behavior, not the streaming service’s own recommendation engine.

[c_h_1]

Thanks @vadim

So for certain genres where the radio really has no idea or the recommended albums are totally unrelated - is it best to keep using the thumb up or down feature?

I know Apple and Spotify have a load more data to their disposal - but what can I do to make it more usable - again for non general/wide stream genres. If I skip a song just as it starts will Valence understand I didn’t like it or does it need that thumb down?emphasized text

[Geoff_Coupe]

Personally, I would use the thumbs up/thumbs down to ensure that Valence listens to me…