Hi Brian. Thanks for the insights. This may be one of the most exciting posts I’ve seen on the forum, and it’s also a little disconcerting. More the former than the latter but I think it’s fair to provide feedback on both points.
This is the exciting part. Seeing a very powerful algorithm reach beyond what is in a single library and beyond what Roon displays as metadata will be a very nice listening mode indeed. Who knows, maybe this is how SkyNet started, or this is how the aliens take over without firing a shot. But in the interim, I’d love to see what you can put together and how it does in serving up tunes.
This is a little disconcerting. I like Radio 1.3 but I’m not so attached to it that I cannot possibly conceive of living with changes.
That said, I do think people should, if they want to, have the right to understand how their actions affect the software’s response to playback. I mean, you get this feedback because people CARE, a LOT, about what music is served to them. That manifests itself in feedback not only because they want to be helpful in the development process but also because they want a modicum of control over how it’s done – how their listening session will go, and to gain that control, one needs to understand how one’s actions create responses within the software.
I’m not saying I object to what it does. But I’m not sure I agree with your statement that is not what documentation is for. If it’s to help us enjoy your product, it should help us understand how to use it and how what we do creates responses.
And in terms of continually changing it, I think that affects how people feel they can control it as well. I really don’t see an issue with a couple of settings that allow people to use the version they’ve enjoyed the most. It feels a little like you are saying that users have signed up to be taken for a ride of sorts. In a way, yes, I am enjoying the software’s evolution. But in matters of what I want my shuffle or radio algorithm to do, I think many users will desire more control than this implies.
You’re entitled to your opinion, and it’s your product. I suspect you’ll get some push-back on this point, as above. If there are no settings on your ultimate radio product, users will not be able to vary what they want based on their mood or desire to explore versus stay close to home. Maybe that will work out fine, and I assume there will still be seeds of some sort. But as above, people work really hard on their collections to gain a feeling of usability over it, and one manifestation of that, one way to provide that sense of control, is to be able to change parameters on a shuffle or radio.
So this news affects me two ways: (1) it creates a real sense of anticipation to see how SkyNet Roon Radio will be a revelation in AI DJ-ing, and (2) I am going to need to build in my own methods of creating listening modes in case Skynet starts sending terminators back through time.