Roon Radio serves banned artists and lacks diversity (ref#GV5AG2)

[downy-ant.0u]

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Poor Roon Radio: It keeps serving banned artists and when starting Roon radio with a single artist, the queue only develops to include about 5 different artists. So poor diversity. It is not working like a real radio. Is there a way to improve this? Or fix it? Thanks.

Tell us about your home network

· WiFi router

[connor]

Hi @downy-ant.0u,

Thank you for your report.

First, can you please confirm whether you’ve limited Roon Radio to your local library? This setting is a toggle at the bottom of the Queue page under the three dots (…).

Do you have multiple Roon profiles, or do you use a single Roon profile for all your listening?

Please share the name of an artist you’d banned that continues to appear in Roon Radio. We’ll pinpoint the event in logs and inspect what’s happening.

Thank you!

[downy-ant.0u]

Hi Connor, thank you for your reply. Roon radio is not limited to the local library.

There are two profiles on the system. The banned artists are served on the profile that also did the banning.

The list of banned artists include: Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Phil Collins, Toto, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. These are minimally represented in the local library but tend to dominate the radio as time goes on.

Can artists be banned on a per profile basis, does Roon radio respond differently to different profiles? Is there a bulk training mechanism?

Thanks in advance,

Kind Regards

[benjamin]

Hey @downy-ant.0u,

Thanks for the additional information! It sounds like the recommendation engine (Valence) is defaulting to high-popularity “safe bets,” often the exact classic rock giants you’ve tried to ban, when it can’t find a diverse enough path from your seed artist.

In Roon, bans are profile-specific, meaning your profile’s radio should technically ignore them. However, there are two common reasons they might still appear:

• Sync Latency: There is often a server-side delay (sometimes hours to a few days) before a "Global Ban" is fully ingested into the Valence cloud
• The "Play Now" vs. "Radio" distinction: If you start music by clicking "Play Now" on an artist or album page, Roon often initiates a shuffle or discovery mode that is less restrictive than the dedicated Roon Radio algorithm. Always use the "Start Radio" button specifically to ensure bans are prioritized.

If your queue is only pulling from 5 artists, the algorithm is likely looking for more data. A few tips moving forward that may help:

Seed with Tracks, not Artists: Seeding with a broad Artist profile often leads Roon to the most “mathematically similar” popular artists (hence the Springsteen/Clapton invasion). Try seeding with a specific, lesser-known track. This forces Valence to look for sonic similarities rather than “people who liked this artist also liked…” data.

Roon doesn’t have a “bulk training” button, but you can “force-feed” the algorithm:

• The Thumbs-Down Method: While in a Roon Radio session, use the Thumbs Down icon on the "Now Playing" bar. This provides a stronger immediate signal to the current session than a static ban.
• Profile Reset: If one profile is truly "polluted" with bad suggestions, sometimes the fastest fix is to create a fresh profile. Since bans and history are profile-specific, a clean slate often breaks the "classic rock loop" that Valence has stuck you in.

I hope this helps!

[downy-ant.0u]

Hi Benjamin,

Thanks for your tips. So I deleted both profiles, and re-added two new profiles. Then prior to playing anything on either profile, I banned according to taste, the artists and albums for each profile.

Finally, started playing from the Mark Knopfler ‘Roon Radio’ button. So far the classic rock invasion has not come, and artist diversity has gone up to 10, excluding ‘collab’ songs. So far all good… 14 songs into the queue and no signs of early convergence or regression to a mean…

Thanks