Search improvement suggestions: local library vs. streaming services

Feedback Feature Suggestions
1

I just got an email announcing the Roon April Newsletter, which is devoted to search improvements. I’ve been bewildered by Roon’s search, so I thought I’d weigh in:

  1. While I appreciate the “universal” combined search (showing results from my personal library and online services such as Qobuz and Tidal), I still sometimes get results that show me either one or the other. I often want to find out if I’ve purchased a particular album (I forget), and I only get Qobuz results even if the title I’m searching for is actually already in my library. It would be useful to be able to specify whether a particular search is applied to the local library or a streaming service – either as a check box when performing a search, or as a general setting (like the ones that determine whether to use Roon or file metadata).

  2. In iTunes (and its successor, Apple’s Music app) a search for an artist name displayed all the albums by that artist. Albums are central, since that’s the way most music has been organized and sold for the last 70 years or so, whether on LPs, cassettes, or CDs. Roon gives you a biography page (if there is one), then some individual tracks from “My Library,” and then a few selected album results associated with that name, either as primary artist or featured/additional artist. Problem is, sometimes ONLY the tracks with this particular contributing artist appear when you click on the album, making it appear that the album in your library is fragmented or incomplete. It gets messy and confusing. (Other times, the contributing artist tracks are highlighted within the context of the albums on which they appear, which is more useful to me.) I think the goal is to show the bio, with the primary artist albums below it, and contributing artist album appearances below that. I cancelled my Qobuz integration with Roon because it just got too gummed-up. For me, the most helpful results page would be:

Bio
My Library Albums
Streaming Service albums
Other appearances/With Other Artists (albums)
Compilations/individual tracks

Does that make sense?

2

For #1, use Filter on the Album screen. Gives you instant in Library results based on text typed. Entered text is applied against Album title and artist.

If looking for a Track, use Filter on the Track screen.