I was tinkering about what could be a nice feature. I would call it “Stealth Mode”, or “Incognito Mode”, or “Guilty Pleasure Mode” or “Private Mode”
So what’s up with this. Let me give you an example. My style in music in general could be described as Alternative, Electronic, Indie, Left-field etc etc whatever you want to tag it. Anyways, since Roon is algorithm based it constantly looks at what your playing and bases new recommendations on my listening behaviour.
Now, in my case for example, I happen to like the new album of The Weeknd quite a lot, but this albums falls into a category of which I dislike 99% of the content. This record of The Weeknd is really one out of hundred, maybe even one out of thousand in the popular mainstream MTV, , Hitchart, commercial radio category.
What happens if I have played this album 10 times last month? It gets a high score in Valence and all sort of terrible recommendations show up. Not to mention all the truly awfull music that Roon Radio plays at the end of this album. It goes as far as me being afraid of playing this album again because the algorithm is watching
Another example. I have some records that have purely sentimental value. I like to listen to them from time to time but I dislike 99% of Roon Radio after playing this album. Again, they are one out of thousand in their genre that I like, In other words I don’t like this genre in general. They even present me Diana Krall. If there is one artist I really don’t like it’s Diana Krall (sorry to mention her again) Reminds me that a “Ban this Artist” forever feature would also be very nice.
Now wouldn’t it be nice to tag an album as being in “Stealth Mode”. In other words let me play it but do not do anything with it in Valence, don’t base any recommendations on it, maybe even go as far as not showing it in my play history like a real “guilty pleasure mode” Maybe even a complete “stealth mode” for an evening of playing the most terrible music in existance. Who doesn’t do that from time to time, or is that only my fetisch?
It is still not clear how profiles actually differe from each other. Here at home we are struggling with that daily. It is a function not fully developed.
Sounds like a lot of work. It’s not that I am actively busey with it while playing it and to be honoust don’t want to be busey with it and don’t want to search for it in history. Would be nice to just tag an album as “Stealth” and not have to think about it any further. It’s not that I am ashamed of anything that I’m trying to hide, I just want it out of the algorithm to prevent it from recommending me crap.
well anyways, just tinkering, not a feature request.
Yes, exactly. That’s the overall idea. The album specific idea was just for one album, like in my example The Weeknd. This one and only album has created too much useless recommendations. The same with classical music. I listen to classical music maybe once in two-three months but I get chased with classical recommendations days or even weeks after listening to classical for a couple of hours.
I do not think individual actions actually move the Valence choices that much. If interested I am linking Brian’s post on the feature posted shortly after it first came out.
Well, that doesn’t explain why I get only mainstreampop, fashion store music, commercial radio music, MTV crap, etc etc and nothing I remotely like after playing The Weeknd like in my example. It’s got noting to do with the thumbs up or down, I rarely use that. It’s not shuffle play either. It Roon Radio’s choice after playing a record. A choice I dislike for over 90% in case of this record so I thought it would be convenient to flag it as play only, do nothing with it in any algorithm whatsoever. Just an idea.
This seems like an idea to nurture, or at least understand better.
In a way it’s a workaround for what seem to be the weakest (worst) part of Valence. It can be good, but it can really miss the boat.
It might be worth trying this with a ‘burner’ profile. I could be that a separate play history is at least one way to lessen unwanted recommendations.
With Roon as is, you can’t really have separate libraries. But my wife’s play history is a lot different than mine.
Switching profiles is simple.
Yes. I’m thinking about once my stereo comes into a more settled stage (without tuning, burning in etc.) I will setup a new really „Listening“ profile, leaving the past behind.
