Wouldn’t it be possible to update your metadata based on users not finding an album? I would expect that if I click on “Identify Album” and “None of these look right” that this would be picked up as an input to improve the database. I would expect that the album would be recognised by Roon some time later, but this does not seem to be the case.
I find this really annoying, in particular because it also happens with recent albums. Just two examples:
The Fred Hersch Trio - Sunday Night At The Vanguard
Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Orchestra - All My Yesterdays
It’s a good idea and I understand dBpoweramp collects data when people rip and sends it to metadata sites.
Roon licenses metadata from others so album identification depends on the metadata supplier updating rather than Roon. I don’t think that there is currently a feedback from Roon of user info to the metadata supplier; I can’t remember being asked to consent to that kind of provision of information and I think that would be required.
Let’s drop a flag for @joel who might be able to tell us more about existing and future identification methods.
Andrew, thanks for the followup. One thought: how about having a method for users to submit proposed metadata for otherwise unidentified albums, which Roon would share with its metadata providers? I’ve noticed that several very small labels and independent artist albums distributed through Bandcamp or Artistshare may not have metadata on Discogs or CDDB, probably because the process of uploading metadata is too onerous to them. However, Discogs already accepts metadata proposals and corrections (unfortunately through a hard-to-fill Web form rather than by uploading XML or JSON), so it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that the collective wisdom of Roon users could actually help enrich everyone’s metadata repositories.
I very much support the above. I am trudging through the albums not identified - still way over 2,000. Many are because I split cds up, which I accept is my problem, and others are jut too obscure, and some need a number of shots on the search terms before the right thing comes up, but about 10% are real head scratchers, as I cannot see why they should not be in the database.
An option to upload tag data for consideration, or at very least as a trigger to metadata providers to address gaps and to give other users a temporary option, seems wonderful.
There is indeed a huge wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm for getting things right in a community like this that is completely wasted in the current model.
Roon is a massive step forward, which is why I am already a lifer despite multiple frustrations, but figuring a way to utilise the knowledge of the users is surely the next big step.