1. How do you find music in your own library ? - Which way to you browse/search ? (which browse or search menus)
Search using Lazy Search Browse via "Artist" or "New Music" - Which type of remote/interface do you use ? Different for different situations ? I use Moose, running either on my desktop or laptop computer, since Moose is much faster than the SBS web interface. I also use a Controller or the remote when a computer running is not available, i.e. in my bedroom. - Do you find music through statistics based browse menus ? (ratings, play counts, history) - Do you find music through smart playlists based on statistics or random selection or other kind of automatic mixes ? - Do you use album art when selecting what to play ? No to the above four items - Do you typically start searching/browsing from an artist, album or track and want to find something related to that ? This is one area which needs improvement - more on this in the answer to #3 below. 2. How do you usually find new music you like to get but currently don't have in your library ? - Heard it on the radio ? - Where do you start when searching ? Top charts ? Genres ? Similar artists ? - Do you use some web site when searching or do you browse some music store directly ? - Are you using the computer, your Squeezebox or some other device when searching for new music ? - Do you preview the music before purchasing ? Do you preview it on the real system or cheep laptop speakers or something similar ? - Do you use a subscription based service so you aren't actually buying albums, you just need to find the albums/tracks you are interested in by browsing the service ? - Through reviews ? Any specific online site ? - Through friends ? Some community site ? I have been listening to jazz for almost 40 years and I usually "discover" new music either by listening to an artist's new release, reading a review, hearing a track on the radio (the NYC area has a few jazz oriented stations) or from friends. 3. How would you like to be able to find music in your own library in the future ? - What kind of functionality is missing today related to browsing ? - What kind of functionality is missing today related to searching ? I have two main issues with respect to browsing /searching: The first one is related directly to the Squeezebox: When listening to a compilation album one can find additional recordings via the artist field (more info->artist->(list of artist's recordings in library) but via song title. The second is more general: As a jazz listener I often would like to hear other recordings on which a particular performer plays on, for example when listening to a John Coltrane recording I might want to hear something which features McCoy Tyner, the piano player and at present there is no way to do this without massive amounts of time being spent working with custom tags and the like. 4. How would you like to find new music you like to buy/get in the future ? - What would you like to do through the Squeezebox/SBS or one of it's remotes ? - What would you like to do on some other hardware ? I have no problem finding new music, I just have trouble affording it! 5. What kind of tagging/management do you do on new music you add to your library to make it easier to find stuff later on ? - Which additional tags do you add which isn't handled by standard SBS today ? - Is the folder structure the music files are stored in important ? - If you use Custom Scan, which additional tags do you add besides those supported by SBS ? - Do you manually add ratings to your music ? Why ? See #3 above - plus the following: While adding additional tags for things like other performers, producer, engineer, recording location, etc. would be helpful I would much prefer a system which could directly access the information already available on the web. In other words, a system which makes use of something like the "Credits" information found on AllMusic.com and somehow makes that information interactive. So if one is listening to a Coltrane recording one can find and select the drummer and be taken to a listing of all one's recordings on which feature that drummer. I know this would involve creating and maintaining a massive database but that's what computers are for. 6. Do you synchronize the data in SBS with some other application to make it easier to find interesting music ? - Import statistics from MusicIP ? - Export statistics to MusicIP ? - Import files, playlists and statistics from iTunes ? - Export statistics to iTunes ? - Do you use some other application integrated with SBS/Squeezebox ? As I stated above I use Moose and I absolutely HATE iTunes, perhaps the worst music library management software available. General comment: I really dislike computer based "music" finding applications since they are often limited in their scope and ability to handle non-popular music such as classical and jazz. For example the iPhone app which "identifies" music can't identify something as universal as Bach or Beethoven, let alone Cecil Taylor. And even when they do correctly identify the music their choices of related music are often very limited. -- ralphpnj Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels -> Snatch -> The Transporter -> Transporter 2 (oops) -> Touch 'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ralphpnj's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10827 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=80910 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
