One of the most exciting things about being a music lover is finding “our” music. Whether it’s a new release or older stuff we never knew existed, hearing new sounds for the first time takes us on an accelerated tour through our past, reminding us of other revelations that opened new sonic vistas. These moments become highlight reels of our music journey. No other art form exhibits quite the same power to imbue our memories and evoke emotion. It’s magic whenever we hear a track we love and instantly remember a time and place in our past that’s forever linked to that song.
Paradoxically, in our electronic era of excess, finding music that matches our tastes has gotten more challenging as content pours into streaming catalogs. Our saved music feels hidden away as streaming services shovel random releases at us across endless pages of playlists, automated mixes, and album recommendations that feel increasingly unlike our favorites. Or worse, they only regurgitate what we’ve listened to recently. Finding a coherent groove in that musical minefield is difficult when there’s no real way to control the ratio of jams to junk. We’re just stuck with what we get as services turn to deciding what we’ll hear.
In Roon, we have way more influence over how discovery features work. Whenever we search for an artist, play a track, add an album to our library, chill with genre radio, or favorite something, Roon maps a bit more of our musical genome and plugs those characteristics into our taste profile. It gets to know us better and matches those traits with new sounds we’re wired to enjoy. It’s like forming a friendship with a knowledgeable record store clerk who remembers what we buy and avoid and then hips us to great stuff when we drop in the shop.
Roon also lets us close our airspace to unwanted sounds by banning music we don’t like. How it worked before was a bit counterintuitive and controversial for some folks. It required first adding the music to our Roon Library and then banning it. Because Roon listeners have strong opinions about what goes on their shelves, we heard about that quirk in the works, ‘Wait, what?! Why would I add something I don’t like to my library? I don’t want it anywhere near my stuff!’ Well, yeah… um, we see your point.
We’re happy to say banning doesn’t work that way anymore. And, we’ve expanded banning behavior to give it even greater influence across Roon’s entire landscape, giving you more of what you want and less of what you don’t from Roon’s discovery features.
Here’s how it works…
Ban on the run: improved functionality delivers more music you’ll love
First, as you requested, you can ban artists, albums, tracks, composers, and compositions without adding unwanted content to your library. This means you can make space for new favorites, and you’ll only see music you like when you browse your Roon library.
Second, banning has been given its own dedicated space in the three-dot menus throughout Roon. Look for “Ban this (artist/album/track, etc.)” at the bottom of the options list.
Encounter an Artist you don’t like? Fire away! Click the three dots menu, go to the bottom, and ban them. A song comes on Roon Radio that was playing when your first crush broke up with you, leaving you forever scarred… three dots and ban. You’ll never hear it on Roon Radio, Artist Radio, or in any of your Daily Mixes ever again.
Even better, your banned music won’t be recommended anywhere Roon suggests music to you. You won’t see it in New Releases For You, Recommended Artists, Recommended Albums for You, Collaborators Features, Similar Artists, or any of the recommendation carousels in Roon.
Banning music will quarantine it throughout Roon. That means you won’t hear or see anything you’ve banned when Roon is the DJ playing music for you or being the friendly record store clerk we described earlier. Roon will introduce you to more music that is attuned to your tastes.
When listening to Roon Radio or Daily Mixes, you’ll get more of what you love and less of what you don’t, and you’ll have more opportunities to discover music you like when browsing recommendations. The more you favorite music you like and ban stuff you don’t, the better Roon discovery features will work.
I’ve banned a bunch of stuff. Is it banished from the Rooniverse?
‘Yes, muahahaha, I’ve banned loads of stuff that I loathe, and now it’s gone FOREVER! Right?’
No. That’s not how it works. You can still access banned music. If you search for it, we’ll show it to you. If you intentionally press play on something you’ve banned, you’ll hear it. If you copy one of Roon’s New Music Friday playlists to your library, and one of your banned artists is in it, they’ll play. Those are all intentional actions. Banning doesn’t prohibit you from being intentional, taking back control, or giving music you haven’t liked another chance. You can do that.
Banning is about giving you more sway over your listening experience when Roon acts as your DJ or helps you discover new music. In those scenarios, you won’t hear or see stuff you’ve made up your mind about. But it doesn’t prevent your listening tastes from evolving by permanently eradicating music you don’t like currently. You can always change your mind.
Conclusion
Roon’s latest customization features give you greater influence over your music listening and discovery experiences. With our enhancements, you can ban artists, albums, tracks, composers, and compositions without adding them to your library. This allows you to curate your music collections more precisely and free your shelves of unwanted clutter.
By favoriting preferred music and banning unwanted content, you can guide Roon to recommend music that closely aligns with your tastes. This will lead to a more personalized listening experience and more frequent discovery milestones on your music journey in Roon.
Not a Roon user and wondering if Roon is for you? (hint, if you love music, the answer is YES!) See what all the excitement is about with a free 14-day trial!