People are inherent creatures of habit, and it touches all facets of our lives. Being tasteful, discerning music lovers doesn’t free us from the inclination to create routines. Our habits definitely affect how we interact with our music.
Despite having immense and eclectic music collections, we find ourselves responding to some mysterious form of muscle memory when we browse them. We routinely pull eye-level CDs from the right-hand side of the rack and inevitably select vinyl from the shelves nearest to the turntable.
When we open Roon, habits can lead us through an ingrained series of mouse clicks that take us to a familiar destination. In doing so, we find ourselves gravitating to the same stuff, great stuff, sure – but it means a few well-worn sections of our collection receive more attention than the rest.
Or your Roon habits may take a different yet equally common form that’s bemoaned on our Community forum. Maybe you’re someone who frequently adds new items to your library – such as a song from a movie or series you’ve watched, a hot new track from New Music Friday, or an album recommended by a friend or reviewer – only to forget about them a few days later as you add even more new stuff. Adding new music only takes seconds – finding the time to listen to the fruits of our enthusiasm is much more challenging.
We consume sounds so often that we may not even realize we do this. Your routine may be different still, but the results are the same. No matter how vast and interesting, our libraries gradually lose their allure and thrill. Repetition is a champion excitement killer, and that’s the last thing we want from our music.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a quick and easy way to break free from our browsing habits that stimulated rediscovery and renewed enjoyment of our collections? Well, we’ve got good news for you – now there is!
Roon’s new Smart Playlists feature gives you countless ways to reawaken excitement for your music collection. Their captivating, interactive nature effortlessly draws you in, letting you create inspiring playlists that can adapt in real time as you listen or add new tracks to your collection.
Here’s how they work!
Smart Playlists reveal your music’s finer details
Roon’s Smart Playlists take a giant step beyond what’s offered in other apps by harnessing the power of Roon metadata. The beauty of music is in the details. Descriptive metadata reveals the fascinating minutiae that surround recordings, albums, artists, and performances. It illuminates the stories behind the music and fills it with life – fostering a closer connection and deeper appreciation of our favorites and new discoveries.
Smart Playlists flex the x-ray vision of Roon’s Focus tool, transforming its insights into instant playlists. It lets you view your music through the lens of its unique characteristics, delivering a mesmerizing and addictive experience that I discussed at greater length here.
There are several ways you can create Smart Playlists in Roon:
- Press the + icon in the Playlists section of the sidebar.
- Open the Tracks or Albums browser and select a Focus characteristic.
- Click the three dots menu on a library Artist page, then view tracks or albums in your library.
- Use the Genres browser to view albums in your library by genre or subgenre, then create totally addictive niche-driven deep dives of your collection. This is currently my favorite!
Smart Playlist recipe sharing: Jamie’s in the basement mixing up the medicine
Once you ease into the Smart Playlists flow, you’ll realize you’ve waded into a deep river of song that can extract magic from every corner and crevice of your Roon library. Hours will disappear as you craft new Smart Playlist recipes: feverishly adding and removing focus flavors, spicing things up with the matching rules on the composers and performers column, and watching album covers dance before your eyes as you skitter through subgenres. It’s incredibly gratifying!
The graphic below shows some of the albums that landed in a Dylan & Beatles Covers Smart Playlist I whipped up in a few seconds and will enjoy repeatedly. Even better, it’ll evolve as my library changes.
Here’s how it sprang to life. While looking at Dylan’s compositions page, I wondered how many Dylan covers I have in my library.
- I opened the Tracks browser and selected tracks composed by Bob Dylan.
- Then, on a whim, I changed the Composers’ matching mode to Match any and added John Lennon and Paul McCartney compositions.
- Then I selected Bob Dylan, The Beatles, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney in the Performer column and changed the matching mode to Match any.
- Next, I clicked each of those buttons to reverse the Focus function. Instead of showing me performances by those artists, it shows me performances NOT by them.
- That created a Smart Playlist of 555 songs written by Bob Dylan, Lennon/McCartney, and John or Paul solo performed by other artists. Viola, now I’ve got a Dylan & Beatles Covers superlist! It would have been difficult, if not impossible, to manually locate all those tracks in my library.
- Bonus excellence: Because this is a Smart Playlist, it will automatically absorb any tracks I add to my library if they match the above characteristics. If I remove an album containing a track from this list, it will be purged.
It’s like having a music genie who serves up playlist wishes from your library and then does touch-ups as needed. Its creative possibilities are limited only by the user’s imagination. Use it a few times, and ideas appear almost on their own.
- All Jazz tracks in my library that include both Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter.
- EVERYTHING I have that’s produced by Rick Rubin.
- Every track in my collection with either James Jamerson or Carol Kaye on Bass!
- All Rudy Van Gelder produced tracks I haven’t played in the last year. (see iPad screen at the beginning of this article)
- Unplayed albums that were added to my library in the previous three months.
- Favorite Country Blues albums that have been played in the last three months. (see below)
Sonic General’s Warning: You may succumb to delirium from prolonged exposure to Smart Playlists goodness. Take regular breaks, walk around, and breathe fresh air during use. This feature may be habit-forming. (But in a good way, not the soul-crushing monotonous ick that sucks all the fun out of your music)
Conclusion
At Roon, we’re music lovers like you. Our shared passion drives us to develop innovative ways to make music browsing, discovery, and listening experiences exciting and inspiring. We do it because we know music’s importance and the myriad ways it enriches our lives. We’re grateful that we’re all on this music journey together.
Smart Playlists reveal your music’s finer details. They provide endless opportunities to shake off ingrained browsing habits and ignite renewed excitement for your music collection – delivering instant listening benefits. We’re eager to see what you’ll mix up, too! We hope you’ll swing by Roon Community to share your Smart Playlists – so everyone can enjoy what you’ve created.
Not a Roon user and wondering if Roon is for you? See what all the excitement is about with a free 14-day trial!