A more powerful way to browse the library

[Greb]

MB has every option out there to filter the library. But I was thinking that there could be other interesting ways to browse the library, not only based in filtering.

Instead of filtering according to conditions and getting a list, just surfing the library more as a 'explorer'.

I think that it could implemented using a kind of 'tree' view in the main panel. I have made a example using excel, but it's easy to see how it works.

Imagine you start with an artist, let's say Brandi Carlile. Then you have different option to explore. I have selected four (though there could be more): albums from this artist, albums where this artist appears but are compilations (album artist is different), similar artists according to Last.FM, and compilations where similar artist according to Last.FM appear.

Those options can lead you to different artists, and those artists to other artists, and so. So you can 'surf' the library advancing through relations, instead of just filtering.

Here there's an example of what I'm saying:

[greenday1987]

Maybe the existing explorer to the left could be coded with these options, I'm particularity interested in  similar artists from last fm and compilations featuring said artist. That would be very nice but I imagine not and easy coding project but I may be wrong since I no nothing about programming sadly.

[Steven]

i think this is a great suggestion - seems a good fit into the Library Explorer panel.
The only small issue i see with this request is a web query needs to be done each time you want to see similar artists. Last.fm is normally very fast on query responses so it shouldnt usually be an issue.

In case anyone isnt aware, a recently added function was right click on the main panel/ Search/ Find Similar 'xxxxx' in Library which finds similar artists in your library to the clicked one.

[Greb]

i think this is a great suggestion - seems a good fit into the Library Explorer panel.
The only small issue i see with this request is a web query needs to be done each time you want to see similar artists. Last.fm is normally very fast on query responses so it shouldnt usually be an issue.

Mmm... I see it more in the central panel. Not because it doesn't fit on the Library Explorer (it absolutelly fits) but because the moment you 'chain' several artists you would need more room than the usual in the left panel...

[Steven]

for now i have added "Similar Artists" to the library explorer groupings. It allows one level of drill-down and includes when the artist is part of a compilation or marked as a guest on a track.
I'll post a link later today

[Steven]

i've improved the similar artist functionality in the library explorer so the similar artists are cached so it should improve the usability which can be slightly annoying as-is now even though its only a small second wait for a response from last.fm. The very first time you use the Similar Artists grouping, it could still have have the small delay while the cache is being built, but after that it should be fast.
If anyone wants to try it out let me know otherwise it will be in the next update

[ma_t14]

I would like to test the new feature before its release. But before that I would like to point out something.

The current behaviour when you enable sort by similar artists is that the similar artists are sorted alphabetically. I would find it more logical if the artists where sorted by similarity. Now you get first some very obscure artists you would never consider as similar to the original artist and the artists that are actually similar are buried in the alphabetical ordering  

[Steven]

it only shows similar artists that are already in your library so hopefully they wouldnt be too obscure!
i should also point out it uses the minimum artist similarity setting from the auto-dj to eliminate the low similarity artists
here is the updated .exe:
http://www.mediafire.com/?aastxjsso22o5dk

[aidanw]

I reckon this is a great feature! Works nicely, about a 1sec delay as you said.

However I found it unintuitive to find this feature. Even after knowing that this release had it, I couldn't remember how to enable it and had to go back to read this post to find where it was enabled.

How about making it more obvious for all users, by adding in the Library Explorer below the list of Albums for each artist, a "+ Similar artists..." node that can be expanded. YAP (Yet Another Preference) could be used for turning this off.

E.g.:
> Britney Spears
  >-- Blackout
  >-- One more time
  >-- Similar artists...

I realise being on the same level as the other Album nodes (or Year, etc as set by user) could be confusing.
I'm not sure what the solution is for that, perhaps a slight gap above, different colouring etc.?

[Greb]

Very smart solution, using the percentage in Auto-DJ. Is that applied to 'Search > Find similar artists to'?. Because it should.

Anyway, I agree with fish. Grouping it would make the whole thing more intuitive.

Other interesting option would be to use only artists in 'album artists' as roots, since using every artist can fill the list with lots of artists you have in compilations which you're not that interested in them (otherwise you would have any of their albums by now).

Though I keep thinking that the real potential here is to move through the library using relations (being similar according to LastFM, being in the same compilation, and any other one that could be imagined)

PS Is there a chance to use Amazon as Last.FM is used?. Because I found the 'customers that bought that album bought those ones too' suggestions more inspiring than Last.FM relations (don't ask me why, I was surprised too).

[Steven]

Other interesting option would be to use only artists in 'album artists' as roots, since using every artist can fill the list with lots of artists you have in compilations which you're not that interested in them (otherwise you would have any of their albums by now).

if you define a custom sorting/grouping that has Artist then you can see the associated compilation albums. However i will add a predefined one

[Greb]

Other interesting option would be to use only artists in 'album artists' as roots, since using every artist can fill the list with lots of artists you have in compilations which you're not that interested in them (otherwise you would have any of their albums by now).

if you define a custom sorting/grouping that has Artist then you can see the associated compilation albums. However i will add a predefined one

I tried, but 'similar artist' doesn't appear in the custom sorting combo box.

[greenday1987]

I would like to test the new feature before its release. But before that I would like to point out something.

The current behaviour when you enable sort by similar artists is that the similar artists are sorted alphabetically. I would find it more logical if the artists where sorted by similarity. Now you get first some very obscure artists you would never consider as similar to the original artist and the artists that are actually similar are buried in the alphabetical ordering  

I disagree. It's supposed to alphabetical but it's not properly:-



I'd rather each artist was in proper alphabetical order and until you opened an artist tree it ignored that it was any order other than that- if that makes sense?

[Steven]

it looks like some of the artists have leading spaces (2 spaces for the first lot at the top, 1 space for the next next lot) - could you confirm by using the Tag Inspector. I'm reluctant to "auto-fix" that as some people may use leading spaces so certain artists are sorted to the top

[greenday1987]

Do you mean the artist field of the tags has a space(s) prior to the name?



They should both be higher than they are I think and so would be candidates for this but as you can see they don't.


Should be at the top I think and it also doesn't have a space.

All these artists appear in the correct order in the paint artwork-view panel bit as well and they'd be out of order if it was a tagging issue there too, would it not?

Thanks for the help Steven