Music Playback Improvement Suggestions

[rgbyhkr]

Ok, I'll be up front in saying that I don't use Music all that much. We've already discussed the AMG database issues and need for better manual entry tools in another thread. What I'd like to talk about here is how Music in general could be improved. Here are a few thoughts I have to start off:

NOTE: Since I'm lazy and hate having to re-write certain names over and over, I will use a few abbreviations. On-Screen UI = OSUI, Web UI = WUI, Now PLaying List = NPL

- No "All Tracks" listing in the OSUI or WUI is very inconvenient. It leaves you with no way to search by track. I don't always remember the album or even the artist (especially compilation albums, holiday music, etc) so it's important to be able to search for specific track names. Perhaps a new "Track Listing" screen could be implemented in the OSUI if K is concerned about he current Music List getting too cluttered via a listing of every track.

- When you add an entire album at once to the NPL, it is treated as a single entity. Therefore, you can't then remove individual tracks from the added album - it's either all or nothing. That's extremely annoying and is different from every other music management system I've used. I understand that this may allow for live recordings or continuous albums to play through without gaps, but there should be some option to treat the album as a singular entity or not - perhaps in the confirmation screen when choosing to add an entire album.

- The last problem is compunded by the inability to select multiple tracks at once to add or delete to/from the NPL. If there are several tracks from an album that I want to add, I have to add them one by one. In the OSUI, that means getting the confirmation screen of adding the items to the end of the NPL, play now, or do nothing for every track. That's repetitively annoying. The WUI isn't any better on this issue. Given that you can select multiple items in the WUI scripting tool (via checkboxes), it makes this inability for Music playback stand out even more.

- I want to be able to re-order tracks in the NPL once they've been added. This can be done in the WUI scripting section to re-order script steps and should be something you can do in the NPL. Given the inability to select multiple items at once to delete or add, the only way to re-order now is to start over or to one by one delete and then one by one add in the order I want. That's not very user-friendly. You can re-order tracks in the Mix Album WUI, but this doesn't help you for on the fly playback which is what most users will make use of the NPL for. I've tried doing something where I start playing a Mix Album, then go to the MIX WUI and re-order it. The result is actually kind of odd where the WUI NPL in the Music Control Panel will update to the revised arrangement once I jump to a new track. However, the OSUI stays the same. If I have both open at the same time, the WUI NPL shows one track order while the OSUI shows the original one.

- It would be nice to have the option of Repeat Once and Repeat All. Now it's just Repeat all tracks in the NPL.

- I'd like to be able to save a NPL as a Mix Album for later playback.

- If you have repeat turned off and you reach the end of a NPL or have pressed stop during an NPL, adding any additional tracks or albums results in the existing items in the NPL being deleted. In other words, you don't get the usual confirmation screen of adding to the end or playing now. The system just clears the NPL and starts a new one with the selection you just made. Once they add the last feature (saving NPL as Mix Album), changing this will be important. You'd hate to get to the end of a NPL, decide that it would make for a good Mix Album with a few more tracks, go to add those tracks and then find out that the previous items are gone.

- This might be a personal preference and kind of goes to the last item. When you have an NPL and then add a new item, if you choose "Play It Now" from the confirmation screen, the NPL is cleared. Other systems I've used just add the item to the end of the NPL and skip to playing that item. I prefer the latter. Additionally, changing this would be more important later when they add saving an NPL as a Mix Album.

Now, I've submitted all of these and more months ago. Some changes have already been implemented and I believe they are working on several of the others. I also realize that this is K's first shot at Music and things will only get better and I certainly don't expect changes overnight. These are just things that would make the system more usable for me and therefore desirable to use.

What do you folks think? What Music functionality would you like to see improved, changed added?

Jeff

 

[josh]

That was a great summary of a lot of the same issues I've had with the music system. Like you, I consider this a solid first crack at this and believe they'll be improving the functionality and UI.

I have similar issues with the Now Playing List (NPL)... my biggest complaint is that adding individual tracks from an album doesn't cause them to "group" together, they show up as separate boxes, each with a copy of the album cover.

Second big issue for me is paging down a very long NPL... your cursor first jumps into each album, then goes track-to-track, and there's no easy way to get down to next album. it needs a "next page" "previous page" equivalent...

And frankly, I really don't like the web interface at all for making playlists... it's just too hard to find individual tracks and add them. There actually was an earlier interface in a beta version of music that I thought was better... it was less "Java"-y, but frankly more useful IMO.

At the very least, I'd like a fast search box on the Web UI... as i type a few letters of a track or artist name, the list narrows in realtime to the items that match. I could quickly type "wish you were"... and the list would just narrow down to the pink floyd song i was thinking of. (Goodlink on Treo does this very well for contacts... just start typing a first name, company name, or last name... and the list above your typing box narrows to the relevant choices as you type.

--josh

 

[rgbyhkr]

I have similar issues with the Now Playing List (NPL)... my biggest complaint is that adding individual tracks from an album doesn't cause them to "group" together, they show up as separate boxes, each with a copy of the album cover.

I didn't list that one here, but I also included it as part of my suggestions to K a few months back. To me, it looks cluttered.

Second big issue for me is paging down a very long NPL... your cursor first jumps into each album, then goes track-to-track, and there's no easy way to get down to next album. it needs a "next page" "previous page" equivalent...

This too was something else I suggested. I recognized the exact same inability to be able to jump from "item" to "item" (just a term I'm using for an added album showing up as a single entry with one cover art picture for all tracks) as annoying. To be honest, I'd almost prefer - or at least want the option to have - a simple text NPL with no cover art. It makes navigating much easier and, especially if you have a very long NPL, makes peekiing at what's coming up later easier as you could see many more tracks on the screen at once without all that wasted space for cover art.

And frankly, I really don't like the web interface at all for making playlists... it's just too hard to find individual tracks and add them. There actually was an earlier interface in a beta version of music that I thought was better... it was less "Java"-y, but frankly more useful IMO.

At the very least, I'd like a fast search box on the Web UI... as i type a few letters of a track or artist name, the list narrows in realtime to the items that match. I could quickly type "wish you were"... and the list would just narrow down to the pink floyd song i was thinking of. (Goodlink on Treo does this very well for contacts... just start typing a first name, company name, or last name... and the list above your typing box narrows to the relevant choices as you type.

Let me first clarify which WUI I'm going to mention here so we're all thinking of the same thing. There's the general WUI and then there are the Java Control Panels that you can jump to from the User WUI Home page. So, the Movie Control Panel has a search when you're in the Movie List or Music List views of the OSUI. Of course, the results are shown on-screen vs in the WUI. And, again, there's no toption to search by track but the pairing down of resilts as you type works exactly as you describe. This type of search should be available in the Mix Album WUI tab including a track name search.

Jeff