Best browseing method, post your ideas! (long)

**zPilott** · 08-24-2004, 02:23 PM

don't get me wrong, I never said that you shouldn't be able to load and play an album. I really like that I can search for an album, with the keyboard, in frodoplayer and find most any album in my collection (which is almost all full albums, ripped by me, personally, at very high quality settings).

I think it is kind of elitist to assume that just because someone doesn't want to listen to only whole albums, in their entirety, in original track order, that they only listen to what is on MTV and steal all their music.

I think we should really stick to the point of what works best, and not try to say that one method is better because it suit the 'real' mucis enthusiasts instead of something that you assume only suits the 'MTV singl priate kiddies'

**Alric** · 08-24-2004, 02:32 PM

I guess I don't understand what is the difference between the two methods. The two methods of browsing are not exclusive and can (and do) coexist when browsing an iPod.

Would you guys check out an iPod before continuing this thread?

**pip** · 08-24-2004, 02:41 PM

I suppose this entirely depens on how structured your music is stored. Some of us have all our music in one folder, others (like me) have an artist/album directory structure. Some even go further and add a genre structure at the root. Obviously browsing by album cover is of more use to us who rip albums and use a rigid structure to organize our files. As obviously I'm a type #2 as described previously so the concept of an album art browser is appealing.

I can see people browsing by:

1) straight song name, more or less unorganised.
2) artist.
3) a comination of 1) & 2)
4) artist/album (from ID3)
5) as 4) but using album art.
6) as 4) but by directory structure
7) as 6) but using album art.
8) keywords
9) playlist
10) genre

To be honest, to appeal to a larger group of users the more of these browsing options the software supports the better.

**zPilott** · 08-24-2004, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by Confused

Does anyone have any input on the browing method I posted above for AIMEE. If you've got something different, or any ideas, please let me know.

I'm really wanting to get AIMEE as customisable as possible, if this means building two (selectable) browsing screens, then I'm up for giving it a try

Garry

I like what you have posted for aimee. with something like this though, I would like to be able to click on any of the lines to add it to the queue (click on artist 1 and get all albums/all songs for artist 1, click on artist 1/album 1 and get all songs for that album only.

I think the important thing is to either 1) keep the list of possible selections small (anything that doesn't fit in less than 3 or so screens), or 2) provide an easy way to make the list smaller, or 3) provide an easy way to jump to any point in the list (accurately)

Keeping the list selections small: Selecting an artist (i think for most of us) is a large list (more than 3 or so screens). Selecting an album is even worse (unless you have already selected an artist, then it will almost always be a small list, though some artists are more prolific than others). Selecting a genre really depends. Some people will have really specific genres, others will only have 5 or so. Does anyone know of any software that supports heirarchical genres? I would really like to be able to, for example, select rock, then under that be classic rock, alternative, heavy metal, indie, etc (or somethign like that, 2 or 3 levels deep).

Provide an easy way to make the list smaller: Does anyone have any idea how to do this (for selecting artists, since it is probably the biggest list)besides using a keyboard (or separating selections into groups based on name, which is almost the same thing)

Provide an easy way to accurately jump to any point in the list: Again, the only way that I know if is to use a keyboard, any onther ideas?

**Confused** · 08-24-2004, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by zPilott

I like what you have posted for aimee. with something like this though, I would like to be able to click on any of the lines to add it to the queue (click on artist 1 and get all albums/all songs for artist 1, click on artist 1/album 1 and get all songs for that album only.

Yeah, that is exactly how it will work. I'm going to be skinning the Playlist section of AIMEE soon, so I'll post up another teaser video showing the playlist selection.

You can choose an Artist, then display either all their songs, or an album. Choosing an album will show all the tracks in that album. There are buttons to go back to the previous level, and they will highlight the last item you chose.

Originally Posted by zPilott

I think the important thing is to either 1) keep the list of possible selections small (anything that doesn't fit in less than 3 or so screens), or 2) provide an easy way to make the list smaller, or 3) provide an easy way to jump to any point in the list (accurately)

AIMEE allows scrolling either up/down one at a time, or by an whole page, and also has a scroll bar.

Originally Posted by zPilott

Keeping the list selections small: Selecting an artist (i think for most of us) is a large list (more than 3 or so screens). Selecting an album is even worse (unless you have already selected an artist, then it will almost always be a small list, though some artists are more prolific than others).

Selecting an artist is going to be the screen with the most pages for almost everyone.

Originally Posted by zPilott

Selecting a genre really depends. Some people will have really specific genres, others will only have 5 or so. Does anyone know of any software that supports heirarchical genres? I would really like to be able to, for example, select rock, then under that be classic rock, alternative, heavy metal, indie, etc (or somethign like that, 2 or 3 levels deep).

That will be a very "personal" thing, some people would want different "sub-genres" to someone else. Currently AIMEE just displays all songs within each genre, no more sub-levels (so far).

Originally Posted by zPilott

Provide an easy way to make the list smaller: Does anyone have any idea how to do this (for selecting artists, since it is probably the biggest list)besides using a keyboard (or separating selections into groups based on name, which is almost the same thing)

Provide an easy way to accurately jump to any point in the list: Again, the only way that I know if is to use a keyboard, any onther ideas?

Other than jumping a page at a time, the next best thing would be to have buttons to jump to "sections" of the alphabet (say A-F, G-N, O-S, T-Z), which will make things a little quicker.

I'm also implementing an OSK (and also using a kb if you have one set up, as well as the "Mobile Phone" style text input) which should make it even quicker to jump to sections (especially with a numberpad set up by your hands!)

Garry

**Bravellir** · 08-24-2004, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by liquid_smoke

I think were outnumbered too, or people arent speaking up. I fit squarely into profile #2. 90% of the music i have is from my own CDs all ripped at 320k and some uncompressed. 75% of the time i want to listen to the whole album, thats why i bought it. I think profile #2 also believes that 3-4 good songs doesnt make a good album.

But hopfully there will be some options for us when 1.09 comes out

album art together with skip CD functons would make me happy.

I'm with Liquid

**ayclens** · 08-24-2004, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by zPilott

don't get me wrong, I never said that you shouldn't be able to load and play an album. I really like that I can search for an album, with the keyboard, in frodoplayer and find most any album in my collection (which is almost all full albums, ripped by me, personally, at very high quality settings).

I think it is kind of elitist to assume that just because someone doesn't want to listen to only whole albums, in their entirety, in original track order, that they only listen to what is on MTV and steal all their music.

I think we should really stick to the point of what works best, and not try to say that one method is better because it suit the 'real' mucis enthusiasts instead of something that you assume only suits the 'MTV singl priate kiddies'

As stated earlier, the 2 profiles are exagerated for emphasis on the 2 extremes, although most people can categorise themselves into one of the 2 groups I think.

Also, as stated earlier, neither way works "best" - it simply depends on how you listen to music. For the "mtv single pirate kiddies" as you call them, they would be better suited for loading single songs and not albums. And the "real" music enthusiasts as you call them would be better suited by a system that browses by artist and albums rather than single songs. So, both methods should really be included in any carputer software to suit both kinds of music listeners.

**liquid_smoke** · 08-24-2004, 11:37 PM

ditto:

**Nic** · 08-24-2004, 11:43 PM

Originally Posted by more mods

I think that kinda puts you in profile #1 or MTV.

lol, almost all my music is of the electronic variety, none of this commercial mtv bull****, just because i have single files dosent mean they are dodgy, think vinyl

**toadster123** · 08-25-2004, 12:42 AM

and either way.. if u usually play full albums or load single songs... u need a 'queue list'... so u can add a bunch on albums to the list, or a bunch of singles... or BOTH..

and then if u like that list, u can save it... and play it again... and having a random function makes it so the order is not the same every time.. unless everyone wants ot listen to full albums in order every time...

hahah

Its not very difficult to browse if u want to play full albums... u just need a structure like this :
artists -> albums

and when browsing artists it would be even quicker if u have buttons than take u to certain letters (if your using a keyboard u could easly get to whatever letter u wanted.. ) or if u want on screen buttons u could have i couple letters throught the alphabet.. so u can 'jump' ahead throught the list quicker..