Ideas
I usually post my thoughts I am trying to collect on the wiki, but I think I may start to post them here a) for quickness and b) for exposure. It’s not so much that I want to be able to capitalize on them (although that is always welcomed). I mainly want to see these ideas implemented so that I can use them. Others can probably create and release these faster than I’d be able to. Plus in a way, it is my little way of giving back to the open source community; not only open code, but open ideas. So without further ado:
- Multiple personalities in Netflix. Not that I’m crazy, but Renee and I have differing tastes when it comes to movies. I like the Sci-Fi, she likes the girlie ones. It would be great to have be able to track both tastes, and the ratings we give to movies, tied to our single account. I don’t want to taint my recommendations because she rates up Must Love Dogs.
- Amarok ported to Windows. Yes I know this has been discussed before ad nauseum, but would still like to see it done. So far, this has been the only heavy music player that felt comfortable. However, there are a few key additions I’d like to see…
- Grouping of genres into “parent” categories in Amarok (or any “heavy” music organizer/player). While I like to know what exact genre an album or track fits into, the number of unique genres can become a bit bewildering with a collection in the thousands. My listening trends typically are based in one genre for a period of time, like say rock for a month or two. It would be nice to drill down to the various sub-genres of rock, like alternative, punk, etc. Audio Galaxy, an old P2P network, had a really great genre map, which grouped genre’s based on their roots.
- Enhanced tag/file management in Amarok (or any “heavy” music organizer/player). For me this is still important. I like to have everything arranged on the hard drive. My method thus far looks like: [parent genre]/[artist]/[year] – [album]/[track #] – [title].[ogg|mp3|flac]. I’ve used Tag&Rename to do this, but it would be nice to reduce the number of specialty apps I use.
- Ability to segregate single tracks from albums in Amarok (or any “heavy” music organizer/player). I still like albums. But sometimes an artist (usually a new one) only has a few songs I like, so I end up with a few singles of theirs. I’m not sure how the UI would work with this, but it would be nice if I could browse based on whether I have a full album or not. I have found myself wanting this when I browse my collection using an album cover view. If I see the album cover I naturally assume I have the full album, only to find that I got one song from the album. Again, I haven’t thought all the way through this, so maybe this is an change that needs to happen on my part. There is a new paradigm emerging after all…
- Mix up the recommendation list that is suggested in Amarok (or any heavy …). Kind of like how Netflix offers suggestions based on my ratings, other’s ratings, or based off what it thinks I might like. Again with thousands of songs in my collection, sometimes I forget what might also fit my mode at that moment.
- Browse by cover in Amarok (or …). Again with the album cover art, I know, but this is akin to browsing my selection in meatspace. It is not every time that I want to view it this way, but sometimes the album cover sparks my memory. Plus I dig the whole concept album thingy; blame it on my “art” days.
I guess that’s it for now.
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