Collection / Bookshelf System

[icontax]

Hello everyone!

I have been using Subsonic for a long time and it's incredible. Absolutely the best investment I ever made was buying a license for this software. However, the way I've used Subsonic has changed a bit recently as I made a login for a couple of my family members so they could access my server. That's how the following idea came along. My apologies if something like this has been posted before. I searched for a while but couldn't find anything related to this.

Here goes:

Say four people share Subsonic but not everyone likes everyone else's music. What if Person A is Grandma and she gets confused as to why Jay-Z shows up when she doesn't even know who he is? What if Person 2 is Uncle John who only listens to country and hates scrolling through "all them crazy rock and roll bands" on the Android app? What if I uploaded that new CD Mom bought, but she didn't notice it because "the list is so long, I couldn't see it"? What can be done?

Well that's where I had the idea. What if there were a 'bookshelf' where you only placed the music you usually listen to? I guess you can think of it as a virtual folder. You can tell Subsonic "hey, add Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Tim McGraw to my bookshelf". Then you can go on your phone or whatever and say "play all the things on my bookshelf" and you only listen to the artists you like. You'd still have access to the whole library, but your bookshelf would be where you can separate the stuff YOU listen to versus the stuff EVERYONE ELSE listens to.

Now that I think about it, I guess 'bookshelf' doesn't make much sense, since books are usually the ones kept on shelves. Perhaps "collection" is more fitting. Or maybe something like "My Music", "My CD Rack", "My Records", or maybe a custom name the user chooses. Anyhow, I hope I am getting my point across.

I know some people might think something along the lines of 'why not just use the playlist/favorites?' or 'just make a different folder and call it "Grandma's Music" and such.'

Well, I don't really see those as solutions for this specific problem. I personally see a playlist as something that's useful in certain settings. For example, you might make a playlist together for a party. You can add a few songs from this artist, and some from that other artist, and everyone has a good time because everyone got to hear at least one song they liked. Also, it's a 'list'. It's not really the most efficient way of navigating.

The favorites system is great, but again, it's not really suitable. Favorites are for just that, your favorites. Quick and easy ways of getting to that one song that you know will brighten your day after some less-than-wonderful news. I guess you can favorite entire albums, but then the word "favorites" doesn't really apply anymore.

And finally, I think creating folders would create a kind of redundant system. What if Uncle John and I like some of Grandma's music? Am I really going to copy those tracks and put them in my and Uncle John's folder? I'd have three copies of the same thing, taking up space for no reason. Also, as far as the user experience, I would think it's confusing to keep track of what music goes where. Kind of like "oh where are The Beatles again? Was that Grandma? ..No..? Okay, was it Uncle John? No..? Hmm... Maybe Mom? Oh wait I think it was me...."

I hope my lengthy post made some sense. What does everybody think? Has anyone solved this problem a different way? Am I the only one who thinks this might be useful? Maybe I'm trying to solve a problem that doesn't really exist?

Feedback is welcome!

Thanks for reading!

[blueturtles]

Your idea is great. Wish I could help make it happen but I know nothing about the coding or such.