I will often search for an artist, and then browse their albums. I want to listen to their most recent album, but based the list of albums doesn’t show years published. Furthermore, as far as I can tell, there’s no way to sort by date published. Am I missing something?
The order you see the search results is entirely down to the respective music service. They are responsible for how the relevant items are displayed. Sonos cannot change this order. For one, Sonos would have no means to determine the release date of each entry. Other music services (ie. Spotify) do display albums in chronological order so it is down to how the music service has implemented their integration into Sonos.
I’m a developer by trade, and though I haven’t personally inspected the Apple Music nor Spotify APIs, I’d be very surprised if they didn’t return the release date along with other album metadata.
While I agree that Sonos probably defaults to the order provided by the service in question, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to desire a different sort.
It’s not unreasonable to desire a different sort, however, Sonos have no control over this.
Any content displayed inside of a music service within the Sonos app is controlled by the service themselves. They decide which content to show and how it should be displayed.
In order to sort a list of X items, Sonos would have to download all X items first. Much more efficient to sort on the server (e.g. with a SQL query) than download everything then sort on the app.
With respect, let me reiterate, I do this for a living. I literally write iOS apps for my job.
From my perspective, there can only be a few reasons why this isn’t already happening:
With regard to your comment about server-side sorting, I agree. That’s why most APIs allow for you to dictate how you want to have your results returned. Most offer a sort facet, whether you want the results ascending or descending, and the number of results you wish to return. All of this is to specifically eliminate the client-side complications you enumerated.
While it’s not on the API side, Apple has a robust API for this on the client side in NSPredicate. So this isn’t new to them. Spotify aren’t dummies, so I have to assume they have similar affordances.
With respect, let me reiterate, I do this for a living. I literally write iOS apps for my job.
From my perspective, there can only be a few reasons why this isn’t already happening:
With regard to your comment about server-side sorting, I agree. That’s why most APIs allow for you to dictate how you want to have your results returned. Most offer a sort facet, whether you want the results ascending or descending, and the number of results you wish to return. All of this is to specifically eliminate the client-side complications you enumerated.
While it’s not on the API side, Apple has a robust API for this on the client side in NSPredicate. So this isn’t new to them. Spotify aren’t dummies, so I have to assume they have similar affordances.
The API isn't on the service side, it's on the Sonos side, and it is the service which implements their interface using the Sonos API. Your beef is with Spotify, Sonos couldn't change how Spotify implements their interface even if it wanted to.
I’m not sure here, as this looks like the display order is down to the MSP, rather than Sonos. I say that because if I take the example of the Artist ‘Zero 7’ and display their discography in the Sonos App, I see this result from the Sonos Deezer service, which appears to be in release date order…
That’s compared to the Deezer ‘Native’ App where I have used their available tools to sort the Albums (Live albums not included here) into release date order…
As you can perhaps see, it’s almost identical. So this maybe down to the way Apple or Spotify (whichever MSP you’re using) are choosing to show their own album data within Sonos.
The API isn't on the service side, it's on the Sonos side, and it is the service which implements their interface using the Sonos API. Your beef is with Spotify, Sonos couldn't change how Spotify implements their interface even if it wanted to.
I think you misunderstand me: my request is to sort by album within the Sonos app. Spotify does have an integration with Sonos, using the Sonos API in the Spotify app. However, inside the Sonos app, they are integrating with Spotify’s API.
Said differently:
Spotify app → Sonos API → control of Sonos speakers
Sonos app → >Spotify & Apple Music APIs] → retrieve Music
There absolutely are APIs on the service side — that’s how the music is retrieved by the Sonos app.
As you can perhaps see, it’s almost identical. So this maybe down to the way Apple or Spotify (whichever MSP you’re using) are choosing to show their own album data within Sonos.
It absolutely would not surprise me if this is the default sort, but as I said above, I’d be dumbfounded if there isn’t a bespoke API — or at the very least, enough metadata — to sort differently if the user wishes.
I think you misunderstand me: my request is to sort by album within the Sonos app. Spotify does have an integration with Sonos, using the Sonos API in the Spotify app. However, inside the Sonos app, they are integrating with Spotify’s API.
Said differently:
Spotify app → Sonos API → control of Sonos speakers
Sonos app → oSpotify & Apple Music APIs] → retrieve Music
There absolutely are APIs on the service side — that’s how the music is retrieved by the Sonos app.
You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. The UI in the Sonos app, and all calls to the services within that UI, are handled by the service developed integration using the Sonos Music API. I suggest you look here:
As I stated, your beef is with the service, Sonos couldn't change how a service implements their interface even if it wanted to.
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