Playlists Vs. Genres -- Why Different Menu Options

I don't think it is an oversight, nor that there is anything to fix. 'Genres' are more like radio stations than playlists, and the Sonos queue is not used when playing genres.

(For comparison. if you look under 'My Radio Stations' and tap the three dots, the only option is 'Add to My Sonos'.)

That's not helpful. Many people play their music by genre (radio stations for example, most of which play more than one specific genre). So being able to create your queue or add a genre to your current queue would definitely be useful. I'm not suggesting some people don't only want to play their playlists every single time and never add an artist or genre to an existing queue. But many people, myself included, would like to be able to add a genre or artist to an existing queue. So back to my point, it seems like it would be quite simple to add functionality for those people who did want to use it. John B obviously not in that group with his expansive playlist options.

That's not helpful. Many people play their music by genre (radio stations for example, most of which play more than one specific genre). So being able to create your queue or add a genre to your current queue would definitely be useful. I'm not suggesting some people don't only want to play their playlists every single time and never add an artist or genre to an existing queue. But many people, myself included, would like to be able to add a genre or artist to an existing queue. So back to my point, it seems like it would be quite simple to add functionality for those people who did want to use it. John B obviously not in that group with his expansive playlist options.Don't know why I bothered to try to explain the difference in fundamental nature of the two things. Believe what you like. This won't change, you just don't understand.

That's not helpful. Many people play their music by genre (radio stations for example, most of which play more than one specific genre). So being able to create your queue or add a genre to your current queue would definitely be useful. I'm not suggesting some people don't only want to play their playlists every single time and never add an artist or genre to an existing queue. But many people, myself included, would like to be able to add a genre or artist to an existing queue. So back to my point, it seems like it would be quite simple to add functionality for those people who did want to use it. John B obviously not in that group with his expansive playlist options.Don't know why I bothered to try to explain the difference in fundamental nature of the two things. Believe what you like. This won't change, you just don't understand.

Perhaps you don't understand what I'd like to accomplish, but no need to be condescending when you can't help. Maybe somebody else here can help, but thanks for your thoughts.

Is there somebody from the Sonos staff that might be able to help? When viewing my library by premade "playlists," I have a lot of functionality in the menu (such as "play next", "add to end of queue", etc., but when viewing by genre or artist, I don't see that same functionality (I only get "add to my Sonos"). I would like to be able to add a genre of music or music by an artist to my queue the same way I can add a premade playlist to my queue. Obviously the functionality already exists, so I hope that's something they can look into.

Assuming that the genre is tagged in a meaningful way (and nothing stops the same artist being flagged as different genres across different albums), there's the intended/possible use-cases to consider. Genres are like filters. They help narrow down your selection to an artist/album/song, but is just "playing everything of genre X" useful? Especially if it's not a niche genre? If you were to play everything marked as "rock" from your local library, that might be thousands of tracks. Sonos has a finite amount of memory, so there's a maximum queue size. Now imagine you try to play (or queue up for shuffling) every "rock" song from your chosen streaming service. There might be some technical constraints behind limiting what you can do while browsing a genre.

Although, at least on desktop controller / local library, I can keep browsing down through a genre until I get to a list of all tracks for a genre (alphabetically by track title), and fill the queue with lots of noisy "industrial" songs...

It is a community board, @FTT. If you want to talk to Sonos, talk to Sonos.

Are you sure when in google play you don't get an option to add to My Sonos. You should. I don't have google play to test but I know in some services you have to scroll down and hit more.


I'm in Spotify Music right now and if I hit the ... the 2nd option is add to My Sonos.

In apple music the first option is Add Playlist to My Sonos

You do get an option to Add to My Sonos, just as you do for radio. The OP's complaint was that was the only option, with no 'Add to Queue' etc. As I pointed out, that is because, with good reason, the queue is not used for radio stations or genres, but he judged that explanation unhelpful.

In the local library, individual artist or genre containers have an 'All' option to handle all the tracks in that container (in ascending alphabetical order). If Google Music doesn't then it's presumably a shortcoming of the way the service presents itself to Sonos.

As genre is available as metadata, I don't see why some users wouldn't want to be able to add music of a certain genre - just like others add it by album, artist or whatever.
Alan_6 seems to think all users should treat the idea of a genre 'filter' as he does and not how they wish to use it. It's metadata in the same sense as Artist, album etc. etc...
If Google haven't implemented it this way then that's probably an issue with their side as opposed to Sonos's.

As genre is available as metadata, I don't see why some users wouldn't want to be able to add music of a certain genre - just like others add it by album, artist or whatever.
Alan_6 seems to think all users should treat the idea of a genre 'filter' as he does and not how they wish to use it. It's metadata in the same sense as Artist, album etc. etc...
If Google haven't implemented it this way then that's probably an issue with their side as opposed to Sonos's.

To clarify (and I thought I had), different people will have different uses for genre classification, whether it's a really common genre (eg. "Rock") or a niche genre (eg. "Djent" or any of the hundreds of rock/metal sub-genres). If you find value in asking Sonos to "play all rock songs", go for it. If using a genre as a starting point to get to your next album/artist/etc listening choice works, that's cool too.

But there may be actual reasons why Sonos and/or selected services might struggle to offer you an infinite set of "all rock songs".

Are you sure when in google play you don't get an option to add to My Sonos. You should. I don't have google play to test but I know in some services you have to scroll down and hit more.


I'm in Spotify Music right now and if I hit the ... the 2nd option is add to My Sonos.

In apple music the first option is Add Playlist to My Sonos

No, I don't get this option in Google Music. It may be specific to Apple. In any case, it's not exactly what I'm trying to accomplish. To create a music queue while in Sonos (not a saved playlist, just a queue for that listening session), I'd like to be able to add a group of songs. I can do it with my premade playlists, but I can't a genre or music from a specific artist to the queue. It appears it'd be easy as the functionality already exists for playlists, so Sonos could just add that same functionality to genres and artists.

Any feedback from Sonos on this?

As genre is available as metadata, I don't see why some users wouldn't want to be able to add music of a certain genre - just like others add it by album, artist or whatever.
Alan_6 seems to think all users should treat the idea of a genre 'filter' as he does and not how they wish to use it. It's metadata in the same sense as Artist, album etc. etc...
If Google haven't implemented it this way then that's probably an issue with their side as opposed to Sonos's.

Agreed, SJW. And it seems a little pointless to question how we want to create our music libraries and play them. We all have our own preferences for doing that.

Going back to my original point, Sonos could enable their users with more options if they added the same functionality they give to playlists to genres and artists.

Again (as relates to Google Music), looking at a playlist, I get menu options to add that playlist to a queue, play next, etc. But if I'm looking at a genre or artist, I don't get any of that functionality (I only get the option to add to my Sonos). Why doesn't Sonos add the same menu options they give to playlists to genres and artists?

Agreed, SJW. And it seems a little pointless to question how we want to create our music libraries and play them. We all have our own preferences for doing that.

Going back to my original point, Sonos could enable their users with more options if they added the same functionality they give to playlists to genres and artists.

Again (as relates to Google Music), looking at a playlist, I get menu options to add that playlist to a queue, play next, etc. But if I'm looking at a genre or artist, I don't get any of that functionality (I only get the option to add to my Sonos). Why doesn't Sonos add the same menu options they give to playlists to genres and artists?

Sonos has nothing to do with it. Each service creates their own interface within the Sonos app using SMAPI (Sonos Music Application Programming Interface). If there is no add by genre/artist functionality in Google Play Music, it is because Google either can't do it on their side, or they chose not to put it in the app. This is why some music services have it, and Google Play Music does not. Either way, while bringing it up here may do some good, going direct to the source by lobbying Google Play Music will be far more effective in getting the features you wish.

For more on SMAPI and the Sonos Music Partners program, see these links:

https://musicpartners.sonos.com/?q=node/21

https://musicpartners.sonos.com/node/72