Skip to main content
Ok, this isn't a formulated or considered question, nore have I really looked for a solution?! - its just something that's bothering me... I wonder if anyone else has the same issue or a solution??!!



With the invent of online music services - putting literally every artist and album at a couple of clicks away - I'm struggling to remember what to listen to and over the years have found my musical listening menu shrink and stagnate.

I grew up with the invent of the CD - prior to MP3 players and Sonos - I had various piles of CDs - broadly speaking, 3 piles at all times:

1.) CDs I was in the process of listening to (and too lazy to take back to the rack)

2.) CDs I'd just bought (again, stacked next to the CD player)

3.) The full rack of CDs where everything else was tidied into.



So my listening history had some kind of physical order. And the beauty being, this had some kind of order. As I thought about things, CDs migrated from the rack to the 'listening to' pile and back.

I'm now finding with everything on tap all at once, I'm struggling to see the wood for the trees. There are always different bands and albums going on around in my head but as soon as I'm in front of Sonos and go to the search feature - invariably - I've forgotten all those vague thoughts, sit there light a rabbit caught between the headlights before setting on something I've listened to a thousand times before.



I have a reasonable size music library (~4000 albums), Spotify and Napster - I also listen to Spotify and Napter on the go. Has anyone got a decent solution to identifying a list of current or interesting albums - I presume this would be in Sonos - but I don't mind a list anywhere - napster/spotify mobile apps etc..

Its not a playlist and not a favourite but a "don't forget to listen to this..." type folder.



As I say, I've not really thought about what I think i'm missing or need but know there is something wrong...

Just me?

Or anyone else?
One way I keep track of what I listen to is through iTunes. Because I don't use the BPM field, I use this to represent my listening patterns- e.g 1= Not listened too, 2= Need to listen to again, 3= won't ever listen to that again, etc.

I then create a smart playlist to identify the separate BPMs.

I then get Sonos to display my imported playlists.



Works fine, but depends whether you care for iTunes much.
My solution, that may solve a part of your problem.



I have a lot of excellent jazz in a playlist of some 5000 tracks. I keep it in front all the time, in random shuffled mode, using just the play/pause buttons.



This way I end up beating the 80/20 pattern of listening to less than 20% of my music more than 80% of the time.