Plexamp uses metadata such as star ratings in generating radio stations and mixes. For example, it seems to exclude tracks rated less than 2 stars for mixes and tracks rated less than 3 stars from radio. It also weights a track’s chance of being in a mix or radio based on star rating.
This is on the right track, but has several problems:
- Behaviour is not consistent across radio, mix, shuffle.
- Behaviour is undocumented.
- Bahaviour is not configurable.
- Different people use ratings etc. differently.
- Handling of unrated tracks is undefined. How should an unrated track rate vs. a 3-star track for preference?
- Does not allow for preference/weighting by other criteria such as track length, track year, genre etc.
I propose a feature for Plexamp which puts the power in the hands of the user.
- When an autoskip profile is selected, only the primary selection criteria decides what is in or out. (e.g. playlist, mood, mix type, genre, station) Otherwise choice of tracks is completely flat across the library.
- User can load an “autoskip profile” that acts as a kind of “on the fly” filter for the play queue.
- The autoskip profile defines a probability of skip based on the values of a metata variable.
e.g.
unrated: 50% chance of skip
1-star: 100% chance of skip.
2-star: 50% chance of skip
3-star and above: 0% chance of skip.
Another example: The “Slick Radio” station chooses music that mostly ranges from R&B through Hip Hop. I like the urban beat but am not a big fan of Hip Hop. So I could load an autoskip profile that gave a 75% skip rate to tracks where track genre was Hip Hop or Hip-hop.
Or: I could have a criterion in the profile that makes it progressively more likely that a track be skipped as the track gets longer.
The app could be installed with a default autoskip profile that matches current behaviour.
