If you use Tidal or Qobuz with your setup, this might interest you

[SonicOracle]

@SonicOracle where is free trial? Do I just proceed with purchase and the trial starts first before I am charged?
Sorry I am ignorant about these things.

Just go to sonicoracle.music and click login - you need to connect your Tidal/Qobuz/YouTube Music account and then you can create your free playlist
If you like what you see, you can then upgrade to premium

 

[barry59]

Just go to sonicoracle.music and click login - you need to connect your Tidal/Qobuz/YouTube Music account and then you can create your free playlist
If you like what you see, you can then upgrade to premium

Does this work with a tablet?

 

[SonicOracle]

Yes, it works with phone, tablet and desktop

 

[Chrispy]

If Spotify is working for you, stick with it. Sonic Oracle is built for Qobuz and Tidal users who want deeper discovery and hi-res playlists. If you ever make the jump, we'll be here.

Yes it does fine. Tried both Qobuz and Tidal and didn't like as much as spotify in several respects. It's a sideways move at best, tho.

 

[kemmler3D]

Thanks!
The thing is, algorithmic discovery is designed to keep you listening to what's safe and familiar. I built Sonic Oracle because I wanted the opposite.
I'm an audiophile with more music than you'd imagine, and I still find myself playing records I haven't touched in years. An amazing song comes on and I realize I had completely forgotten about it. Why do streaming apps never play those B-side tracks?
And that is basically my tool in a nutshell.

Give it a try and see if the results feel different from what you're used to.

Alessandro

That rings true to me. I actually miss the old days when Pandora would take your seed song and then get it fairly wrong after a while... many times it would introduce you to something good and new-to-you. The new algos are too good at coloring inside the lines and also play the same songs way too often.

 

[Soandso]

I'll be trying this out when get a chance this week. About depth of content I found disappointing differences between the Tidal and Qobuz libraries for their jazz selections.

Earlier this month when started my free month Qobuz trial and ported over my Tidal jazz playlists a surprising number of songs were not even found. And then there were transferred songs which showed up in a new Qobuz playlist clearly marked as not allowed to stream. Numerically the greatest lost coverage by Qobuz was for old jazz songs and even none for some legendary musicians. This comment's purpose is to suggest trialing SonicOracle for a jazz deep dive would be most appropriate via Tidal.

 

[babadono]

Just go to sonicoracle.music and click login - you need to connect your Tidal/Qobuz/YouTube Music account and then you can create your free playlist
If you like what you see, you can then upgrade to premium

Nope. Does not work.

 

[SonicOracle]

That rings true to me. I actually miss the old days when Pandora would take your seed song and then get it fairly wrong after a while... many times it would introduce you to something good and new-to-you. The new algos are too good at coloring inside the lines and also play the same songs way too often.

That's exactly it. The best discoveries happen when the system goes a little off-script. That's what the Adventurous setting is for, it pushes past the obvious connections and finds artists you'd never land on through a typical algorithm.

Also, I recently added track-level discovery. You can now seed a specific song instead of just an artist, so if you have one track that hits different from the rest of an album, you can explore from there.

Give it a spin and see what comes up.

 

[SonicOracle]

I'll be trying this out when get a chance this week. About depth of content I found disappointing differences between the Tidal and Qobuz libraries for their jazz selections.

Earlier this month when started my free month Qobuz trial and ported over my Tidal jazz playlists a surprising number of songs were not even found. And then there were transferred songs which showed up in a new Qobuz playlist clearly marked as not allowed to stream. Numerically the greatest lost coverage by Qobuz was for old jazz songs and even none for some legendary musicians. This comment's purpose is to suggest trialing SonicOracle for a jazz deep dive would be most appropriate via Tidal.

Great observation. Tidal and Qobuz have genuinely different catalogs, and it's especially noticeable with older jazz. Qobuz tends to have stronger classical and audiophile catalog coverage, but Tidal often carries more of the deep jazz back-catalog, particularly pre-1970s material.

Sonic Oracle works with both (and YouTube Music), so you can create the same playlist on whichever platform has better coverage for the genre you're exploring. For a jazz deep dive, Tidal is a solid choice... you'll likely get a fuller playlist from the same seed artist.

Would love to hear what you think when you give it a try.

 

[SonicOracle]

Nope. Does not work.

It does work. I need to see what you are seeing
If you want email me a screenshot at [email protected]

 

[Soandso]

… what you think when you give it a try.

1st try: based on O.P. definition of "essential" as "genre pure" I entered jazz's seminal amplified guitar musician Charlie Christian and pressed "discover." Here's the names which I then saw.

Question:
For a 2nd trial is there a setting where I can enter the names of maybe 5 or 10 early jazz guitarists from say the 1930s-1940s?

Below screenshots are the 1st trial selections I got in response. Historically Charlie Christian crossed the USA race barrier when Benny Goodman hired him so the playlist begins with Goodman recordings. The "vault" seems to have pivoted off of Goodman's genre before getting to guitarist Tal Farlow.

 

[babadono]

It does work. I need to see what you are seeing
If you want email me a screenshot at [email protected]

ok I'm sure it's me. I am an idiot when it comes to this kind of stuff. I get to the point where it says go back to Qobuz and click the musical notes but they are note there.

 

[babadono]

@SonicOracle All righty then....I missed a step...DUH....funny how everything looks better in the morning

 

[Soandso]

Question:
For a 2nd trial is there a setting where I can enter the names of maybe 5 or 10 early jazz guitarists from say the 1930s-1940s?

2nd trial results:

I tried to use the genre search set at "essential", typed in "jazz guitar" and then selected for the 1930s. Clicking on the yellow bar below the genre section that now said "Discover jazz guitar 30s" only took me to the subscription options webpage. Clicking on upper right yellow "Discover" bar also didn't engage the "vault" search for 1930s jazz guitar.

So I tried a different strategy where set for "essential" I typed into the search by artist field the well regarded jazz guitarist Dick McDonough who died in 1938 and engaged "discover". What the "vault" subsequently showed it worked up was only the 2 guitarists Eddie Lang and Carl Kress. However, it's resultant playlist only generated a total of five (5) songs, all of which only named Eddie Lang as the credited musician.

Upon checking with Tidal's own search engine by typing in just Dick McDonough and in another instance just Carl Kress I confirmed Tidal hosts at least 15 songs with musician credits for Dick McDonough and for Carl Kress who died in 1965 Tidal has credits for him in at least 30 songs.

 

[kyuu]

Gave it a try. First attempt was with one of my favorite electronic artists, Danger. Used the "archive" setting. The playlist that resulted... was uninspiring. Most of the artists that came up -- Navinsky, Overwork, Digitalism, Justice -- do not strike my fancy at all. They don't seem similar to Danger at all except that they are in the same genre. It did surface The Toxic Avenger, who I do love, but I already have them in my collection so that didn't really help me.

I'll probably try a couple other artists, but so far this isn't really seeming much better or different than what Tidal dredges up after I hit the end of a playlist/album. It may just be me -- so far, no algorithm or other human has been able to reliably point me to music I like. Turns out the only one reliable at finding music I like is me.

 

[SonicOracle]

Gave it a try. First attempt was with one of my favorite electronic artists, Danger. Used the "archive" setting. The playlist that resulted... was uninspiring. Most of the artists that came up -- Navinsky, Overwork, Digitalism, Justice -- do not strike my fancy at all. They don't seem similar to Danger at all except that they are in the same genre. It did surface The Toxic Avenger, who I do love, but I already have them in my collection so that didn't really help me.

I'll probably try a couple other artists, but so far this isn't really seeming much better or different than what Tidal dredges up after I hit the end of a playlist/album. It may just be me -- so far, no algorithm or other human has been able to reliably point me to music I like. Turns out the only one reliable at finding music I like is me.

Appreciate you trying it and being straight about the results. That's the kind of feedback that actually helps.

One thing worth trying: the depth slider makes a big difference. Essential keeps results tight to the specific style and era, while Balanced and Adventurous cast a wider net. For an artist like Danger where the sub-genre really matters, Essential should give you the closest matches.

Electronic is one of the harder genres for any discovery tool because the sub-genre distinctions (synthwave vs French electro vs electroclash) are subtle but matter a lot to listeners. It's something I'm actively refining.

If you give it another shot, I'd be curious to hear if adjusting the depth changes the results for you.

 

[SonicOracle]

@SonicOracle All righty then....I missed a step...DUH....funny how everything looks better in the morning

Glad you figured it out ! I hope you'll enjoy it

 

[SonicOracle]

1st try: based on O.P. definition of "essential" as "genre pure" I entered jazz's seminal amplified guitar musician Charlie Christian and pressed "discover." Here's the names which I then saw.

View attachment 552862

Question:
For a 2nd trial is there a setting where I can enter the names of maybe 5 or 10 early jazz guitarists from say the 1930s-1940s?

Below screenshots are the 1st trial selections I got in response. Historically Charlie Christian crossed the USA race barrier when Benny Goodman hired him so the playlist begins with Goodman recordings. The "vault" seems to have pivoted off of Goodman's genre before getting to guitarist Tal Farlow.

View attachment 552871View attachment 552872View attachment 552873View attachment 552874

You're right. Charlie Christian's strongest connections run through Benny Goodman (who hired him), so Essential follows that path into the swing/big band world rather than staying on jazz guitar. Tal Farlow showing up is the guitar thread surfacing, but he's competing with Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, and Gene Krupa for slots.

For a tighter jazz guitar result, try seeding with a slightly later guitarist like Wes Montgomery or Django Reinhardt. Their connection maps skew more toward other guitarists rather than bandleaders.

Multi-artist seed (entering 5-10 guitarists at once) isn't available yet but it's on the roadmap. For now, the closest workaround is creating separate playlists for different seed guitarists and merging them in your library.

 

[SonicOracle]

2nd trial results:

I tried to use the genre search set at "essential", typed in "jazz guitar" and then selected for the 1930s. Clicking on the yellow bar below the genre section that now said "Discover jazz guitar 30s" only took me to the subscription options webpage. Clicking on upper right yellow "Discover" bar also didn't engage the "vault" search for 1930s jazz guitar.

So I tried a different strategy where set for "essential" I typed into the search by artist field the well regarded jazz guitarist Dick McDonough who died in 1938 and engaged "discover". What the "vault" subsequently showed it worked up was only the 2 guitarists Eddie Lang and Carl Kress. However, it's resultant playlist only generated a total of five (5) songs, all of which only named Eddie Lang as the credited musician.

Upon checking with Tidal's own search engine by typing in just Dick McDonough and in another instance just Carl Kress I confirmed Tidal hosts at least 15 songs with musician credits for Dick McDonough and for Carl Kress who died in 1965 Tidal has credits for him in at least 30 songs.

The genre search feature does requires a subscription, which is why it redirected. I should make that clearer in the UI rather than just bouncing to the pricing page.

On Dick McDonough: the 5-track result is a real limitation with pre-war jazz. The engine found the right connections (Eddie Lang and Carl Kress are exactly who should show up for a McDonough seed), but the track coverage for 1930s artists in the catalog is thin. The gap between what Tidal hosts (15+ McDonough, 30+ Kress tracks) and what ended up in the playlist (5 Eddie Lang) comes down to how tracks get matched across databases for artists from that era. Title spellings, performer credits, and catalog metadata from the 1930s are inconsistent across sources, so matches get lost.

This is an area I'm working on improving, particularly for pre-war and early jazz where the metadata quality drops off. Your feedback helps me prioritize it. For now, the engine performs best with artists from the 1950s onward where catalog data is more consistent.

 

[dfuller]

How much of this was built with Claude? It looks like every other vibe coded app ever.