Multiple Music Libraries on Sonos System

[jamescocker]

Hello,

I am currently in the process of buying a house, in which I expect to install Sonos with approximately 7 zones.

My wife and I have separate music collections, which we wish to play over the system, however we do not wish to merge them together.

Currently, we have an Apple TV plugged into the TV and amplifier, which we use to play music. My music collection is stored on the Apple TV, and my wife is able to play hers via the streaming function on the Apple TV. This allows us to keep our collections separate, and also browse them completely separately.

I am trying to establish whether something similar to this is possible with the Sonos system. I understand that we can have separate folders for our music on the NAS, but I am not sure what the implications of this would be for browsing from a Sonos controller or iPhone.

Any insight would be much appreciated. Please bear in mind I haven't bought the Sonos yet, and therefore am not overly familiar with the intricacies of the interface.

Many thanks.

[buzz]

jamescocker,

First post! Welcome to the forums.

The SONOS library is built by connecting to the music shares. Up to 16 shares can be defined. Once defined, an indexing routine is run that builds a composite library index. In case of duplicate tracks, the user has no control over which track will be included. Only the track tag information is used to build the main library index, file names are ignored.

As such, both of your libraries will be seamlessly merged in the index. It is possible, however, to view the library as files. This is known as Folders view. Here, the tracks are sorted in file/folder, track number, or track name order (your choice). In Folders view, there is no concept of artist or genre unless this is part of your file/folder structure.

There is a second option, if the pair of you tend to listen in separate areas. At the initial system deployment, there is a registration process that bands the SONOS components together into a "Household". The original concept was to keep neighbors separate. If you cleverly partition the seven zones into "his" and "hers" systems, while they are distinct from a library index and control perspective, they can share the same physical network. Many of us use this sort of arrangement to partition his and hers or parents and kids. Note that a given controller will control one system or the other, but there is a relatively painless procedure that can flip a controller in about a minute.

You could move some files around to create a third, common share. One system would link "his" and "common", the other would link "hers" and "common" shares.

Another use for this partitioning method is to define a "seasonal" share to remove off season clutter.

[jamescocker]

buzz,

Thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately it won't be practicable to have separate zones for myself and my wife, so we need another solution.

If we use folders view, would it be possible to have one library as the "main" Sonos library (viewable in the conventional artist/album/genre format), and another library viewed only in folder view, and arranged with a folder for each artist (which is how we typically browse for music)? That way, my music collection (which we use most) would be the default library for Sonos, but my wife's would be accessible on an ad hoc basis using the folders feature. Also, what is the UI for the folders view like using the CR200.

Alternatively, is there a way to have two indexes - mine and hers - and just switch between the two?

Thanks.

[WeePee]

SONOS is a single view system. You can't give authorizations and you can't organize your music library with the help of SONOS-functions .... because SONOS doesn't change anything of your installation and doesn't write anything to your installation.

If you want to separate music collections you have to think of doing one of the following alternatives:

1) Separate SONOS installations
2) Separate folders for separate music ... so you can have different views in the folder view
3) If you want to have different views in the tags view (interpret, album, etc) you have to prefix or suffix your music tags.

Kind regards
W.

[buzz]

jamescocker,

Unfortunately, there is only one library index.

A typical Folders view would be similar to:

//commonShare/music
  Artist#1
    Album#1
      track 01
      track 02
      ...
    Album#2
      ...
  Artist#2
      ...
//herShare/music
  Artist#1
    Album#1
      track 01
      track 02
      ...
  Artist#2
  ...
//hisShare/music
   Artist#1
   ...

Note that I am showing a fully expanded tree. Initially one starts with the three shares, selecting a share opens that branch of the tree. While this is not a glorious way to search a library it is workable.

[ratty]

Originally Posted by jamescocker

If we use folders view, would it be possible to have one library as the "main" Sonos library (viewable in the conventional artist/album/genre format), and another library viewed only in folder view, and arranged with a folder for each artist (which is how we typically browse for music)? That way, my music collection (which we use most) would be the default library for Sonos, but my wife's would be accessible on an ad hoc basis using the folders feature.

There is another way to substructure the index, and I use this for classical works. It requires a little bit of tag editing, but a bulk tag editor like Mp3tag can do this with ease.

For tracks in the "secondary" library:

• create an ALBUMARTIST tag containing a fixed value - in my case this is 'Classical' (as shown, in single quotes)
• set a suitable value in the COMPOSER tag, perhaps by simply copying the ARTIST tag - in my case it is the actual composer

After re-indexing, tell Sonos to group using ALBUMARTIST for compilations.

The result is that:

• in the Artist view all the "secondary" library albums are grouped under the single ALBUMARTIST value used. BTW I use a quoted value ('Classical') to push it to the top of the sort order.
• in the Composer view, all the "secondary" library albums appear under the appropriate value, i.e. ARTIST if that value was copied into the COMPOSER tag. One can also search on "Composer".

If one wishes to have a combined view by ARTIST of both "main" and "secondary" libraries, then the Contributing Artists view can provide this.

HTH

[jamescocker]

Thanks to all for your replies.

Is it possible to have music available in folder view which is NOT included in the main Sonos index? This would allow me to have my music in the main index, and my wife's accessible in folder view without the two being merged.

Thanks.

[buzz]

jamescocker,

No, there is only one index with different views.

---

OK, this is really gross, but you could strip all of the tags from her music. At that point, her music would not appear in the usual library branches, but it would be available in Folders view. I do recommend backing up her library before trying this approach. I don't know how she will feel being a second class citizen.

[David*Knight]

Hi all

This is exactly the same issue I have with the single indexing of multiple libraries, so I wondered if there have been any developments over the last couple of years. My wife's music is a mess of metadata and so I would ideally like to keep the two separate.

One option I have considered is that her entire music collection will fit on an iPod, so if I buy the sonos iPod dock is that another way of keeping her music library separate but accessible. Will the Sonos controller software see all of her music as if it was an indexed library with the iPod plugged in?

I know I could suggest she tidies up her music information data...

[ratty]

Originally Posted by David*Knight

I wondered if there have been any developments over the last couple of years.

Not on the library/index side of things, no.

One option I have considered is that her entire music collection will fit on an iPod, so if I buy the sonos iPod dock is that another way of keeping her music library separate but accessible. Will the Sonos controller software see all of her music as if it was an indexed library with the iPod plugged in?

Music on the docked iDevice doesn't show up in the main library index. It has a separate top level branch on the Music Menu, and you can then drill down using the in-built browsing features of the iDevice itself. In essence one uses the Sonos controller to remotely drive the iDevice, and then to direct its audio output stream.