I like both concepts, and I see them as two completely different things.
Cloudplay is a music sharing service, where I can search through what other people like, and listen to the music I choose.
Cloudplay expands my range of available music, with quite some control. I'm not really an audiophile, so this is good for me. Discovery is one of the most difficult things to achieve. It drives whole industries. So listening to what other people like, and refining while still expanding what I like, is much appreciated. I do think that the search functions need to be significantly improved, particularly as the volume of playlists increases. I'm not sure exactly what I want with search, but it wouldn't be just Genre search, and just clicking on each users and looking at their playlists is getting old already. I would like some more intelligence in it. Perhaps a "tracks like this one" feature, calling on external metadata to fulfill that request. As Cloudplay is server based, and exists in one location, all that sort of processing can happen in one place, rather than being replicated on every PC. That would probably have implications for metadata licencing as well; one service at one location doing the analysis for a list building feature.
I'm currently listening to Wmhess' "Beethoven - 5 Concertos" playlist. Nice.
Radio JRiver is an internet radio station, so I just get what is being offered, like any other radio station. Although I can, of course, select which station I want to play.
I would like to see Radio JRiver "stations" become more of "listening style" source of music. While I might take note of particular tracks and seek to learn more about them or the artist, I tend to do that less often with Radio JRiver, which has been static for some time. It is good that Cloudplay will be a source of new material for Radio JRiver. There is a lot of competition in the internet radio market, and most others are very well curated sources. I'm not sure how JRiver will compete with that, other than the audio is processed by MC, which is a big advantage, and there are no commercials, although many internet radio stations have few commercials.
I think Play Doctor style functionality belongs in one or both features. Probably not in Radio JRiver, because it is an internet radio, and hence content is fixed. But maybe in Cloudplay, and maybe it could be used to build dynamic playlists.
I've been somewhat frustrated by the apparent lack of overall design and organic growth in both features. Both started at a very low level of functionality, and are progressing quite slowly, with lots of "Oops, we broke it" moments. Sure, that is JRiver's development philosophy, but it is still frustrating. I guess this thread might lead to some more designed-in features.
I haven't supported these features financially yet, because I don't consider them delivered products or services. They are still a novelty. Experimental. Maybe post Beta, but definitely not complete. When I can rely on them, and have a greater range of music to choose from, then I may provide some support. Honestly, I'm not sure if the listener supported financial model is any more viable than the streaming services that have fallen by the wayside.
