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Robert Ward
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Until recently when I did a general search for Jazz Ensemble or Concert Band selections the results showed up alphabetically. Now the results are sorted by some other (not obvious) heading and clicking on "Title" has no effect.There is no option to sort by different headings. Is there something else I need to do or a setting I need to change? 

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  • Avatar
    Chad Mathis (he/him/his)
    Official comment

    Hello everyone,

    To anyone watching this thread, I'm excited to share that we've just released an update that reintroduced the ability to sort when searching the MakeMusic Cloud music catalog! As shown in the screenshot, the sorting options include:

    • Relevance
    • Popularity
    • Title A - Z
    • Title Z - A
    • Recently Added

    Edited by Chad Mathis (he/him/his)
  • Avatar
    Jack Wise
    1

    Same thing happening to me.  I first blamed it on my older desktop, but upon trying it on my much newer laptop, the same!  The search engine seems to work, for example I searched works by Brian Balmages. Again, those came up in mixed order of no discernable pattern.  I have been much irritated by the lack of page number/page choosing after making a search for a certain level of solos or concert pieces so that I can review an area for teaching purposes.  With no navigation choices, you have to guess and then click through pages to find where you want to be, or left off from the last time.  WITH NO ALPHA SORTING, TRYING TO REVIEW ITEMS IS SO TIME WASTEFUL AS TO BE MEANINGLESS!!!

  • Avatar
    Jack Wise
    1

    Followup:  Can't blame it on the browser, I can open SmartMusic in Safari, and the search results are in jumbled order as well.  SmartMusic, slow down your piece acquisition and get you software act together!

  • Avatar
    Chad Mathis (he/him/his)
    0

    Hi Robert,

    We recently released an update that improves SmartMusic’s ability to return relevant results when combining keywords. The first phase of this work temporarily disabled the ability to sort search results. The current default sorting is a combination of relevancy to the search query and popularity of the titles. So while it’s not currently possible to sort by title, the product team has confirmed that we’ll restore this ability in a future update. I’m afraid I don’t have a timeline on that release, but please know it’s on the roadmap!

    Chad Mathis
    Manager, MakeMusic Customer Support

    Edited by Chad Mathis (he/him/his)
  • Avatar
    Jack Wise
    0

    Nice to have a reply, but where was the notification that would have warned us and saved all of us wasted time?

  • Avatar
    Trent Ballew
    2

    Sorting results is a fundamental feature of any site that has a large list of items - this is web 101.  Really surprised this feature was removed; sounds like poor feature planning to me to add advanced features at the expense of elementary ones.  Please add it back asap.

  • Avatar
    Chad Mathis (he/him/his)
    0

    I agree with Trent that sorting is key for any dealing with a long list of search results.

    It's unfortunate that implementing these other important improvements to our search came at the cost of temporarily losing the ability to sort. While I still don't have a firm timeline to give you on when we'll have the ability to sort, I've confirmed once again that it's on the roadmap for our team to add back soon.

    I've also shared the feedback of Jack and others with our team. I agree that a change like this warranted a notification, and I'm always interested in feedback that can help us improve how we communicate with our customers!

    Chad Mathis
    Manager, MakeMusic Customer Support

  • Avatar
    Jack Wise
    0

    I think it is unfortunate that sorting by popularity is even involved in this, or took priority over an ordered sorting.  This is not the only area that this is involved.  Go back to your set of filters and when you choose an instrument from that set, it does not overrule the setting for your basic instrument, even though the new filter choice is what you want to see.  The importance of this for teachers is that clicking through the setup for each piece you are reviewing takes time.  You have to do it for every piece unless the music piece is only for the instrument you selected, which is not the case very often.  As a teacher, when I select for flute, I want to see the flute selections, transpositions, and arrangements.  Why have to sort each selection a second time?  This is another sign that non-musicians have a hand in the coding/selection within whatever you are calling yourselves at this time.

    Edited by Jack Wise
  • Avatar
    Steve Herrick
    1

    I tend to agree with most...not being able to alphabetize song titles in a real disadvantage for my work! 

  • Avatar
    Lorrina Allred
    1

    When you are exploring, you can't even see pages of titles you have looked at.  Since the titles are not listed in alphabetical order, all you see are forward and backward arrows with a list of a few hundred pieces.  No idea where you are in the list, so unless you look at the ALL the pieces in one sitting, it really is impossible to puruse  the music titles which makes the whole "Explore" feature kind of pointless. 

  • Avatar
    Jack Wise
    0

    Lorrina, not only can you not see them, they are going to change, and have, because they are sorted by usage and popularity, and dare I paranoidly say it, probably by some advertising choices as well.  I wish there was another company with this kind of software, but doing it right.  I would be there in a heartbeat.  The latest expansion of the individual listings doesn't make sense, either.  You have to scroll and scroll to get to the bottom of the page, just to go to the next page.  And why?  Did they need to have larger icons of the arrangement folders for people to see?  They didn't make the information any more accurate(Various for some composers?), or make the difficulty listing any better defined, orange dots for three different levels.  C'mon, use the numbers and it will save a little bit of coding.

  • Avatar
    Trent Ballew
    0

    Thank you for fixing this!  It's unfortunate that it was removed unnecessarily, but nice to see that you are listening to and acting on user feedback.

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