Skip to main content

Plex’s Super Sonic neural A.I. analyzes your music to find hidden connections

Despite the huge influence of streaming music services like Spotify and Apple Music, there are still many folks who spend a lot of time listening to music they’ve purchased and stored digitally on their computers. For those people, Plex is offering a new way for them to discover musical connections within their own collections. Launching today, Super Sonic is a new feature included with a Plex Pass subscription ($5 per month, $40 per year). Plex says it performs a neural A.I. analysis on all of the tracks in your library and uses that information to build “sonically similar” lists.

Plex Super Sonic sonically similar artists.
Plex

One example given is if you happen to own Taylor Swift’s two most recent albums. Because they sound really different from many of the artist’s previous recordings, you might be surprised to learn that they’re sonically similar to music by Lana Del Rey. The system can find sonic matches for artists, albums, and tracks within your music library. Plex claims that because its matching process is based on dozens of data points from each song, as opposed to recommendation engines on music services that are typically based on the listening patterns of their customers, it can reveal matches even among your most obscure indie favorites.

Recommended Videos

In another example, it turns out that Neil Young’s Mirror Ball is a sonic match for Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy.

Plex Super Sonic sonically similar albums.
Plex

Super Sonic requires a Plex Media Server installation on a Mac, PC, or Linux machine. Because of the complexity and intensity of the neural A.I. process, it can place a fairly heavy burden on your machine’s CPU and Plex even warns your machine might get quite hot while the initial database is created. For that reason, it doesn’t support Super Sonic on Plex Servers running on ARM-based machines like NAS drives or the Nvidia Shield TV.

You’ll also need to use the company’s Plexamp music client for playback. All of the sonically similar matches are presented within the Plexamp interface and won’t be visible within the regular Plex web client or Plex clients for popular streaming devices like Roku or Apple TV.

Plex is also using the Super Sonic dataset to replace its deactivated Plex Mix feature with several new options like Track Radio, Album Radio, and Mixes For You, which builds playlists based on your most-played music, interspersed with sonically similar selections that you might not play as frequently.

Unfortunately, Super Sonic may face limitations as a music discovery tool. Because it only works with music in your library, if you don’t own the Taylor Swift albums referenced above and some Lana Del Rey tracks, the system won’t be able to perform that match. Likewise, should you own every album in Swift’s discography, it’s unlikely that Del Rey would show up as a sonically similar artist because that match is really only applicable to Swift’s most recent albums and tracks.

So even if your favorite K-Pop band might sound a lot like one of the popular boy bands from the 90s, unless you own both, Super Sonic won’t help you discover that connection. This is true even if you’ve got a subscription to Tidal, currently the only streaming music service that can be integrated directly into the Plex interface.

Its possible Plex could substantially expand Super Sonic’s capabilities, but to do so, it would likely need to partner with a music service or record labels to acquire the data it needs to perform matches that live outside of a Plex user’s personal library.

For more on what Plex is, how it works, and how you can use it to organize and access your movies, TV shows, music, and photos from anywhere in the world, check out our full Plex explainer.

Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen is a contributing editor to Digital Trends' Audio/Video section, where he obsesses over the latest wireless…
Qobuz Connect launches with Denon, Marantz, and more than 50 other hi-fi brands
Qobuz Connect.

Fans of Qobuz, the France-based subscription music service that specializes in lossless, hi-res audio, now have a new way of streaming their favorite tracks to their favorite devices. Qobuz Connect has been added to the company's iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows apps, letting them control compatible streaming speakers and components from a big list of hi-fi brands.

Most folks will recognize names like Denon and Marantz -- every device made by these brands that work with the HEOS streaming software are now Qobuz Connect compatible -- but the list also includes niche hi-fi players, such as Rotel, Nagra, HiFi Rose, Lindemann, Wiim, and Volumio. Here's the entire list.

Read more
Sony’s WH-1000XM6 debut with better ANC, a folding hinge, and a higher price
Sony WH-1000XM6.

After multiple leaks, there wasn't much left for Sony to announce, but nonetheless, today it's official: Sony's WH-1000XM6 are here and as expected, they feature a generous number of upgrades from the WH-1000XM5, including a new metal folding hinge that's designed to be both more durable and more flexible. The new XM6 comes in three colors: black, midnight blue, and Sony's strangely named platinum silver (which is actually an off-white, sandy color seen here). They're priced at $450 in the U.S., a $50 increase over the XM5 that appears partially tariff-driven, given their $599 Canadian dollar price (about $428 U.S.). They're available starting today at major online retailers and sony.com.

Sony took a bit of criticism for it fold-flat design of the WH-1000XM5, which some viewed as less travel friendly. The XM6 is a clever response to those concerns -- Sony has kept the XM5's sleek lines while adding in that missing second degree of motion in the hinge. It has also reduced the size of the travel case and given it a quick release magnetic closure instead of the usual zipper.

Read more
I spent 48 hours with Sony’s WH-1000XM6 and I don’t want to give them back
Sony WH-1000XM6.

Sony’s new flagship noise-cancelling wireless headphones are a combination of upgrades I’d been hoping for and a few changes I didn’t even know I wanted. The result is a set of cans that feel instantly familiar yet entirely new. That’s no small feat when the product you’re following has been topping best headphones lists for years. At $450, they're also the most expensive of the 1000X series so far.

My evaluation loaner showed up later than expected, so I’m not ready to give the WH-1000XM6 the full review treatment. However, with two days of use, I can give you my first impressions, which are very favorable. Sony has clearly done it again.

Read more