Getting more out of it
Building a Flow Around One Decade
A Flow built around one era is a genuinely good use case, and it has one gotcha that catches everyone: the year range applies to the Focus source only. If you leave other sources enabled, your 1980s Flow will still contain recent tracks.
How the year range actually behaves
The year range is a Focus setting. Focus looks outside your library for matches, so the range filters what it finds there. Discover, Library and Trending ignore it entirely.
While a range is set, Focus skips tracks whose release year is unknown rather than guessing. That is deliberate: an unknown year cannot be assumed to be in range.
| Range entered | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1980 to 1989 | That decade only |
| 2020 to blank | 2020 and later |
| Blank to 2000 | 2000 and earlier |
| 1975 to 1985 | An arbitrary window across decades |
Getting it right: give Focus the whole share
If your 1980s Flow contains modern tracks, Discover or Trending is contributing. Either turn them off, or set Focus to a very high share so the other sources only fill a small remainder.
Library is the other one to consider. It deliberately uses artists you own, which is usually right for a themed Flow since you built the collection for it.
- Focus alone: every track comes from outside your library, year-filtered.
- Focus plus Library: themed Flow weighted towards what you already own of that era.
- Focus plus Discover: loosens the year guarantee, since Discover ignores the range.
Combining a year range with tags
Tags plus a year range is where Focus becomes precise. Ambient plus 1980 to 1990 is a very specific request, and the eight-step widening means it will find common matches first before relaxing either constraint.
Be aware of the relaxation order: with both tags and related artists set, Focus relaxes tag matches and artist matches independently, so you may end up with a year-constrained result that loosened on genre.
Using related artists instead of tags
For a decade theme, related artists often work better than tags. Three artists you love from 1985 will pull in their 1980s neighbours more reliably than a genre tag, which crosses eras.
Give Focus both: the artists for precision, the decade tag for the floor.
A worked example
For a 1990s hip-hop Flow: Focus source only, tags set to hip hop and rap, related artists set to three artists you already like, year range 1990 to 1999, Flow size 30, weekly. Deep Dive on so the biggest names contribute something other than their singles.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my decade Flow contain recent tracks?
Because Discover, Trending and Library ignore the year range. Only Focus honours it. Give Focus the whole share, or turn the other sources off.
What happens to tracks with an unknown release year?
Focus skips them while a year range is set, rather than assuming they are in range.
Can I limit by year rather than decade?
Yes. Any range works, so 1975 to 1982 is valid and often more useful for specific scenes than a clean decade.
Should Library be in a decade Flow?
Usually yes, since a themed Flow is more fun weighted towards music you own. Library ignores the year range, but you built the collection for that era anyway.
Ready to set it up
One container and one media path is genuinely all it takes. Everything else in this page is something you add when the need appears.