Alphabetizing Playlist

[chrisssssssssss]

Can the playlist be sorted alphabetized?

[Rollo_]

Why this simple functionality has not been created is still beyond reason.

Because however they implement it, there's gonna be some people that don't like the way they do it, and they will undoubtedly break the drag function in the process.  The present method works and is neither difficult nor time comsuming.  What it IS is flexible. 

Other music players sort alphanumerically and that's it.  No options to sort by surname or to eliminate "The" in the artist name.  Unless you rename all your playlists to adapt to the sorting method.  And that WOULD suck.

I understand there are a percentage of people that would like this feature implemented.  I get that.  But there are also a lot of users who are happy with the status quo.

[KDHOODY]

If the desktop playlist could just be sorted alphabetically EVERYONE would still be in control of his or her own playlist.  Users already decide what they want to name a playlist when it's created. There's no reason why every user should be forced to use an alpha-numeric sorting. They could skip the sorting option entirely and keep their playlists in any order desired. Is there really a serious concern that a number of playlists might involuntarily end up under the letter “T” because an artist's name is preceded by "The"?

Why would anyone choose to set up multiple playlists by artist name and put the word “The” at the beginning anyway? If hundreds (let's hope it's not thousands) of Spotify users have named their playlists THE Animals, THE Zombies, THE Sheepdogs, THE Fray, THE Lumineers, THE Script, THE Band Perry, THE Beach Boys …... they are already searching through a bunch of T's to find a specific playlist.

BUT … an alpha sort for the PC (desktop) playlist would be extremely helpful for thousands of your subscribers who've been begging for this option. I checked Spotify's Ideas thread named “Playlist sorting options” dated 07-05-2012 and as of this morning, users have clicked “Kudos” 2,413 times and added 476 comments. In addition, this thread has been viewed 12,419times (yes, that's right 12,419!) in the past sixteen months!Since the idea was marked STATUS: Under Consideration, literally thousands of people have been keeping a hopeful eye on this thread waiting for a positive update. 

Isn't this volume of user requests somewhat significant in the view of Spotify's internal team? Why does Spotify appear to be intentionally dragging it's feet? Is there a real reason for the hold up? Is alphabetizing a list really so difficult to implement in Spotify's program? And, forgive me, but I'm not buying the argument that this might upset people who are happy with the current program. They shouldn't have to reorganize their playlists unless they choose to.

A Community Blog announcement posted by Rocio dated 12-07-2013 (meaning July 12, 2013, I assume) titled “Ideas Monthly Review-[June2013]” indicates you have already implemented exactly what PC (desktop) users have been requesting all along – but it was for Android devices. See the following:

“*Implemented Ideas in June:

AWESOME NEWS for you Android user!!

The following idea has been implemented for Android devices! "Playlist Sorting Options"

Yes, you heard right! Now you can finally sort your playlists and songs within a playlist!

"Playlists" filter options: A-Z/Z-A, Unsorted.”

OK! We know you can do it. The question is, “When?”

[Rollo_]

KDHOODY wrote:

Why would anyone choose to set up multiple playlists by artist name and put the word “The” at the beginning anyway? If hundreds (let's hope it's not thousands) of Spotify users have named their playlists THE Animals, THE Zombies, THE Sheepdogs, THE Fray, THE Lumineers, THE Script, THE Band Perry, THE Beach Boys …... they are already searching through a bunch of T's to find a specific playlist.

Because that's the correct band name.  ALL of my playlists are named that way when appropriate, and I'm guessing that thousands, yes, thousands of others do it this way too.  Try dragging a bunch of albums by The Animals onto the New Playlist button and what do you get?  A playlist titled The Animals.

Its easy to code to remove "The" at the beginning of a field, Spotify does it already.  But do you really want to be forced to rename all your playlists like "Clapton, Eric" to get them to sort properly?  10 bucks says only a small fraction of users titles their playlists that way.

That's why I said, however Spotify chooses to do it, there's a percentage of users who won't be happy with the implementation.  Proof is the immense number of complaint threads about even the most minor inconveniences.

[rory1604]

Yea, it's something for new users to note ; put your playlists in alphabetical order as you go. Wish I had! Seems like an obvious expectation though : do Spotify team actually read these? Hope they do and take the initiative 🙂

[thewigger]

I don't quite understand how introducing an OPTION to sort alphabetically would affect the drag and drop currently in place.

Surely one would be able to alphabetize, or sort by date added (whatever) and then reorder as one saw fit by dragging and dropping once again?

If the function was available, and not imposed, there should be no issue.

[Rollo_]

    thewigger wrote:

    I don't quite understand how introducing an OPTION to sort alphabetically would affect the drag and drop currently in place.

Because they WILL break the drag and drop option.  If you think otherwise then you haven't been here long.

[BobbyAdamson]

I can assure you that it would be very possible to add a "sort alphabetically button" which would automatically sort playlists alphanumerically without breaking drag and drop. This can be a single event button which then would allow the user to drag and drop playlists out of order if they wish.

This is not dissimilar to the way the organization of desktop items works on your computer. You can context-click your desktop and tell it to sort items a certain way one time, whether that is alphabetically, when the file was created, modified, etc. You can then click and drag those items around afteward, thus ruining the order you have just created, but still having all of your other files in that order.

[thewigger]

I know - anyone would think we were looking to raise the Titanic.  Look at the sorting capabilities in Outlook, or iTunes, and then tell me it isn't possible to sort, revert, repeat.

Come on Spotify...

[user-removed]

DEAR SPOTIFY,

PLEASE ENABLE A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS US TO APLHABETIZE OUR PLAYLISTS!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU.

FINGERS CROSSED AND WAITING,

      EVERYBODY ON SPOTIFY

[Rollo_]

BobbyAdamson wrote:

I can assure you that it would be very possible to add a "sort alphabetically button" which would automatically sort playlists alphanumerically without breaking drag and drop.

I am entirely aware of this and agree with you.  The issue is not whether they can do this or not.  I can assure you that several useful features have been broken in the past while implementing new ones.

A lot of users, probably the majority, are happy with the status quo, and if a new added feature slows down an already slow piece of software, a lot of complaints will arise will then they do it.

bullen12 wrote:

PLEASE ENABLE A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS US TO APLHABETIZE OUR PLAYLISTS!!!!!!!!

 http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Mac-and/Alphabetical-sorting-of-playlists/m-p/596...

[rhgaspar]

Alphabetizing Playlists should be table stakes for any modern tool like Spotify.   Google Play and ITunes both have this.   Really.... can it be that difficult and the demand is off the charts.  It seems rediculous that Spotify cant even respond to this request with some kind of roadmap for this......!!!!

[Patric1964]

agree it's absolute rude to al user and fans of Spotify!!!!!!! 

[user-removed]

Hi,

Not sure if you ever resolved this issue. I just spent an hour just "starting" to organize my playlists. I've got like 400 playlists, so don't feel like your alone.

My best advice: Seek out each artist, starting from z-a, and add their albums in reverse order, bottom to top, thus they will be in alphabetical order.

Delete the artist's albums from z-a, then look them up from z-a, then add their albums from bottom to top, by looking at their page. Thus they will be in alphabetical, and/or chronological order.

I sincerely hope this helps,

Bear

[kelleandsteve]

I found a way to alphabetize my ARTISTS. Fist decide if you want your artists organized by genre, like rock, pop, blues, jazz, etc.

If you do, create New Folders with those labels. On the top left of the window, click on File and then New Playlist Folder, then name the folder as you wish. I didn't create new folders to alphabetize my artists, I just alphabetized them all together. Here is How I did it. Since the playlist does Not organize itself, you must do it for it. Create the following playlist, which basically is the alphabet backwards because what you enter Last will appear First:  ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA.

Now Re-sort your unalphabetized List into the corresponding playlist. In other words put Abba in the A's, Boston in the B's, etc. Remember a lot of groups actually start with , "The" like The Beatles. It's up to you whether you want that in the B's or the T's. You HAVE to Drag the Song not the Artist into the Playlist. When you View it in the center screen, Ignore the column that says, "Tracks", the next column says, "Artists".

If the Artist column is Not alphabetized, click on the little Green arrow at the top of the list and it will eventually alphabetize it for you. I didn't Drag and Drop my lists, but clicked it to the Center screen and then Dragged a Song by the Artist over to the corresponding Letter of the Alphabet. I know this is not ideal, but until Spotify figures out a way to do this for us, I found it works better for me. When you save a Future song, save it by The Artist in the corresponding Lettered playlist. I hope this helps, it made my life a lot easier and more organized.

Steve

[hisen1]

Spoity really needs to get up to speed with their technology - even a 3 year old can alphabatize a list - what can't the "so called' smart guys figure this out !

[hisen1]

How did you do it ??

[MNMOOSE]

TRIED THIS WAY, CLICKED ON EACH TRACK AND GOT NOTHING. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG

[blairg23]

It's been 3 years since the first post in this topic. 3 years. And Spotify STILL doesn't have playlist sorting? It's gotta be, what.... ONE line of code? 

[malindafromsd]

I know, it's totally annoying.

[rhgaspar]

Yes that seems very odd. Google Play has this function out of the box!
Market pressures will create urgency for Spotify if they dont pay attention
to the small stuff like this.