Make entire play queue editable

[Dommedagsprofet]

There's currently two queues in Spotify:

• The editable queue. ("Queued tracks")

• The locked queue. ("Next tracks")

If you press the  queue button with tracks in both lists, you can see that these two queues follow each other. The editable queue always plays first.

The problem is having a locked queue at all.

You can't empty it without interrupting playback, and you'll have to use a workaround to do so. You can't reorder it or add or delete songs. After finishing the editable queue, Spotify always continues playback from the locked queue.

The workaround is starting playback at the very last item on a page. The locked queue will then have no further items. Then you can continue by purely using the queue right-click function instead of double-click or enter. This adds items to the editable queue. These tracks can then be reordered and deleted as you wish.

This UI behaviour is, however, not very user-friendly and quite frankly really annoying. It's also very unconventional having two queues in a music player. I've never seen any other software using either a dual-queue system or a locked queue system.

Here's a good implementation suggestion from user Styrke:

----

Google Play Music's queue system is really easy to understand and use. Just do what they do.

I can describe it by three (3) easy bullets:

• Double clicking a song starts playing it and adds the rest of the list that the song came from to the queue. (The queue gets overwritten)
• Right click one or more songs to add them to the top ("play next") or the bottom ("add to queue") of the queue.
• Everything in the queue can be removed or rearranged by drag-and-drop

----

EDIT: I updated the terminology to match the new Spotify. Items are no longer yellow and white, but are now under separate headings and in the same color instead.

[aelOnn]

Yup, it would be more ergonomic and more intuitive to manage the Queue like a regular playlist. Right now it's very frustrating. Especially when you use Spotify for a party.

[qrobur]

As a software developer, I'm used to seeing bad ideas making it into the first version of a piece of software. The inability to manage the play queue is an excellent example of a bad idea that should be fixed quickly. What does surprise me is the way Spotify appears to ignore complaints about problems in its client. Not only does the company frustrate its users, it gives the impression that it doesn't listen.

So it is here. Not only has Spotify failed to address the matter but what little response there has been indicates it will not do so for a very long time, if in fact it ever does. This combines bad software development and bad public relations. Spotify has become very good at making itself look bad.

The play queue need to be fully editable. Single tracks should be removable regardless of how they were put in the queue and it should be possible to select multiple tracks and remove them all at once as well. This is such a basic and obviously useful piece of design it almost beggars belief that Spotify has left this bad flaw in the client for so long.

Please put fixing the play queue at the top of your developers' "fix queue".

[aelOnn]

I would not be so harsh than qrobur, the queue was probably a concept "worth to try"... having a pointer instead of a playlist, it allows some interesting behaviors: your queue is always autopopulated with a lot of tracks. It looks very natural when you are flying from one playlist to an artist, from one track to an album... the queue keeps playing while you chose something else.

But nothing a "queue playlist" can't achieve also with some intelligence... except playlist allows also the personnal customisation.

It was a good concept, but only for a certain usage, no good for all. Please fix 🙂

Eventually, for keeping best parts of both worlds, it would be good to have several options for queuing:

- remove what's currently playing, play now

- queue just after

- queue at the end

[MadTinus]

This is my main frustration with the Spotify client. Why would you even design a queue that is non-editable to begin with, NO PERSON EVER prefers that over an editable play queue. There's no 'advantage' to a non-editable play queue, name just one, I dare you all.. And why are tracks that are queued separately editable and others not, it just makes no sense. When I accidently queue a whole band's discography, all I can do to get rid of those tracks is click the 'next' button till my index finger falls off, insane!

There's an example of a perfectly convenient and user-friendly play queue up for grabs, just take Winamp and implement those features and all Spotify users will be delighted.

[ar2oor]

Hurry Up with this...

[nickbrenneman]

If Google Play Music can have a fully editable queue in their first version, then it is not only possible, but must be relatively easy. I am also baffled at Spotify repealing the ability to queue songs from the queue on the Android app. That was the only way around this stupid fixed queue. I would really like an explanation from someone explaining why they would remove such a feature. This all makes me very suspicious that Spotify has some ulterior motive for fixing the queue. I don't know what that would be, but I really don't see why else they would REMOVE an existing feature. 

If Spotify doesn't indicate soon that they are working on this issue, or at the very least give an explanation as to why these features are absent, I will switch to Google and do everything I can to get everyone else to switch too.

[Wiggyjnr]

We run Spotify via an ipad for a disco. We often start a playlist, than take requests which we cue up in turn. Sometimes we need to amend this playlist but it seems not only can you not do this, you can't even see the tracks which are queued to play. Spotify, Please fix!

[StevenC4]

I'd like to be able to reorder my queue by dragging and dropping songs to different positions.

[MrCheemly]

Dear Mr Spotify

In what universe is the current Spotify Play Queue "a good idea". What drug were your UI designers smoking when they came up with such a crappy solution for queuing music. Did you do any user testing prior to release?

Like others have said, Spotify is the dogs doodah's for accessing and discovering music, but the infuriatingly counter intuitive algorithm used in the play queue drives me nuts and deters me from going Premium.

The time its taking to fix this relatively straightforward feature makes me think someone dropped the ball when they were initially designing the UI and has created themselves a big fat load of rework. Or maybe the original coder left and you haven't a clue how to fix it...  🐵

Media Monkey's queue solution is spot on - simple, flexible and intuitive out of the box. Copy that!

[dinapolis]

The queue seems like an afterthought, they needed to show to users the next songs that would play and just put a simple list there. As qrobur said, a bad idea that ended up in the first client. What bothers me is why it's still not important enough for them to bother changing it.

Please put fixing the play queue at the top of your developers' "fix queue".