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:

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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

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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.

[carlosjung]

@rocket_fish the thing is, I don't think Spotify considers this a "problem". There is no way they could overlook something as simple as queue management for so many years. Don't ask me to explain what's the point in it, but the queue is the way it is by design, and changing it would go against whatever design philosophy they have followed so far, and that's the reason I don't think this is going to get any better. You just have to look at Spotify's chromecast "solution" to see how stubborn they are. Spotify didn't change anything on their side, google had to issue a chromecast update and spotify still does not work for those of us that have android tv devices (nexus player, shield tv, etc). For my part I  (and a few friends) have moved on to Google play music and keep a Spotify free account to check on friends playlists (and then proceed to listen to the songs on GPM).

[EricInWisconsin]

Rocket_fish, you voice my feelings as well, so I appreciate your comments above. There is a big difference between saying and doing, and the history so far is a lot of words with little (observable) action. We at this thread only have words at our disposal, and that builds frustration for us.

When I talk to my friends about Spotify I give them a very luke-warm review. Spotify needs to know that. I have been telling people about the crummy interface, but mentioning that the music selection is otherwise fairly abundant. Then I mention the old Grooveshark interface, and think back to how savvy those developers were. They may be looking for work? Hint.

Spotify is very good at marketing (which includes getting listeners, and an ability to get artists to offer their music), but Spotify is not good with tech. Grooveshark was very good at tech (and had AMAZING features), but not marketing. That marketing weakness (which developed into ignoring copyright issues in order to provide music) destroyed Grooveshark. I'm afraid that Spotify will likewise be destroyed due to their technical weaknesses. This will of course be a slow, painful obliteration as people move to the other options out there that provide a good balance of interface and music selection.

I'm tired of yelling at my computer when I cannot set up my queue, and tired of appologizing to my wife when that "stupid song that I otherwise love" starts playing. I saw it in the queue, but I cannot hover around the computer waiting for it to start so I can skip past it. Very frustrating.

Meredith, I realise that nothing you told us contained promises of any kind.  It sounds like there are no plans for any changes. I still appreciate you at least saying something to let us know you follow these threads. But, just know, when I talk to my friends, I tell them to shop around before they decide to pay for Spotify.

Why do I stay with Spotify? You offer many options for streaming; I have an Onkyo unit I can play to, a smart tv, etc. Eventually, this strength will be one offered by all the others, and I will move on. I hope that doesn't have to happen.

[banksiaboy]

It is ridiculous not to have the queue under the user’s control.

What is wrong with the code/architecture that a simple ‘clear queue’ menu item is not easily made available? What design scenarios led to this? I dont want to individually remove items from a list of 40 or more to empty it.

‘Clear Queue’ function has to be available on:

• Web Player
• Stand-alone applications: Windows, Mac etc
• Smartphone and tablet

Come-on guys - this is not some obscure technical function, it is a key part of the Spotify user-interface!

[EricInWisconsin]

I have found that there is a different thread that talks about the app for the Android platform. They are asking for an editable playlist and have about 300 Kudos at this time. I posted there to add my voice to theirs because the interface needs fixing for all of us, even though we may use a different platform.

I believe if we had a single thread simply asking for a modernized interface, the Kudo count could be staggering. We are divided by the small incremental changes we seek to the interface and are getting nowhere.

I invite all viewers of this thread to rally others to be a single voice. Right now, there are pockets of people who don't realize that-

1) They are only a fraction of those who are asking for a updated, fully functional interface

2) It will take years, and more than our 700+ Kudos to be considered

Please, take a moment to comment and Kudo the other threads. Join Rocket_fish if it feels right to you. Spread the word that we need to join together for an interface overhaul, and not just tinkering around the edges.

I have my reasons for staying with Spotify, but they are growing weaker by the day.

[Dragono1313]

I think that this is very good idea to make whole queue editable in android app. It would be very helpful. It is very annoying when i have to create all queue again in order to change songs sequence. I hope that this feature will be added as soon as it is possible.

[EricInWisconsin]

I would really like to know why Spotify has not made this basic feature available across all platforms. Does someone know? If so please  comment on it because if Spotify simply cannot change things, I see no reason to continue this thread. I also see no reason to continue my membership.

We are going on 4 years since the first request. Wow!

[ngcart]

I want to add my strong support to this idea. I'm currently listening to my "Songs" list that has a few hundred entries.  It is on shuffle, and I just checked the next 50 plays: fully 10 songs (20%) show that they are going to play twice in a row.  With a Remove from Queue option I could quickly scan through the list and eliminate these duplicate plays, rather than periodically stopping whatI am doing to skip it manually. 

[EricInWisconsin]

With each "new version" that I am notied about, I hope Spotify has made some changes that are greatly needed. Today, I received one more notification. I downloaded and instaled, then restarted the player and immediately tried rearranging my queue. No changes.

I give up... playing nice,  that is. I will not recommend Spotify to anyone. I will tell people that if they love music, there is a wonderful selection here, but they need to understand that there are other music services that also supply a great selection, but with half the frustration over how the interface works. Shop around. That's what I'll say. I'll also say how I should have done the same thing before creating all my playlists, thereby 'hitching my wagon to this (falling) star". I've invested far too much time setting things up to walk away now.

I will now begin the process of creating lists of all my music so that a transfer to another service can be made...

[robertbolton]

Hey folks, I realize I probably should have just posted this here since this seems to be the most popular thread dealing with the queue, but FYI I must made a crazy-long post about how Spotify should fix the queue thing.. curious to know what you think:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/All-Platforms-Other-The-QUEUE-PROBLEM-and-how-to-s...

[EricInWisconsin]

I appreciate robertbolton's thread, and encourage people to check it out.Some great ideas...

I believe part of the problem we face in this community is that suggestions are grouped by OS or device. We all want improvements to the functionality of the playlists and queues regardless of what device we use, but our voices are divided up, and the Kudos as well. Check out the threads for Android; it will make you thankful for what we have on the PC. They are very mad, but again, they are on their own thread with their own measly 350+ Kudos. They likely have years more to wait for satisfaction.

I would love to debate, disagree, or applaud  the ideas put forth by anyone, but I know how long we have patiently waited for even a hint that Spotify will impliment a change to the interface along the lines we've discussed here. Any time spent discussing what we want is simply between us, with Spotify chiming in on occasion to appease our frustration. It is not working for me, though.