Multiple playback queues

[jtjr]

With Spotify’s push into podcasts I am routinely switching between music and podcasts. 

This means constantly losing my place in a given playlist or having to navigate back to podcast episode I was mid way through. 

Having the option to have multiple players, with their own queue and controls would eliminate this back and forth problem. 

Idea: long pressing a song, album or podcast should allow the user to “open in new player+”. 

This would pause the current player and begin playing the selected media in a seperate player. The user would now see two seperate players at the bottom of the screen.

Anything the user queues will be added to the top player (which is the currently playing or last played). User can switch the play order by dragging the player position to the top or close a player by swiping to delete (basic iOS list functionality). 

[Alex_Terror]

Super important to me as well. I want a queue for when the kids are in the car, a different one for when they are not, one for the gym, and one for podcasts. Let's get this done! 

[pedmuitor]

Typically, I start my day by going for a walk or engaging in some early morning exercise while listening to podcasts. Later in the day, when I transition to work mode, I enjoy listening to music. Unfortunately, I find it inconvenient when podcasts are interspersed with the music I'm playing, leading me to create a new playback queue every time I switch activities.

I believe that having separate playback queues for music and podcasts would greatly enhance the user experience.

This feature would be especially valuable for users like me who enjoy a seamless transition between podcast listening during activities and music playback during work sessions. The ability to maintain distinct queues for each content type would eliminate the need to recreate playlists daily, streamlining the overall usability of your service.

[alexinthewave]

I am a liztomaniac, which is one reason I still have an additional mp3 player app. I usually have a specific set of music I listen to while at the office working. Still, a different set for working out, another for waking up after alarm, winding down, podcasts, driving, you get the idea. Sometimes I like to work my way through exploring long playlists, having to start them from scratch is frustrating. I have talked to many of my friends about it and they agree 100%. This update is totally possible, so let me know if you need a beta tester 🙂 Thanks in advance to everyone on the Spotify dev team!

[innerspectrum]

I have the exact same problem. The only reason I use a separate podcast app is that I need a separate queue. I queue up 10+ podcasts for the day, but also listen to music throughout. A combined queue just does not work for these two different use cases.

[ReubenH12]

I would love it if there was a way to have multiple parrellel queues that could all be active (but not playing) at the same time.

So currently if I play a big playlist in order, maybe I don't get all the way through before I have to stop listening. But then in another part of the day, I'd like to listen to a podcast. Then next time I go back to the big playlist and want to keep listening, I've lost where I was up to in the playlist, and I have to go hunting for what the last song I heard was. And perhaps I didn't get to finish the podcast, so then when I go back to listening to that, I have to also search for it again. 

I think a good way to fix this would be to have say three queues that can all exist at once. Obviously they wouldn't be able to be played at the same time, but it would mean that I could have a big playlist going through in order in one queue, and then I can just pause that, and play my podcast in a different queue. Then I can pause that podcast and go back to the first queue and my big playlist is still there, exactly where I was up to. And if I was playing a playlist on shuffle, then if I go back to it it won't play the songs I've already listened to. 

[sarahh_2102]

How about the ability to switch back and forth between podcasts and music easily? I think most people don't listen to both in the same session, and when you listened to music and then later come back to continue listening to a podcast you started, you have to go back into your episodes and find the episode you were listening to, rather than easily being able to just press play continue where you left off. Similarly with queues - it can be quite irritating when you're listening to music and then all of a sudden have a podcast episode pop up that you forgot was in your queue. Why not separate music and podcasts by a "podcast-mode" and "music-mode", so you can just decide when you start up Spotify what you listen to and it'll then bring up your latest music or podcast episode depending on the mode? This would also enable decluttering the library, since you could have all your podcasts and episodes in one mode and your playlists and artists in another. This way, you wouldn't have to worry about losing where you left off and could easily switch back and forth between both! 

[jimmyjay300]

I strongly support this idea.  Conceptually I think it's similar to browser tabs.  You should not be limited to one tab.

I don't know how it should be implemented visually, especially since it needs to work on small phone screens as well as large monitors.  But I think it's probably best to use the tree style system that is currently used for playlists, folders and subfolders.  Please include the following features and behaviours:

• Create as many queues as you need (eg "create new queue").
• Most people will only need 5 or so, but please don't arbitrarily limit the number if it's not necessary.
• Have a default queue for people who hate choices, features and technology in general!!
• Right click or long press tracks and playlists to "open in new queue" or "open in (existing) queue...".
• Delete queues as required.
• Create groups and subgroups.
• Rename queues, groups and subgroups.
• Optionally add comments, dates, cover image etc.
• Expand and collapse subgroups.
• Drag and drop to reorder.
• Filter and sort (in case they get out of hand).

All of these feature are available to playlists.  So just reuse that code for these "special" playlists which are referred to as "queues".

Probably access queues quickly via the current queue button (hamburger, bottom right).  And maybe also via the playlist area on left / top left.

Please ensure that queues work with Spotify Connect as well as mobile and desktop apps and browsers.  I use Spotify Connect with Denon HEOS devices.  My own preference is that by default, the queue position should be the same on all devices.  All online devices should be polled and the timestamp of the most recent device to be played should be used to determine queue and playback position.  That way, if I walk to a different room, I can start listening where I left off.  If I want to listen to something different in that location without losing the other queue, I'd click open track (or open playlist) in new queue.  Other people might prefer that queue positions are remembered per device.  If it's possible to please us both then please do.  If not, then please implement same position on every (online) device, and facilitate the other people by letting them create a different queue for the second device.

So far I haven't tried listening to podcasts on Spotify.  I'd like to but, for at least a year after they launched, they were pushed in my face so hard (despite me never playing them), that now I don't dare to play one in case that unpleasant experience returns.

So I have no experience of how they work, but surely they need a very different approach to music.  I would have thought that they should be set up like movies or TV shows.  That is that, unlike music, you generally only want to listen to an episode once.  If you pause listening to an episode, it should save your position or progress.  And after you've completed an episode it should be marked as listened or complete.  Use Netflix, Prime and Disney as the model, not Spotify music.

As I say I don't know whether that feature exists but, if it doesn't, then implementing it would be a great help to all the commenters whose main problem was with wanting to split music listening and podcast listening.

For me the issue is with wanting to listen to different genres of music at different times of the day, or in different settings, as many other commenters have said.

The other thing that a pain is when you're listening to a playlist and you want to explore an artist you've just heard (eg playing 10 songs by them and then coming back to your playlist or queue).  If it were a browser, I would open a new tab, explore that side topic, then close the tab and come back to the original tab or topic.  It should be the same for queues!!

Please!!  TIA.

[pumashanker]

If not multiple play queues, you could make the "jump back in" section show the most recent episodes of a podcast you listened to including half-listened ones.

or you can make a separate "continue listening" that jumps you back to the podcast episode you were on so you don't have to scroll through a bunch of old episodes or new ones to find the one you were on.

[sur48c26nzyabfk84u42]

Hi, I would like to request for a feature that would allow a Multi player. Like in, if we can have multi players within the app to resume. Once I would like to listen to music. But however I would like to go back to my podcast episode that was resumed but right after podcast I want to switch to a song I like. So, if we can have multi player, it would be great. I might not want all my podcasts to be the same if I am listening to one podcast. Just add 3 players. 

[Pranavs2]

YES please. Separate playlists for podcast and music is a must, now that they are separated in tabs. I would also go one step ahead and like the option to have multiple parallel queues for music e.g., one queue for workout music, one for work background and so on so I can pickup any queue without having to listen to already played songs