[Playlists] Ability to link together Tracks in Playlists

[bvacaliuc]

Hi,

Wouldn't it be great if you could "pair"/"link"/"lock" or "chain" tracks together in a playlist? Then even if you shuffle-played, certain songs would always play together.

mock-up of how linking/pairing a song might work.

This idea was actually started by @Sartoris in 2012:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/Ability-to-link-together-tracks-in-playlists-also-for-...

But in 2015 it was closed as not having enough votes. Coincidentally, about the same time, I signed up for Spotify premium.  As I listened to all the songs I've "liked" with shuffle, the one thing that kept coming into my mind was the terrible feeling you get when a song that is meant to follow another is not played.  You get the feeling of being violated; it is a terrible experience.  As I searched for this feature, I saw that idea was marked inactive and decided to open it again.

That idea had gotten 138 likes in 2015 and as of January 2020 has gotten another 116 for a total of 255.  There were another 18 ideas then that all linked to the one above (see attached). So I re-submitted this idea in 2015 and since then you wonderful people have given it over 880 votes! Thank you!

From the rules, we see that we needed to have over 500 votes to keep the topic alive in monthly discussions (check!). We also see that we need 100 votes per year to keep it alive (check again!). So we're in good shape on that front. Now we have to see what we need to do to get it moving forward from "Not Right Now" to "Under Consideration".

Again, from the rules above, Spotify says that they use these criteria:

• Helping artists.
• Data and other information we've collected.
• Information from research testing, focus groups, and surveys.
• Feedback in the Community and other support channels. (That's us!)
• Our overall short- and long-term business strategy.

Hmm. Ok. So I would say that playing tracks that are meant to be together really helps the artists because their work is rendered in the correct way that they intended. I'm wondering how many artists are dying inside when their specially arranged songs are cut up because someone shuffled their playlist?

I can't speak to Spotify's data and research, focus groups and surveys, or about their business strategy. However, it occurs to me that anything that affects the order of which song plays can affect revenue because Spotify pays someone when a song gets played and they don't pay the same amount of $ for every song... Sure its a tiny fraction of a cent, but it adds up. So my first guess is that Spotify's hesitation to implement this idea is economic. I think we should continue the discussion along these lines to see if we could come up with some kind of consensus on this notion.

Letting a song "pair" with another in a playlist would be enough to make a lot of people happy.  Would we be willing to put some $ behind having this feature? Lets say Spotify charged you $0.01 (a cent) everytime you were shuffle playing and the queue hit a linked song and played the one that came after it. Would you be ok with that? If not, what would make it ok? I think answering the economic question is one thing that is keeping this idea from moving forward. @wsmyth commented in May 2019 that he would be willing to spend $1/month for this feature. I would do that too, would you?

From the many, many great comments, @WesleyM77 posted in April 2019 a link to a US Patent. There are two patents, actually, [US8214740B2] and [US9396760B2]. Reading through the two patents, it's clear that they cover this idea in many of its possible methods. So apart from the economic impact, Spotify may be prevented by the patent holder from implementing this feature. It has been noted that only one service has this feature, and now this explains it. The patents expire in 2030.

So, here we are. We want a feature, someone has successfully patented the feature and so we can't have nice things. Everyone including the patent holders want to make money, so is there a price that Spotify could negotiate with the patent holder and then pass on to the users that would be acceptable to all parties?

Spotify, would you look into this and get back to us?

Thanks very much!

-bogdan

[debazer]

I've been going crazy trying to find this function!
My kids LOVE the intro to Ryan Adams' "Heartbreaker", which leads into the following song. Doesn't make sense to have Ryan Adams have an argument with David Rawlings, do his countdown to the song, and then have something else play when Spotify is on shuffle!

Please? Let's do this.

[1288628319]

Although not gaining much traction here (please up vote!!) I believe this is a feature people just haven't thought of to seek out a solution. If this was implemented it would be one of those features that makes your listening experience so much better, and you'd never want to go back to the old way. In other words, you had no idea what you were missing. 

Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker / Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)... You can't listen to one without the other. There are so many intros that get you pumped up for the next track and it can be a huge disappointment when that track doesn't come. 

[bvacaliuc]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for all your comments. Yes, I really do think this feature
will be a game changer for the music streamer industry. As far as I can
tell there is *no other service* that offers this feature. Here on
Spotify, we are *discussing* it and we may have a hope of it getting done.

You all have it exactly right. The experience of being able to have songs
play in the proper sequence when shuffling on your library songs will be
something like pure joy. What we have on Spotify already is really good,
but every streaming service can shuffle play all of the songs you like;
having certain songs play in the right order will bring happiness to people
instead of hurt disappointment.

Isn't the pursuit of happiness why we listen to streaming music?

Anyway, looks like were averaging about 10 votes per month. That's great!
That means we should hit the 100 kudos threshold before the one year
anniversary, and then this idea will go into "process". I'll bet the
faster it gets there, the more attention it will get.

Keep going everyone. We can make our voice heard!

[wsmyth]

Also, most of side 2 of The Beatles Abbey Road.

[totallykvothe]

Yess!!!

[bartiges]

Concur strongly. In addition to Led Zeppelin, the other combination that comes to mind is Jackson Browne - The Load Out/Stay. These were always played together on the radio when I was growing up. Hearing them separated on my playlist is jarring, to say the least. Would love to see this implemented in an upcoming patch.

[pood]

Many commenters have been bringing up examples from both classical- and rock music.

There are also many tracks that need to be put together in the metal genre, two that i can think up straight from my head is "Polyphony" -> "The New Black" by "Strapping Young Lad" and "Capsizing The Sea" -> "In Waves" by "Trivium"

[bvacaliuc]

Hi Everyone!

Happy anniversary to our renewal of the idea!!!  We made it to 87 after a year.  Thats not bad, but I'm looking at the other 'hot' ideas/ideas that have moved into 'Under Consideration' and I'm seeing counts of 20-to-100/wk.  I'm wondering if we could be doing something more to inspire those kinds of numbers...   One theme I've seen is that many of these super-successful ideas have posted mock-up pictures of Spotify screens with their idea integrated in.  I think I'm going to work on that and see if we can't give our idea a little 'facelift' to inspire more people to join us in it.

[flashmike]

Linking songs should be a basic component in Spotify. If you're a Classical Music fan you know that the music is composed in movements and it needs to be played in that order each time. Without it, you'd be listening to Mozart's Symphony 40 out of order. If you're playng a lot of Classical Music it makes no sense to hear the 4th movement before the 1st for instance. Also, Rock Music has a lot of albums where tracks should run together sequentially. I think The Abby Road Medley would be the default on this but the list is infinite. Let's get this started. Spotify can do this but I think they may see it as a big programming challenge.

[bvacaliuc]

Hi Folks,

I've updated the idea text to include a mock-up of how I think it could work.  Thank you SO MUCH for all your great suggestions over this past year.  I've made a playlist (search Idea #1244603) that includes all the great tracks you all have mentioned so far in the comments.  If anyone is still on the fence on whether this feature is needed or not, just try listening to the playlist on shuffle and get ready to feel your heart ripped out...

Please, please, please Spotify; add this feature to your awesome service!