[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

[Gestout3]

This is an absolute must.  Golden Slumbers-to-Carry That Weight is EXACTLY what led me here.  Can’t believe this isn’t an available option.  ITunes would allow you to import multiple songs as one track so I got used to doing this on several occasions.  I decided it was time to join the future though and start streaming my music...only to find out the future sucks.....come on guys.

[ornate_apple]

I wish I could vote for this multiple times, because this would still be incredibly useful.

[flashmike]

​There's more than enough interest not for Spotify to pursue this. It makes
absolutely no sense that they don't offer it. Who do I gotta call? ​

[tjconway67]

You can't listen to "We Will Rock You" and not have it followed by "We are the Champions"!! Please add this feature.

[Gestout3]

Yeah Spotify...Nobody in their right mind wants to listen to Brain Damage
from Dark Side of the Moon and then not immediately let it roll into
Eclipse. That’s utter madness. We could go on and on with these....

[jon9091]

They’re too busy coding stuff like “Stranger Things Mode” than something they would actually be useful.

I think it’s time to dump this program.

[mckleroy]

Agree, would love to use a little trick like this to keep a couple of songs linked together in a playlist. 

[Cajun67]

First time poster. I came here to suggest this idea, and was not terribly surprised to find that other people are already talking about it. 

I would drop my Spotify subscription in a heartbeat if I found another service that were curating songs in this manner.

It's very simple: Many artists created albums where two or more songs were inteded to be linked together, and without a gap between them.

[iteron_MkV]

I cannot think of a feature for Spotify I want more than this.

[flashmike]

I don't get it. The request is so BASIC. What's up Spotify? Please reply!