[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

[lloydian0]

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic for the reply from Spotify, or is there a post my feed is missing?
Also, the iTunes workaround is not an obvious one. If you buy a song combo on iTunes, you have burn the two songs to a CD, then you have to rip them from the CD as a single track and add that combined track into your collection. Then, you only get access to it on other devices, like HomePods, when you also buy into iTunes Match. In other words, Apple suffers from this as well, so I'm in the camp that believes it's related to rights.
Maybe they don't want to encourage artists to create strings of songs that necessarily must be put together to make a single song as the end user sees it. But by virtue of how they arrange the tracks in their digital submissions, they become 3 or 4 tracks just to maximize the number of tracks played when calculating compensation. As an example, Pink Floyd has "Another Brick in the Wall (Pt 1)," "The Happiest Days of Our Lives," and "Another Brick in the Wall (Pt 2)" as a single stream of playback. If using a streaming service which counts up how many track plays an artist gets, is that 1 play or 3? And if it's 3, what happens when Roger Waters decides to do another album and realizes he can get more streams played if a single song can be split into 3 parts (as with "Wait for Her," "Oceans Apart," and "Part of Me Died" from 2017's "Is This the Life We Really Want?").

[musiklyssnaren]

I just thought of this idea! **bleep** why isn´t it a function?? omfg im from 2019 this thread is 2016?? am i crazy

[joshendley]

I’ve had this idea for a while too. Glad we think a like!

[MaestroTyee]

Certain songs have to play back to back. They aren't complete without this succession!! -Steve Miller Space Intro/Fly Like an Eagle -Van Halen Eruption/ You Really Got Me -Led Zeppelin Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid -Green Day Brain Stew/Jaded (even the Music Video combines these) Just to name a few. I really like this idea. I am making huge playlists and I want this ability!! @__spo__ @spotifyadmin

[tfsimon]

Those are good points about statistics and incentives, but think of it more
simplistically.

Right now if I want to play one track immediately after another, I can put
the second track in queue while the first track is playing.

Every track is still a standalone track, I'm just choosing to play one
particular track immediately after the other. Unfortunately I can't always
do that manually - like while driving.

What I want Spotify to do is essentially add an "auto queue" function that
allows me to dictate that a particular track is always in queue behind
another particular track. That would still be my decision to play both
tracks, so yes, the artist gets credit for both tracks. So what? They do
already.

All this would be is a software enhancement on the front-end to allow users
to set rules that automatically trigger a second track to queue up
immediately after a specified first track plays. seems simple and
valuable. Currently I can right-click a track and "Add to queue". Maybe
the updated software has another option: "Always queue after current
track". Easy.

I equate it to setting a rule in Outlook that all email meeting a certain
criteria goes to a specific folder. I could move it manually, but the
software tool makes my job easier. It doesn't alter the email or who it's
from - it just changes how it's presented to me on the front end. Same
thing.

And if it keeps me from manually queuing up tracks while driving, they can
pitch it as a safety feature!!

[wsmyth]

Folks, it’s not going to happen. Look up higher in this thread, and you will see that Apple has a patent on this idea. Spotify is not going to pay Apple to use the feature. 

[TomLegend]

Updated on 2019-05-23

Hey folks,



Thanks for coming to the Community, and adding your vote to this idea!



We're keeping this idea to 'Not Right Now', as this isn't something we have any immediate plans to implement. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

If we do have any new info to share, rest assured we'll check back in here with a new status.



Thanks.

[TomLegend]

Updated on 2019-05-23

Hey folks,



Thanks for coming to the Community, and adding your vote to this idea!



We're keeping this idea to 'Not Right Now', as this isn't something we have any immediate plans to implement. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

If we do have any new info to share, rest assured we'll check back in here with a new status.



Thanks

[tfsimon]

This is a mistake. You're underestimating the importance and value of this
feature. It's very disappointing.

[jon9091]

I’ve been waiting years for this feature. I’m not waiting any more. Spotify access to my bank account will be changed to NOT RIGHT NOW.