[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

[Kobe98]

Hi

Trying to revive this discussion by commenting.

For me, this is not only a must-have feature to all music lovers, but also a form of respect towards artists who have put a lot of thought in production of their albums and songs, and its transitions. In general, this is also very handy for intros/interludes that you still want to include!

We all love to have our own playlists so we can shuffle them but some songs just belong together.. And it's frustrating when I'm simply enjoying some shuffle music, having to manually put a song's sequel in the queue everytime I hear one that deserves its sequel.. Even worse when your shuffle switches them around and plays the first song immediatly after the sequel. 

A few examples of songs that have thoughtful and lovely transitions:

- Manu Chao: Bongo Bong --> je ne t'aime plus

- Warhaus: I'm Not him --> The Good Lie

- Anderson Paak. : Parking Lot --> Lite Weight --> Room In Here 

- Bon Iver: Perth --> Minnesota, WI    

- Bon Iver: Hinnom, TX --> Wash.

- Bon Iver: Lisbon, OH --> Beth/Rest

- James Blake: Lindisfarne I --> Lindisfarne II

- BROCKHAMPTON: BLEACH --> ALASKA

- Arcade Fire: The Suburbs --> Ready To Start

- Spinvis: Smalfilm --> Voor ik vergeet

- Childish Gambino: IV. Sweatpants --> V. 3005

- Bon Iver: 21 MOON WATER --> 8 (Circle)

- Bon Iver: ___45___ --> 00000 Million

- alt-J: (The Ripe & Ruin) --> Tesselate

and these are just a few examples I can think of now..

So yeah, @__spo__, this would be a great feature to add, would you please consider this?

Greetings, Kobe.

[flashmike]

I hope Spotify is listening. If the competition does this I'm bolting.

[Blibdoolpoolp]

This is a must have, it could be one of the many easy to implement features that would keep spotify on the top rather than fall by the wayside next to these other music apps. 

[jacobhanson1010]

Please implement this, at least in the desktop application!

[dancingtrout]

People have been suggesting and liking this idea for a very long time now. It can't be that difficult to implement. Come one Spotify, step up to the plate!

[lloydian0]

Come on anybody. What strikes me is that this is an obvious and logical thing to do, and despite threads like this one, no one will answer the question of why. Why don't they want to do this?

[johnsnow6]

At this point the only reason for not implementing such a simple feature must be related to permission (patents), or revenue, or both. Since iTunes has this feature, my guess is that Apple has a patent on linking 2 songs together, or has licensed this feature from the patent holder, and uses it as a competitive differentiator against companies like Spotify. Clearly Spotify won't pay the fee for licensing the feature. Alternatively, there's a complication with the owners of the music that prevents Spotify from implementing this feature, but that seems less likely. Again, these are just guesses but since I like Spotify more than I miss this feature I'm forced to endure incomplete long songs.

[jon9091]

iTunes has the feature, but Apple Music doesn’t. I’m guessing it relates to streaming. I’m sure Spotify could implement this, if they weren’t preoccupied with stuff no one cares about.

[WesleyM77]

---

@johnsnow6 wrote:

At this point the only reason for not implementing such a simple feature must be related to permission (patents), or revenue, or both. Since iTunes has this feature, my guess is that Apple has a patent on linking 2 songs together, or has licensed this feature from the patent holder, and uses it as a competitive differentiator against companies like Spotify. Clearly Spotify won't pay the fee for licensing the feature. Alternatively, there's a complication with the owners of the music that prevents Spotify from implementing this feature, but that seems less likely. Again, these are just guesses but since I like Spotify more than I miss this feature I'm forced to endure incomplete long songs.

---

I fear this may be the case as I spent less than 5 minutes and found a patent owned by Apple for this exact feature.

(Linked here)

[riff-1954]

Nice to hear this from you. Thanks for the feedback Spotify.