[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

[Blibdoolpoolp]

I love how every time Spotify responds they say the exact same thing, "Thanks for letting us know, unfortunately we had no plans to make this feature, sorry". NO **bleep** YOU HAD NO PLANS. WE (the paying customers0 ARE TELLING YOU WHAT TO MAKE PLANS FOR and you don't listen and give us the same canned responses over and over. We have 20 pages of comments just on THIS THREAD let alone all the old ones that were closed and merged.. Give us a real answer or make it happen!

[elitetai]

It seems that there are similar idea posted before. 

However, instead of linking to a specific song, I would like it to link the song randomly but at specified time track of the next song. 

Here's my post: 

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/All-Platforms-Playlists-Songs-Linking-Option/idc-p/475...

[lloydian0]

Randomly to a specified time within a song? That’s a fine request (I can see it for, say, skipping the spoken portion of “She’s a Rainbow” by The Rolling Stones, but that doesn’t seem related to this topic. Let me recommend that you either find it in another topic or start a new one.

[wsmyth]

II neglected to say that I would pay a dollar a month for this feature. That’s $100,000,000 a month with 100,000,000 paid subscribers.

[joel_jmi]

Only 600 upvotes, come on people think ! this is needed. Pedulum & Trivium need this feature + many more great artists.  

[TrumPockets]

I agree, this is a necessary feature (anecdotally), as a lot of the music I listen to is split up into two-part songs. Prog Rock and Math Rock are full of these examples, and the second parts don't stand up without setting up the musical themes in the first part. Voted.

[rebeccajspotify]

This is a very important feature. There are songs I can't add to my playlist because it only makes sense to play them with their partner(s).

[MadmanOnWheels]

I could see this being used in a bad way, like the way radio stations constantly play Van Halen's "You Really Got Me Now", after "Eruption". They're not one song; they stand up, by themselves. I would intentionally play them, independently, for that reason. The same is done with "We Will Rock You" & "We are the Champions". It's very annoying. It takes credit away from each of the songs, for being great on their own.

Although, this could be very helpful for classical pieces or live songs that transition right into the next. It makes sense to do it for those reasons. It would also make sense for comedy playlists.

https://open.spotify.com/user/madmanonwheels/playlist/2dr1suCzkj20mS7eawEujT?si=uj4RUpz4S3afiZbDxnre...

Like on this one, you could link each album track together, so only the albums (in the playlist) would be shuffled. You would get a full set, from each comedian.

[avosider]

Come on Spotify!  I have wanted to pair songs in a play list for sometime.  Back in the iPod days it was very simple.  There are several songs that need to paired to truly enhance our (the paying customers) music experience.  Sure the casual music listener may not use the feature but it's the music junkies that will be the loyal customers.  Spotify, stop making the classic business mistake by focusing on the new customers while forgetting the existing customers.  It is much cheaper to retain customers than it is to get new ones.  Is there any way we could get a petition going?  I'm sure most spotify customers who like to pair songs have no idea this thread exists and the way Spotify uses votes to implement new features.

[Crusty_Demons]

Please make this happen Spotify. I've held a family premium account for a few years. Essentially what this is for me is fixing what record labels and terrestrial radio broke. Some artists like Pink Floyd, Greatful Dead, Tool etc create(d) tracks that were unacceptably long for radio and were forced to split them. We would like you to fix this for us.