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[Playlists] Ability to link together Tracks in Playlists

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.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

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

Comments
Cheesedawg

Does Tidal or any other service offer this feature? I will be migrating off Spotify soon (thanks to Joe Rogan) and am looking for alternatives. 

jon9091

Does Tidal or any other service offer this feature? I will be migrating off Spotify soon (thanks to Joe Rogan) and am looking for alternatives. ”

 

 

Apple Music does. It has a function called Grouping. You get info on a track…assign it to a grouping…and then you have the option to shuffle, songs or groupings. But I think it only works on a computer…not an iPad or iPhone.

matban666

Arcade Fire The Lightning I and The Lightning II mean that this feature MUST be implemented!

marstrinov

This was a thought that I had when listening to Pink Floyd's album "The Endless River". Most of the album is composed of 2- or 3-part songs that are meant to be played back to back. Unfortunately, when I add these songs to my playlist, the order in which they play gets scrambled when I am on shuffle mode (as per its supposed function). It gets annoying having to queue up those songs each time you want to hear them consecutively and I feel most users would prefer a seamless experience. 

 

My idea is to have a feature that allows you to chain these songs into one singular unit that gets played (in its entirety) when selected in shuffle mode.

The Endless River Song SS.png
patschu

I love the ability to create playlists. Sometimes there are 2 songs I wish to be played in a sequence, even though I am listening the playlist randomized. Please add a grouping-function to let the user define such "dependencies" based on his/her preferences. So for example, on the album "Some Nights" of the band "fun." the first two songs "Some Nights - Intro" and "Some Nights" needs to be played in a sequence - they belong together (imho). So whenever randomization chooses "Some Nights" to be played (and I previously defined those two songs as a group on my playlist), both songs should be played in a sequence before the next song (or group) is chosen randomly. Furthermore this feature would allow to create a playlist with different audio books where the tracks of a book follows its sequence but the different books on the playlist can be listened randomly.

willybink

It would be great if we had the choice to pin two or more songs together in playlists, so that when the first of the pinned songs comes on (either by choice or by shuffle), the other pinned song(s) would always play after it.

 

Let me elaborate: there is a flawless transition between "Deck the Halls" and "Mia & Sebastian's Theme", both from La La Land, composed by Justin Hurwitz. When I have them in playlists, I would love to pin them together so that when "Deck the Halls" comes on - either by choice or when the playlist is in shuffle - "Mia & Sebastian's Theme" will automatically follow after it. Also because "Deck the Halls" by itself doesn't make much sense.

 

In this way, we wouldn't have to always queue the second song after the first one, or listen to the playlist without shuffling. The songs would therefore in some way "merge into one song" or follow each other in the queue.

 

Thank you for reading my suggestion!

cabinet1991

If you can do this in Apple Music then I'm definitely going to consider switching over. If not individual song chaining it would be nice to at least have a "shuffle by album" feature

lloydian0
Apple Music, itself, does not do this either. What does do it is iTunes Match. iTunes Match gives you access to all of your privately owned tracks on all of your devices. Of course, you first have to buy the tracks, then you have to combine them into a single data file. It’s a good workaround, but it isn’t the perfect solution.
davegriffiths

“Intro” followed by “The Joke” on Twenty Seven Points by The Fall. They HAVE to be listened to in sequence! Actually this seems like such an obvious feature I’m surprised they haven’t implemented it. It’s software, right, how hard can it be?

uberrapidash

Honestly, there is no reason for me to be paying for Spotify without this feature being available. Please give us what we're asking for. It's ridiculous that this doesn't exist.