[Playlists] Smart Playlists (Nested)

[SuperSpasm]

A smart playlist consists of other playlists, as one big joined playlist - it can be played in sequence or shuffled.

I believe this could be a game changer for the Spotify (playlist) eco-system.

Implementation

• In playlist creation, allow the user to add "sub" playlists
• Also let them add other smart playlists
• Playlists can be shared/reused in multiple smart playlists
• Regular songs can still be added alongside playlists.

NOTE: This is not accomplished by playlist folders! See below.

Benefits over playlist folders

1. Playlist Reuse: Any number of smart playlists can share a playlist! whereas only one folder can contain a the same playlist.
   This will allow having smaller, "atomic" playlists as building blocks of larger ones.
   
   Example: Below "Oldies"  is shared / reused by different smart playlists:
   Easy morning [smart] = (Oldies -> Chill) 
   Nostalgia [smart] = (Oldies -> 90's -> Specific songs)
   
   
2. Sharing (A) - This could encourage playlist creators to make more nuanced playlists, as they will have a tool to compose more of them out of parts, instead of investing in a single large one, or copy-pasting like crazy.
   
   
3. Sharing (B) - This could also open up an entire new content eco-system for compiling other creator's playlists, and re-sharing them as a new whole.
   
   
4. Easy "temp" playlists - Currently, to combinine playlists for a party, drive, etc- you must break your organizational hierarchy to create a folder.
   This causes a mess to be cleaned later.
   Having a single "temp" smart playlist would allow you to change it's contents on the fly, without messing up your playlist organization.

I have more ideas, but I'll add them as a reply so this is more readable 🙂

I realize this is not a small feature - but for a few years I've felt It's absence, and I really believe this could be a game changer  -  if done properly.

Happy to hear any thoughts! 🙂

[Wlup]

Spotify should have this feature. When I create a playlist for an event, i should have options to create folders inside that playlist. For example, when its a birthday party, there are folders for: 1) Songs for Sauna; 2) Songs for dancing; 3) Songs for talking, cooking ect

[augiestlouis]

Love this idea—it’s almost exactly what I had in mind with something I called playlist parts. The concept of sub-playlists acting as modular components is powerful, especially for thematic or narrative-based playlists.

A couple of suggestions to build on this:

• Individual Playability: Each sub-playlist (or part) should be individually playable from the main playlist interface—users could tap a section and listen just to that part. Great for mood-specific listening.
• Seamless Full Playback: Playing the full playlist should still function as one continuous queue, regardless of how many sub-playlists are inside. Like albums split into acts.
• Metadata or Labels for Each Part: Adding labels like “Part I: Hype,” “Part II: Cooldown,” etc., would help users understand structure at a glance.
• Nested Smart Playlists: Sub-playlists that dynamically update based on genre, tempo, or user-defined tags would take this even further.

This could completely change how people structure and share music. Would love to see Spotify implement it!

[capineraa_]

Hi Spotify team,

I’d love to suggest a feature that I think could really enhance the playlist making process: the ability to create sections or “sub-playlists” within a larger playlist, similar to how Pinterest allows sections within boards!

For example, I could have a main playlist titled “‘25,” and within it, separate sections or mini-playlists for each month—January, February, etc. It would make organizing evolving music collections much more intuitive and satisfying!

Thanks for your consideration!

[Basantt]

Example:

I create ‘Instrumental- Indian’.
I would like to create ‘sub-albums’ like:

     a. Classical

     b. Sitar

     c. Flute

     d. Guitar

      Etc

[capopolo]

Additionally: Let us specify "shuffle depth" so that a sub-playlist may be prevented from a shuffle.  E.g, top level is Beatles and Shuffle is turned ON. But allow disabling of shuffle for Abbey Road in a sub-playlist so that it must play all the way through before popping out of the stack to another random track.

Some sequences of album tracks should never be broken apart by any random shuffler.  Think of any live album you like that should always be heard as an album in the order the tracks were recorded.

[louisa13]

I think this feature would really enhance the user experience: nested playlists, or the ability to create playlists within playlists, similar to Pinterest’s “boards and sub-boards” system. Right now, organizing music into folders is only possible on desktop, and it’s somewhat limited. Having the option to group playlists within a parent playlist- like a Workout playlist containing Cardio, Stretching, and Strength sub-playlists- would be an amazing way to keep things organized, especially for users who listen to a lot of different content. This could really help me organize my music, so that I can easily find my many playlists and keep my music library neat.

[breadayz]

you should be able to make a large playlist with subplaylists inside that you can choose to "turn off" so that certain subplaylists don't play

[alexdemey]

You would have a playlist, and then you could group songs into certain sections or mini playlists, and you could choose to shuffle between a couple of them , just one, or the whole playlist. This would help probably a lot of people that are like me and have a bunch of small playlists for specific vibes that i want to categorize as their own but also want just on a big playlist. 

[Musketeer_Bishal_7]

I like different types of music. Like German, Irish, electronic sounds etc.Now suppose I create a playlist for German music, now German music has many types of music such as folk music, modern music, religious music,etc।However, it is not possible to keep all types of songs in one playlist, it is very difficult. This increases the number of playlists and takes time to search later. So I want there to be such a system.(So for example, I created only one playlist Guess it is {A} And inside a playlist there are many smaller playlists like (a1,b1,c1)

Much like Pinterest's boards and sections.

[user-removed]

Automatically create playlist based on your liked songs. Where with each playlist you can set parameters such as release date, genre, artist, album etc. Similar to how this has been possible in iTunes for years.

When you like a new song or delete a like, the relevant playlists where this song is located are automatically updated.