Spotify (or other) app to sequence existing playlist?
May 30, 2013 3:29 PM Subscribe
I've got a collaborative Spotify playlist for a party house weekend. We have a DANCE playlist and a NOT DANCE playlist. Is there a Spotify app or other service that will sequence these tracks?
Collaborative playlists are a good idea but when the bits hit the airwaves you really need someone in charge of what song comes next. These party playlists are all over the place and no one person knows all the songs well enough to sequence them. A Spotify app that sequences or groups tracks would be ideal here, but the question is a general one, too: who's working on this problem? Some iTunes plug-in? Does Rdio do this?
Collaborative playlists are a good idea but when the bits hit the airwaves you really need someone in charge of what song comes next. These party playlists are all over the place and no one person knows all the songs well enough to sequence them. A Spotify app that sequences or groups tracks would be ideal here, but the question is a general one, too: who's working on this problem? Some iTunes plug-in? Does Rdio do this?
PS - The way I combat this problem is that I just throw a bunch of tracks (like, at least 100) in a playlist and I do one of two things:
1. Just play on shuffle. It's a party, and people are not really like, paying attention to the sequence of the songs.
2. Sort by track number and play. Basically a variation of the above, except it orders it in some way so that you can have a "playlist feel" if you want to listen to it over and over and, like, make a mental connection between songs.
posted by k8lin at 6:31 PM on May 30, 2013
1. Just play on shuffle. It's a party, and people are not really like, paying attention to the sequence of the songs.
2. Sort by track number and play. Basically a variation of the above, except it orders it in some way so that you can have a "playlist feel" if you want to listen to it over and over and, like, make a mental connection between songs.
posted by k8lin at 6:31 PM on May 30, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for the thoughts!
What I'm asking for is fundamentally what Pandora has been doing for years — and what Spotify does when you fire up a radio station. Both of those can use only that music they have data/analysis for, however, not just any arbitrary song.
Instead of a simple 'sounds like' I'm looking for 'similar to in a way that feels organic'.
I disagree about 2.1: if it's dancing, song sequence is super important. The wrong song can clear the dance floor. And for not dancing: we found last year when we did this people's tastes were too varied to shuffle well — you might be grooving to a few folky-rocky songs and then Back That Ass Up comes on and screws with the mood.
There is a middle ground party energy that it works on, though.
Note: I am incredibly (too?) sensitive to music when it comes to mood and ambiance! YMMSeriouslyV :)
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:32 AM on May 31, 2013
What I'm asking for is fundamentally what Pandora has been doing for years — and what Spotify does when you fire up a radio station. Both of those can use only that music they have data/analysis for, however, not just any arbitrary song.
Instead of a simple 'sounds like' I'm looking for 'similar to in a way that feels organic'.
I disagree about 2.1: if it's dancing, song sequence is super important. The wrong song can clear the dance floor. And for not dancing: we found last year when we did this people's tastes were too varied to shuffle well — you might be grooving to a few folky-rocky songs and then Back That Ass Up comes on and screws with the mood.
There is a middle ground party energy that it works on, though.
Note: I am incredibly (too?) sensitive to music when it comes to mood and ambiance! YMMSeriouslyV :)
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:32 AM on May 31, 2013
The way that DJ's play parties is: They sit there onstage and choose what songs to play from a playlist. (they have a bunch of cool equipment that makes it easier to sync BPMs and fade between songs). You can do this with one person, a laptop and Spotify. No sequencer needed. Or several people, a playlist, and Spotify. Someone just has to physically decide what's coming next and put it Next in the Spotify Play Queue. It's actually really fun! Unless someone drops a dud or threatens to play Megadeath to troll everyone. Then it's an awful nightmare. Good luck!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:38 AM on May 31, 2013
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:38 AM on May 31, 2013
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It's an interesting problem - how can we sort all this information, which is encoded in a difficult-to-parse format (e.g. the information is sound, not text). A few different researchers are working on it, and I suspect that progress will be made.
To answer your question, I don't think there is a Spotify app that does this... yet.
posted by k8lin at 6:30 PM on May 30, 2013