Move shuffle function

[darkassassin07 429]

Currently the only way to shuffle through songs is to click the shuffle button on a artist, album, etc... This loads the selected music into the now playing list.

 

The problem with this is you cannot enable/disable shuffle during playback without reloading the whole now playing list. Not really an issue with single album/artist now playing lists but if you have built a long now playing list you have to rebuild the whole list or save it as a playlist then shuffle it.

 

Personally i like to have a large now playing that is shuffling, then when i come across something that really fits the mood i disable shuffle for a bit. This cannot be done without interrupting playback and rebuilding the whole list.

 

The other issue is that it is impossible to shuffle more than one artist/album. You cannot multi select within the music library (at least via the web app on android Chrome) and you canot add music to the now playing list shuffled. You can start one thing shuffled, then either have to manually shuffle new entries to now playing or add artists/albums in the order they are listed

 

 

I would like to have shuffle moved to the player itself so that when shuffle is on it randomly jumps between songs in the now playing list then when disabled plays the next song in the list as it does now.

Edited October 15, 2017 by darkassassin07

[ebr 14936]

Not exactly what you are asking for but the TV apps do allow you to re-shuffle the queue during playback.

 

I think in all of our implementations, the random sort is performed before the items are added to the queue so whatever the strict order was before is not known.  So we would have to re-design how that works to do exactly what you are asking here.

[darkassassin07 429]

It would have to be re designed yes, but that should be a relatively simple thing to do compared to the majority of the updates you guys have made lately.

 

Remove the current shuffle buttons so songs are always added in the order the user adds them (be that at the end of the current now playing, or inserted after the current song). Then when the current song ends if shuffle is off play the next song in the list, but when shuffle is on chose a random int from 0 to the length of now playing and play that song.

 

The hardest part of that should be adding/removing the buttons in the UIs of the various apps really.

Edited October 17, 2017 by darkassassin07

[ebr 14936]

Then when the current song ends if shuffle is off play the next song in the list, but when shuffle is on chose a random int from 0 to the length of now playing and play that song.

 

That logic doesn't actually give you what you would expect so that's why it isn't done that way.  If that's what the shuffle option did, then you would potentially play the same song multiple times before ever playing others.

 

So, shuffle in players actually randomly shorts the current playlist.  This gives you random playback of each song exactly once (until it repeats en masse).  It also gives you an accurate view of the playback queue at any given time.

 

Given that we are dealing with a lot more than a single player or playback engine (some of which manage their own playback queues) - changing that behavior is actually quite a large task.

[darkassassin07 429]

So display a now playing list in the order items were added, and keep a second list the player reads and plays from. The display list would always maintain the order items were added to it, where as the list the player reads can be shuffled and un shuffled at will.

 

It wouldn't be implemented into every player overnight ofc, like any other project... One thing at a time. Start with the web/Android apps as those are the most commonly used i think and work your way forward from there

 

I don't understand why the shuffle function has been implemented the way it has. Its less functional and adds more confusion to a function included on everything from studio quality equipment to 4$ bargain mp3 players...

 

My biggest issue with the current setup is that its not possible to shuffle more than one artist/album without saving them to a playlist and shuffling after the fact

Edited October 17, 2017 by darkassassin07

[ebr 14936]

I didn't say it was impossible. I just pointed out that it wasn't quite as simple as you originally posited.