Insert new songs on top of the playlist rather than below

[Oliver Simon]

Hello,

Sorry if this was already mentioned, but as my playlists got bigger it made more sense for songs to appear at the top of the playlist where I can easily access the new songs of a playlist. Maybe there already exists a setting, but I couldn't find it. 

Thanks for the help.

[andrewilley]

It's not a feature at the moment. You can do it with the Queue ("Play Next") but not playlists.

Andre

[flyingdutchman]

@Oliver Simon New Playlist Manager has an option to move selected tracks to the top or reverse the order of a playlist

[Oliver Simon]

@flyingdutchman thanks for the advice, I didn't know about this app, but I still would be grateful to have the option in Poweramp. 

[andrewilley]

Back when the 'Play Next' feature was first introduced, there were several threads about it.

I must admit I initially assumed 'Play Next' would not have anything to do with the queue at all, as the wording did not imply queueing. Instead, after the current song finished, playback would simply switch to the newly requested song/album/folder/etc and carry on seamlessly in that mode from there onward. It would be exactly as if you had tapped on a song title, pressed the 'Play' icon at the top of an album list, but the activity wouldn't happen until the present song had finished.

Personally, I would still prefer that method of operation.

Tasks like "Insert at beginning of Queue" or "Insert at beginning of Playlist" would instead be better suited to long-pressing on the current controls. So you'd tap on the '>>Queue' control to add something to the end of the queue, but you'd long-press on '>>Queue' to insert at the start of the queue. 

Andre

[w3wilkes]

21 hours ago, andrewilley said:

So you'd tap on the '>>Queue' control to add something to the end of the queue, but you'd long-press on '>>Queue' to insert at the start of the queue. 

As one who almost exclusively uses the Queue rather than the "normal" method I like this proposed use of ">>Queue".

[andrewilley]

Tying this up with another request thread discussing something similar, I think it would be very useful for both the '>>Queue' and '+Playlist' buttons to support a long-press context pop-up that offers three choices of action for how the selected songs(s) will be inserted into the requested list:

     Insert at Start
     Insert Shuffled
     Add to End

The user's chosen action should probably then remain as the default operation for the next single-tap on that same button (could also be available as an option to configure in Settings, which would mention the existence of the new long-press shortcut).

[Edit] When inserting randomly into a playlist that is already playing (or has List Memory enabled) the new items should get placed somewhere beyond the current playback position.

Andre

[flyingdutchman]

For those interested, Music Playlist Manager now has additional options when adding to playlists, Yes, at the start, and the end or just randomly

Latest version V3062 has just been released.

[maxmp]

@andrewilley I added top/bottom option for Add to playlist dialog, but for the shuffled insert, I'm not sure what you mean here - do you want newly added tracks to be shuffled and added to the end? Or should the newly added tracks be randomly distributed in the target playlist?

[andrewilley]

The idea was so the newly selected batch of songs could be inserted randomly throughout the whole of the target Playlist (or Queue). The request came about as a result of someone who wanted to listen to long pre-shuffled playlists, but when adding new songs to the list they would be interspersed amongst all the other shuffled songs rather than all being added at the end. If a given Playlist is currently playing (just like the Queue) the randomly added songs should be inserted after the current playback position. 

Andre

[maxmp]

@andrewilley when in shuffle mode, this is already applied in the way the newly added tracks are shuffled too (but not intermixed with other existing tracks). I will try to implement that random insertion too, though these layers of shuffle logic may result in weird results.

[maxmp]

Added (for playlists) in the next (beta) build 934. Thanks for the request. 

As for the Queue, while it's technically possible, we don't have UI room for the extra actions and the queue button is one-click action without intermediate dialogs.

[andrewilley]

The idea was not to add any new buttons into that icon panel at all, but just have a long-press action for the existing '+Playlist' and '>>Queue' buttons which would pop-up a small dialog offering the three alternatives (Insert at Start, Insert Shuffled, Add to End). Just like long-pressing on the Shuffle or Repeat icons in the Player UI.

It might even be worth keeping the chosen option as the default tap action for that button in future, until the user changes it back again by using the long-press pop-up again?

Andre

[andrewilley]

On 4/9/2022 at 12:13 AM, andrewilley said:

It might even be worth keeping the chosen option as the default tap action for that button in future, until the user changes it back again by using the long-press pop-up again?

As an afterthought to the suggestion of making the user's long-press selection remain sticky for the next single-tap action on '+Playlist' or '>>Queue', perhaps a little indicator in the button text would be a good idea? Up-arrow or Down-arrow for insert the selected content at Start or End of the list (default being down-arrow for end), and a shuffle symbol for random insert. e.g:

  

Otherwise the user could get caught out if they later don't remember their last selection. It could be changed back at any time using long-press again of course.

Andre

[maxmp]

@andrewilley thanks for the idea. I implemented something like this - will be available in the next beta build. While it works, enqueuing to the start of Queue is not that useful. Keeping it for the consistency with the playlists though.

[andrewilley]

5 minutes ago, maxmp said:

enqueuing to the start of Queue is not that useful. 

Yes, it would need need to ignore already-played songs (i.e. historical stuff that is still visible at the top of the Queue view but which is not going to be played again) and insert the new content into the Queue as the next item(s) to be played.

So if the Queue is not currently playing, the inserted items become the first items ready to be played when the queue commences. But if the Queue is already playing, the insert point should be immediately after the currently playing item.

Andre

[maxmp]

@andrewilley this is what Play Next already does. Currently Queue (at start) just enqueues new unplayed songs on top - the same way as playlist action does. The intermediate build will be ready soon so this can be further tested/polished as needed.

[andrewilley]

Inserting new items at the start of the already-played (history) portion of the Queue would indeed seem to be a bit pointless, as they would just sit there and never get played.

As you say, the existing button called 'Play Next' currently does exactly what is being discussed here though - i.e. it inserts newly selected content into the Queue as the next item(s) for playback. However this 'new >>Queue' functionality would actually seem a much more logical place for triggering that operation.

Which would have the added benefit of freeing up the 'Play Next' button to do what I think was originally requested when it was first implemented, which was to tell PA to switch playback to a new Category after the current song has finished. Effectively it could now act as a way to slightly defer the mode-switch that is triggered by tapping on a song in a new Library Category, rather than it happening immediately.

I've tried to find the original threads asking for the "play a different album/folder/etc next" from a few years ago, but I can only find my own reference to it earlier in this thread:

[Edit again] Found this thread:

Basically the old 'Play Next' suggestion was not directly relating to the queue, but instead would cause regular playback to commence playing a new track in a new Category - just as if you simply tapped on a song title in the list - but only after the currently playing song had finished. Once started, the new song would then become the current playback position and category and carry on that way. So not dissimilar to adding to the start of the Queue, but making a permanent playback category change instead.

Andre

[andrewilley]

This thread (or another of the similar ones?) also mentioned the idea that once you have selected multiple items in a Playlist or the Queue, using any of the selected songs' drag thumbs should drag all of the selected items (presumably grouped together as one block of songs rather than still spread out?) rather than just moving that one song. Perhaps that could be implemented while this work is going on?  

And when choosing the start/shuffled/end mode for +Playlist or >>Queue, the 'add to end' variant ought to have a symbol next to it to indicate the mode it is working in (at the moment, only the top and shuffle options cause the icon to be annotated).

Andre

[maxmp]

@andrewilley unfortunately dragging this way is too complicated to implement it in timely manner in the minor update (as we can drag items in grid and list modes), so this feature is in the backlog now.

[andrewilley]

Ah, yes, I hadn't considered the gird views, group moving would be easier to show in the list views.

Andre

[Fitzian]

Maybe this would help in moving multiple selected / block items in playlists...

I'm thinking trying to do any dragging with one's finger of multiple items is naturally finicky...

Could a UI element, say some position ascend/descend arrows be shown that one could tap once to move selected items incrementally up or down, possibly held to move many positions at once?

[andrewilley]

On 4/12/2022 at 2:47 PM, maxmp said:

 Currently Queue (at start) just enqueues new unplayed songs on top - the same way as playlist action does.

I can't seem to find this option in build 935? Long-pressing on '>>Queue' only offers 'Queue' (which presumably means at end?) or 'Shuffled'.

A couple of minor suggestions which might make it easier to understand, and more consistent, for users:

• Both the '+Playlist' and the '>>Queue' buttons should offer the exact same set of three long-press choices - Insert at Start, Add to End, or Shuffled - with a tick displayed next to the currently active option.
• The icon labels should always stay as '+ Playlist' and '>> Queue', so users can see what the two buttons do. Use a small up-arrow if the current mode is 'Insert At Start', down-arrow for 'Add to End', or shuffle symbol for 'Shuffled'. Currently, the icons show labels like '+At Start' and '>>Shuffled', which are a bit confusing as it is no longer obvious that the buttons are referring to Playlist or Queue operations.
  
  So for example:
  
  Current layout in build 935 can be confusing: 
  
  Suggested layout, retaining descriptive labels: 
  
  Default (with both set to 'Add to End'): 

 

Andre

[andrewilley]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:28 AM, andrewilley said:

• Both the '+Playlist' and the '>>Queue' buttons should offer the exact same set of three long-press choices - Insert at Start, Add to End, or Shuffled - with a tick displayed next to the currently active option.
• The icon labels should always stay as '+ Playlist' and '>> Queue', so users can see what the two buttons do. Use a small up-arrow if the current mode is 'Insert At Start', down-arrow for 'Add to End', or shuffle symbol for 'Shuffled'. Currently, the icons show labels like '+At Start' and '>>Shuffled', which are a bit confusing as it is no longer obvious that the buttons are referring to Playlist or Queue operations.

I was just going to ask if these could be fixed before the next non-beta release to the Play Store, but I see 939 has recently gone out. Hopefully this can be added to the next release anyway, as the current icon labelling in particular is a bit confusing unless you realise what's going on. 

Andre

[GeilerHeinz]

I just tested to randomly insert songs of a few albums to the queue list by just selecting whole albums and click Queue shuffled?

Right now this results in a queue list of correct ordered sequences of album tracks. Is this the desired behaviour?

To get what I want I can of course Re-sort the Queue list with Shuffle (random sort) option afterwards. Songs of newly added albums are then randomly inserted to the Queue list if using the button Queue shuffled again.

Regards