Metafilter Spotify account?

September 23, 2018 6:20 PM

Given all the great AskMefi questions about playlist suggestions, would there be an interest in an official Metafilter Spotify account with playlists made based on each question?

I picked Spotify because that's what I'm most familiar with and also because it allows for a community-collaboration option so people can help update the playlist as the questions get answered (rather than just one person doing all the updating).

We may not be able to collect all the songs suggested of course but that's the rub with any streaming service, even YouTube.

posted by divabat to MetaFilter-Related at 6:20 PM (30 comments total)

It's a fun idea; I haven't thought at all about the logistics of such a thing and do basically zero playlisting myself, so I'd be happy to hear folks brainstorms about how such a thing could work (and of course it could just work as a totally unofficial thing, which might turn out to be the easiest approach).
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:22 PM on September 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Gods, I super-miss the collaborative jukebox that a user ran here ages ago. I don't know how it'd work, but I'd be active with it most days.
posted by curious nu at 6:36 PM on September 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

(that is, if there was some spotify account(s) I could add/listen to, I'd be a frequent user)
posted by curious nu at 6:38 PM on September 23, 2018

I think it’d be cool. I did an Ask once for angry breakup songs, and that seems like a playlist that would get a lot of use. It still gets favorited every now and again.

Plus I have a lot of other music Asks bookmarked. Actual playlists would be cool.
posted by MexicanYenta at 7:43 PM on September 23, 2018

Yeah we could do something unofficial too - I just wasn't sure what the procedure was with using the Metafilter name. If we had say one person or two with login privileges but make all the playlists collaborative (I think there's a way to make playlists unlisted too if that's a worry) so us Mefites can help update.
posted by divabat at 7:50 PM on September 23, 2018

I'm not worried about mentioning MetaFilter as a casual organizational principle as long as it's clear that it's that (so "a playlist from some MetaFilter folks" is fine, "The Official MetaFilter Network LLC Playlist" would be not so much, heh) and no one's being a jerk about it. So folks just DIYing it seems a-okay to me!
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:01 PM on September 23, 2018

I would listen to this.
posted by bilabial at 10:08 PM on September 23, 2018

I would listen to this as well, I always love the "songs like x" AskMes.
posted by wellred at 5:33 AM on September 24, 2018

I would also listen to this - I always think "hmm I should go back and listen to all those songs people recommended" but then seldom actually do it, and this would definitely help.
posted by terretu at 6:47 AM on September 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I would really like this, and in fact, have kind of wished that people would start playlists based on Asks.
posted by holborne at 8:06 AM on September 24, 2018

And when this is being done could we add a tag for MefiSpotify to asks and posts on the blue where there are attendant playlists? This would prevent folks from duplicating lists.

Now the question of how to name each play list so it's findable form the tags? Maybe something MefiSpotifyLISTNAME tag would be good?
posted by bilabial at 8:32 AM on September 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

As someone who has compiled and posted to threads playlists of songs mentioned in the thread I would be all over this. In fact if I'd known collaborative spotify lists were a thing I'd probably have suggested it.
posted by Mitheral at 11:30 AM on September 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Perhaps whoever makes the Spotify playlist also be tasked with adding a link to it on a MeFi wiki page devoted to such questions/playlists? Perhaps in a format like:

24 April 2018: Uplifting Breakup Songs [AskMe] [Spotify]
19 July 2018: Contemplative Weightlifting Songs [AskMe] [Spotify]

...where the title of the question/playlist is the AskMe link, and the external Spotify link comes after.
posted by mykescipark at 1:30 PM on September 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

I’ve made Spotify playlists out of Asks for my personal enjoyment and would love it if this was a thing that was crowdsourced. I get a lot of play out of them but they can be time consuming to make!
posted by oomny at 1:46 PM on September 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

On a side note... I once started to try to do a YouTube playlist version of the same thing.... Forget what stopped me. I think there was already an 'almost MetaFilter' YouTube thingy and a bit of Google API crap that made it a bit difficult. I still have the code somewhere to extract video links from a MetaFilter post. Different times and such... maybe I'll try again if the mood strikes and Spotify works out.. :)
posted by zengargoyle at 3:59 PM on September 24, 2018

Now the question of how to name each play list so it's findable form the tags? Maybe something MefiSpotifyLISTNAME tag would be good?

I was thinking of just naming them either as the original post title or something to sum the post up if the title is jokey.
posted by divabat at 6:14 PM on September 24, 2018

Spotify account made! Let me know if you'd like login details for it and its associated Gmail account.

This MetaTalk from 2015 has a bunch of lists of Spotify playlists made by Mefites based on posts - I know there's relatively easy ways to import playlists from account to account (having done so before) though it'd probably be good to ask permission.

I couldn't figure out a way to add any info on the Spotify profile about this being an unofficial/community-run account - when I signed up they asked you what you'd like to be called (hence MefiSpotify) but I can't seem to find the option to change that into something more descriptive.
posted by divabat at 7:11 PM on September 24, 2018

divabat: "Let me know if you'd like login details for it and its associated Gmail account."

Do you need this to add play lists? If so please send it to my MefiMail
posted by Mitheral at 8:16 PM on September 24, 2018

Well damn:

Keep in mind that collaborative playlists are not considered public playlists. Once you make a playlist collaborative, it will automatically become secret and therefore will not show up on your "Public Playlists" section. In order for others to edit the playlist, you need to share it with them first, so they can follow it and have full access.

So either the playlist can be collaborative, but not show up on the MefiSpotify profile even if you follow it, or it can be public but not collaborative, which sorta defeats the purpose?
posted by divabat at 6:56 AM on September 25, 2018

I know nothing about playlists, but I like this idea. It would be cool to have playlists inspired by non-musical AskMeFi posts, too, e.g. "More Songs about [Bad Landlord] Buildings and Food [Left on the Counter for A Few Hours]"
posted by Glomar response at 10:23 AM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I made a playlist for Metafilter's additions to the NPR Turning the tables playlist. It should be set to public so you can copy it to your list of playlists.

Copying playlists might be the easiest way to go.
posted by vespabelle at 8:33 PM on September 25, 2018

I made a Mefi inspired playlist that was collaborative inspired by a thread where we were all gushing about Uptown Funk and the 80s R and B that inspired it: Uptown Mefi Funk.

Now I have no idea how to share it with the official Metafilter Spotify account. Does this need to be added by the administrator of the account?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:37 PM on September 25, 2018

I would participate. My username on Spotify is the same as it is here.
posted by matildaben at 10:26 PM on September 25, 2018

Whoever runs the account (I need to give you login details) can follow playlists from anyone, but to have it show up on the account's public profile it needs to be copied over.

Message me or Mitheral if you'd like login info (I'm about to head out for a festival tho so it might take me a bit)
posted by divabat at 6:51 PM on September 26, 2018

So either the playlist can be collaborative, but not show up on the MefiSpotify profile even if you follow it, or it can be public but not collaborative, which sorta defeats the purpose?

Can we get around this by having a public version and now a collaborative version? Everyone add things to the collab, the people with the keys add the new things to the public version?
posted by bilabial at 6:04 AM on September 27, 2018

bilabilal: that just adds an unnecessary layer of tedium - from Mefi Post > Playlist to Mefi Post > Collab Playlist > Public Playlist, especially if the goal is to avoid only having one or two people do everything.

I guess we can start with playlists being collaborative-though-secret (we can still share the link around, for example as a comment in the original post) and then make them public once they're done?
posted by divabat at 8:10 AM on September 29, 2018

So I went through the previous Metatalk post about this and copied over the playlists linked in that post that were directly connected to a post on Mefi/AskMefi/Metatalk (in one case). Feel free to suggest more! I can't promise that the playlists I copied over are comprehensive but they're a good start.

So far I've given login details to Mithereal and shothotbot. My current strategy is to make all playlists on the account public & non-collaborative for now, since they're all for posts that are long past the comment time limit, but I might make ones for ongoing posts collaborative (which makes them non-public).
posted by divabat at 5:51 PM on October 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

oh and bilabial good suggestion on tagging posts that have playlists - I'll do that now.
posted by divabat at 5:52 PM on October 3, 2018

ACTUALLY NEVER MIND I can't add tags to other people's posts! But each playlist on the MefiSpotify account has a link to the original post anyway.
posted by divabat at 5:54 PM on October 3, 2018

Because clearly I have nothing better to do with my time I've updated the MefiWiki page on Spotify and made a working spreadsheet to keep track of which threads need/have playlists.
posted by divabat at 8:15 PM on October 5, 2018 [1 favorite]