Go ahead, surprise me.

May 28, 2008 7:31 AM

Would it be possible to have the pop-out player in Metafilter Music play randomly?

There is a Random option in the page (as there is in all the subsites, next to the Home.Faq.Archives... options) but that only opens one song at a time, while the pop-out could keep playing songs. Would it be at all possible to implement it?

posted by micayetoca to feature requests at 7:31 AM (20 comments total)

Cool idea. And I suppose if implemented, it could randomly play selections from the whole of MeFiMu? Going back to really old stuff, rubbing sonic elbows with the latest tunes?

BTW, micayetoca, I hope you don't mind if I take this Music-related MeTa-opportunity to mention that the MetaFilter Music Challenge should be up and running, I think, for June, depending on whether the mods have time to implement it (I've sent along the first "winning" Challenge ideas). Based on input from a number of commenters in that last MeTa thread (and from my own instincts) I think we're gonna go with a monthly 3-part Challenge:

1. LYRIC: each month an exact phrase (must be used in your song) will be selected/extracted from a MetaFilter comment. The next one could be yours!

2. MUSIC: this will be a thematic/stylistic Challenge, usually, or a "cover this artist", or a "limit yourself to ____" type of thing.

3. WILD CARD: for whatever out-of-the-box Challenge ideas folks come up with, and often with a special eye toward ideas that non-musicians might be able to do.

Thanks for your indulging me in this derail.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:47 AM on May 28 [1 favorite]

Always a pleasure, flapjax, and if it's about Metafilter Music, it doesn't feel like a derail at all.

I'm glad the Challenge is coming back to life. I personally would love to see the "cover this Metafilter Music artist". I'd love to hear songs from here played by other people (people other than the ones who made the songs, I mean).

And yeah, the idea with the random feature would be to play songs from aaaall of MefiMu, so that people can discover the gems posted by our predecessors.
posted by micayetoca at 7:59 AM on May 28

I don't think it's possible no, since the music player relies on XML feeds of song data. We could randomize at the moment you press play, but a playlist of x number of songs would have to be sent to the player in an order that wouldn't change after the initial shuffling.

So it'd be sorta-random at best.
posted by mathowie at 8:03 AM on May 28

I personally would love to see the "cover this Metafilter Music artist"...

Haha! Guess what? That's the very one I chose for the first MUSIC theme! So, ok, the cat's outta the bag on that one!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:03 AM on May 28

...but a playlist of x number of songs would have to be sent to the player...

Any idea on how many songs that might be? Do you know what the practical limit would be?

So it'd be sorta-random at best.

Better than no random at all, I reckon!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:11 AM on May 28

a playlist of x number of songs would have to be sent to the player in an order that wouldn't change after the initial shuffling.

So it'd be sorta-random at best.
posted by mathowie

That sounds random enough for me, if it picks, say 50 songs from any time period, it does the trick alright.

and flapjax: that sounds great! now I only have to pray for a miracle in order to have time to participate, I don't want to miss that one. I still have to decide who I'm going to cover though. I guess I could leave the decision to the Random feature.
posted by micayetoca at 9:07 AM on May 28

Here's a Randomized Player that grabs 50 tracks at random. If you click "pop-out" you'll get the randomized player in a new window, but with a different tracklist. It's completely random every time it loads.
posted by pb at 9:16 AM on May 28

Sir pb, you are a star. Thank you very much for this. Will this be linked to from the main page of Music?
posted by micayetoca at 9:27 AM on May 28

That rocks, pb. Awesome.

Now how about making it so I can listen to every MetaFilter music track simultaneously?

I want to catch up but don''t have time to sit and listen to EVERY SINGLE ONE.
posted by BeerFilter at 9:30 AM on May 28

Sure, added a link to the randomized player just under the standard player.
posted by pb at 9:40 AM on May 28

Has the popout player swf always targeted _self for the links to individual song posts, or is that a new bugture?
posted by mumkin at 10:44 AM on May 28

Yep, the popout has always used target _self, but yeah it should probably be _blank or a named window.
posted by pb at 10:50 AM on May 28

I will love this pony long time. Thanks, pb!
posted by Kwine at 11:07 AM on May 28

I also would love to listen to a random list of 50 tracks. Excellent proposal!
posted by Miko at 11:21 AM on May 28

Next up: back-masking satanic messages into tracks.
posted by cortex at 11:29 AM on May 28

Kick

ASSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by snsranch at 12:06 PM on May 28

Next up: back-masking satanic messages into tracks.

(thanks, just wanted to eat them. And to you too, miss!

to do music now.

hm.
posted by carsonb at 12:10 PM on May 28

Joy! Thanks pb - and micateyoca.

Ears engaged, comment mode ON.
posted by freya_lamb at 12:25 PM on May 28

Yes! Fist pump! Thank you so much, micayetoca & pb, this makes my day.
posted by barchan at 12:54 PM on May 28

I thought you meant a music player that would pop out randomly and play music. Maybe you're reading msnbc.com, maybe you're taking a nap or driving to work, when suddenly POP there it is.

Can we have that too?
posted by moonmilk at 9:42 AM on May 29