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Add a "Secret" option for Playlists

Mr_Yesterday
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permalink   Wed, Jul 21, 2021 @ 12:21 AM
The Playlist feature (read: “code”) could a great way to sift through potential source…but only if there were an option to withhold or delay publication: a “Private” option.

If you’re participating in a Secret Mixter, sometimes you just want to listen to a lot of samples one after the other and more than once. Adding items to a playlist would be more convenient than downloading candidate stems and pells to your DAW if you’re just trying to quickly “bookmark” candidate tracks.

But adding a track to a playist flags it to the Mixee and everyone else. It’s too exposed. Might it be [relatively] easy to allow a playlist to be created and kept private? Made temporary?

Please just redirect if it’s already a standing request (I checked, but it’s hard to search through the vast ccM archive thoroughly enough)!
Apoxode
admin
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permalink   Wed, Jul 21, 2021 @ 12:28 PM
I see what you’re saying, if you’re putting your secret mixter assignment’s tracks in a ccMixter playlist, then it will reveal that they were assigned to you.

Short answer: no, each sample added to a playlist will indicate that in its properties, so even using a separate ccMixter account can’t prevent that. But, the user won’t be notified, so they would have to compulsively check their account to figure it out.

If I understand you correctly, one of the reasons to use a ccMixter playlist is that when you click on the the sample you’re interested in, it takes you to the beta version list which allows individual stem play — it is convenient with artists who submit individual mp3/flac stems instead of in a zip. Additionally, you can see all of the license info, the remix tree, and bpm.

With this in mind, have you tried keeping multiple tabs open in your web browser with the stems loaded in the respective players?
I’ve used this technique to keep one stem playing while auditioning other stems over it, and multiple tabs allow simultaneous plays. Plus they stay loaded on the page, and you can right click the play button to save what’s loaded.

Alternatively, what you need is a player that queues items with URLs, I recommend VLC media player.
Assuming that you’re using beta to browse an artist, you’d click the orange button for the sample you want to queue, then right click the blue download button and copy the link location, then ctrl-v that into VLC and it adds it to the playlist.

Though initially tedious, you won’t need your browser open afterwards and you achieve full anonymity.
 
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permalink   Mr_Yesterday Wed, Jul 21, 2021 @ 8:23 PM
Whoops, I failed to communicate. Take 2: It’s a mobile world and this might help us.

As you suggest, we’ve all had to find other solutions, and of course we shouldn’t invest precious dev cycles replacing desktop tools. I was merely suggesting existing functionality could be leveraged to enhance an activity many of us participate in, maybe even make it easier for new blood:

* A huge up-front cost of remixing is the time it takes to review and choose source.

* While auditioning samples to remix, it’s handy to save favorites to a scratch list.

* Every sample displayed on ccM already has an “Add to Playlist” function.

* If a playlist could be made private, it would be a very useful tool for this.

* You could easily to do the first listening pass on the bus with a smartphone or wherever.

=> Since they’re public, though, playlists are not suitable. Nor are recommends.

I use VLC, multiple tabs, bookmarks, you name it all the time. But I spend about half of a Secret Mixter period reviewing and sifting source, and this would make that easier and faster. My ccM screentime averages an hour or two per month, so it’s precious.

I did try this in the pre-Beta days and it worked a treat on my mobile but I found it all too easy to track activity. I had to obfuscate playlist names and then delete them and it wasn’t worth the hassle.

The current Beta view is another matter, and another set of feature requests. It makes playlist content so difficult to find that it’s probably no longer a serious exposure. I no longer use playlists on the site anyway, which may be why my attitudes are a little dated.

Take it or leave it, just a suggestion.