What is the easiest way to create a playlist from Billboard chart

[ncbrewer]

The Billboard website has charts for various genres.  For example, this category for Rock

http://www.billboard.com/charts#id-chart-category-rock

Each chart offers the ability to play the songs in the list with Spotify web player.  I would like to turn that list of songs into a Spotify Playlist that I can sync to my mobile device for offline playback.  What's the easiest way to do that?  If found many hard ways, but not a nice clean easy way.

I currently start the playback of the list of songs in Spotify.  I then select each song in the list individually, and add each to a new playlist.  This requires hundreds of mouse clicks to add a 50 song Billboard chart to a Spotify Playlist.  Then once the Playlist is created in the web player, it can be found in my mobile device.

[Dreadlord]

Hey @ncbrewer,

The easiest way is to make an automated script using Spotify Web API.

It's relatively easy and you can code it in every single language that comes up in your head.

https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/add-tracks-to-playlist/

[ncbrewer]

Hmmm.  While certainly not "easy", this was a challenging problem to work on tonight.  I was able to get part of the way, but I'm afraid that I'm stuck.  

Using the Spotify API online help link that you pointed me to, I was able to generate the command that needs to be issued.  I even tried it out on the API web console, and the HTTP status code in the response header was "201 Created", so I believe that indicates the test worked

But now I am at a loss as to how I actually run this command in order for it to update my Spotify playlist.  Judging from your response, it seems like I may have to embed the command in a script and then run the script?  I've used Perl before, but I have no idea how to write a Perl script that would execute this command which starts out with:

curl -X POST "https://api.spotify.com. . . . . . .

[Dreadlord]

Hey @ncbrewer,

1. First you need to authorize yourself:

     https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/authorization-guide/

     I can send you python script that I did for this job, but it needs some adjustments to work on windows.

  2. After authorizing yourself you will get token in return ( OAuth Token ), this token expires in 3600s, but this is just enough to add songs to a single playlist.

  3. Make for loop to add all the song using the token above.

[ncbrewer]

Thanks for the info Dreadlord, but we have definitely gone way beyond "easy".  

I've never used Python before, so even if you did send me a script, I would need to download a Python interpreter in order to run it.  I'd then need to learn some rudimentary Python in order to modify your script.  And I have no idea what would need to be adjusted in your script in order to run it on Windows.

Maybe someone else can offer some assistance that doesn't require me to be a Spotify developer.  If not, then I guess I'll be doing 150 mouse clicks each weekend in order to get an updated Billboard playlist. 

[Dreadlord]

 Hey @ncbrewer,

I will try to code it for you, but you will still need Python interpreter 🙂

I will post it when I am done 😛

[Sheugel]

In the meantime, if you can use instead the desktop app to play the Billboard list (you have to enable that possibility in the web player), you can easily drag the titles from the queue to a list of yours.

[ncbrewer]

Hi Frederic

When I read your advice I was hopeful, but I cannot get this to work in a useful manner.

I can drag and drop single songs from the Billboard trackset window to the web player window, but they do not go into my playlist.  They will start to play in the web player, and I then have to select them and add them to the playlist manually.  So, I've only replaced 3 mouse clicks with a drab+drop and 2 mouse clicks.  Not much better.  You'd think that I could drag multiple tracks from the Billboard list to the web player, but that does not work.  I get a "Sorry, couldn't find that" error.

[ncbrewer]

Interesting turn of events. . . . 

Last night I was trying out this Spotify API command to add tracks to a playlist.  The API console gives you the opportunity to try out your command so that you can verify it is free of errors.  I ran the command, saw that there were no errors, and went on to find examples of Perl scripts to embed the command in.  When I looked at my playlist before I went to bed, there were no tracks in it.  Tonight, I opened the web player to try out everyone's latest suggestions, and all of the Billboard tracks that I put in the API command were in my playlist.  I'm going to run another test to see if I can repeat it, but it looks like I may not need a script at all.  I can just use the API console.

[ncbrewer]

The web API console method works, but I had to log out and back in to see the tracks in my playlist

Here's what I did.

1.  Go to the Billboard website and click on the desired chart to create a Spotify trackset.

http://www.billboard.com/charts#id-chart-category-rock

2. Copy the URL for the trackset into Notepad for editing.

http://www.billboard.com/play/spotify/trackset:Spotify:3CRDbSIZ4r5MsZ0YwxuEkn,6AIrvhduCLZnhskALBzdIw...

3. Open the Spotify API console, and fill in the requested fields.  You'll need to do a bit of cut-and-pasting, especially for the tracks.  Each track needs a prefix of "spotify:track:".  You'll also need to request authorization for a public playlist.

https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/console/post-playlist-tracks/

4. "Try it" will run the command and load the desired playlist with the tracks.  Log out of Spotify and back in to see the tracks in your playlist.

[Sheugel]

Hi,

My advice works with the desktop player not the web player but I guess that's not an option for you.

[ncbrewer]

I did not realize that there was a separate desktop client.  I thought that you were referring to the web player.  I am downloading the desktop client now and will try that out.  Thanks for the advice Frederic.

[ncbrewer]

I downloaded and installed the desktop client.  Without launching the desktop client, I went to the Spotify website and launced the web player.  I then went to the Billboard website and started up a trackset for one of the charts.  The tracks started playing in the web player.  I then paused the playback and launced the desktop client.  I created a new playlist with the desktop client and opened up the new empty playlist.  I then went back to the web player and attempted to drag-and-drop songs from the web player to the desktop client.  It allowed me to drag-and-drop tracks, but the tracks only started playing. . . .they did not appear in the playlist.  I had to select the track, open the pull down menu, and choose to add them to the playlist.  When I attempted to drag-and-drop multiple tracks, I received the same error as yesterday. 

What am I doing wrong Frederic?

[Sheugel]

In the web player settings, you have to activate the option to play the links with the desktop player (and make sure that the option to play external links is activated in the options of the desktop player). Once the Billboard chart is played with the desktop player, you will be able to work more easily on the tracks of the queue.

[ncbrewer]

Hi Frederic.

I was able to do as you instructed and I can now play the Billboard chart trackset using the Desktop App.  I am also able to drag-and-drop tracks from within the desktop app to my new playlist.  However, I can only drag-and-drop one track at a time.  I have to click on the song in the Billboard trackset, it will start to play in the desktop app, and then I can move that single song to my playlist.  I have to repeat this sequence 40-50 times to copy over a Billboard chart.  Is there a way to drag-and-drop the entire Billboard trackset in one action, or can it only do single tracks.  Thanks for this advice.  A single mouse click followed by a drag-and-drop is better than 3 mouse clicks.

[Sheugel · Accepted solution]

Normally, the tracks of the playlist should appear in the queue (you can access it by clicking the icon with three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner of the desktop player). From there, you should be able to select and drag the tracks to a playlist of yours.

[ncbrewer]

YES!!!  Thank you so much for your help Frederic.  I am now able to create a playlist from a Billboard chart with only a few mouse clicks.  

[Sheugel]

That's good news. Glad I could help 🙂

[ncbrewer]

Dang!  Too good to last I guess.  This no longer works anymore.  Whenever I click on the Billboard tracklist, the songs no longer start playing in the Desktop Player.  A small pop-up appears for a split second saying something about an "External Protocol Request", but it disappears before I can read anything else.