Queues
Authored by briiian · Last updated When you start playback in Cardinal Music, the app will initialize one of two types of queue, either dynamic or static.
Dynamic queues
A dynamic queue is a smart queue that your media server keeps adding more music to as you listen. Some types of dynamic queue are seeded with a release or an artist, and others do not require a seed.
Every dynamic queue is created with a type. The type decides which tracks the queue starts with and which tracks it grows with later.
| Type | Location | Seed | Logic |
|---|---|---|---|
| True Shuffle | Listen Now | None | Never-ending randomized playback with no smart features |
| House Mix | Listen Now | Chosen by the server | Play a random track from your 10 most played of the past week (min. 3 plays each), or a favorite when the week has been quiet, then play more music like it |
| House Mix | Music release, spotlight | The release | Play one track from the release, then play more music like it |
| House Mix | Music artist, spotlight | The artist | Play one track by the artist, then play more music like it |
| Fresh Music | Listen Now | None | Play music released in the past year in random order, until there is none left |
| Fresh Release | Listen Now | Chosen by the server | Play one random release from the past year front to back, then end |
| Encore | Music release, spotlight | The release | Play the entire release, then play more music like it |
| Undertow | Music artist, spotlight | The artist | Play the artist's least-played tracks, starting with the ones you have never played |
Every spotlight row above is started from a spotlight on Listen Now, seeded with the artist or release being spotlighted.
If you have libraries set then the dynamic queue will continue to only draws tracks from the libraries that were active when it was created.
Spotlights
Listen Now spotlights artists, releases and tracks picked from your own listening: one you have on repeat, one you recently favorited, one you have not played in months, or one you have never played at all. The picks change daily, and no two spotlights of the same kind share a pick or a reason. Each spotlight explains its reasoning, and its Spotlight button starts the queue type that fits it. The spotlight's House Mix button always starts a House Mix of the artist or release.
Each kind of spotlight is picked independently, so on the same day the artist spotlight, the release spotlight and the track spotlight can all point at the same artist.
A day's spotlights are settled the first time you open Listen Now that day, so the listening you do afterwards shapes tomorrow's picks rather than moving today's. The one exception is a spotlight whose music leaves your library, or loses the cover art the spotlight needs, before the day is out: that spotlight is replaced, and the others stay put.
| Picked for | Artist Spotlight | Release Spotlight |
|---|---|---|
| Being loved | House Mix of the artist | House Mix of the release |
| Being unheard | Undertow of the artist | Encore of the release |
A track cannot seed a dynamic queue, so the track spotlight has no Spotlight button: it plays the track itself, and its House Mix button mixes from the release the track is on. Its reasons are the sharper ones a single track can earn — on repeat this week rather than this month, freshly favorited, or never heard.
How related tracks are chosen
When choosing related tracks, candidates are ranked by how well they fit the tracks that were queued most recently, so a long session drifts naturally instead of circling its seed forever.
| Signal | Effect |
|---|---|
| Shares an artist with a recently queued track | Strongest boost |
| Shares a genre with a recently queued track | Strong boost |
| Your rating of the track | Moderate boost |
| Your play count for the track | Small boost, capped |
| Random jitter | Keeps every mix unique |
When the library does not contain enough related material to fill a batch, the remainder is filled with random tracks. Repeats are a last resort, used only during refills where the alternative is playback running dry.
Extending a queue manually
Any queue, static or dynamic, can also be extended by hand using Play Next and Add to Queue.
- Play Next inserts the tracks directly after the track you most recently played. Your position is resolved by the server from your playback history, so the tracks land in the same spot no matter which device asked.
- Add to Queue appends the tracks to the end of the queue.
Manually added tracks do not affect automatic refill; a dynamic queue continues generating past them as usual.
Static queues
A static queue is a simple list of tracks in a predefined order. Once the queue reaches the end, the playback stops.
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