Feature Request - Play Music Video if available when playing album

Feature Suggestions
21

This would be a really cool feature to have!!

22

indeed i too read this to believe music videos would match those in your collection and play the videoā€¦ would be a great features!

23

@NedtheNerd

Does this feature request include local music videos? If not, Iā€™ll create a separate request.

@NedtheNerd said:
Now that we have Premium Music content, please can we have an option to enable the playing of a music video (if one is available) when listening to albums/artists/playlists, it would make a nice change from the static backgrounds and enhance the user experience.

24

Good idea!

25

Add me in.

26

Yep this would be great, i actually find it kind of a disappointment that it doesnā€™t do this as the music video symbol is there. Seems intuitive to have some kind of button to enable playing the video instead.

27

is there an easy way to play music videos yet? I can select them individually but the music stops when the video is overā€¦

28

so many people and theres only 4 votes?

1 Like
29

I WANT MY MTV!

Music Videos on Plex are currently a second-class citizen. Plex recognizes Music Videos when paired with their audio counterparts, but thatā€™s about it. The only workaround is to create a separate video library for Music Videos, which doesnā€™t sort very well. Even with the workaround, thereā€™s no way to include them in your audio music shuffle or have Plex play them automatically when available. And when you play them manually, thereā€™s no intro/outro overlays like you see in other music software like iTunes or Windows Media Center.

HOW CAN PLEX USE ITS CURRENT RESOURCES FOR THIS?

From a technical perspective, Music Videos using the MP4 container and the appropriate file metadata prefilled (artist, album, track, title, year, genre, etc.) should be able to take advantage of the same scanners used for the Plex Music Library. Since the file names mirror their audio counterparts, the scanners can use the file information as well.

WHAT WOULD THE FEATURE LOOK LIKE?

In your Music preferences, there would be a priority list of how you want your music played. It might look something like this.

  1. Music Videos
  2. Music Audio With Synched Lyrics
  3. Music Audio With Un-synched Lyrics
  4. Music Audio With Album Art
  5. Music Audio With Visualizations

And the user could reorder these using their own personal preferences.

WHAT WOULD THE ROLLOUT LOOK LIKE?

v1.0 - Includes the user-changeable music priority list and 1 visualization. Includes basic fade-in/fade-out of intro/outro at 5 seconds into the video and 5 seconds before the end of the video for a duration of 5 seconds. The intro/outro would look like this.

Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center803Ɨ623 79.3 KB

ALB  Def Leppard
UM	 "Pour Some Sugar On Me"
ART	 Hysteria (1987)

v2.0 - Adds ability to customize intro/outro overlay times and adds different presentations besides a simple fade. Some examples would be swiping in the side, dropping in from the ceiling, spinning in, etc. Adds more visualizations.

v3.0 - Adds special intro/outros for calendar holidays. Adds sweet video fades. Adds even more visualizations. (with one being the server health dashboard).

v4.0 - Make the overlays available to other library types.

WHAT WOULD THE FILE REQUIREMENTS BE?

  1. The Music Videos would be stored inline along with their audio counterparts, which means the file names would be identical except for the file extension (which would be M4V to differentiate it from MP4 which would be for movies or home videos).
  2. For easy identification, the music videos would have their metadata prefilled. This can be easily accomplished using Musicbrainz Picard (which can also assist with synchronizing file names).

WHAT WOULD THE CLIENT REQUIREMENTS BE?

Advanced effects like video wipes and fancy intro/outros would require a high powered client (AppleTV, XBOX, etc.) For those on smart TVs and other less powerful platforms, these features would be limited to the capabilities of those platforms.

In closing, I believe itā€™s long past due that Music Videos get their own dedicated library on Plex. As of now, the work is about half done. You guys could really make something great here that would stand out from every other offering.

2 Likes
Standalone Music Video section (without dependence on music files!)
Standalone Music Video section (without dependence on music files!)
Standalone Music Video section (without dependence on music files!)
Where Are The New Libraries?
When Can We Expect New Libraries?
30

This please! I couldnā€™t have laid out a roadmap any better myself. This would be a major win if it could be implemented.

1 Like
31

Would love to see this introduced. Really should have been by now!

1 Like
32

Cā€™mon Plex Admins!!

When are music videos going to get some love??

33

When Can We Expect New Libraries?

34

Itā€™s been almost a decade and this simple feature cannot be implemented?
Just play the video file if it is available for the next song in the playlistā€¦

35

Iā€™m bringing this up again, although seeing as itā€™s from 2015 I have little hope.

I would like it if when playing the playlist it would play the video track if itā€™s available.

(google translator)

36

Bump. I still want my MTV!

1 Like