Play Random Album from Specific Genre?

[ministryofsillywalks]

This is a pretty specific setup, but it's a pretty integral part of our daily life, so here goes:
I am currently using LMS and have a CLI script that plays a random Album from a certain genre in LMS library.
I use this, as my little daughter has a zigbee button in her room which she can press, which then plays a random Audio Book Album from a predefined Genre. Once that book is done the service calls the next random album from the genre etc.
Is there currently any way to achieve this in MA?

[OzGav]

I expect you would be limited by what you can do with HA scripts. For example https://community.home-assistant.io/t/trying-to-run-a-random-script/226402

but not sure how you can keep track of what has already been played…?

[ministryofsillywalks]

The new features just introduced look great
music-assistant/server#1228
"Random album from library" playlist now exists.
Is there any built-in way to play "random album from genre" now?

[marcelveldt]

Not yet, we will offer more builtin playlists as well as make Genres more prominent after the 2.0 release.

[ministryofsillywalks]

Looking forward to this feature.
Only thing still keeping me with Lms, as ma otherwise has completely replaced lms.

[ministryofsillywalks]

Is there a way using MASS Play Media when requesting an Album from a certain artist to not always play the first result?
If it could randomly pick a result, this could already accomplish what I'm trying to achieve.
Currently when asking MA to play an album from a certain artist it always plays the same album (I'm guessing the first result)

[ministryofsillywalks]

until this is natively implemented I hacked together a script to achieve what I wanted.
This script does a mass search for "ARTISTNAME" returns 9 results (can increase the number) then plays a random URI from the list.
Works great! Thanks for making this so flexible!

alias: Random Album
sequence:
  - service: mass.search
    data:
      limit: 9
      name: ARTISTNAME
      artist: ARTISTNAME
      media_type:
        - album
    response_variable: results
  - service: mass.play_media
    metadata: {}
    data:
      media_id: "{{ results.albums[range(1, 10) | random].uri }}"
    target:
      device_id: XYZ
mode: single

[OzGav]

Nice! I might add this to the how do I section!

edit: should the range be 0 to 8?

[ministryofsillywalks]

Good catch. I would probably have never noticed, that the first array entry was never played ;)
I stole the random range from another automation which I had, which needed to start at 1.

[JDogg016]

So relying on this to relate a call service node in node red to play a random playlist.

My json data for the service call mass 'play_media' is as follows:

{
"media_id": "{{ payload.playlists[array(1, 10) | random].uri }}"
}

I receive the following error:

HomeAssistantError: MediaNotFoundError: Could not resolve ['{{ payload.playlists[array(1, 10) | random].uri }}'] to playable media item

I use payload as the variable in mine instead of 'results' because the prior call service to search outputs the results to msg.payload. Also I use array because the results show in an array.

Any suggestions?

[OzGav]

I suggest you post the full yaml and format it correctly as you see done by the OP three posts above yours. Actually I see you are using node red. Not sure if you will get any reply as not many people use that but see how you go.

[kreativmonkey]

I had a view issues with this solution:

1. the search result with only 10 albums are highly simular to each other, it's happend a lot of time that i got the same album twice...
2. unlike the search request the results from youtube music are not releated to the search request. I got albums with variouse artists instead of the searched artist.

so i modified your script to:

alias: Random Album
sequence:
  - data:
      limit: 50
      media_type:
        - album
      artist: ARTISTNAME
      name: ARTISTNAME
    response_variable: results
    action: mass.search
  - action: input_text.set_value
    target:
      entity_id: input_text.playback_album
    data:
      value: |
        {% set album = namespace(value=None) %}
        {% for _ in range(results.albums | length) %}
          {% set random_album = results.albums[range(1,50) | random] %}
          {% if random_album.provider == 'spotify' %}
            {% set album.value = random_album.uri %}
            {% break %}
          {% endif %}
        {% endfor %}
        {{ album.value if album.value else '' }}
  - metadata: {}
    data:
      media_id: "{{ states('input_text.playback_album') }}"
    action: mass.play_media
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.buro
    enabled: true
mode: single
icon: mdi:account-music

and i set the value to a input_text helper to store the last album that was played. this is used in an automation where the last album will be started if the player is not playing anything, or randomely pick a new album if the player plays a currently a album.

[napalmcsr]

I am trying to get X number of random tracks across my library. I am trying to see if that is possible out of this implementation. I am not seeing a way yet. Any advice?

[OzGav]

There is the 500 random tracks playlist which is auto generated by MA. Note that it is subject to an issue report at the moment though.

[napalmcsr]

yeah, I am trying to replicate that functionality due to it having an issue.. I can be patient :)

[marcelveldt]

it is fixed in the 2.2 release

[napalmcsr]

Nice! Thanks!

[OzGav]

With the integration update to 2024.11.0 a new action is available which should satisfy this request.

sequence:
  action: mass.get_library
  data:
    media_type: track
    search: ARTISTNAME
    limit: 1
    order_by: random
  response_variable: random_track
  action: mass.play_media
  data:
    media_id: "{{ random_track.tracks[0].uri }}"
    media_type: track
    enqueue: play
    radio_mode: true
  target:
    entity_id: media_player.ma_kitchen_speaker

If you want a queue of tracks then:

    sequence:
      - service: mass.get_library
        data:
          media_type: track
          search: ARTISTNAME
          limit: 10
          order_by: random
        response_variable: random_tracks
      - repeat:
          count: "{{ random_tracks | length + 1}}"
          sequence:
            - action: mass.play_media
              data:
                media_id: "{{ random_tracks.tracks[repeat.index - 1].uri }}"
                media_type: track
                enqueue: add
              target:
                entity_id: media_player.ma_kitchen_speaker

[amoranvalero]

@OzGav I have tested themass.get_library action in HA and for tracks and the response query for tracks is always empty. See attached picture. My intention is get random tracks for an artist.

The rest of get_library actions (over albums, artists, playlist ... works but erratically, for example two consecutive polling to albums leads to a result of empty response). To complete information my arrangement I only have a music source in MA which is a subsonic server.

Am I doing terribly wrong? Or is there any limitation?

Thanks and regards.

[OzGav]

No I think this is a bug. @marcelveldt is this randomising the tracks then grabbing the limit and then doing the search instead of doing the search, randomising the results and then applying the limit?

edit: Also it looks like the search is across the whole JSON. I wonder if it should be looking only in the album:name or artist:name key for album and artist media types and only the high level name key for other types?