🔗 Unified listening

Unified listening enables multiple listeners to hear the same music experience at the same time, without each listener managing their own playback queue independently.

It is designed for use cases where a shared or synchronised music experience is required, such as live listening rooms, social audio features, interactive radio, gaming sessions, fitness classes, in-venue experiences, or other environments where users should hear the same sequence of tracks.

Rather than asking the client application to build and manage all playback logic locally, Unified listening provides the backend structure needed to generate, control, and deliver a shared queue or radio-style stream.

Unified listening is not a single implementation method. It is a shared listening model that can be delivered either through an API-controlled queue with ShadowQ, or through a stream-based radio approach with Plaidio.

How it works

Unified listening can be implemented in different ways depending on the product experience you want to build.

At a high level, the workflow is:

1. Define the music experience, such as a playlist, station, or curated music source.
2. Generate or retrieve the listening sequence.
3. Deliver the sequence to users through the appropriate implementation method.
4. Keep listeners aligned so they experience the same content flow.
5. Update or refresh the queue as required.

The exact implementation depends on whether you are using Shadow Queue or Plaidio.

Core concepts

Implementation options

ShadowQ

Use ShadowQ when your application needs more control over the playback logic and queue behaviour.

ShadowQ allows your backend or client application to create and manage a queue of tracks that users can follow in sync. It is useful when you need control over the listening session, user playback, queue refreshes, personalised logic, or real-time interaction.

Key capabilities:

• Keep audiences precisely aligned across the same tracks, beats, or audio moments.
• Support music, podcasts, voice-over, sound effects, or mixed audio experiences.
• Use audience feedback, such as likes, skips, voting, or other interactions, to influence the queue.
• Support AI-assisted curation for evolving shared queues.

Typical use cases include:

• synchronised listening rooms
• shared music sessions in apps
• gaming or interactive experiences
• fitness classes or guided audio sessions
• dynamic music queues controlled by an application
• experiences where the app needs to manage playback behaviour directly

See the ShadowQ quick start page for setup steps and API examples.

Plaidio

Use Plaidio when you want to turn a playlist or music source into a radio-style stream.

Plaidio is suited to experiences where the output needs to behave more like a linear audio stream, such as a web radio station, branded stream, or lean-back listening experience. It can help simplify playback because the client consumes the stream rather than managing each individual track in the queue.

Key capabilities:

• Spin up a station, curate in our CMS, and stream via browser or your player.
• A simple option when ease and consistency matter more than exact on-beat synchronisation.
• Music-only, linear listening with minimal setup and operational overhead.
• Support timed call-outs and dynamic inserts for global announcements or promos at exact times.

Typical use cases include:

• playlist-to-radio experiences
• branded digital radio streams
• lean-back music channels
• background music experiences
• browser-based or player-based radio-style streams

Choosing the right approach

The right approach depends on how much control you need over playback, how closely listeners must be synchronised, and whether the experience should be queue-based or stream-based.

Next steps

Start with the quick start page that matches your implementation:

• ShadowQ quick start, for API-controlled shared playback queues
• [SOON] Plaidio quick start, for playlist-to-radio or stream-based listening experiences