PowerShell: enqueue and play a random song with VLC

playRandomMusic.ps1

function playMusicForProgramming() {
  param(
    [int] $n = 1
  )
  playRandomMusic $n 'C:\download\music\musicforprogramming.net'
}

function playAmbientMusic() {
  param(
    [int] $n = 1
  )
  playRandomMusic $n 'C:\download\music\ambient' -recurse -folders
}

function playRandomMusic() {
  param(
    [int] $n = 1,
    [string] $folder = 'C:\download\music',
    [Switch] $recurse = $true,
    [Switch] $folders = $false
  )

  $first = $true;

  For ($i = 1; $i -le $n; $i++) {
    if ($folders) {
      $file = dir -Path "${folder}\*" -Directory -Recurse:$recurse
    }
    else {
      $excludes = ("*.jpg", "*.pdf", "*.txt");
      $file = dir -Path "${folder}\*" -File -Recurse:$recurse -Exclude $excludes
    }

    $file = $file | Get-Random
    echo "Enqueueing to playlist: ${file}"

    $cmd = 'C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe'
    $params = '--one-instance', '--playlist-enqueue', $file.FullName
    & $cmd $params

    if ($first) {
      # Allows VLC to start playing first song
      Start-Sleep -s 1
      $first = $false;
    }
  }
}

You can put this function in your PowerShell profile, so any time you want some music to play, you can issue one of these commands on PS terminal:

playMusicForProgramming
playAmbientMusic
playRandomMusic