The Shuffle function in Spotify seems to be a common point of frustration for many Spotify users, and I'm one of them.
I've read various blogs explaining that it's quite difficult to implement, but I really don't think it is.
I'm a Web Developer, and although I'm not a hardcore programmer, the logic of playing a random song without repeating seems quite easy to me.
See my Javascript/PHP-like syntax below:
$playlist = Array('Song 1','Song 2', 'Song 3'); //etc...
$playedAlready = Array();//Empty array, as we haven't played any yet.
$randNum = round(rand(0,$playlist.length));//This would round to a whole number, and return a random value between 0 and the number of items in the $playlist variable
Spotify::Play($playlist[$randNum]); //Plays a random track from the playlist
$playedAlready[] = $playlist[$randNum];//Adds this track to the playedAlready list
unset($playlist[$randNum]);//This then deletes the song entry from the playlist, so it can't possibly be part of the random selection again
//After the song has finished, the above process is looped.
This is obviously a very basic concept but the idea is there.
Why haven't the Spotify team implemented something as simple as that?
Hi, a similar idea has also been suggested here:
http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Implement-an-actual-shuffle-function/idi-p/27607
Add your kudos and comments there please!