Shuffle only shuffling artists that begin with the same alphabetical letter

[adelecorrigan]

I've been having an issue with the shuffle on my account. The shuffle will only shuffle the artists that begin with a certain letter. Most of the time it's only 2 or 3 artists that begin with the letter "A" like Air and Alabama Shakes. It will repeat over and over alternating songs from only these 2 artists and no other songs on the playlist. Other days it's the letter D. Even when I restart the program, it just chooses another letter. Do I have a bug?

[osornios]

@adelecorrigan

I use the shuffle play pretty frequently, and haven't noticed what you describe. However I do think shuffle play could be greatly improved.

Please vote for this idea and post there to see it improved in future versions of the app:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Implemented-Ideas/Implement-an-actual-shuffle-function/idi-p/27607

[Rossual]

I have this problem a lot, especially on my computer. Is there any fix around it? For mine it will only play songs beginning with H, I or J.

[zarifex]

I have a similar issue at times. Not necessarily limiting my list by first letter of the artists. But, here's the thing: I don't make use of playlists much. When I like things I hear, I save them. I might also save the entire album it came from. I might even save several albums by that artist at once. 

I like (or at least, I INTEND) to shuffle my entire list of all the songs I've saved or liked or whatever. The list isn't really sorted, it seems to be in chronological order of when I saved something by happenstance.

What I perceive to be happening, is that when I shuffle, Spotify seems to grab a contiguous range of "X" number of songs out of that list, and then it will only shuffle or randomize the play order within that smaller list (30ish discrete tracks shuffled amongs themselves, out of the hundreds or thousands or whatever that I've saved).

I've never read amid the ongoing shuffle complaints/responses that this is what is actually happening, but it certainly seems to be that way in my experience and it is super annoying. One might suggest that I subdivide my songs into more and smaller playlists but that's not what I want. If I wanted that I would have done that. I wanted it to shuffle All The Things I've told it that I listen to, and it sure seems to be not doing it that way.

[wgphotog]

I have been having the EXACT same issue for a few weeks now.  It is REALLY annoying.  For me, it will only play songs by Artists who names begin with A-E.  Really frustrating.  If I pick a song much farther down the list, it resolves for a short while and then all of a sudden... AC/DC, Boston, The Cars, Devo and ELO, etc... over and over and over and over and over again.

[BakeRat]

it's an incredibly annoying problem that only seems to have started recently.  my favorite playlist to shuffle is one that i have constructed over years and has thousands of songs, yet it will only shuffle between artists beginning with the same letter.  if i start it shuffling on a Prince song, it shuffles between P and Q and that's all. 

also, if i switch the computer interface to sort my entire playist by Song Title (instead of by Artist), then the "shuffling" will only happen among song TITLES that start with the same letter (instead of ARTISTS). 

I HAVE BEEN A PAYING PREMIUM MEMBER FOR OVER A YEAR NOW, BUT IF THIS IS  NOT FIXED SOON, OR AT LEAST ACKNOWLEDGED, I MAY NOT BE A PAYING MEMBER MUCH LONGER!!!!

[1213242280]

Having the same issue. I always knew the shuffle feature was weak in Spotify, but just noticed the alphabetical issue tonights. Shuffles through some A's, then some B's, back to A's. If I select a song, say by the White Stripes...it will shuffle through only the bands that start w/ W or V.

This is so frustating.