[All Platforms] Option to have a true shuffle

[jonathanleyerle]

So I’ve been noticing more and more recently that Spotify’s default shuffle feature doesn’t fully shuffle your songs. It does some sort of grouping to try to get similar songs together based off of what I’m sure is dozens of factors. Every time I shuffle a playlist (the one I noticed this with the most is ~100 songs and 6 hours of mostly full albums) it will group the songs mostly or completely together by album/artist, and given the number of times I’ve re-shuffled and checked the order there’s no way it’s just a coincidence. They also generally seem to be in the same order as well. If I hit shuffle play on a playlist it’ll generally put the same artists at the beginning every time.

With larger playlists of albums I am really not a fan of this shuffling method. If I have 6 hours of music on a playlist I will hardly ever have 6 hours to actually listen through the whole thing, but when I do listen to it I would like to hear all of the music on it equally, and not just the artist or two your algorithm likes to shuffle to first.

Anyways, I’m a reasonable man, all I’m asking for is an option to have a true shuffle (take all songs in the list, put them in a random order, and once they’re all played reshuffle them and play them again). Make it premium only if you want. I don’t think you should scrap the current shuffle algorithm because it sucks. Looking at some of the suggestions on here it seems like some people lobbied hard to have it that way. Just add an option for a true shuffle for those of us that don’t care about potentially getting the same song twice in a row.

[Ivr]

Can we give a clear way that Spotify could reproduce the problem on their machine?

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  Not necessary. 'Randomize playlist order' is the solution regardless of the problem. Randomizing the playlist order gives users the chance to see for themselves whether or not **bleep**ery is afoot with the shuffle. 

[adam115]

Can this please get an update about why the feature has not been moved to under consideration? It has been a suggestion for years, and is easily over the 500+ threshold for votes - when does it actually move to getting considered?

I think everyone understands that there must be some benefit for using an algorithm over a true random pattern. Like having the same songs in radio lists, and pushing songs probably means more use of a local server cache to reduce costs. We get it.

Please, just put the feature in. You will make a lot of people happy. Or decline, and just admit that you are not going to do it because it will cost you money. Just update the issue as per you own policy as this should be getting more consideration. Cheers.

[rednblu]

     ≫  ...  using an algorithm   ...

Maybe-- but . . . .

All of my family accounts assure me that they see nothing objectionable about any “algorithm” that sets up their shuffledQueues.

What my family accounts assure me is the source of their anger and fury at Spotify’s shuffle is the lack of any initialization module-- or initialization process-- or initialization step anywhere in any Spotify shuffle.

In particular, my family accounts assure me that anybody can see the lack of an initialization in the Spotify shuffle logic by merely doing the following--

1.   Start your shuffle on track three of any five track playlist-- such as by doubleClick on the thirdTrack then Ctrl-S in a Win_11 Spotify player.
2.   Take a screenshot of that first successful shuffledQueue.
3.   Then, do nextTrack (such as Ctrl->)  1, 2, 3, 4 times and verify that the queue is now empty-- except for the “Now playing” entry.
4.   Now, if there were any respectable initialization plan, initialization module, initialization routine, . . . when you press nextTrack for the fifth time, you should get a new shuffle of all five tracks-- all five tracks, including the NowPlayingTrack, with a different song-- sometimes.  Does that make sense?
5.   But because of the lack of any respectable initializationOfTheSpotifyShuffle, you will get a repeat of exactly the last successful shuffle-- as you can see by checking with the screenshot from step 2, above.
6.   Consequently for the unwary user, if you don’t manually initialize every time whenever the shuffleQueue goes empty, you will get really angry at Spotify-- because you will over and over and over and over-- just repeat the last successful shuffle-- which may have been great the first time you heard it-- but . . . .
7.   And this always buggy Spotify player will, of course, find many different situations that cause the shuffledQueue to go blank-- such as, your router cannot find the feed to Spotify’s magnificent network, your Win_11 operating system decides to update and reboot, Spotify’s network blanks out the shuffledQueue just to make you mad!-- there is no end of humorless reasons for your poor Spotify player :(( to find that your shuffledQueue has gone blank.

What do you think?  Isn’t this infuriating bug something very different from just “using an algorithm?”  And I suspect that Spotify does not understand at all what infuriates us sophisticated users about the unexpected and endless repeats in the Spotify shuffle-- because they clearly don’t know what to do about it when we complain very clearly for the last ten years!

We could all put together a rather humorous set of slides-- with Spotify music-- for a gangbusters presentation to Spotify top management, don’t you agree?

[RICARDO448]

Unfortunately, I got BORED of waiting for a resolution to the Spotify shuffle, so I will be canceling the Premium account, after about 20 years.
I already transferred to Apple music, whose shuffle works wonders with my Play List of 3700 songs.
Greetings to all

[mlarson417]

I know I'm not the first to share this feedback, so it's frustrating that it seems like it's not a priority. I use Spotify every single day personally but we also use it in our workplace and it absolutely kills me that we hear some songs 2, 3, 4 times before I hear others a first time. I would legitimately pay double my premium subscription fee just to have access to a true shuffle that plays all songs in a playlist once before any songs are played a second time. So while it seems like something that should just be a component of the regular premium subscription, if that's not doable, can we at least make it an add on?!

[rozeboosje]

How cute. Yet another moderator merges the same idea into this, the Spotify shuffle thread where your Spotify shuffle hopes come to die.

[hudsonmote]

I know I'm not alone in wanting a literally random shuffle.  I see posts with this sentiment going viral on TikTok and getting attention on Reddit.  If Spotify is worried that people will complain about true random shuffle, they should add a separate shuffle mode for those who want more curation.  This is a simple ask and every Spotify user I know is on the same page!  Hope we can finally get some traction behind this and get Spotify's attention.

[rozeboosje]

@AlejaR .... what's the point of you merging all these desperate pleas for a shuffle that actually works into this hopeless thread right here. I know, everybody else who has been following this thread knows, and all hopeful newbies who arrive here in the vain hope that THEIR pathetic little "please sir can I have some more" will be the one that will get Spotify to stop ignoring them will soon know that this is the abyss into which their pitiful screams will fade away.

[Mookpsu]

rozeboosje what if they say pretty please with sugar on top?

[hudsonmote]

Been waiting for years for Spotify to fix this!  All we want is for shuffle to mean a literal random shuffle.  Or at least give us an option in settings.  I have over 4,000 songs in my Liked songs and want to shuffle them completely randomly.  I don’t care if Spotify thinks my perception of random is different than true random.  I just want actual random.