[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.

[1_Volcan_en_ATL]

some of my playlists have over 1000 songs, but when i put the list on shuffle, why do the same songs keep coming up? Why aren't the ones that haven't been heard coming up?

There needs to be the ability to set a playlist to be set to "shuffle", and the priority will be to play songs that have a lower play-count. 

I'm getting sick of the algorithm paying the same songs. Ihave over 400 playlists, na d naturally there is cross-pollination, but just because i heard a song on one playlist doesn't mean i want it pushed to the front of the line on another playlist

[CoalOnFire]

If they can do a smart shuffle option and have you cycle through the shuffle types already, make it an option or make the whole thing an optional menu in settings!!

[jkzack]

How do you turn on 'true shuffle'? I have 1200+ 'liked songs' that I use on shuffle every day at work. I hear the same old songs over and over again. Thank you!

[telengard]

I posted back in here a couple of months ago after getting super frustrated with the Spotify shuffle.  I'd hit play on a playlist with shuffle on (not 'smart' shuffle), and it would play songs I've heard recently all the time (even though I have > 7500 liked songs), and if I shut Spotify down and started play again on another device etc it would play the exact same songs over again from the start!

After that post I made, I started developing an app to do random shuffles of your playlists, put a lot of time into it and it works great!  However, I should have read the new requirements for app developers as of May 2025.  I cannot release my app as it has herculean, if not impossible requirements to meet their standards.  You have to have 250k users before they'll grant you the ability to publish the app, and it's a sort of chicken and egg problem as until you are granted rights from Spotify, you can only have 25 users.  😞

I called it Shuflit... shame it can't be shared with all the folks on here unhappy with shuffling as I was.  If the terms of service of streaming/control apps for devs ever changes, I'll make this available.

shuflit

[tanito81]

I'm having the same issue! 

Plus now they broke the app with the addition of the fixed shuffle... 

[PercyJax]

To me the key issue is this: "Personalization Bias – Some users have reported that shuffle tends to favor certain songs over others, likely due to Spotify’s algorithm weighing play frequency, skips, and personal listening habits."

So Spotify will play a subset of songs in my 1000+ song playlist... and then go "Oh! You like these songs! Here, let me prioritize them." So then those same songs are played the next time I listen to the playlist... and then they get "upweighted" even more. That's my guess. Basically, Spotify ends up telling me which songs are my favourite by virtue of what it decides to play in the non-random shuffle.

All that said: Yes, please, give me the option for true shuffle without replacement.

[JeffThomas3]

Yes! This one drives me bonkers when all I want to do is rediscover older/obscure songs I’ve saved over time. 

[seventhwagon]

Yes, please, I want to listen to Static-X followed by Purity Ring. The way it is now it feels like some artists get shadow banned on my own playlist. I would be okay with another shuffle option in addition to smart shuffle in the shuffle button, a setting in the playlist options to disable curated shuffle, or a setting on the account to disable curated shuffle. My ideal option would be a playlist setting and would still allow smart shuffle with non-curated shuffle on saved songs.

[JohMir]

So, if I understand it well and in line with my own experiences, it doesn't matter how much songs I place on my personal (!) favorite (!) playlist. The moment I press shuffle, Spotify will use their "smart" algorithm to determine which 100-150 songs I should like most and stick with that? Which implies it is a very dumb, very stupid, algorith.

How rediculous is that? Who is Spotify to determine what I should like the most out of my own playlist?

I have a playlist of couple of 1.000 numbers I like for a reason. I don't place songs on that playlist I don't like. Who will create a "songs I hate" playlist? So, why isn't my complete list being used when I want to shuffle it?

Isn't it strange and a matter of misplaced arrogance Spotify still thinks it knows better and ignore our wishes to change this.

Edit: I just found out there is a kind of workaround which Spotify calls a solution. Once you notice the limited shuffle list is starting over, turn off shuffle and turn it on again. You will get a "new" list of about 80-ish songs. When that is done, repeat it.

By far not a real solution but it's something.

[Chealexa]

Better yet, make a “bookmark” option in playlists so if you leave to listen to anything else the playlist can resume where it was in the shuffle so you don’t have to have the shuffle start over again and play the same songs it always does