[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.

[asdfplayer]

I have never imagined myself having to write about this. But I am very annoyed by this issue. I have a 1k song playlist that only plays around 20-30 songs on repeat every time. No matter how many songs I skip in a row, the same 20-30 songs are played. What is the point of having playlists if I cannot listen to the songs I add to them? This is absurd! And as many have mentioned above, I may decide switching apps due to this, it is very frustrating.

And the fact that this thread has been opened 5 years ago, has 186 pages of comments, and several reddit threads about it, and the feature is not added says a lot about taking care of customers, the Spotify way...

[rozeboosje]

It all makes sense when you realise who Spotify's customers REALLY are: record labels who have them over a barrel.

The real cash flow is coming from their corporate customers. Your "premium" subscriptions barely make a dent. So when there's a conflict of interest between their real source of income and the couple of pennies you give them every month, guess who will get shafted again, again, again and again.

You don't matter to Spotify. Once you realise that, your next step should be obvious.

[Yasmineedaj]

I wanted to flag an issue I’ve been noticing with the shuffle feature. When I shuffle my playlists, the same songs—especially the ones I listen to the most—keep playing over and over. It’s very noticeable how repetitive the selections are, and it doesn’t feel like the full playlist is being fairly considered.

When I hit shuffle, I expect a more balanced experience that gives all the songs in the playlist a chance to be played—not just the ones with the most listens.

Plan

Premium

Country

Jordan

[rednblu]

     >> “Mom! This Spotify shuffle is busted again!-- Can’t you find us a shuffle streamer?-- one that actually works?”

Just tell me when you have trouble. Don’t I always fix the busted Spotify shuffle so that it works again?

     >> “Yes, you always fix the busted Spotify shuffle so that it works again, Mom!- But you are not always here!”

[erikatboss]

Yes please, I LIKE all my liked songs so I do not need spotify to only play a part of them. It cant be difficult to change.
And for management. Hearing the same songs all the time does make me tired hearing them. So I will start listening less, instead of more

[TheMacDaddy]

Spotify is clearly driven only by revenue. They don't care about the user experience much.

Fact.

[TheMacDaddy]

''

"rozeboosje

Regular

9 days ago

It all makes sense when you realise who Spotify's customers REALLY are: record labels who have them over a barrel.

The real cash flow is coming from their corporate customers. Your "premium" subscriptions barely make a dent. So when there's a conflict of interest between their real source of income and the couple of pennies you give them every month, guess who will get shafted again, again, again and again.

You don't matter to Spotify. Once you realise that, your next step should be obvious."

Ditto. 100% spot on!

[Waterjay]

Yes a true shuffle option is necessary

[dank13]

I guess this would be very handy for everyone that wants to move away from Spotify into Apple Music:
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/05/14/apple-music-transfer-tool/

Good bye dodgy shuffle! If you think your money is better somewhere else, Apple has just made it easier to do the switch. 

PS.: I'm not getting paid by Apple in any ways (I wish tho hahah) but that was the choice for me, as all my devices are Apple, including HomePods (which Spotify doesn't seem to care to support it either)

[Marshall3911]

If you think Apple Music ‘ shuffle will be better than Spotify you will be disappointed…

It will be different at the beginning but then you will hear the same songs again 

Plus , you’ll have to deal with the AM app , horrible search , buggy and I don’t even talk about Mac and windows which are worst 

I’ve tried the switch myself and back to Spotify