Implement an actual shuffle function

[RoninTheOrigina]

Yes, you read that right.  The "shuffle" function in Spotify is nothing more than a randomizer.  There's a difference?  YES.

RANDOM - Play one song.  The next song can be ANY song in your playlist.  Including the one you just listened to.  Though I've never had this specifically happen, I literally just heard the same song that I heard 2 songs ago.  This is how Spotify's "shuffle" currently functions.

SHUFFLE - Take your entire list, shuffle them (like cards), and play the first song in the shuffle.  Once finished, move that song off the pile.  Once the pile is depleted, shuffle the deck again and start over (maybe pop a message up).

I know enough about programming (not much) to know that shuffling is probably a bit harder than random, but come on.  I may be in the minority, but I don't have a lot of little playlists.  I have one list with nearly a thousand songs in it, because I like all the music, and am rarely not in the mood for one of those songs.  But what I can't stand is hearing the same song over and over again.  I think there may even be songs in my list I haven't heard yet, while I've heard others 4-5 times.

I know it may not matter much, but I would probably lay down the money for at least a year subscription if this feature was implemented.

EDIT: Another user pointed out that I can see what all is queued up in my shuffle by clicking the Play Queue link, and that Spotify supposedly sets up a rolling shuffle of 50 songs.  It would be nice if this range could be expanded to say 50-100% of your playlist.

EDIT 4/6/12: I just dealt with the same song 16 tracks later.  The song played the first time yesterday afternoon.  I went home, listened for a bit on my home PC (just a few songs), then started listening again this morning.  If the list recycles itself after a day, or if you log in from another computer, I see that as an area for improvement.

[Artracing]

I'm surprised by the small number of reply to this thread.
There should be thousands of comments to this problem.
It appears the listeners here are typical radio listeners, where you hear the same 100 songs over and over again.
Come on Spotifiers, make this thread a petition. Sign it, show your disappointment.

[1keaton2]

The shuffle function is extremely frustrating. Please fix this issue already.

[jpmcclanahan]

Good to know I'm not crazy...I also have a larger playlist that I edit infrequently. I've noticed that since I added a number of new songs to the playlist, it only "shuffles/randoms" what was was previously in the playlist. FYI, this isn't just a couple songs, I've nearly doubled the size of the playlist and all I want is the suffle them all. Not to mention the horrible problem that still exists regarding the same songs playing frequently. Long time premium user and I am becoming more and more dissatisifed. Lets get this thread going again!!

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[chriskiley]

I have a 1300 song playlist of work safe tunes that I play while I'm at work. There's no reason I should hear the same song in a WEEK of work, let alone multiple times in the same 8 hour shift! There is over 87 hours of music in that playlist. Some stuff I never hear and some stuff I hear constantly!

[vesperavespera]

I've been watching this thread closely waiting for another update from Spotify - nothing so far. These are the things I've noticed since posting here last:

• The shuffling seems more flawed when playing a playlist folder vs. a specific set of tracks
• The track order seems altered towards smooth track changes - as if it's connecting to a service like 'Apple iTunes genius'
• It favors established music over new tracks with barely any plays. If you play a diverse list with 500+ tracks from shuffle your bound to here things on the upper-scale of popularity more often than not. It's especially noticable when adding brand new tracks to playlists with a bunch of older really popular music.

If Spotify reads this, I want them to know I'm slowly but surely downloading every single track in my Spotify collection - manually - which has taken 100's of hours so far - WORTH IT. When I'm done I will be cancelling my premium subscription and merely just use Spotify for sharing lists and discovering stuff. I'm absolutely loving the ability to build smart playlists again and the shuffling works - I almost never hear the same tracks (which has been another major tell btw)

Does anybody know of an up-to-date roadmap of planned Spotify features? I don't know of any but would be interested in seeing where their priorities lay (assuming they're transparent)

[Artracing]

I dropped my Premium and just hit skip all the time.
The songs in your own list lean towards popularity. Skip does seem to stir the pot.
I had my worst case the other day. Same song, three times in half hour. I doubt this will ever be fixed. They are making a ton of money on hundreds of thousands who are clueless to what is going on. Only the minority who listen to music 8 hours a day have it figured out. I actually, 😞 , started listen to some music on that thing they call the "Radio".
It's wasn't until then, that I realized the amount of labor I was putting into playlist with worthless results.
I think we need to change the terminology. Your not building a playlist. Your building a black hole, in which to put music in, that you will never hear.

[hyperion]

Dear all,

I didn't read the previous posts, but the mere number of posts suggests that I'm not the only one frustrated by the shuffle function as it is.

But I want to dive in a bit deeper and suggest a new feature that extends the idea of a shuffled playback.

I for instance have some playlists that I listen to almost always. They have all a few hundreds tracks and are coarsely categorized into genres, but that's all.

I have the feeling that I'm listening to the same songs all the time, which just shouldn't be the case. But especially after switching from Desktop to Mobile the same songs play again. I'm sure that was already discussed in earlier posts here.

So my first suggestion is of course to sync shuffled playlists through all devices.

Here comes the new stuff:

I already love how you can discover new music with Spotify, but we really need a feature that lets you appreciate your most favorite songs.

I mean, my playlists are as personal as it gets concerning taste in music -- you will not be able to match this with some pre-generated playlists. I choose every song I add carefully and a priori I really want to make sure that all songs are played roughly equally often.

However, I often have phases where I prefer a certain artist. Or I discover someone new, add a few tracks to my playlist and I would like to hear a lot from this new artist and maybe a bit less from all the rest.

I suggest an overview method for your playlists that summarizes the artist content of that playlist. I would love to have a control for every artist entry in the playlist that influences how much I hear form this artist.

I.e. when I add someone new or I'm just really in the mood for a certain artist I would slide that control to absolute max. Spotify then reshuffles my play queue und puts e.g. 75 % this artist into the queue.

Of course such a feature can become very messy very quick, but I'm sure that Spotify's talented developers could find a neat way of implementing it.

I would love to contribute to such a development if my idea is appreciated.

[jfnoubel]

Just want to add my voice on this one. Shuffeling our playlists allows a more diverse sharing with others than lists with long sequences of the same composer.

[Rob_C]

Hi All, I decided to contact Spotify support about this directly since no one seems to be getting anywhere and there has been no response from them on this thread.   Here is the reply I received.  I have gone back to them and asked them to clarify when the next update to the mobile app is and whether a fix to the shuffle issue will be included.

"Thanks for taking the time to get back to us.

At the moment we're still looking into this option to improve our app. However, we can’t say now if or when any specific release will be out, but as soon as we've got something to announce, we'll let everyone know on the Spotify blog.

If the lack of this feature withing the app is causing you any inconvenience we'd like to apologize and offer you a Free month as a courtesy to compensate you.  But first we need a few details to make sure you’re the owner of the account.

• Date of birth registered in the account.
• Postal/Zip code.
• Last 4 digits of your payment card.

Hope this helps to clarify your question, but if there is anything else, please let us know. "

[Rob_C]

Further communication from Spotify below, I asked them what was being done about the shuffle function and got the following answer:


"We've forwarded that issue to our development team, but there's still no definite date as of now. They are finding ways on how to improve the algorithm of the shuffle mode. We'll let everyone know on the Spotify blog, so you can visit the page every once in a while.

Hope you continue to enjoy your music. Hope to hear from you."

At least (as far as they say) they are looking in to it...