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 doubt they will fix it. Unless everyone gets the word and realizes shuffle not working and they drop their premium like I did.
Rob

[kneipe2]

They've been "looking into" this for literally years now and haven't come up with a good solution (or any for that matter in spite of what their idiot blog may have said) which most likely translates into, "we're going to say we care and are working to solve the problem but in reality we couln't give to **bleep**s about it..."

They're more interested in figuring out how to cram more ads in (they have to make money somehow and with their phenominally horrible programming skills they just haven't been able to get more people to signup for premium, a real head scratcher there...) than anything else at least that's what appears with each new "update" in the program/app.

Someone should send their programmers/developers a copy of numerical recipes so they can learn about things like randomizing your seed for your function so you don't keep getting the same list over and over again even if you start with the same song and how to actually write a program that works

The best solution would be for someone to hack their program, write a shuffle/randomizer that works and then give the exploit away for free. Essentially not let the spoiled brats sit in their guilded castle saying, "Things look great, I don't see how they could possibly get any better than they already are. You know, we deserve a raise we're doing such a great job. I can't even hear the peasants complain from up here. They must be happy."

[Artracing]

Right on. Boycott! Hacker fix a problem. What a concept! Hacker are more concerned with making people miserable. Where's Robinhood when you need him.

[ValhallaOne]

I like the idea of both a completely "random" and a "shuffle" function seperate, but I would at the VERY least like to see the "shuffle" option implemented as described here.  It baffles me that it doesn't, especially since I am able to view the "now playing" list of a shuffled playlist.  If this list is complied, there should be no reason that I get the same song played only two songs apart.  This should be mind-numbingly simple to implement.  Generate a seed based on the current time of day and the user's ID number (so even two playlists shuffled at the exact same time by different users play in a different order), compile the songs into some sort of queue structure, and pop them off one by one.  As stated in the original post, if the playlist hits the end, either re-shuffle, or just stop playing music to indicate that the playlist has run its course.  Ideally, there would also be some sort of inactivity time-out so that you can come back to Spotify after a few hours, hit "shuffle all" and reshuffle ALL the songs in the playlist instead of having to finish the previous shuffle before songs you already heard get thrown back in.

It almost seems like spotify chooses songs based on how frequently I listen to them.  The only problem is, spotify never plays anything else so those songs just get disproportionate plays.

Edit:  While listening at work today, I ended up with about 20 songs on an 800 song playlist that repeated themselves.  I was hitting "next" repeatedly only to see the song I just skipped come up two songs later.  It's absolutely absurd.  I really don't think the fix to "not play the same artist close to each other" worked AT ALL.

[juzzwilliames]

This issue is still happening. I'm so sick of having my playlist (around 3,000 songs) repeat the same songs. It's not just every now and then either. It happens so often that it's bugging me. Spotify, sort your crap out or heaven forbid I might end up using that free Apple Music subscription.

[Dlg]

Many users complain that they keep hearing a song being played more than once in a short period of time.

In many ways a shuffled list gives the user exactly what they want. It spreads out the artists and albums evenly and plays them in an unpredictable order. Most users also want each song played once and only once before reshuffling. That's exactly what happens!

So why does it not feel that way? We still end up with a wide distribution of the number of times songs in a playlist are played. This is because we listen to a random subset of a playlist each time it's reshuffled. It's a bit like trying to collect sportscards. Even if there are an equal number of each type of card and no package contains duplicates, you quickly end up with a wide variation in the number of each type of card.

in my testing of the shuffle and looking at the cue I've never seen the same song repeated. However, every time you press the shuffle button it reshuffles. If you switch in the shuffle mode to another playlist and the return to the original playlist it reshuffles. There is the problem!

Ideally, in the shuffle mode you never reshuffle except at the end of a shuffled list before it is replayed.

Why would anyone want to reshuffle part way through a shuffled list? The user may want to leave the shuffle mode but when they return they do not really want to reshuffle.

Why would anyone not want to reshuffle at the end of of a shuffled list? Even with auto-looping turned off, they would still like a reshuffle next time they listen to it in shuffled mode.

If you leave a playlist and return later it can only continue with the previous shuffled playlist if it remembers the order of the shuffled list and the last song played. If it can remember the manual order it could also remember the shuffled order. Remembering the last song played in the shuffle mode is easy to do.

The beauty of giving each playlist a shuffle memory, is that you can improve functionality without changing the interface. Each time shuffle is selected it never reshuffles it just continues with the song that was playing the last time it was in the shuffle mode. When it reaches the end of the last song in the shuffled list it automatically reshuffles. When the user selects a particular song to listen to it would just switch to manual mode. The user would not be in control of reshuffling but could still switch back and forth between a shuffle mode and a manual mode.

Most users would see little difference in the interface, but they would be happier with the smooth randomness and equal play of the songs.

But what if new songs are added to the list? One option is let new songs wait for the next round. Another option is to have all new songs put after the last played song in shuffled list. When the user next uses shuffle mode and is listening to the first of the remaining songs, it automatically reshuffles the new songs with the songs not yet played in the current shuffled list.

With shuffled lists being perfectly remembered and no way to accidentally reshuffle, all songs can be played the same number of times while in the shuffle mode. (Exactly the same number of times at each reshuffle) Of course, if songs are played outside of the playlist or new songs are added to the playlist, the total number times you play each song will vary. But the option is there to play a group of songs an equal number of times in a smooth and unpredictable order.

PS it seems they are not about to allow users away to create playlists of the songs they have heard the least. There have been complaints about shuffle for years. Even if the users were mistaken about the reason, the problem is real. For now I will copy my playlists into random.com, shuffle them, and paste them back into Spotify. Then I can avoid Shuffle in Spotify and listen to each song once in a random order. Hey Spotify, at least consider giving users the option of making a shuffled playlist the manual list. ...now let's see if Apple Music has any of these features.

[Cactusdan]

This issue has bothered me for years, but it's getting really abrassive as it's gone on longer and longer without getting fixed. Please get this **bleep** sorted out, it's simple, basic code people!

[Artracing]

Not going to happen.
Noticing the other day the high maintenance I provided for playlist and then have to hit skip all the time.
All that time spent for what. I have hundreds of songs I have not heard in over 6 months since I started my playlist.
I paid for year of music with playlists that don’t work. Need to call NYC Channel 4 News. Lynda Baquero

[user-removed]

This is my ONLY gripe about Spotify.....it's not a true "shuffle"......it's random like the original poster mentions. There's music on my playlist that I haven't heard for months!! I have to go manually find the songs that never play....

What's the hold up? Sounds like there's plenty of other folks out there with the same concerns!!

[jako8000]

Hard to believe this still has not been addressed.