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 started a new thread under issues Premium shuffle algorithm broken Spotify will not fix

[Andx96]

Artracing, it's sad to see that they dismissed your new attempt to get a fix to this...

[sharpless]

 Wonder if it is possible that this idea can get some love from community (and developers): https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/All-Platforms-Playlists-Advanced-playlist-tracks-s...

There are probably lots of earlier suggestions like this though.

[Artracing]

Yes, I have given up. Until they start losing customers by the thousands, they won't fix it.

[Artracing]

I have given up. Until they start losing customers by the thousands they won't fix it. I moved on. No longer use Spotify

[maorio]

the way the "shuffle" works now is not even close to acceptable. and the worst part is, it's a very easy fix (compare to arraylist in java) to at least get it to an acceptable level of shuffle (store previous 100-200 songs played while using shuffle and clear every time a song is double clicked or shuffle is turned off) and not a true shuffle like we all want.

[smjdekoning]

Just got the free trial that goes before the premium account and experienced the shuffle- function or better: the lack of it. Just in time to get out and cancel my account!

Unbelievably stupid. My first cd-player in the '90's had a better shuffle function!

When there's a fix for this, I'll be back...

SMJ

[Wraithgr]

It's ridiculous: just now, tried shuffle on an artist page with 16 albums. Notwithstanding the fact that the entire list contains songs from only three of those sixteen albums, the same song appeared FIVE TIMES, two of which were consecutive. Clearly there is some sort of payola going on here, surprised it's not being talked about anywhere except here!

[guidognc]

Hi guys at Spotify, hi everyone in the community.

Just one comment about this. Instead of spending thousands of hours in developing extremely complex shuffle algorithms, why not just implement a simple "shuffle" button? Take your playlist, hit "shuffle" and hit "play" and thats it. Just like Winamp, Sonique(yes I'm getting old), Amarok ... they have it, shouldn't be that hard!

Thanks for a great piece of software, and thanks for adding new features and improvemets regularly!

Best Regards.

[RockBottom885]

I'd be fine with simply having a Repeat Off feature. There's no reason for
me to be hearing the same song from the latest album 5 times in 30 minutes.
That's honestly what bothers me more than anything. If I'm listening to an
artist on shuffle, and I skip the song, it should move back to the end of
the queue, not play again 3 songs later