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.

[brandynhazelton]

The reason people are hearing the same songs over  from their playlist is it shuffles max 80 songs from  whatever size your list is. Also, if you pause it for any length of time, it seems to go back and repeat songs. A true shuffle would  take your entire list and shuffle like a deck of cards. It's  really not that  difficult spotify...please fix.

[Davideveryday]

Shuffle play often plays the same artist twice or three times in a row in playlists I've created. It would be nice to have more advanced shuffle modes or options such as never play same artist twice in a row.

[rednblu]

Amen

  Amen

    Perfect comments

* Need a "last played" function that skips all of the "last played tracks" since the "time of last shuffle"

    And

* Shuffling more than [80 sings] successfully requires a "Play queue" much larger than 80.just to track what "cards" have already been dealt.

Amen and amen!

[rednblu]

  [80 sings]??

(I laugh.)

Did anyone see where the "Edit button" went?

[Cassieseah]

Hi. I am having issues with my account. I have suddenly been bumped to free account status where it should be a premium family account. What should I do?

[alexpaul5a]

The Spotify app is great but the shuffle option does not play songs at random. Instead it just plays songs from a recent album and some other particular album. It rarely plays songs from other albums. This is the case whenever I press shuffle play for any artist. I kindly request you to make the song selection more random in the shuffle option, so it covers songs from the artist's whole discography. Thank you.

[joeramah]

if you select both options at the same time shuffle and in order i find it
to be more helpful

[Marcelus85]

Still an awful "Shuffle" feature, and this has been going on since 2012, considering to cancel my subscription, since it seems we are all just typing for the void.

[1170391645]

I have a fair few hundred songs, I shuffle my songs and it only plays songs starting with A to B, or I change the 'sort by' to recently added and I still only hear the last 30 songs I added to my music. I want to listen to all my songs, I've seen many forums and posts from 2013 and people are still complaining in 2017, sort it out Spotify your shuffle is the worse.

Maybe bring in a playlist randomiser or make your shuffle more random rather than coded quite simply that it's not random at all.

Another idea, when shuffle play is on, all songs are played before songs are repeated! Personally I feel this would be the best idea because I'm fed up with it, it's the same on my PS4, phone or laptop I listen on.

[scotty321]

Your shuffle function still sucks. It does NOT work properly, as I posted here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/iOS-iPhone-iPad/Shuffle-Play-doesn-t-work/m-p/1703891