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.

[rednblu]

>>>>  is there any way to truly randomize what I'm playing?

Yes, there is . . . .

Just stack all 150,000 tracks from your 20 favorite playlists into an Excel workbook as in the following--


OneClick for Shuffle

Then you just click the indicated [Sort A to Z] button.

Then you drag any 9000 tracks from Column B into a playlist given the romanticized name "Truly Randomized"-- and then play it.

Should you ever have a hankering for those Old Repeats of less than 100 tracks again, you may simply turn on that blessed Spotify "shuffle" thing.   (Dies Irae-- Trombones, tuba, tubular bells-- Berlioz laughs)

[echterninado]

Hello,

it is not acceptable to pay a lot of money to spotify though they are not able or even willing to implement a real shuffle or random function for big playlists!!! This is really basic and it is ridiculous that nothing is done about it.

I am Premium member for a long time, but now its really enough. Good bye Spotify!!

[jpeattie]

I have a playlist of hundreds of full albums by 200+ artists and when I Shuffle Play, it starts playing songs solely from 3-4 of those albums every time. Across "shuffles" I only hear 1/3 of all the albums on the playlist. Why is it so hard to make a true Shuffle/Random list?

[mc_mellow]

Okay... fast forward from previous comments... it is August 2017.. just signed up to Spotify and i can AFFIRM the problem goes ON.... NOT SOLVED... shuffle play DOES NOT shuffle as shuffle should do, like in Apple's Itune, for instance.

How can this matter not be improved if people keep posting comments asking for improvement, asking how to solve this and pointing out this problem?

My 30-day free trial is going to end soon and, if this not solved, I think I go back to free download on youtube and making my own playlists on Itunes and click on the shuffle button knowing that it will simply WORK.  

Please solve/respond/deal with this. It is 2017. 

[Jaked000]

Hey! Love the service. Use it every day.
Couple suggestions. I'm a frequent podcast listener, and have been using the Apple podcast app for a long time. Itd be great to switch my podcasts to Spotify, but I'm not finding many podcasts that I already listen to. Whenever I use the general search tab it doesn't seem to bring up podcasts often.
Also, I'm not a fan of how the shuffle works sometimes. The only issue comes in situations like when I'm listening to a specific artist on shuffle with multiple listings of the same song, maybe with different versions or repeats on different albums. If I want to skip the song, it Repeatedly just brings up the same song that I skipped. Not a different version. Not even a different album. And it happens over and over again. One song will play twice, then the next one, the one after that. Sometimes when it happens theres a song that'll only play once, and then the cycle will happen a few more times. And no, I don't have the repeat function active.
Again, great service overall! Thanks for considering the feedback.

[andannabegins]

I don't know your precise algorithm, but it seems like music that hasn't been listened to in a while, but has been listened to a lot before is first in the shuffle. Because of this, when I have a playlist of 5 albums, and I listen to one of them on repeat for a few times, the album in question is always and in total at the bottom of the shuffled playlist. This has been driving me crazy, and I wish you guys would at least give the option of a totally random shuffle!

[mb9023]

I absolutely hate the shuffle in most music apps, Spotify included. I usually start by picking a song in my Songs list (few hundred songs) and you can see in Play Queue that it just picks 50 or so and it will just stick with those until you manually play something else. My workaround so far has just been to start another song away from that play queue and it picks a new set. PLEASE Spotify get me a real shuffle that will go through my entire playlist at least.

Even if I start at one end of the list without shuffle and try to play them in order it won't go through them all..it's just as much a play queue problem as a shuffle one.

[CrapuleJack]

Winamp actually had a great shuffle. (You know, that 20 years old software music player that nobody ever came close to even compete on the same level with?)



Winamp also had equalizers, which is a rare thing nowadays..





I'd really like to have Spotify take up the challenge of being half as good as a 20 years old piece of deprecated and un-maintained software. (correct shuffle and equalizers would do the trick)

[mc_mellow]

The only "shuffle play" happening in Spotify is the staff getting shuffled NOT to get this sorted and answer to our complaints.

[soulbroker]

Will this issue ever be answered? How could this be an issue since 2012 with this many comments and the do essentially nothing about it. I truly why I question paying for this terrible service. I created a huge playlist with friends to get away from the awful siloing that spotify puts you into. I want to listen to a variety of music not just similar artists. But the shuffle only plays the same songs over and over. 

FIX THIS **bleep**