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.

[giordanoluna]

The big problem with this issue is... Spotify know about the shuffle failure but  the company it's complety incompetent to fix it

[PatrickDodds1]

187 pages telling you that shuffle is broken and a bland 30 month old "answer" is the best you can do? 

[Blackflame2996]

> The big problem with this issue is... Spotify know about the shuffle
failure but the company it's complety incompetent to fix it

They can't even use that excuse. The desktop program shuffles fine. They
are just to lazy to copy the DT shuffle function for their mobile app.
Google Play music FTW.

[PennySpeaks]

the desktop shuffle is NOT fine; the problem exists across all platforms

#SpotifyShuffleSucks POST IT ALL DAY EVERY DAY!! @__spo__ @SpotifyCares

[Whodovoodoo]

It's limited too 100 for some reason. Please increase. 

[joosthoogendoor]

I have this playlist of 1000+ songs, "shuffle" doesn't seem to work, it always seem to play a collection of the last added ~100 songs. I'm using the Mac app with a Chromecast Audio.

[rednblu]

      <<  ...  the new algorithm plays not more than 50 tracks and repeats again and again a pool of no more than 15 artists . . . .

     <<  ...  Please disable this feature by default, this is an example of bad user experience . . . .

     <<  ...  I hear the same hundred tracks over and over again . . . .

     <<  ...  The desktop program shuffles fine.  Spotify is
just too lazy to copy the desktop shuffle function to the mobile app.

     <<  ...  It always seems to play a collection of the last added ~100 songs. I'm using the Mac app with a Chromecast Audio.

In the last week, the above annoying breaks in my Spotify shuffle have occurred-- In each case in the last week, I have "fixed" the Spotify shuffle for at least 48 hours of continuous play by the following.  The following steps have been sufficient in my Spotify shuffle play, but may not all be necessary.

* "Sign out everywhere" at the bottom of >> my account page. <<  https://www.spotify.com/us/account/overview/  Any lingering Chromecast, mobile, or WebPlayer session breaks my desktop shuffle-- I don't know why.

* Logon only on my desktop app [Spotify player 0.9.15.27 running under Windows 10] which currently is my only Spotify device that shuffles without breaking and going into repeating loops-- or crashing-- even crashing Windows 10 if I do the wrong key sequence in shuffle playing a Spotify playlist folder with the latest 1.0.xxx.xxx Spotify player.

* Run my Initialization routine for my desktop, which includes-- Start play on a manually selected random track in a 9K track playlist sorted in TrackName order, Turn on the Spotify shuffle, Check the play queue to verify that my play queue has TrackNames scattered from the-- Beginning of the alphabet and the-- End of the alphabet.

* The biggest flaw in the Spotify shuffle is that-- The Spotify shuffle guarantees that you will repeat each and every track that you already played-- Whenever you switch your shuffle listening from playlist to playlist to radio to discovery to album exploration.  This is because between shuffles the Spotify shuffle does not remember what you already played-- so therefore the Spotify shuffle guarantees that you have queued up each and every track that you already played in the last shuffle.

* There are "user programming fixes" that will guarantee that your next shuffle will consist of only the tracks that you have not played in the last three months-- The "user programming fix" deletes from the shuffled playlist each and every track that you have played in the last three months.  My AllOfSpotify_Radio implements this NSLB = [No Song Left Behind] design by deleting from the top every song that I have played from that preshuffled playlist-- Unplayed songs from my 106,966 track collection are appended to the bottom of AllOfSpotify_Radio to keep AllOfSpotify_Radio at around 9K tracks that play only with the unnecessarily repetitive Spotify shuffle always off.

--- These are just design notes for any frustrated user who may want to force the Spotify player to shuffle right.

[giordanoluna]

Thanks Spotify four ruin our lifes.

You &%%$&/!!!!!!! algorithm is the most **bleep** IA implemented in all history of the human technology. Now, it's impossible to enjoy my music library thanks to this **bleep**ed "shuffle" system. How it's possible to imaginate that it's impressive company it's complety stupid to create a random system, implemented in the CD Players made in the 80´s.

Remember Winamp? A music player developed  20 years ago??? YES, 20 years ago???? OK, Winamp had the most intelligent shuffle player to play our music. Please gentlemens... 20 years ago... We are in 2018. Come on!!!

[giordanoluna]

I hate you Spotify... I need my music back with a decent shuffle system. I'm paid my bill month by month

[rednblu]

     >>  ...  the same songs will start repeating after I've gone through 20 or 30 songs.

I encounter that problem repeatedly on small playlists.  I can only guess what the bug in the shuffle algorithm is.  The shuffle seems to "break" almost every time I interrupt play with anything like discovery, add, delete, move, restart, boot, . . . .

But the bug in the shuffle algorithm-- whatever the bug is-- does not bother me if I play only huge playlists-- over 9000 tracks-- and use only the desktop player without ever using Chromecast or WebPlayer or mobile or any other implementation of the Spotify Connect-- (The Spotify Connect is under that computer-like icon just to the left of the SpeakerIcon in the lower right of the WebPlayer, for example).