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.

[sbrews121]

I don't have Premium. When I play a playlist and "Shuffle Play" is on (which is the only option since I do not have Premium) it always plays the same songs, in the same order. I can't get far enough in to hear the rest of the playlist before it resets and plays those same songs again.

[R0bR]

I read the following explanation of the supposed shuffle algorithm being used, I don't know if it's been modified since 2014 but can say it doesn't work this way based on my experience. (https://labs.spotify.com/2014/02/28/how-to-shuffle-songs/)

If I shuffle my whole song list, I don't use playlists, then I don't mind to hear the same artist as long as it is from different albums. I have many albums from my favorite artists so I would expect to hear them more often, the issue is that out of the 9 Muse albums I have in my list I get shuffled songs from maybe 3 of them. Over time I would get shuffled songs from the SAME 3 albums, after being with Spotify for at least a year I just looked and can say I've not heard any songs from at least 4 of those albums since adding them a year ago.

The main issue with the algorithm, other than it not working well to being with, is that it is not a learning algorithm and adjusting the shuffle based on past use. This is a night and day experience from the deprecated Microsoft Groove that I came from that WAS a learning algorithm. 

I suspect there was some kind of deal between Microsoft and Spotify since they successfully integrated a transition from one to the other. Perhaps Spotify should go back to Microsoft and buy their shuffling algorithm and implement it.

[mcbuddy5]

Hey everyone so I commented on this like last year and saw it was getting tons of replies so I tweeted to spotify reminding them of this thread and they replied with "Hey there! Thanks for the feedback about the Shuffle function. Don't worry, we’ll get this passed onto the right team. Let us know if there's anything else we can help with /KB"

If you wanna see the rest of the thread @McbuddysGaming on twitter should be under replies. (couldn't post links)

[Bodestone]

Yeah. They told mewhen I phoned that this was being actively looked at. I endedup canceling my subscription under the assumption that it never will

[PatrickDodds1]

I might go with the cancellation option as pretty much the entire concept
of a playlist on the go is destroyed if you can't have it set to random
play.

[PennySpeaks]

ALL - Continue to pester @SpotifyCares... they may keep giving the same
message but at least it is public.

ASLO FYI https://labs.spotify.com/2014/02/28/how-to-shuffle-songs/)

[Bodestone]

As they don't allow login to Spotify Labs I can't tell them to shove their algorithm where the sun doesn't shine and add and additional Random Play option while the folks here wait for it to work properly.

They delete any feature suggestions that ask for this.

How hard can it be to add a separate function that was available in the 80s to keep people here happy while they work on trying to perfect the philosipher's stone of shuffle algorithms.

I can't even test if it works as it only loads and shuuffles 50 odd songs from my playlist on any of my devices.

Where Spotify fails is where you ask a device to shuffle a 1000 strong playlist and it only loads the first 50 odd tracks into the shuffle and plays them only.

On Amazon dot, Google home Mini and Windows application the shuffle only takes a tiny window into the playlist. From any one song it moves back and forth from that song by a maximum of ~15-20 tracks.

Also it should cater to people who don't want an algorithm that pays attention to tracks played and just have a random play. Towards end of track generate a number from 1 to x and queue to play next. Simple.

[Javibar]

I suggest to go on social media : Facebook, Twitter  etc. and post there. Nobody in Spotify read this ever! 

[gusitamundial]

@Javibar totally agree

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[09ca-_56jzv6y]

I really like the algorithm on Spotify a lot of the time! It's really good about finding new music that matches with my taste, and I love listening to a playlist and hearing similar music whenever the playlist runs out. However, sometimes I like to go into all of my songs and hit shuffle to try and find some songs that I've forgotten about, but instead I just end up hearing the same songs every time because of the algorithm. I would love an option for a genuine shuffle so that I can really enjoy all of the music I have saved without having to hand pick titles that don't look familiar, because most of the time I get my new music in bulk from exploring and don't remember the names of tracks.