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.

[KarlHungus]

I completely agree with the OP. I LOVE spotify, but this issue has become so frustrating that I'm starting to contemplate not giving them any more of my money until they sort it out. The play queue is ok, but there doesn't seem to be an option to view the play queue on ipad or iphone. I almost never use my pc to listen to spotify so this option isn't very helpful to me. Also, the fact that it isn't inclusive of 100% of the playlist is a major downside. Like a lot of commenters, I like to have one massive playlist of all the songs that I 'liked from radio' so that I can essentially have my own personal station. One person suggested that the shuffle works perfectly fine based on a 3 track playlist. While this might work well on such a short list, my experience has been that the longer the list, the more it repeats the same tracks. The order of the tracks isn't exactly the same, but it also doesn't vary much. I put this to the test with my friends by being able to predict within 5-10 songs which tracks will appear. In addition, it definitely DOES NOT go through my entire playlist before it stops. Many times I will be scrolling through tracks in an attempt to find one that I haven't heard in a while and before I know it, I'm at the end, well before I have swiped my finger 640 times (current track number on largest playlist). This makes me think that there is an issue with the algorithm they are using. I just don't understand why this is such an issue for spotify as this is a fairly simple feature and certainly not an original one. I hope they do something soon because this is really starting to irritate me, mostly due to the fact that it is such a simple thing and it seems to me that a huge PAY service like spotify would have perfected it during the beta test. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that is experiencing this BS. Given the fact that the OP was over a year ago, I'm feeling less optimistic that this issue is going to be resolved any time soon, but I have my fingers crossed.

[GnuLoCo]

We've found this bug as well.  As crazy as it sounds, the best randomization we've gotten was by playing by song length, non-shuffle.  

[Gaiter]

I'm trying out premium now, and am using a playlist of about a hundred somewhat files off-line. Really anoying to hear the same order repeatedly. Am thinking to stick to my i-tunes playlist, that actually shuffles when i tell it to.

[socos]

Was about to post this as a new topic!   But completely agree with OP!  Forget this 'Under Consideration' junk, just do it! 

At the VERY least you take the playlist you're on, shuffle it as is, then start from the top.  Assuming the playlist itself contains no duplicates, the playlist will not repeat any songs.

[NaaKoshie]

I have to agree with previous posters. Spotify should employ a true shuffle option. If I choose to listen to a certain song daily, I shouldn't have to hear the same order of songs that are lined up after it in the queue in the same order each time. There are songs that I never get to hear in my playlist because Spotify puts my songs into queues and those lists are unchangeable. 

Maybe consider the option of  playing a song and putting it on the bottom of the pile so that it doesn't continue to play multiple times when you use the shuffle option. I like to allow the playlist to play on shuffle and be surprised at the songs that come on. It gets frustrating to hear certain songs often and others -- never!

[user-removed]

Yeah, this is Under Consideration! Yeah!

[robswift]

Time to finish considering and start coding! How can the same 10 albums (of 100s) always appear when I shuffle? This is killing my love for Spotify. Thanks!

[OmnipotentPilot]

I just had the same song play twice in a row. This NEEDS to happen!!!

[carmenb81]

I use spotify for my fitness classes that i teach. I put a bunch of songs in a playlist and hit shuffle, except is does NOT shuffle. It literally played the same song 4 times and i only have 29 songs in the playlist!!! I love spotify but this functionality has be to be fixed ASAP! What is the purpose of a "shuffle" function if its not actually shuffling anything