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.

[elibishop]

Agreed, I mentioned it before in my longer comment, but marking this as "implemented" or solved and then pointing new threads with the same complaint here is extremely poor customer service, especially for paying customers. For the free users, fine shuffle however you want.

[rudf0rd]

What are you guys trying that actually succeeds with this feature?  Apple music?  Tidal?  Google Play?  I know Pandora is coming out with a service too.  I’m leaning towards Apple or Google at this point.

[rednblu]

          None of the services have a useful shuffle

@rudf0rd asked the question that alerted me to summarize for myself what you have taught me that I need from my replacement service when Spotify crumbles:
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What are you guys trying that actually succeeds with this feature? Apple music? Tidal? Google Play? I know Pandora is coming out with a service too. I’m leaning towards Apple or Google at this point.
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I find that You have to do your own "True Shuffle" with "programming fixes" that the users have to do on all of the streaming services-- That is what I find.

             What you taught me about "Shuffle"

Before I would move from Spotify, I would have to be able to get as good a Shuffle as I get here on Spotify with "programming fixes" that you showed me how to do for myself-- just like everyone on any existing streaming service.

Otherwise, I would fall back on Pandora-- And use my own CD collection when I really cannot stand to hear another unasked "repeat". I have several "programming fixes" to reduce the repeats on Pandora . . . .

            Here are the minimum functionalities for a "True Shuffle"

-- For Me.

* You taught me that the technical algorithm for a "True Shuffle" is a >> Fisher-Yates shuffle algorithm << where every track plays before you get even one repeat.

* I copied and DeDuplicated all of your 9000 track playlists and saved the tracks that I want to hear again and again. And about every six months, I prepare a new "background shuffle with zero repeats" from over 70,000 tracks that reside in eight or so Spotify playlists from which I cut the random mix that I want randomized into my play queue that includes New releases whenever I want.

* Here is the >> DeDuplicating Page << that you taught me to use outside of Spotify-- DeDuplicating by Artist, TrackName-- even from different Albums.

* Here is the >> randomizingPage that you taught me to use outside of Spotify-- <<  So I get zero payola repeats from that fakeSpotifyShuffle-- Zero unasked repeats.

* None of the streaming services offer a "True Shuffle", I find. So on all of the streaming services, the users have to do their own "programming fixes" to prevent unasked payola repeats.

        What do you find out there in the wild?

And thanks again for all you have taught me how to get exactly the music that I want from Spotify-- We users have to make the "programming fixes"-- Spotify makes twice the profits when you let them give you those unwanted repeats-- That is a falsifiable hypothesis-- I laugh-- The new American King says it, "That is just business".

[awesomeatlife]

Implement a shuffle function that allows me to listen to every single song in a playlist one time before any repeats are played. I want to hear every single song on my playlist before any of them repeat a second time. I just started a shuffle on a playlist with ~200 songs. The 3rd song was a repeat of the 1st song... I want a shuffle function that won't play that first song again until all other 199 songs have played. You know, like an actual shuffle, not whatever we have now. Do NOT mark this as implemented and merge it with the other shuffle thread as this function does not exist at this time. 

[Blackflame2996]

On Android the shuffle is broken. It only plays  the most recent/ earliest in the alphabet songs, depending on which way the list is sorted. Please fix the shuffle, I just skipped through some songs in the saved songs playlist, and it repeated itself before playing even 1 song past "C". I may switch music streaming services because of this issue.

Edit: on further inspection, the bias isn't to the top of the list per se. Selecting an H song will do letters H-L in my playlist. The shuffle needs some work.

[Scudders113]

I havn't been able to figure out exactly whats wrong with shuffle but its clearly borken. I constantly hear the same songs while never hearing others. In an older forum someone suggested a feature called smart shuffle. The concept was spotify would keep track of what songs you've listened to and when you hit shuffle spotify would autmoatically play songs you havn't heard in a while. Even if you hit shuffle again spotify would still know what songs you hadn't heard in a while. I really hope this is implimented because I'm so tired of hearing the same songs over and over again.

[Tarlak]

This has been a problem forever, and it is getting embarassing. A shuffle feature is one of the most basic features in any music player and it just isn't that difficult to get it right.

[pangmango]

Yep shuffle is still bad and I only hear 25% of my playlist before it all starts over.. it's always the same 35% as well

[gaa1037]

It's hilarious and inexplicable that a product as otherwise incredible as Spotify has the worst shuffle of any music-streaming service. Why is shuffle not totally random? This seems to be the crux of the matter to most users. Why is there not, at the very least, an option for total randomness? 

Users agonize over making playlists, spending days, weeks, months perfecting a list of songs only to shuffle the songs and realize, to great pain, that shuffle plays some songs, artists, and albums disproportionately more than others. For seemingly no reason beyond the abstruse whim of an algorithm.

There's a simple solution: add a randomized shuffle function. And make your loyal customers happy.

[Scudders113]

The community's been requesting an actual shuffle option forever and Spotify still hasn't listened to us yet it's getting ridiculous.