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.

[eblues]

Well, since last Sunday (11/6) when I first posted, I have seen a marked improvement in the shufflng of my playlist. Yesterday I was on the road for 6 hours and did not hear one repeat, and seemed to be getting a good mix of the artists in the playlist. Prior to Sunday, I would have heard many repeats in that time span. It will take a few weeks of listening to determine just how much improved my new experience is, and if it continues.

But this does possibly demonstrate that the performance of the Shuffle features varies. Perhaps something happens programatically that is causing Spotify to get stuck on certain songs.

To the Spotify team:

Last Sunday, prior to posting my complaint, I tested the PC version of Spotify by manually clicking through 25 songs or so to see if I had the same issue of frequent repeats there. But, I didn't. That was actually the first time in a while I had run Spotify on the PC. Ever since my post and doing that test, Shuffle has been working better for me. Coincidence, or a clue to the root of the problem?

Also, I have been running with Shuffle enabled but Repeat disabled. I've read severals posts by users on how to manipulate these two functions to get better (but usually still unstatisfactory) results. But perhaps someone from Spotify could chime in here and give Spotify's vision of how these functions are actually supposed to work in tandem, and how they should be set for the best Shuffle performance on a large Playlist. Some questions that could perhaps be answered:

1) When I turn on Shuffle, what is Spotify currently programmed to do? Does is shuffle the entire playlist? Does it shuffle on he songs visible in the play que? Or is it truly a simple randomizer, grabbing random songs one at a time as it goes?

2) If I leave shuffle on all the time, what's suppose to happen when I close Spotify and then reopen it the next day. Does it start over, reshuffling in the exact same way, starting with the exact same song?

3) Does restarting my mobile device cause the Spotify app to do things differently from just closing the app? For example, does it do a software reset when I restart the device?

4) I normally listen through the audio system in my truck via bluetooth. I have noticed that even if I close Spotify (I mean physically close the app by swiping it closed, not just put it in the background) when I park for the day, then when I start the truck later, and the radio reconnects to the mobile device, Spotify will start playing. Again, this happens even though Spotify has been physically closed. Is this expected behavior? The one difference in this case is that the song titles are not displayed in the vehicles audio display until I start the Spotify app.

[Xelag]

Hi,

as a heavy user of huge playlists (1300+ songs in a single playlist) I truly and desperately wish to have a "smart shuffle" function, which would work as the following:

- the button "Shuffle" can be overloaded with 2 functions - "entirely random" + "smart random" (similar as Repeat button - "single song repeat" + "playlist repeat")

- "smart shuffle/random" means that Spotify will play the songs according to their "last played" timestamp, starting with the songs that were not played for the longest time compared upon this timestamp and now.

Example:

Song A - "last played" timestamp 12/Sep/2016

Song B - "last played" timestamp 01/Sep/2016

Song C - "last played" timestamp 23/Oct/2016

"Smart shuffle" function will play Song B first, then Song A and then Song C.

Othewise for huge playlists there is always a big part of the songs that are almost never being played if I switch between let's say the one big playlist and some small playlist (all of them are played random). Alternatively you can partition the songs to different sub-sections based on this timestamp and play them random starting with the "oldest" sub-section, so basically making it "random within a smaller selection of songs and then going to the next selection".

Many thanks in advance!!!

[Xelag]

Just discovered https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/quot-Smart-quot-Shuffle-Remember-played-songs-between-se... - this algorithm would also help to solve the problem.

[wade22]

I don't think the issue is with the shuffle feature as much as it is with the app forgetting what it has played if you close it. I have never had this problem during long sessions, I've listened to the same playlist for a whole day and not heard the same song twice. You just have to make sure to have your devices "synced" if you for example switch to mobile, by this I mean have the app open on both desktop and mobile at the same time before closing the one you aren't going to keep listening on. This is a pain to keep a track of though so I also often run into the same problem of hearing the same songs over and over, I just don't think that the shuffle feature is the root of the problem. Like you said, you don't have many short playlists but if you listen to one during just one session, you'll find that no songs play twice before all songs are played at least once.

[Loridancer]

Usually when I shuffle from an artist's page, it will only shuffle songs from their most recent releases; I would really like it if the shuffle function took music from their whole collection instead. 

[63ftbanan]

As of 14th of November 2016 The "shuffle" feature still absolutely sucks. I have a playlist of almost 3000 songs and I swear to God I just hear the same 100ish day in, day out. It's getting to be a real issue and that's coming from someone who has used Spotify since the Alpha! Please, please improve and develop the algorithm further or I might actually look to a different music streaming service *which I don't want to do given the expansive library and all the other great feature that do work*.

[toppy42]

I've noticed some really bad shuffle today so I turned shuffle off and turned it back on... and it had almost the same songs.  I did it over and over but in a playlist of 5 artists and 47 songs, I cannot get the first 8 songs to be anything other than the first two artists in the playlist.  I've done it 30 or 40 times and the first 8 songs are always from the first two artists.  Doesn't seem to be happening to any other playlists though.  I've tried restarting the app, starting on a different song etc, but it's still happening.  Guess I won't be listening to this playlist for a while...

[lulzwagon]

I probably around 7000 songs or so in my library. For the past 2 days when I have shuffled my entire library I have heard the same 2 albums by the same 2 artists. That's it. This is by far the worst shuffle feature I have ever seen on any service I have ever used. Strongly considering unsubscribing.

[aramos99]

I am experiencing the same frustration.  I have a favorite playlist that has well over 1,000 songs on it, yet it plays the same songs over and over.  This seems to be new to this year, so whatever "fix" Spotify implemented only made matters worse.

[eblues]

Yes, it seems Wade22 is correct. Within one long session, there aren't duplications. That 6hr road trip has been the only time I've had a good listening experience. Since then, on my daily trips to and from work the duplications are back. And this definitely seems to be a mobile issue in my case. When I listen on the PC, I don't have this issue.

4 years and no resolution by Spotify. Not a peep from them here. I think it's time to stop wasting our time trying to help Spotify fix this, and start discussing Spotify alternatives.  I'll be experimenting with Google Play, and any other music services that allows users to build playlists. 

If you have suggestions for other services to check out, please post them here.

thanks!