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.

[Possum]

Folks! Please! Make Shuffle or Randomise work within a Playlist that contains many Playlists or Albums or Tracks. I really can't belive that this still doesn't work! - Last FM got killed due to not shuffling within Playlists and major-deals, Grooveshark was better - BUT Spotify is costs Money and it STILL doesn't support us properly! 

1. Don't shuffle Songs repeativly (currently this is certainly is NOT working at ALL)

2. Shuffle through PLAYLISTS! even the contain hundreds of further Playlists, Artists and Traks.

3. Hey stay away from Major-Label shuffle deals - WE want to hear the songs WE LIKE! (all of them) not 10Times a Major supported one an only one time a unsigned track. We want to hear all the songs we place in Playlists!

4. DO IT NOW! - Spotify -  otherwise - gone. 

[eblues]

I mentioned a while back I started listening to my playlist as a listener rather than the creater with a 2nd user account, and I am continuing to get a much better mix of songs.I don't know why this should make a difference, but it does. Perhaps it's because the only thing I listen to with this second account is my playlist, so spotify is not able to build a history on my listening habits.

It's not a fix, only a workaround, but it's been a lot less frustrating listening to my playlist lately. Of course, I can't modify my playlist by adding or deleting songs unless I log back into my primary account, so that's a bit of a pain.

This could also be only a temporary fix, and eventually I could start having the repeats again just like in my primary account. I'm curious if anyone else has tried the 2nd account approach.

It's pretty amazing that Spotify continues to ignore this major issue which has been on-going for years. They are the only service I'm aware of that allows such large playlists to both paying subscribers and free listeners.

For those of us that like to build large playlists, but don't mind the ads and listen for free, I don't believe there is another option. But I don't know how Spotify holds on to it's paid subcriber base with such a major flaw.

iHeart Radio recently joined the ranks of services that offer unlimited playlists, but only for paid subcribers. Worth checking out.

[CrapuleJack]

...and the obviously don't care about our feedback

[srlawr]

When using one device (eg a tablet) to shuffle a playlist through another device (eg my laptop) it still only shuffles round and round the first 100 tracks...

You can explicitly see this in the Queue view - dozens of songs, all from the first 100 tracks in a 500 song playlist. If I then disconnect the tablet (because that is a **bleep** way to shuffle) on my laptop I then have to switch briefly to another playlist and back again to make it "redraft" the queue on the laptop to make it include songs from beyond that first 100 again.

It's so annoying, and such a shame - as being able to drive music from my handheld devices out through my laptop is really the main use of the app for me.

(for the record, I can see all 500 songs on the device, and manually play track 354, but as soon as it is done, it shuffles back to one of the first 100 and begins it's ridiculous micro-playlist shuffle again)

[Possum]

 YES! it seems they really don't care! This issue lasts for far too long. There are so many users out there that are so frustrated about this. - Mix of the week, and readio is a great feature to find and discover new music BUT SHUFFLING through my CHOISE OF TRACKs is more important as Premium ist pricy and countinuous. - 

[shadowlest]

Shuffle dont work fine, when i play on shuffle mode they repeat lot of music and dont play all the musics on playlist, even though I have disabled the option to repeat....

This is sux, my playlist have more than 100 musics and i only listen to about 20 musics of all my playlist.

[sciencebug]

still not working the way it should be. i have a 500 songs playlist, and i just hear a couple songs again and again. this is so annoying... i am not going to put up with it much longer.

it is especially noticeable whenever i switch between devices or make listening pauses.

can you just implement a normal shuffle algorithm, like every **bleep** other music player in the world!? thank you...

[user-removed]

The shuffle function still sucks. I would much prefer a true random option.

[LeoJLeBrut]

Have I shared this previously? Here is Spotify's email to me on this

Thanks for getting in touch. We understand that our shuffle mode isn't performing well.
Right now, the right folks at Spotify are working to improve the Shuffle Play function. Unfortunately, we're unable to provide an exact time frame as to when the changes would be made.
We'd like you to check out this link if you haven't already. It can better explain how our Shuffle Play works and what can cause the songs to repeat, even though they shouldn't.
We appreciate your feedback and apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. 
All the best,
Gio
Spotify Customer Support

[LeoJLeBrut]

My previous comment is discouraging for a few reasons. I followed up and asked if they could say if the feature would be fixed "no sooner than" and they couldn't do that. Lame to the point where you begin to think they will never releast it (or they have bigger plans like a whole new app).

The link takes you to a page where it is explained that the user is part of the problem -- when we hear a repeat we automatically think that something is wrong, when statistically it will happen. BUZZ - thanks for playing!

I went to the trouble of using the stupid method that has been suggested elsewhere: go to you playlist on Spotify, cut/paste the song list links into an online randomizer, randomize the list, cut/paste it back into Spotify and then just let it play from beginning to end (don't use shuffle). It does work -- I have about 2500 songs and listening to them made me think "wow, I have good taste" because I HADN'T HEARD most of the songs since I put them on the list. Again, it does work BUT BUT BUT 1) it's a pain (the steps to accomplish), 2) it forces you to re-download the songs into your device (if you are downloading to the device and not streaming), 3) the best practice would be to repeat the painful steps and downloading when you add or delete a song from the playlist, and 4) it's stupid to give users a workaround for a problem that Spotify should either a) fix immediately, b) declare it won't be fixed, or c) declare it won't be fixed until XXX date.