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.

[thermocaster]

For such a great service, the lack of an actual shuffle feature is a shocking omission. This should be an easy fix. I have the same complaints as those above - I'm tired of having the same 40 or so songs constantly playing on my 1200-song playlist. Please, add an actual shuffle function to Spotify.

[Rollo_]

A "non repeating shuffle play" is what is needed. Otherwise, the playlist you are shuffling has to be very large to make repeats less of a problem. I haven't played with the actual number of tracks required.

Presently its seems less than even random.  When shuffling a list of 100 or so tracks, repeats come back far too often for it to be random.  There is something else in the equation, possible something to do with the number of copies available from the P2P stream.

[SaltyCheesecake]

I think that it would be most reasonable to add a physical shuffle feature where we can randomize the order of tracks in the actual playlist. When playing in shuffle mode with repeats on, songs should not repeat THAT frequently. With repeats off, the algorithm is pretty much close to perfect. With repeats on, it's crazy how much it repeats. 

[Siim]

Dear Spotify - for how long has this issue to be addressed or what more do you need from your community to finally fix this? When are you planning to roll out that fix? Spotify - are you listening?

[copeland4]

It's been almost two years since this idea was suggested, and it seems like nothing has changed.  We have a 1,200+ track playlist, and yet the same songs will play within hours of each other.  A blacklist-style function would be nice if it could be turned on and off easily.  Please do something about this feature!  For something to have over 800 kudos and yet remain unanswered for two years is kinda ridiculous! 😛

[tjlongo]

I have noticed this and think that it restarts the "random" list whenever I restart Spotify, which is at least once per day.  I wonder if the cause is that the same seed is used each time the randomizer is initiated...

[Rollo_]

has anyone noticed that the shuffle seems to work fine when you are not filtering a playlist? Or it just me?

[georgiosd]

Come on guys, this is a two-hour task to implement for a junior dev and it makes all the difference in the world.

I just noticed that I have songs in my starred playlist that I haven't listened to in weeks and others that come up EVERY freakin time.

[ce-ben]

In our office, I have a master playlist with 439 songs for a total of 27 hours.  We play it through an android device permanently attached to our stereo system in the office.

When you select shuffle, it simply replays the same set of songs over AND over AND over AND over.  NOT just when it is on repeat, I promise, though I have tried both ways.  

In about two months of listening to this playlist around 40 hours a week for a total of around 320 hours, we should have on average heard each song 11 times each (obviously I expect some variation - maybe 7 - 15 times?).  However, in the last two days alone, I've heard the exact same 30-50 songs playing over... and over....and over.... and over... and over!!

Something is clearly biased about the shuffle.  I don't mind it playing some songs a bit more often than others, but what is the point of a 400+ song playlist if it only ever plays 50 of those songs!?!?   Why does it only shuffle a subset?

Is there any way I can set it up better to give us more diversity in the songs selected from our playlist??

[Hagge]

Hi out there!

What is the idea of having a community with great ideas if none of the Spotify developers doesn´t read this?

Please fix the issue with the Shuffle function that work as crap.

As many already have mention here; It can´t be that hard to make a code for the app that actually does something close to randomize our play lists.

Even my old Pioneer CD changer does the work better! 

I have approx 700 songs in one playlist but playing these by the Shuffle function I keep on hearing the same songs over and over again and it is so annoying.

Spotify representatives, please read what your customers think and suggest and try to satisfy us!