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.

[cassidyslabaugh]

You can sort by name of song!

[speed23947]

I'm a union carpenter and we listen to music on the job all day every day. I usually play my “songs” play list on shuffle and just let it run. I currently have about 1700 songs and counting. You would think that it would be a while before herring the same songs over. It seems that every time I close Spotify and restart it the next day it plays the same general songs. If it kept track of the play count and biased the lower numbers, it should work its way through the list and not repeat a lot of what it already had played. I get comments all the time "didn't we just here that song".
Hope you guys fix it soon....     Love the service, this is really my only issue with it.

[fraimed]

You can't sort at all. There is no option for that. You aren't allowed to do that. Trump must own spotify too.

[itg88]

Spotify has a terrible shuffle program, as I have 1,300 songs on here but I hear the same songs all the time. Since the shuffle has been a  constant problem that will probably never get fixed, at least implement a "most unplayed" playlist or ordering function.

[cRe3p]

This problem is running from almost 5 years without real improvement (especially on big playlist). As a developper, it could not be more than 3 days of work except if the shufflizer is linked to royalties calculation... Please move on on this problem.

[lsd1249]

Didn't know that, kind of assumed it was due to royalties as certain artists would pay more for their songs to be played than other leading to that, thought I'd at least suggest it

[Grando]

Olá pessoal, 

Minha sugestão é referente a reprodução de musicas aleatórias, pois quando você fecha o aplicativo e retorna a ouvir as musicas depois de um tempo, embora retorne da musica que estava anteriormente, começa a reproduzir o aleatório novamente do "zero", ou seja, começa a se repetir as musicas.

Pelo que percebo a playlist aleatória é baseada nas musicas mais ouvidas e mais populares no aplicativo, então acaba criando um "looping" pois quando você para ele te traz as mais ouvidas, que vai sempre se manter no topo, pois é sempre a mesma ao finalizar o APK.

Em outros players, geralmente os nativos dos aparelhos, a reprodução aleatória é mantida, como se fosse um "cache", desta forma as musicas não se repetem.

Agradeço a atenção.

Meu dispositivo: Sony Xperia z3 Full - Model D6643

Operadora: TimSP

Versão APK: 4.5.0.1076 armV7

Versão do Android: 6.0.1

Nr. Versão: 23.5.A.1.291

[Bmarti0903]

Hello, me and several other account holders love spotify, and enjoy all the features that spotify premium has to offer. However, a good majority of the people I know who use spotify have their own high song count playlists, and all seem to be having the same issue with the playlist's algorithm. Many of us have 100+ songs, and contiulously hear the same set of songs even in the same session. I thought maybe it was just an issue that spotify (non-premium) had to get more people to use premium. It seems like of 300+ songs, I shouldn't hear a repeat in the same session, let alone multiple repeats in the same hour. It seems like this should be an easy fix for the programers to fix, and the company who wrote the algorithm are to blame. This has been a serious issue for most of my friends, family, and I, and is making me want to switch music service. PLEASE FIX!, Thank you.

[sukiakiumo]

Likely due to royalties. It is horrible! I just got some pretty Lights and then all of a sudden i get them song, after song. I try to re-initialized to a completely different playlist and somehow I get back to them. Definitely not true random but a perterbation that overweights certain artists. Sometimes it overweights them waaaay to much. 

[sukiakiumo]

The neural networks for whatever collaborative filtering they are using are converging to profit hot-spots in the space of music that we listen to. Namely, they are merely maximizing their profits by taking us into pathways of profit for them. Each path plays the songs that we hear, again and again. BUT! these pathways are goverened by our preferences, and the preferences of our connections. But still, their profit is being maximized this way.