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.

[StephR2010]

I just added like 100 songs to a playlist. I have the shuffle on and have click it mulitple times, it is only shuffling the new songs, its not playing any of the music I already had in the list. I went up and played a song that was on it before hoping that would like reset it and that didn't work the next song went right back to the new.  While yes I want to listen to it I still want to listen to the music I had on there prior.  It did not do this before when I added songs. Any suggestions?

[jilljomo]

Still experiencing the same issue today (3/20/17). Very frustrating. Please update status on resolving this annoying quirk ASAP. Thank you.

[mulrine]

I am not usually a regular "Shuffle" user. But fancied random Mr Oizo tracks. Why is it the algorithm selecting tracks from the most recent album and maybe every 5th or 6th is an older track? I skipped passed the same tracks from the newest album again and again to get a bit of variety. If I had wanted to listen to tracks from the newest album, I would have simply selected the newest album.

[mccandy-t]

After the update I noticed that example I started listening Ghost BC and checked how shuffle works. There was some sort of hip hop artists songs coming up also. I could swear that they don't belong to Ghost BC page. But at least there was not a one song coming up twice! 

[Hawkknight88]

This has not been implemented as asked!

What I want from shuffle is every song to receive equal weight and have an equal chance of playing. I still hear the same 20 songs on a 500 song playlist. It's not like I'm going to listen to all 500 songs every day, so on day 2 when I hit shuffle I'd expect to hear random music.

I want true randomness (where every song is played once before replaying a tune again), not a "preferred shuffle". Gosh, give me a setting to do either one if that's really what you want to do.

[JanitorofLunacy]

I added an "idea" to give spotify a TRUE shuffle, where every song has the exact same priority of playing, and not weighing less-played songs in a playlist higher. Somehow, it was ridiculously deemed appropriate to merge that idea with this one. THIS PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVED!!!!! Give us a real shuffle or let us toggle "OFF" prioritizing songs in our playlists.

[JanitorofLunacy]

I recently posted an idea to stop shuffle from prioritizing more played tracks over less played ones which was illegitimately merged with an idea "Implement an actual shuffle function" and marked as solved. THIS PROBLEM IS ANYTHING BUT SOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give us a real shuffle where every song in a playlist is played one after another with 100% randomness until the playlist has played in its entirety. I just pressed random on a playlist I have containing two albums by two artists, one of whom I've been listening to a lot lately, and 7 other tracks. Of the first 18 tracks in the queue, only two are by the more played artist.  The first song by them is song number 10 of a 34 song playlist. The end of the album is all them. THIS IS NOT SHUFFLE, IT'S BULL**bleep**!!!! Obviously, when I listen to an artist a lot it is because I like that artist. Why would an artist be given less priority in shuffle because I like them more? That is about as stupid a thing as one can imagine. Prioritizing songs in shuffle needs to be removed or we need to be given the ability to toggle it off and get a true 100% random shuffle. This problem is not the same as that suggested in "Implement an actual shuffle function" which was about shuffle playing each song in a playlist one after the other without repeating songs until every song has been played, and it should not be merged with that idea. If it gets merged again, I'll keep reposting this idea every single day until it is either addressed or allowed to stand on its own.

[Chris02038]

I have a playlist of 500 songs or so..i throw it on shuffle..snd it only plays the same 50 or so songs..there are songs I never hear unless I go out if my way to play them

[user-removed]

Why are we still waiting on this to be resolved??

I've just clicked on shuffle artist, and the same song played twice after only 5 tracks.

Come on Spotify, why is this taking for long??

[sage-against]

I created a playlist about 2 years ago and didn't do much to it until I just added an album to it a few weeks ago. Everytime I listen to this playlist on shuffle it always saves the new album for last. It randomizes those 16 songs at the end of the playlist instead of just randomizing these songs with the rest of the playlist. Which pretty much defeats the purpose. Should I just make a new playlist with all the same songs?