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.

[Yuilly888]

Being disconnected from your customer base is corporate suicide. It won't happen quickly but if Apple, YouTube get wind of the Spotify shortfalls (shuffle issues and not history function), they will capitalise on it and then things will change but maybe all too late.

I would recommend you escalate the issue. To be honest, this doesn't keep me awake at night but for you it should. Such ignorance is the beginning of loss of business.

I encourage you to share this with your leadership team (or are they disconnected from everything?)

Anyhow, wish you all the best, I do enjoy Spotify but if something better comes along, I will jump at it because I LOVE MUSIC.

Cheers

[ellwto]

Agree with this. Using Windows PC or Laptop shuffle Spotify only seems to shuffle songs nearby each other in the playlist - on large playlists this is pretty frustrating - keep getting the same songs.

[therondt]

Well said

[Tttcool]

Will there be any improvement to playlist randomness for people who dislike and get rid of most of the songs that come up in a play list. ;tldr I think I have a glitch that is making 5 songs loop for hours until I press the skip button a ton.

[pyokochan]

It's totally bonkers that this hasn't been implemented yet, after the community asking for this for YEARS!  Get on it devs!!! 

[PennySpeaks]

I still have the same issue that a playlist with 3000+ songs will play several from the same artist within a short period. It sometimes seems to very heavily favor only songs recently added.

[therondt]

Yes exactly. I actually work for a (well known) tech company and hate when customers think threatening taking their business elsewhere will make a difference but it does! Spotify does not seem to care about this huge bug enough to address it so I am looking at other options now. I didn't want to go but they left me no choice!

[rednblu]

       For the benefit of Spotify--
     A working demo of Shuffle--
       How Shuffle should work.


My friends shuffle All of Spotify to get a perpetual and NeverRepeating stream of music.

Surely Spotify then can reverse engineer this demo to shuffle my 9000 track playlist to play each and every track exactly once-- like "Shuffling" a deck of cards, yes?-- No repeats; No cheating . . . .



         NonRepeating stream of All of Spotify >> https://open.spotify.com/user/rednblu/playlist/4BIEfdQC3CXOa1N0mTFAEy <<


Simple instructions to play that demo, Spotify--


* Turn off the Spotify shuffle-- because the Spotify shuffle will loop forever on less than 100 tracks and never get to All of Spotify.

* Start playing from the top of the demo.
* Play through until you want to stop.
* When you restart, just search for where you stopped, and start playing the next track.
* Whenever the track where you stopped is not found, just play from the top again-- because the shuffled stream refreshes automatically as a perpetual and NonRepeating feed of All of Spotify.

That is what we want, Spotify.  Just reverse engineer that solution to give me a professional shuffle to play each and every track of my Your Music collection without repeating any track until each track has played once.

Thanks . . . .

[Baltasarr]

I get every time i play my folder the same song first ... HELLS BELLS // ACDC ... well i like that song but a real shuffle function is stil something else. 

PS. I have Premium Edition so ... please give at least the premium users some more functions like an actual shuffle function 😉

[Snatch_Mahoney]

I have Spotify on my Windows 10 laptop.  There is no shuffle button.  I have one on my iPad and Android phone, but not my laptop.  How can I add it?