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.

[Biederbeck]

We are thinking of switching to Spotify business, beginning with a one-month free trial. After creating a 400 song playlist I noticed the same thing. This is not random. There is one band that represents 1/100th of the playlist (4 songs) that was played 2 in the first 20 songs.

Very Frustrating. Has to be money involved somewhere in this decision.

[bytebodger]

@Biederbeck - To be fair, simply seeing 2 tracks from 1 band in the first 20 is not, in itself, proof or counter-proof of randomness.  This is how I feel that that the Spotify developers have mistakenly allowed themselves to brush this off as a non-issue.  They see one anecdotal complaint (e.g., "I saw the same band twice in the first 20 results") and they write it off as someone not understanding randomness (because such a result, on a one-off basis, is perfectly feasible - even under a truly random shuffling scheme).  

It's only when you start to track this over hours/days/weeks/months of play that you can really nail down the fact that it's not properly shuffling at all (as illustrated in my example above).  

The sheer volume of complaints (on here, and many others sites across the internet - like Reddit) shows that that there are MANY users like myself who just want a simple option to SHUFFLE their whole freaking playlist - like almost any other music player can do.  

I don't mind that they provide other options (like allowing the more popular tracks to more-frequently float to the top of the supposedly-shuffled list).  But SHOW US those features.  Give us a chance to turn them OFF.  Allow us to see a truly-shuffled version of the playlist, if we so desire.  It's quite deceptive to call their current algorithm "shuffling".  Anyone who's played card games understands what it means to "shuffle" the deck/playlist and you shouldn't need to have the programming knowledge to access an API to make this happen.  

Think of it like this:  If I'm playing Texas Hold'em and I'm dealt pocket aces, that's not proof of any artificial rigging on the part of the dealer.  That's just some momentary good luck - and an integral part of the game.  But if those same pocket aces keep coming on a frequent basis, that's bogus.  

[bytebodger]

@CrapuleJack - And I'm sure that the Rancid tracks that you DO see are all of their bigger hits.  Because the built-in algorithm is automatically sorting by popularity (with no method in the UI to turn this feature OFF), the other tracks from their catalog are essentially "hidden".  

I've also created a revised recommendation engine with their API that allows me to pull back tracks BELOW a certain threshold of popularity.  When I did this, I was suddenly introduced to HUNDREDS of track that their built-in recommendation engine was NEVER going to show me.

If I'm not familiar with Rancid and the recommendation engine shows me Roots Radicals, that makes perfect sense to me.  But once I've heard that track and seen it in my Recommended Songs list MULTIPLE times, I wish it would stop showing me that track as a recommendation.  I've either decided that I like the track - and I've added it to the playlist - or I've decided that it doesn't suit me and it's frustrating to see it pop up over and over and over again in my Recommended Songs list.  

In my new API interface, I've also told it to check any of the recommended songs that it shows me against two custom lists that I've created called "Rejected Songs" and "Rejected Artists".  When I listen to a song for the first time, I either drag it into one (or more) of my existing playlists (indicating that I actually LIKE the song), OR I drag it into "Rejected Songs" or "Rejected Artists".  If I drag it into "Rejected Songs", that song will never show up again in my custom "Recommended Songs" functionality.  If I drag it into "Rejected Artists", I will never see ANY songs from that artist in any of my custom "Recommended Songs" lists.

[Biederbeck]

Yes, I've played Over 10 million Texas hold 'em hands online. As well as hundreds of thousands of Texas hold 'em and Omaha high live. I understand odds.
This is not random

[CrapuleJack]

Yes, you understand and illustrate my point verry well. I use Rancid as an example because the shuffle problem is absolutely evident with them and easy to reproduce.

BTW guys ive had much better success in talking with spotify over on twitter (@spotifycares if I am not mistaken, lol) they at least answered me there (to tell me they would take my compaint to the appropriate director, lol again)

I think ppl here should do the same and start flooding their twitter, I’m guessing that would get their attention much better

The sad fact is this thread is a graveyard thread and they are just not looking at it anymore (I believe)

[PennySpeaks]

EXACTLY!! @SpotifyCares - flood the feed!

[J123a456l]

I can't seem to play more than 40 or so songs on a playlist especially when it's on shuffle. I have around 400 songs on my offline playlist and I have not once been able to listen to the whole thing once with no repeated songs. All I want it to play or shuffle the whole of my playlist and to see all of the songs are up next on queue.

[Baltasarr]

A Shuffle for a music track should be like a card shuffle NO CARD is in the next round in Theory at least on the same place as the last round (in theory) so no ... the Shuffle function right now deserves not the title of Shuffle 

[brandynhazelton]

Yes, and the deck of cards should  be the entire  playlist not restricted to an 80 song deck. 1000 song playlist shuffle = shuffling  1000 songs into  a queue... not the case with the current "shuffle."

[smarris]

I created a thread on this very same topic yesterday, as I am having the same problem with the shuffle feature.  I will paste my post below.  However, I do have a question...a moderator commented on my thread saying that they made improvements to the shuffle algorithim and would love to hear our feedback.  After giving said feedback, the moderator changed the thread to "not an issue," and blocked any further comment.  That was my first post here, so I'm asking is that normal?  

Shuffle not really shuffling

Submitted by smarris yesterday

I have a playlist with over 1,000 songs that I always listen to in the "shuffle" mode.  The problem is that I keep hearing the same songs repeat mulitple times in a listening session.  I'm not sure why this is and I do not have the desire to edit the queue everytime I listen to my music, so is this being addressed?  I did see in a post that the shuffle algorithm was being updated, but with over 1,000 songs I'd think the likelihood of a repeat would be extremely rare.  With that said, there are some songs that I've never heard except for when they were first added to the playlist.

[smarris]

I have a playlist with over 1,000 songs that I always listen to in the "shuffle" mode.  The problem is that I keep hearing the same songs repeat mulitple times in a listening session.  I'm not sure why this is and I do not have the desire to edit the queue everytime I listen to my music, so is this being addressed?  I did see in a post that the shuffle algorithm was being updated, but with over 1,000 songs I'd think the likelihood of a repeat would be extremely rare.  With that said, there are some songs that I've never heard except for when they were first added to the playlist.