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.

[bytebodger]

@teollo: Just a hunch, but since you have a family plan, does the account currently have more than one player open/active?  With my single account, I really never have more than one instance of the player at a time.  But I'm suspecting that an error is being thrown because the system doesn't know which player to stream the music to.  

If you ensure that you only have one player active on the account, and that makes it work, then at least we'll know what's causing the problem and you'll have a temporary work-around until I I fix it.

If that doesn't fix it, I'll change the code to show the full/real error.  That may show us more information that allows us to narrow it down.

[teollo]

Hi,
I tried again now, I think all the other users are not listening (but non
totally sure, to be honest) and the message I receive is always the same.
I forgot to tell you that I am not the paying user of the family, could
this be the problem?

thanks anyway for your support, I really aprreciate that.
if you want tra to continue help me,,,,,,,,,,,, thanks twice!

[teollo]

Hi,
I tried again now, I think all the other users are not listening (but non
totally sure, to be honest) and the message I receive is always the same.
I forgot to tell you that I am not the paying user of the family, could
this be the problem?

thanks anyway for your support, I really aprreciate that.
if you want tra to continue help me,,,,,,,,,,,, thanks twice!

[bytebodger]

@teollo:  I'm sorry for putting out such "janky" code.  The simple fact is that the Spotify API throws different types of errors depending on the type of accounts/players you are using.  So my ability to thoroughly (properly) test it is limited, because I can only test it against my account.  And it's working with my account.

That being said, I just pushed a new version of the code that will spit the error out on screen and stop (exit) the program.  This means that you may see an "ugly" error (rather than the "pretty" Oops message), but the text in that error may help me figure out what's going on. 

If you wouldn't mind, please try again and post here the EXACT error message you see on screen.  (You should be able to copy-n-paste the entire error message into this forum.)  Hopefully, that will allow me to meaningfully troubleshoot the issue.

[bytebodger]

@teollo:  And no, I don't THINK that it should matter if you are not the paying member of the family.  But again, maybe the error that it shows us onscreen will help us to narrow that down.

[knb62013]

I WANNA HEAR MORE THEN THE 30-40 SONGS I SAVED RECENTLY I HAVE LIKE 1000 OTHER SONGS THAT I WANNA HEAR TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

[teollo]

thanks!!
this is the error I get

int(413)
object(stdClass)#6 (2) { ["error"]=> string(13) "invalid_grant"
["error_description"]=> string(26) "Invalid authorization code" }

[teollo]

thanks!!
this is the error I get

int(413)
object(stdClass)#6 (2) { ["error"]=> string(13) "invalid_grant"
["error_description"]=> string(26) "Invalid authorization code" }

[ofstem]

Spotify, you really need a better shuffle. I'm not sure how much more I can take before I try something else. I have thousands of songs, probably tens of thousands, and continually adding more, and I hear the same songs over and over, without ever hearing 90% of the music I have saved. Thanks. I hope.

[Sannie747]

It's still not working correct. It always play thé same songs