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.

[user-removed]

Spoiler

I know when I had Google Play Music, everytime you pushed the shuffle button, it would randomize the songs again. It would also update if you added or removed songs when you pushed the shuffle button again. I don't know if they changed it, but I might get Google Play Music myself since I'm loyal to Google.

[user-removed]

Does Apple Music do the same as Google Play Music?

[user-removed]

And why does my reply about Google Play Music say "Spoiler?"

[fenarfin]

I'm having the same problem.  As well, the shuffle seems to go about 20 artists deep and then only adds another artist when one is depleted.  I also notice that often when I boot the computer, I come to my playlist and it starts playing from where it started yesterday.  I have about 20 playlists, but my largest one has 3,000 songs in it, and I am only up to the N's in my former vinyl collection.  I would like to be able to hear a song from one artist and then not hear another one from that artist until a song from all the other artists has been heard.  I've used a lot of players, streaming and otherwise and so far it seems nobody can really offer this.  Feedback appreciated.

[user-removed]

PLEASE FIX THIS SHUFFLE 

Spotify is shuffling my tracks even its not activated....!

When i wanna hear trough a new album, it just starts to jump to a song on the end, jumps back, etc. 
and its definetly deactivated

Happens on PC and mobile.....

[SuusVanOs]

Shuffle isn't working well at all I used to think it was just with big playlists which caused me to make lots of small playlists & it still doesn't work how I'd think a proper feature should work. For example I have a playlist with 46 songs and 11 different artists, when I click shuffle I first get a few songs from the same artist then a few from another then a few from another and every once in a while there's one mixed up but It's literally like the playlist won't shuffle because it's in the same order as the playlists in and just places a few (like literally none) songs on different places. Not random at all, the chance that an artist gets repeated that much times in a random shuffle is so incredibly slim & it happens multiple times. I don't know how the algorithm works and what it's based on but it doesn't make sense to me, I'd like it to be more like shuffling a deck of cards, I guess it's somehow based on whom I've listened to a lot lately and what song I started with but this sucks because even in this 46 song long playlist I haven't heard a few songs in ages and have heard some 10s or even 100s of times.

[rednblu]

             Why can't Spotify give me this?

Don't blame Spotify, please-- Spotify is trapped in the evil clutches of the free market.

But Spotify has a good heart-- as you can see.  Look how great all that Spotify music is!  Better than anywhere else-- because Spotify has done what pleases the free market greatly.  The theology is beyond words, so I won't even try.

Spotify has a good heart-- as you can see from Spotify allowing you to develop your own "user programming fixes" to these severe bugs in the Spotify shuffle, for example.

All you need is any good and modern documentHandler.

* Into the first Column of your table, you put a Random function [RAND()]-- When you want to randomize your whole playlist, you just sort on this first Column, does that make sense?

* Then into the second Column, you paste a copy of your Spotify playlist in the  [Paste Special, HTML format] which gives a list of  [Artist -- TrackName]  that looks like this

                J Balvin – Mi Gente
                Dua Lipa – New Rules
                 . . .

* Then into the third Column, you paste in the [Paste Special, Unformatted Unicode text format] that will look like a series of  http: strings that look like  

      http://open.spotify.com/track/2rb5MvYT7ZIxbKW5hfcHx8
      http://open.spotify.com/track/2ekn2ttSfGqwhhate0LSR0

                 ...

When you sort on the first Column, which always gives you a new Random number, the third column will give you the resulting completely random playlist, right?  You just copy this whole third Column into a Spotify playlist to give you a truly Shuffled playlist that you play-- with that buggy Spotify shuffle turned Off-- (I laugh.).

The evils in the free market force Spotify to maintain bugs against you getting your randomized playlist back into some versions of the Spotify player--

But Spotify has a good heart currently and currently does not block music enthusiasts who know the value of preventing mind-numbing repeats documented in the preceding 130 pages-- does not block you from using the "user programming fixes" at >> this link << to fix the bugs in the Spotify players that evil free market forces compel Spotify to maintain against you hearing the music that you rightfully want to hear.

[user-removed]

I'm only writing this here as I've found it almost impossible to find a way to contact Spotify directly.

I am genuinely infuriated, as I pay for my membership and the simplest, easiest thing in the entire world, shuffle, is ridiculous. I've seen countless posts complaining about how bad shuffle is and still, nothing has been done. I've read that songs are randomised, not shuffled. I don't want to hear the same songs twice, and as ridiculous as this sounds, this shouldn't be an issue for a paying customer of a reputable music player. My mind is blown....

i had a playlist I listened to a lot, I added many new songs and still, only the old songs are shuffling when I press the button and the new songs are right at the bottom. WHAT IS THE POINT? I am so close to cancelling as I don't believe we are being heard. Frustrating.

please fix this issue. 

[Tjabber]

All bull**bleep**, spotify has made the choice to **bleep** up their shuffle! It was not the "free-market" who did it for them.
But as i see from the many reactions, spotify is not doing anything serious to fix this problem. Time to look for other services and let's this time choose the fairest, tidal or napster look a lot better 

[jacktvance]

Make sure the same artist doesn't play back to back. Make it a good variety. And also bring back being able to see who follows your playlists!