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.

[rednblu]

Clarification please, @bbr.

Did you add the new album by "Add to Queue"?-- Or did you use "Add to Playlist"-- adding to the playlist that you are shuffling?

On my installation of Spotify player--

* When I "Add to Queue", all of the tracks on the newly added album play before the rest of the tracks in the playlist that you are shuffling.

* But if I "Add to Playlist"-- And select the playlist that I am shuffling, then the tracks of the newly added album are scattered among all the remaining tracks of the playlist.  If you look at the Play queue-- and click Ctrl-S on you keyboard slowly, repeatedly, you will toggle back and forth between the new tracks being scattered among Next tracks-- compared to Unshuffled where you will see the tracks of the newly added album at the bottom of the Next tracks.  Is that what you see?

[bbr]

I always use add to playlist.

I am on iOS (iPhone) so I can't use ctrl-s but if I open the queue and keep
toggling the shuffle button, I always have the entire songs of the newly
added album on the top when in shuffle mode.

And this happens only right after adding new albums. Once I listen all the
new songs or skip until they finishes, I won't have the situation again
until I add a new album.

[rednblu]

Thanks for the detailed explanation-- Seems to me that there is a bug in the "Add to playlist" module of the Spotify player for iOS (iPhone).

You might try the following as a "user programming fix" for this possible bug--

* Instead of using "Add to playlist" from the albumMenu, please try the following-- Highlight all of the tracks in the album-- Then use "Add to playlist" from the menu on the highlighted tracks.  Does that work right?

[bbr]

On iOS there is no way to select (highlight) multiple tracks.

It is possible to add tracks one by one but I wouldn't prefer that.
Skipping songs in the shuffle mode is way easier.

[Sam1992]

Dear,

I find your shuffle mode rather annoying. When I sort my numbers by artist, it looks like your shuffle mode is playing numbers in clusters ordered by the artist. Like this: 3 numbers from Foo fighter, 3 numbers from Red Hot Chilipepper, 4 numbers from 30 Seconds to Mars etc etc. I would like it more if the shuffle mode was actually RANDOM.

Thanks for the oppertunity to give feedback!

[rednblu]

           Do the edit and shuffle work

      On a fully functional desktop app?

I completely sympathize with the lack of working features on the Spotify mobile players.

Before I upgraded to a Spotify family account, what I did was keep a "free account"-- RednbluOrganizer-- that I used on a Windows machine just for assembly, shuffle, and edit of the 3000 track "collaborative" playlists that I use on my mobile devices.

(I needed a separate account so that I could troubleshoot what happened on the mobile while running both the Spotify desktop-- as "editor and shuffler"-- and the Spotify mobile as "player" of the collaborative 3000 track playlist with that buggy Spotify shuffle turnedOff on the mobile.)

I also have several other "collaborative" playlists-- with names like AddAllOfArtist, AddAllOfAlbum, DeleteTheseTracks-- to which I insert single track indicators from my mobile of what Album or Artist I want to process later-- and much, much faster on a workstation.

Just to demonstrate the process of "assembly, edit, and shuffle" on a workstation for play on a mobile, my friends provide an automated feed >> https://open.spotify.com/user/rednblu/playlist/0td5oLjwJt59zm1sVHbAHP << as a perpetually refreshed 3000 track public playlist that is heavy on Van Morrison-- or any other of my friends' current fad artists-- scattered randomly in a background random mix from over 25,000 favorite tracks.  Just restart from the next track after where you left off play on your mobile to avoid repeating what you already played-- Or if the last track you played is not there, then just restart from the top.

Have you thought of how you might do your assembly, edit, and shuffle from a workstation?  Then you can "just play without shuffle" on your mobile to avoid the bugs in your Spotify mobile player.

Or is that too complicated to get around the bugs in your Spotify mobile player?

[fenarfin]

It seems to me that an adequate shuffle should be automatically be done
without any intervention from me ... that is what I originally thought I
was getting. I believe it is time for me to start looking for another
platform before I spend any more time making playlists through this app.

[Da_Bozz]

Shuffle with Spotify connect is not working at all. It just shuffles the most recent ~50 songs but not more. My collection is about 3,5k.

[cp_aries]

Hello, as a Spotify Premium member for nearly 3 years, I have voiced my concerns repeatedly to your support staff re: shuffling my ENTIRE library and not just small sections of it and still have yet to have feasible solution.  

I do NOT want to waste the time necessary to segment thousands of songs from my library and put it into a separate playlist.  This would take several hours and quite honestly would be a major pain.  

As someone with an IT background, it really frustrates me that a solution which uses simple if/then logic coded into the software can not be easily implemented on the back end.  

I simply am looking to hear a wider array of the songs 3,000+ I am paying you all monthly for rather than hearing the same 150 or so songs in my library.  

I am giving serious consideration to leaving this service permanently as I find it both annoying and too labor intensive on my end to go through thousands of songs and construct multiple playlists to simply hear a real variety of what I already have in my playlist.  

Please advise if this is something that is going to be implemented in the near future, or I will be forced to go elsewhere. 

Regards, 

Chad

[bakerbill99]

Shuffle play is the same order every time.  Shuffle should be a different order just about every time it is chosen. Otherwise, it's just a different order.