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.

[katdidt]

Hi Spotify, when I shuffle play my Songs, I'm finding that that Spotify only shuffles the top 50-100. Would be nice if shuffle play would shuffle globally!

Looks like this has been an issue since 2014:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/iOS-iPhone-iPad/Shuffle-play-is-not-random/m-p/1454334/highlight/tr...

[Xardias]

The shuffling has improved tremendously and I really appreciate it but I'm still having issues that I hope I'm not alone in. I typically only listen to a mega playlist for variety and I frequently hear the same songs in a playist of ~2000 songs. Pusifer has about 33 songs I can easily say about 5 of them come up far more often than the rest of their discography.

The issue I think is that when I listen to anything or the app shuts down and I go back to the main playlist it reshuffles with obviously the same algorithm and I'm back to skipping the songs that I've heard more often than other ones. An idea I had to try and help this is an option like in the app settings to turn on temporary file creation, so that when we shuffle a playlist Spotify can check to see what songs have played recently and send them to the back of the shuffle. Or it can just shuffle a playlist once and when you return to that playlist you can just listen to where you left off. 

I'm not that great with tech so I'm sure there are better or at least more, specific ideas that can improve this issue. But the main idea is that the shuffle system is still a little unsatisfactory with hearing the same songs frequently.

[fenarfin]

The other thing I noticed is that it will start the playlist from where it
started yesterday. It played all day and then started playing the exact
same list.

[Stan_n_Archie]

I get the same problem with the repeated artist all the time. I have a playlist of 4 albums and I just listened to literally 8 songs of the ten in a row from an album. there are 40 other songs it could have played. Instead it chose from one album.

[adtmatt]

This cannot be that big of a programming issue to repair, it just cannot be.  This is an OLD complaint as well!  Clearly, the community is not being listened to.  This seems like a fundamental provision for any music service, a Shuffle or Random feature that doesn't play the same song or artist for a given number of songs, probably a percentage of total songs in the Playlist.

It just makes Amazon and Google look more attractive, and given their size and financial backing...they are only going to get better and offer more music than Spotify.

Spotify has the best means of finding new artists and music...up to now.  Tomorrow may be different.  If one of the formerly mentioned providers improves their new music/artist discovery, Spotify is in trouble.

The solution?  **bleep**ING FIX THE OBVIOUS **bleep** AND LISTEN TO THOSE PAYING YOU EVERY MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[esbenridder]

This is just disappointing. How is it possible to get a shuffle function wrong? I even tried manually (no 'select all' function, of course - if you're **bleep** at programming, why not go for broke?) removing all songs from the play queue. On next shuffle, same deal: shuffling the same songs, every time. And to add insult to injury: I turned off shuffle and manually chose a song from my playlist. Instead of proceeding to the next song on the list, shuffle seemingly resumed and started playing the same songs it always shuffles through.

I'm beginning to think this is less a shuffle problem and more a bug in the play queue.

In any case I've had it and I'm switching to Google Play. Spotify will have to truly up their game for me to keep my Premium account. 

[rednblu]

Yes, there is a bug in some Spotify players that makes the Play Queue freeze on a repeated cycle of tracks-- In all cases that I know of, you can reInitialize the PlayQueue buffers and pointers by 1) Logging off, 2) Logging on with a different LoginId-- Once I had to create a FreeAccount just for this purpose, then 3) log back in with the Id that you want to use-- There should be Zero tracks remaining in your Play Queue.

Now try your Spotify Shuffle again-- The stuck pattern on the Spotify Shuffle should be different.  Is that true?  What do you find?

Of course, the Spotify Shuffle will play no more than 200 tracks from your 1000 track playlist-- But that is a different problem with a completely different "user programming fix."  Are you interested?

[DadDadDaddyO]

Shuffle logic should take into account the last time a song was played. Here's how I do it:

1. Put all the songs never played in a group, and randomize it.

2. Sort the remaining ascending by last play date, play count.

3. Logically divide the list into groups and sort the group contents by play count, ascending.

4. Play the groups in order.

You'll hear every song in the playlist at least once before you ever get a repeat. It'll balance play count and recency of play. Works like a champ.

[wiselyhh]

I have a playlist with 3 different artists, about 40 songs each, total of 113 songs. All I want is for shuffle function to resemble a random reordering of those songs so that I get a blend of the three artists (1 song Artist #1 > 2 songs Artist #2 > 1 song Artist #1 > 2 songs Artist #3 > etc.).

Something about the algorithm (as evidenced by the Play Queue) plays 10+ songs from one artist, maybe alternating with the second, and saves 30+ songs at the end for the third. I just want a symblence of random reordering, I'm unsure why shuffle does not do this inherently. I get better results from ordering the playlist alphabetically, closing my eyes, and double clicking somewhere in the middle at random. That doesn't seem right; someone please enlighten me.

[fenarfin]

Thanks for the fixes ... However, this has been the bane of my streaming
experience for many years now. MediaMonkey had the same problem back when
I was hoarding mp3's. I'm not a programmer, though I had 1 Year of Cobol
and Dbase way back in '93. Then I played with Visual Basic 1 until my
second year of networks and desktop support. I know it's doable ... and I
don't know the average mindset of a Spotify programmer. Maybe the
company can tell us why this can't, or won't be done.