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.

[W-W]

Adding to the pile.

About 1000 in playlist and hear many of them routinely.

I did a quick estimate of song lengths and how long the list plays each day. Hearing songs far too often.

I'd prefer every somg play once before ever repeating.

If/Then

[CC91]

When I shuffle an artist, I get the same few songs played first every time, instead of a mixture of their entire catalogue.

[_jammin_]

YES!

what i like to call "Random without repeat"

[hans-jürgen]

Hmm, it seems I'm one of the few users who actually like the improved shuffle mode in the desktop client, but I mainly play very long playlists (5-6k tracks each) from one folder containing my converted Last.fm listening history which has 40k tracks plus my loved tracks and some smaller playlists which result in about 43k tracks. To play them, I right-click on the Last.fm folder and choose "Play" while making sure that Shuffle is on. Maybe I should mention that my Starred playlist is empty, and I haven't thumbed any tracks while listening to radio stations either. I also sorted the long playlists alphabetically to Artist first, then Track.

Doing the same with Your Music -> Songs which contains about 9k now neither gives me noticable repetition. Probably it is important that you always start your listening session with a different track than the last time, especially when you have smaller playlists.

And of course the improved shuffle algorithm only seems to be implemented in the desktop software yet, so if you use mobile phones or the web player, your experience is probably different than mine.

[chnateag]

Your palylist are really long, it must be that... Still a nightmare for me, it makes me hate some song and that's the last thing you want with that kind of software.

I'm following this topic and not an answer since at least 3month ... it's like talking to no one, also there is a lot of comment

[user-removed]

listening a song over and over again is realy anoying and make me hating some songs I´ve realy loved... before shuffeling...

Yesterday I checked my playlists and found a lot of songs I´ve never mind.

Can´t understand why its not possible to improve shuffle mode within the last two years so the shuffle mode is realy useful.

Guess I should start seeking an alternative music streaming service.

[liquidice13]

Shuffle seems to play more recently added tracks first when shuffled. This doesn't seem random at all.

[DrGhoulinstein]

I also agree with this.

Ghoulinstein

[jd613]

How has this improved since the OP over 2 1/2 years ago? I have the exact same issues as a new user.

I just recently started using Spotify, and I'm ready to delete the app already. I chose an Artist with well over 500 songs, but every time I hit Shuffle Songs, I get the same few songs - every single time! The only way around it is to go to a specific album and Shuffle just that album to get some "new" songs to play, but even that won't get me every song on that album 😞

And it's just as bad with an Artist with only 50 or so songs. I keep hearing certain songs multiple times an hour, but others never ever play, even with allowing it to play for 2-3 hours. I fully understand the difference between Random and Shuffle, so please Spotify, make this a TRUE Shuffle.

[Jarmake]

I actually think it's gotten worse than before. It seems that if I start with a song, say at the end portion of my playlist, Spotify keeps mostly hitting songs that are very near that song (and yes, also the first played song itself). It sometimes does select songs from further away but it seems you need to manually select a song from another portion of the playlist to get it move to other parts of the list.