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]

               Congratulations!

I tried >> your new shuffle << replacement for the buggy Spotify shuffle-- And it works perfectly!-- Perfect for even big 7000 track playlists, I found.

For my first trials, I used the "New shuffled playlist" button on the right-- This button on the far right will create a shuffled version of your original playlist with " - Shuffled" appended to the OriginalNameOfPlaylist-- And the " - Shuffled" playlist will be created at the top of your playlists.  When I right clicked on the "Loading" playlist, the name corrected to the proper name.

I found your new shuffle replacement for the buggy Spotify shuffle from a Google search for [Spotify Reddit Wiki]--
* And I selected the first entry with the name [index - spotify - Reddit]
* Then about half-way down the new page, I found the link to [Directory of User-Made Apps]
* And then about half-way down the resulting page, I clicked on the link to [Spotify Shuffle]-- and that link gave me your new shuffle replacement as I first described.

Congratulations!  And thanks from all of us!  You did it!

[Rosten]

Is this resolved? I have a list of 2000 songs and I want it purely random. It seems it grabs 50 songs by property (first letter, date added to playlist) and randomizes those 50 songs. Really want to make spotify my go to, but having to use google music bc spotify doesnt support true random on large playlists. 

[Rosten]

 Guessing not by the comments. Seriously why is this so difficult? Its a basic feature for a music player.

[TheBenBerman]

Please give us the option for a truly random shuffle instead of your alogrithm. I'm tired of hearing the same 50 songs every day in my 1200 song playlist.

[rednblu]

Did you try the >> user programming fix? <<  With that user programming fix, you will play each and every track before you get the same 20 songs again.

* To get used to it, use the "New shuffled playlist" button on the far right so that you get a separate " - shuffled" playlist that you can sort and visually verify that there is no payola cycle of repeats.

* Never use that Spotify "Shuffle" thing.  Always check under "Playlist" in the upper left of the desktop app to make sure that the fatal "Shuffle" is always UNchecked.

* Start playing your " - shuffled" playlist at the top.

* When you restart playing your " - shuffled" playlist, restart play on the track after the latest track that you already played from the " - shuffled" playlist.

Accordingly, if you have no duplicate tracks in your playlist, it is not possible to get any repeat until each and every track of your playlist has played.

[Falsifiable hypothesis]-- . . . .  

[Rosten]

Does it work on mobile app also? So clunky for a feature that already should be built in. Easier to switch to google music...

[rednblu]

Maybe.  Try >> the link << to the fixed Shuffler in the browser of your mobile.  The browser should display the playlists to be shuffled and the shuffle command buttons to the right.

If you think Google music is worth anything, then you should definitely give Google music a joyful listen!

[esbenridder]

It worked, thanks! Still seems an avoidable and unnecessary bug in Spotify
though. Especially given how many complaints I've seen on this issue. So
I'll still give Google Music a go, but hold off on canceling my Spotify
account for now. Thanks again!

[CTheRevS]

I have a playlist of 800+ songs that I use for casual listening and the songs are from many different genres and subgenres, from rap to death metal. But for some reason when I shuffle this playlist, I get the same songs by the same hard rock and metal bands and that’s all that will play. As much as I love rock and metal, that is not all that I want to hear. My little ears crave variety and delicate music mixed with the heaviness, otherwise I wouldn’t have put the songs in the playlist to begin with. I know that there is the theory that we don’t actually want random, but trust me, we do. There are songs that I have heard multiple times in the past week while there are others that I haven’t heard in months and that bothers me. Please implement a feature or an option to completely randomize the songs when pressing shuffle play, or a no repeat feature so I can hear some other songs that I’ve added. Thank you for your time ❤️

[madelynm]

please improve the shuffle function. I have a playlist of over 160 songs and only ever hear about 30 of them. after listening for over an hour the songs I first heard repeat. there are some songs that play at least one every time I listen and others that have never played. please fix this