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.

[bytebodger]

"I was going to write a long explanation, but if you guys payed attention to the "Community" then you know what's wrong with the shuffle function. Just FIX IT.  pretty please."

@leyonrohr:  If you have a paid account, my web-based utility should "fix" it for you.  Cheers.

http://writing.voyage/spotify

[bytebodger]

I'm tagging everyone who's complained recently about Spotify's crappy non-shuffling functionality. I just deployed a new version of my web-based shuffle utility that should "fix" the problem for you if you have a paid Spotify account. Please check it out here:

http://writing.voyage/spotify

@thedemosthenes @tjh5wp @Caette @JennaElizabeth @rednblu @fallingurie @teollo @mramsden @camhopper @Friggin_Grease @jimisola @Tjabber @jjjacob @ejwalsh102 @deso0880 @echterninado @jpeattie @mc_mellow @andannabegins @mb9023
@CrapuleJack @soulbroker @cookies5 @kschles52 @corachopin @declaude @mramsden @GPinheiro @jgarrity12 @knb62013 @ofstem @Sannie747 @zazz @gusitamundial @AFlockOfDogs @Sevarate @markcastillo @Shinigami268 @user-removed @Mrbagels2

[bytebodger]

I'm tagging everyone who's complained recently about Spotify's crappy non-shuffling functionality. I just deployed a new version of my web-based shuffle utility that should "fix" the problem for you if you have a paid Spotify account. Please check it out here:

http://writing.voyage/spotify

@fenarfin @user-removed @SuusVanOs @user-removed @jacktvance @jmrozek @hjesse7 @sublymeguy @badgaz @breal82 @RoninTheOrigina @bbr @Sam1992 @Da_Bozz @cp_aries @bakerbill99 @katdidt @Xardias @Stan_n_Archie @adtmatt @esbenridder
@wiselyhh @Rosten @TheBenBerman @Lordzues82 @goodamnliam @stefgeiger @Madmanmcreid @Straevaras @ZSommers @Joebot44

[rednblu]

Well done, my friends!  Keep up the good music!-- truly shuffled by "user programming fixes".  That is the only way that it actually works!  Bravi!

[nhaydenmartin]

Playlists clearly give weight to newly added songs as well as some other factors that are too nuanced for me to have identified as a song weight "rule". Having read the Spotify Labs article "How to shuffle songs?" I understand their headaches with users that don't seem to understand how probability works but that's not my issue. It doesn't bother me when 2 songs in a row are from the same artist, in fact I understand that in a truly random shuffle that there's a greater than 0 chance that it could play all the songs by a single artist in a row simply by random chance.

All I want is a user defined set of options with regards to Shuffle. I for example would like a Non-Weighted Shuffle with the option to keep a song from playing again once it's been played until the next time I ask Spotify to shuffle a playlist. Or an option to give weight to songs that haven't been played as much would be great at certain times but having the option to also turn it off would be really nice. And if you like the algorithm that Spotify currently forces all of its users to utilitze so they can trick their brains in to thinking it's random then there should be an option for that too! Spotify could even have it default to their algorithm for all new users so as to remove confusion for people who don't have any interest in adjusting a pile of settings.

Another solution could be just a button that randomizes song order in a playlist so I can hit it as many times as I like until I'm satisfied with the order. That way a user can see what order Spotify has put the songs in and just play them in that order without using shuffle. Put the button right next to the buttons used for ordering songs by Title, Artist and Album. This could fix the problem well enough though I'd prefer both solutions be implemented.

[guidoinperu]

Please Spotify!!!!
We (your paying users) have been asking for a real shuffle function for over 5 years now!! That's insane!! 

Still you are unable to shuffle songs of the whole list, that just sucks. It's driving me mad how you keep on choosing the same songs and are unable to shuffle my whole list, you only take around 50 songs around the song that I started with. Then, you start playing your playlist radio. I don't have a playlist of 1800 songs that I love, only to listen to 50 of them, right!?!?!?

Over a decade ago, iTunes would let you make Active Playlists (or something like that) so you could have huge lists and once a song had been played, it wouldn't be in the list again for a certain amount of days (I had it on 14 days and it was lovely: you'd really shuffle, hear all your songs but never a second time in two weeks unless you'd ask for it). Oh and many decades ago I had a CD player that could actually shuffle the songs on the CD. And we're living 2017 now, and Spotify still can't really shuffle? Come one guys....

[guidoinperu]

P.S. Bytebodger's fix is not working: writing him the error report now. Sounds good, though!

[nyc65]

I am confused....it appears the Shuffle function has been improved to not play recent songs again, but I definitely do not experience that as happening. I use shuffle all of the time and it seems to play the same 20 songs (out of the 250 in my playlist) every time. I don't see any settings to enable that will make it truly shuffle and not just randomize.

[isch]

I noticed recently that shuffle is not random anymore.

It now weights its selections based on what you've listened to recently. If I've listened to a lot of one artist, and then I shuffle play a list with that artist on it, it will predominantly play that artist. This isn't the case of there being mostly that artist on the playlist either. The list in question has over a thousand songs on it, and only a dozen by that artist.

I'd like to be able to disable this weighting and get back to true randomization.

[AdamDo]

It is even worse than that. If you take an artist spotify will play songs of that artist in random order. Guess what, that order will be always the same, regardless of time. Also there will be just 10-15 songs of main albums after which it will start playing some very weird bootleg or rare concert albums (not the best performances in any way). My suspicion is that spotify takes it based on some ranking they have related to how much money they would have to pay to the artist... And I'm the paying customer!