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.

[actualccb]

I appreciate the comment. Please keep working on it. If there must be a default why can’t it simply be “NO REPEAT”  As far as preferences go I see it as a playlist should not repeat and same artist songs should have as many different artist songs between them as possible. Of course having playlists of multiple sizes make this more difficult. 

[Jason316]

The shuffle needs improvement 

[ianenriquez]

Is there any way you guys can make shuffle actually shuffle my music? I canceled my premium family account but I won’t be getting purchasing it back until I see that you guys have made some kind of change.

[Pumpguy1]

I have just been informed that when I use the shuffle feature on my play lists only the first 50 songs are shuffled.   How about making the entire list shuffle?   Sure would be better than having a nice long list of my favorite songs and only hearing the fifty songs shuffled or waiting through those songs to get to the rest of my list, that will always be in the same order.   

[Musicandchill]

I've bought Spotify Premium to get rid of shuffle in the first place (quite a weird place to post this haha). Now I want to use the shuffle on my favorites playlist, but the shuffles are repetitive and some songs are never to be heard in a shuffle marathon. After a few shuffles on the same day you even start seeing that the songs are in the same order as before, which isn't a REAL shuffle isn't it. I don't know what for algorithms you are using to shuffle the songs but the one that is implemented now is definetely not working. Please fix this.

[Ontario1]

Hello - There are also some relevant points made on this topic in the Spotify Community under the topic via this link:  https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Spotify-Fix-Shuffle-or-I-will-cancel/idc-p/4086129#M...

In future we will add our discussion here instead (as recommended by the moderator) - but after 148 pages and almost two years, the Spotify team may need to start something on this issue afresh.  We all appreciate the Spotify App and the Spotify staff who are working diligently behind the scenes, and we are members in good standing, continuing to support you as we roll towards 2018.  We all just want Spotify to be the best that it can be.  We appreciate your support and we wish you all the very best for the Holidays, and a safe,  productive and innovative 2018 ahead.  Thank you.

[actualccb]

It appears Spotify “shuffle” works best 50-100 songs or so. Less and no matter what you do, Spotify inserts songs not from your list, even if “play on” is not enabled. More and some songs never get played. 

For my playlists which I work on and curate, not having songs inserted and playing all of them is important. I want to be able to share playlists that are unique because of the songs chosen, not just random library playlists. 

I like that Spotify’s lets free users make playlists and both paid and free users can listen to them. This is unique to Spotify and why I choose it over others. 

I know users all all have their reasons but the shuffle is still repeating songs. I currently skip them.

Shuffle that plays all songs and gets to the end of a playlist and stops is necessary. A user can enable “play on” now to continue in the vein of the playlist and that is enough for both repetition, if any and inserting new songs. 

[teollo]

spotify is a fraud about this,,,,,,,, shame

[ludditedabo]

shuffle just got worse in the last few days. why?

[NikLezzzandrini]

If you're like me you probably dont like shuffle because it neglects songs. I have an idea that will revolutionize how you listen to music. Every time you listen to a song, you will have the opportunity to add points or take them away from that song. The more you dig a saved song, the more upvotes you give it; the more upvotes you give it, the more LIKELY spotify will be to play it when you shuffle your library. Hearing a song too often but don't want to delete it? You can remove some upvotes to lower its frequency. Every song will be played but a song with 1 point or that had recently had points taken away will be less likely to be played than a song that has had a few upvotes for a while or has recently gained value. How can we code this? Let's say your top song has 10 upvotes, this means this song has a 10 in x chance of being picked next. x being your total number of songs. So, a song with the most upvotes will almost definitely come on once every listening session and possibly more depending on other factors (like total songs and amount of time spent). The songs with the most upvotes will most likely be the ones you hear. You can set it a true shuffle, mixing in popular and not so popular, or you can have it always play your top songs first in a random order. A song with only 1 point or that has lost value will be less likely to be picked next. A song with 0 upvotes means it does not belong to your library. Instead of saving and removing songs, you simply add at least one point to any song and it will be added to your library. Similarly, to remove a song you would take away all its points until has a value of 0.