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.

[salvieondatrack]

It's now 2018 and for the last entire year the shuffle option seems to only play about 40 or 50 songs out of my 1,000 + I am literally skipping the same songs everyday (I don't even listen to them I skip them so why would they be weighted at the top again). This is ridiculous. Please look into the algorithm again

[salvieondatrack]

To add to my last comment, it seems like the shuffle begins to act up after beginning a new instance of spotify. (meaning you reset your phone or force closed spotify). When it does act up it begins to shuffle through similar songs everyday not even putting a dent in my playlist...

[user-removed]

No, Shuffle still repeats a lot of songs while ignoring a whole lot more.

[Jason316]

The shuffle could use some more improvement.im hearing the same artist back to back at times

[Neurotronik]

I've been encountering issues with my longer playlists (300-3000 songs). Ramdomly starts playing back at the beginning of the playlist.

I love to listen to my long custom make playlists without having to start at the top each time.

Please add better support for long playlists!

Best regards,

Philippe

[jimeebee]

The shuffle on spotify is seriously making me consider taking my family plan and going to another service. It's the ONLY THING ON SPOTIFY THAT SUCKS. Google Play's shuffle was great. 
I am SICK of hearing the same songs over and over when my playlist is 300+ songs. It's absoloutely assinine. 

FIX IT

[fenarfin]

I think that if you check out some of the other sites you'll find they all
have pretty much the same problem ... some are even worse. I'm not
defending Spotify, it' just that I felt the same way as you a few months
ago and did try a few on a trial basis. Then there's the dozens of hours
I've invested in my playlists.

[rednblu]

        >> Rather than complaining, let’s give Spotify information to work with.

My friends showed me how to avoid most of the flaws and get excellent shuffles from the Spotify shuffle.

You just have to initialize the Spotify shuffle manually before you start playing music.  You can initialize the Spotify shuffle in Windows 10 running the 1.0.70.388 Spotify player by the following procedure:

* Scroll down through a playlist and do Enter on some random track to start play on that track.

* Then go to your Play queue to see the list of tracks in the NextUp section of the Play queue.

* Toggle the Spotify shuffle offAndOn by Ctrl-S repeating slowly while you watch the NextUp section of the Play queue.

* After you Ctrl-S four or five times, you will see that the NextUp section finally starts reading the playlist you wanted to shuffle-- and then you will see that the green shuffle icon and the [Playback, Shuffle] line is checked whenever the NextUp section is in what looks like a [random order], selecting tracks from top, bottom, and middle of your playlist.

* If you sort your playlist on Artist, you can tell easily when the shuffle is actually reading your playlist and you can see easily that the shuffle is giving you tracks from top, bottom, and middle of your playlist.

* And you have to initialize the Spotify shuffle by steps such as above-- every time that you restart Spotify-- if you want it to work on interesting music collections.

My friends also talk about internal buffers, lost pointers, ghost Connect sessions, and a successful manual procedure that shufflePlays any folder of up to 15 9K track playlists-- shuffling a music collection of 150,000 tracks-- Anybody interested?

[stewart100]

The conclusion I've come to after reading all that is that shuffle is
definitely broken. How many steps does it take you to shuffle a playlist?

[Lisardo]

It would be nice. Where its going to be apply ? Shufflle function seems to be more useful than the random one.