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.

[Bodestone]

There is an easy solution. Add an additional option. Remember "Random Play"? A separate function that will pseudo randomly pre-fetch the next song to queue. Play one song. RND get next track.

Have it as a seperate legacy option that is easy to implement, does what it says on the tin even if, on smaller lists, it may play the same song twice.

It would be fantastic to have this as an additional option while the impossible dream of the perfect shuffle algorithm is being developed.

I spotted the comment about tracks played a lot moved to the end of a shuffle. Maybe that's because you like them. Does it mean that tracks constantly skipped get moved to the front of the queue.

Algorithms are about behaviour and patterns.

A nice, easy full list randomisation as something distinct from the shuffle being developed would likely keep 95% of the people in this thread happy at once and the rest once the limitations of pseudo random are explained.

I could live with 2 commands: Shuffle Playlist and Random Play Playlist. The second comes with all the caveats that led away from calling it random play.

Obviously we would still want to shuffle to continue to be developed but could cut the feedback on developing a shuffle algorithm to those that actually want a predictive algorithm rather than pure pseudo random track selection.

I'd leap at the random initially as next track randomisation would solve the issue with cast devices as there is no need to limit a queue length for shuffling. It would just query next random track and start preloading towards the end of the current.

I would still remain interested in the shuffle algorythm however. The one thing it seems to be currently lacking is prefferences.

For a behavioural algorythm to work it needs to know your preferences. It would also need to rank songs but there would need to be 2 rankings. Rank, Rank within playlist.

You would want options that might lower that rank based on time since last played, skipped within 3 seconds.

Shuffle ranks could have natural and unnatural ranges so a song that plays a few times during shuffle could go from 1.1 to 1.2 but if instaskipped a few times might go to the 2.2 range.

Should songs picked manually lots have shuffle rank raised.

It's all very complicated and not likely to be fully addressed soon (although if they can agree with the likes of Google to even apply their current shuffle to more than a small section of a playlist that would be a bonus).

So. Legacy Random Play option. Been around for years. Does what everyone hear wants even though not perfectly.

Should we make a thread asking for that? And another to stop me rambling?

[stewart100]

Lots of good points. Actual random is exactly what I want

[Bodestone]

Indeed Stew. let's campaign to bring back a classic simple approach as a legacy options while the details of a shufle that requires reading your mind via the headphones is implemented.

I feel one of the veterans of this request should get on board and make the request as I am but a newcomer and cannot see an option to create a new item.

I do see this as a very good compromise to bring beloved lost functionality abck to people until the replacement is ready. This thread has started to show a lot in the way of bile and less in the way of constructive suggestions. If I have missed the way I can create the Idea then let me know and I will post the link.

[Rychlend]

My shuffle is anything has gotten worse. If I press shuffle all it will only play the 50 most recently added songs to my entire playlist. If I go further down in my library it will follow the same pattern. I've never had this issue before until recently. 

[ifurn0]

since this got burried in 350 pages of comments i started a new ticket:

why not load ballance playlists silently underneath the hood?

new database entry cunk_load = true
then have a new table for the 1% of playlists that have over 10,000 songs. in that have count and link
split the playlist silentley without user knowing, into what works for performance, say 6000
for random play, play 100 out of the first playlist, then 100 out of the next
search one playlist then the next untill all are filled
browse just load on the fly remove from top and bottom in chunks

as far as the user is concerned its still one playlist with a slight occasional latency, as far as the database is concerned its minimal overhead that wont affect everyone

[DerMoment1608]

Please just do something about it. We want nothing more than ALL of our songs being played in a RANDOM order. I can't believe that this simple thing can be an issue for years and after getting even worse for month now.

I've this playlist with albums of two artists and I made it because I want to listen equally to them - and it only plays blocks of the first artist and then blocks of the second one. I made this **bleep** playlist because I don't want to listen to only one of those artists and Spotify forces me with their crappy shuffling feature. It's driving me crazy for month now. And yes, because of that (and some other issues Spotify don't seem to care about, like the missing bell) I'm in the 3 month-trial of Apple Music now. I don't want to leave, but I'm at a point Spotify really pushes me.

[Ronny93]

Totally agree with @Rychlend... if I sort my songs by recently added it only plays the last songs added and if I sort them alphabetically it only plays songs with the same letters. This is just terrible, three months ago I didn’t have this issue and I’m really hoping that you fix it otherwise I’m gonna have to try Apple Music 

[fenarfin]

Unfortunately ... Apple is worse. Been following this thread for a while
and it doesn't appear that things are ever going to here. Time is on the
consumer's side, though .. and as soon as I find a platform that works
properly, I'll be gone. Even if Spotify does eventually get their act
together, I will go to the next best working platform once I find a good
one. And that will come with time. That is where my real power is, to
make a point by bailing as soon as I find an alternative. Perhaps we can
all give this some thought.

[AdamDo]

@fenarfin I recommend Google Play Music. No such issues whatsoever also is able to play your local files.

[DerMoment1608]

@AdamDo Can you synch local files to your phone with Google Play Music? I had to realize that it seems impossible with Apple music so it's no real alternative for me at the moment. And does it allow saving songs offline?