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.

[antonio0000x]

As of the time of this post comment Spotify's Shuffle function algorithm is absolutely broken. I have just heard the same artist for at least the last two hours. Does that sound like Shuffle to you? It doesn't sound like Shuffle to me. Have anyone of you had the same issue lately? Hey Spotify! Get this fixed! Please and thank you.

[JeremyEatsPie]

The new shuffle system is not performing well. I have had strings of songs from the same artist in a playlist that has almost one hundred songs in it with a whole bunch of variety. Why am I getting about eight to ten songs in a row of the same artist, when there are about twenty different artists featured on my playlist?

[tonguesmurf]

The new function is absolutely terrible. Fix it. This doesn't make me want to buy premium, it makes me want to boycott and choose a different music player.

[tonyrad]

I know this has been brought up many times in the past via many different avenues but the shuffle function needs to be addressed.

Example: I have a playlist of 600 songs, and about 15 artists, generally arranged in artist then album order. With shuffle off I listen through each album in order, with shuffle on I listen to the first 2 or 3 artists on the playlist and songs from about 6 different albums by those artists combined. Which generally means I listen to the same 50 songs from that playlist on a loop. This behavior only started within the past year or two (maybe this should be filed as a bug?)

Yes there are other options such as Spotify playlist and Playlist Radio but those aren't shuffling the music that I have specifically used on a playlist based on my musical tastes. If shuffle is not going to work like it works on every other platform, it might as well be removed.

[tandre1016]

[rant mode ON]

@osornios thanks for sending me here because of my "duplicate" rant. I know this post, I've posted several comments here in the past years. And thanks for the link to that 4 year old article.

But all this is telling me is that we might as well give up. There has been no answers from any admin, mod, dev, or anyone even remotely associated with Spotify, in the past months & years, even after the too many messages on the topic, and when we do try to bring back this topic to light, we're getting parked here.

If you don't need our feedback and/or money, tell us. It'll save us time.

[rant mode OFF]

thanks and good night 'all

[xwonkaxstarx]

You are correct.  Spotify sends us all here where our comments die.  I just have to rehit shuffle button all the time   Guess I can sue spotify if hitting that makes me wreck my car?

[Dirty_Mike]

I have no idea as to how difficult this would be to integrated.  However, I have noticed that the shuffle for playlists seem to play songs by the same artist multiple times in a row.  This is very annoying to me, I don't know how other people feel about it.

[boughtandsold66]

Same. Extremely annoying. 

[grumpycamper]

This feature isn't fixed on Android. I just want to hit shuffle and have any song on my playlist play, then continue playing more randon songs from anywhere my full playlist. If I put it on my playlist, I want to hear it,.

[ian_the_boss]

Shuffle doesn’t really work with playlists, I have a playlist with 300 numbers but I hear the same songs every day, there are songs on there I haven’t hear for a year?! I think the shuffle algorithm needs a little work.