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.

[rednblu]

       >> Sometimes my Spotify shuffle starts looping on a few tracks and ignores the rest of my playlist.

I suggest that users coming here to complain should identify the hardware and software they are using.

Generally, the Spotify shuffle works fine-- as long as you start it right and do not interrupt it.

(I laugh.)  But what do you do when your Spotify shuffle breaks?-- because the Spotify shuffle will break-- about every other day if you just do normal power user additions, deletions, rearrangement, stop, start, . . . .

Every different hardware and software interface in the Spotify design requires a different fix and separate "initialization procedure" when the Spotify shuffle breaks.

Are you using Google Home or Amazon Echo?  Are you using the WebPlayer?  Are you using an iPhone or Android?  Are you using the Spotify Connect to control or monitor the playing computer?  Have you added or deleted tracks from your playlist since the last time you initialized all the bufferCopies of your playlist on all of the different hardware in your Spotify network?

Right now, I am shuffle playing family accounts on three different versions of Spotify player running under two differently squirrely installations of Windows 10 plus a legacy computer running Vista.  And all of those Shuffle instances are working perfectly right now-- after I reInitialized all of them-- but I never know when I will break any of them by making some normal combination of track changes, plays, stops, starts, NextTrack commands, queues, deletions, or additions.

You basically have two options-- You can either take the time to describe how to reproduce the brokenState of your Spotify shuffle-- so that Spotify can fix it-- (Good luck with that one)-- Or you can tell us users here the hardware and software that you are using-- And the good users here can make suggestions on what you have to do to "initialize" each piece of Spotify that breaks on your installation.

[SamOwoc]

Spotify plays the same select songs. If you hit the shuffle button to undo it, and play in chronological order, then press the shuffle again to shuffle, the same song will appear at the top. No matter how many times you press the shuffle button, the same son will always be at the top. The same goes for the songs underneath. It will put them in a slightly different order, but it will be the same songs. It’s annoying to not hear other songs on a playlist.

[Pumpguy1]

I am using an iPhone mostly. I contacted Spotify directly and was told the shuffle only works on the first 50 songs. That is disappointing because I have a song list that is much longer.

As far as the shuffle working, I have no issues. It just needs to do more of it.

[Maddogthesahr]

I’m primarily using desktop client on windows 10.

[tandre1016]

iPhone, latest release
Windows 10 64bits, latest release

It takes a while to realize shuffle has an issue, it can happen after a couple of hours. So hard to reproduce indeed.

But I’d like to suggest something, if the function is so prone to breaking whenever we touch the playlist. What if Spotify would reset the function every time the playlist is modified ? Every single time. Not when we just stop and resume shuffle, but whenever we add, delete, and otherwise modify the playlist.
It’s just a matter of reseeding a new random number, and reshuffling an index. So resetting shuffle isn’t heavy on ressources. (Or if it is, someone will have to explain why, because shuffling a list is C++ 101 level)

Thoughts ?

[Pumpguy1]

That is how it works with Spotify. I Called them and was told they can only shuffle the first 50 songs in a play list. They recommended that I do what you did and sort by artist and title.
Makes me think Apple has a better mouse trap.

[ingeborgbo]

Hi! I've noticed recently (last few weeks maybe) when using shuffle on one of my playlists containing approximately 130 songs, for a very long time I only get to hear a mix of the songs added the longest ago and none of the recently added songs.

Super annoying and makes shuffling useless to me.

(Noticed problem when using the desktop client on PC, can't say if it's the same on mobile devices or other.) 

[rednblu]

           >>  Plays no recently added songs.

Classic break of your player.  The player is not even pointed to your playlist-- Apparently the player is reading some dead internal bufferCopy of some previous version of your playlist.  This break happens sometimes even if you are playing straight and have your Shuffle turned Off.  Supposedly what "breaks" your player is your doing some combination of what any power user does: add, delete, rearrange, start, stop, listen, Connect, Complain, . . . .

Just "Initialize your play" by some version of

* Play some random track directly from your playlist.

* Turn your Shuffle off and On-- such as by Ctrl-S-- and watch your PlayQueue respond.  You get a better diagnostic of whether you have fixed the "break" if you temporarily sort your playlist-- Such as on your DateAdded column-- When the "break" is fixed by your "Initialize" operation, you will see tracks from recent as well as old additions scattered in your PlayQueue, yes?

And I am not complaining about Spotify-- Spotify is the best of all possible worlds, in my opinion-- That is why we have these discussions on Spotify forums and in None of the competitor forums.

[Ppozniak]

@rednblu I think you're getting it wrong.

If something is not working as intented - it's bad.

If many people are complaining for a long time about feature and it's not being fixed - it's bad.

Many ongoing issues is a bad thing, don't see why you would pat them on their head in this case.

[feelthegroovie]

This problem is from 2012 and I still have it???? Why?????