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]

Shuffle works on Spotify--

You just have to use the Spotify Shuffle like the shuffle works.  We all would like everything to be on one button-- One button should do everything.

But for example, most Spotify systems on hardware do not even start the Shuffle when you depress the Shuffle button-- Usually, you have to start the play of some multitrack playlist before the Shuffle button will even Start the shuffle.  Maybe you like Google better.

What hardware and software and what version of Spotify won't work for you?

All of us power users here have figured out how to 1) initialize the shuffle so that it works and 2) check that it is still working by making sure that the play queue contains tracks from the full spread of artists in the target playlist . . . .

Each little variation in hardware and software and Connect and WebPlayer and PlaylistEdit sequence gives a little different challenge for 1) initialize the shuffle and 2) check that it is still working . . . .

What hardware and software and iPhone and WebPlayer and ConnectLink and what version of Spotify won't work for you?

[stewart100]

What a ridiculous comment. Why try to stand in the way of getting a buggy
feature fixed?

[Bodestone]

I agree.

You cannot say that shuffle works on spotify when a command to shuffle a 1000 song playlist cycles through the first 50 songs continuously.

UIt has not worked since I joined and so I cancelled.

people have been complaining about the same thing for over 2 years. It might work on a really tiny playlist but does not work at all with a large, multiple artist playlist.

You know, the sort of playlist you actually want to shuffle properly. Or at least random play: I had an idea posted on implementing a classic random play.

It has been deleted

[Bodestone]

On the above I was advised to post it by Spotify support. I ignored the messages to save the URL as I thought I would get an email saying I created it

Time to try again

[Bodestone]

Oh I can't submit my idea again on how to keep people subscribed while the shuffle is worked on.

You can only submit Ideas if you have a subscription

I cancelled my subscription due to lack of a working shuffle.

So... I cannot suggest a way that they can improve things in a way that would let me subscribe agin.

Maybe that's why my Idea for a simple random play feature is no longer there.

Oh the tangled webs we ... have to cough up occasinallly while navigating really dirty corridors.

[tandre1016]

Shuffle works ?

No it **bleep** doesn't!

Shuffling isn't a complex mathematical cabalistical magical formula. This
is 1st grader level, C++ 101, this is what your grandma teaches you when
she's bored and has had it with the pancakes.

If you have to be a power user to uderstand how to trick the bugs to make
it work your way, then it **bleep** doesn't work ! Shuffling isn't supposed to
be for the elite, shuffling a deck of cards doesn't require a degree in
computer science ! And shuffling a thousand points for a computer or our
modern smartphone is as easy a trick for these devices than it is for you
to breathe.

Even shuffling songs in a nice and pseudo-random way so that songs from a
given album or singer don't randomly get too close to one another is easy
for a computer or a smartphone. And it doesn't require a genius to code it.
You can even easily create shuffle functions that ensure a proper shuffles,
while trying to maintain continuity in BPM, style of music, or any other
pattern you'd like to throw at it.
And neither of these should require you to handle your playlist in any
particular way for it to **bleep** work every **bleep** single time !

Having such a simple function not work like it's supposed to is insulting
to the users, and shameful to the devs.

Unless of course they're trying to cambridgeanalyticafacebookgoogle trick
you into playing the songs THEY want you to listen to.

[Ppozniak]

@tandre1016 well said.

[rednblu]

Well said, everyone!

Plus-- Every time you Reinitialize your Spotify shuffle to get it working right again, you guarantee that you will Repeat every single track that you just heard from that playlist.

Consequently, to avoid objectionable repeats in what I hear, I use the Spotify shuffle-- and Shuffle works-- only on my World_Library Playlist folder containing at present 104,242 tracks stored in at least 12 9K track playlists.

But unfortunately, I haven't found a way to "play" from a Playlist folder on any of my friends' iPhones.

[rdburton25]

Get your playlist, Go to the Queue View, then keep hitting Shuffle over and
Over 6x Plus, watch them flip, then songs get more random.

[stewart100]

If you have to hit the shuffle six times, the feature definitely doesn't
work as it should. This also doesn't solve the problem with large playlists
where it only shuffles a section of the playlist. Again, suggesting
workarounds is just getting in the way of getting this fixed.