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]

Are you using the Web player?  Or are you using the Desktop app?

[Whyyyyyyyyyyyy]

Desktop app

[rednblu]

I just tried the following on my Free account on my Desktop app--

* Sort your playlist by TrackName

* Play the third track in your playlist

* Open your Play Queue.

* Do Ctrl-S several times while you watch your Play Queue-- When your Shuffle is off, you will see that your PlayQueue is ordered by TrackName, right?

* When your Shuffle is On, you will see TrackNames from both the end and beginning of your playlist scattered through your PlayQueue, right?

[Lardah420]

Vote if you think Spotify should have a randomize function for opening a completely random title, to discover new music. 

... I kinda like randomness, because there is a chance of something great every time

[milesvanmiles]

Please implement different shuffle modes:

1. 'Deck of cards' shuffle
2. Algorithmic - 
3. Machine Learning 
4. BPM Match
5. etc,

It's a no brainer for a winning Produc!

Thanks...

[shenanijen]

I am a paid member and desktop shuffle (on a mac) is making me sad. I like to choose an artist and just shuffle their music. So, this past week it has been Radiohead. Looking at my "next up": all the music is from OK computer, A moon shaped pool, In Rainbows, TKOL, and then 1 from Kid A, 1 from Pablo Honey. It has NEVER rotated to Com Lag, Hail to the thief, amnesiac, I might be wrong, or any singles / EPs.

I own most of these digitally or on CDs so it's kind of silly that I'm paying for a subpar service when I could just upload all of these onto iTunes and shuffle from there. Please fix.

[user-removed]

Suggesting a choice of different shuffles, such as:

• True random
• High priority for long unplayed songs
• High priority for recently added

Reasoning being Spotify seems to be having trouble finding a shuffle algorithm that everyone agrees is random. So why not let them choose, and make it explicit whether the shuffle is modified?

[kaylamonet28]

Does anyone know why the shuffle play button is gone. I don't have premium so I can't choose songs. But my playlists are starting from the beginning every time so I am stuck listening to the first ten songs. I have big playlists but they are only playing in order. I like to switch stations but if I go back to a station it starts all over. It's now just showing which songs I liked.

[ozlocke]

As has been said, it only queues 50 of my ~3000 tracks, and it's forever repeating the same song over and over: as in it'll play a few, then repeat the one it last played like 3 or 4 times, then carry on. This is a huge service failure to me.

[racquarelli]

I'm going to cut to the chase - Get Shuffle Play functioning like a normal, random generator should. I don't know anything about coding, but I have experienced more than enough random number/song/video/media generators to understand this is the worse I have encountered.

Spotify, if you were a blackjack dealer in Vegas, you would be fired in minutes. Who needs to count cards when you can literally predict what will come next after a few rounds? It's like you take the first 5-8 cards in the deck, and just sort of shimmy them around on the table, and you don't think the player will notice they haven't seen, say, Jack of Hearts in over 3 years, yet 8 of Clubs has appeared 6 times in the last 10 minutes.

Why can't you shuffle? Is there some sort of weird corporate/political/monetary scheme of sorts I don't understand that makes you think I want to listen to the exact same songs for the first 20 minutes of listening, every single time I press shuffle? Why do I hear the same song on a 137 song playlist every time I hit shuffle? Every. Single. Time. I apologize for insulting, I just don't get it. I want to be able to have a random selection of music, hence the term "shuffle." There are artists I have deleted never to hear again because I got tired of hearing them every single day, songs I once loved I have come to habitually skip over and over. This has been an issue for years, and you know it. This is not the first post to ask for change. If it can't be changed, at least explain why. What will cease to be if users actually experience randomness?