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.

[livsolivia]

 I've noticed that the playlists will play in the same "shuffled" order or the playlist will get shuffled by artist rather than a complete shuffle. I would prefer a completely new song order every time I play the playlist and not hearing all of the songs from one artist in succession!

[user-removed]

Spotify, 

The changes you said you made in February to improve shuffle:  I don't see any improvement.  Still a very disappointing non-randomized, repeatable, shuffle.  

Time to go back to the drawing board and re-think how you're implementing your random number generation, or something along those lines.  

True randomness is a difficult problem to solve, but this is one the worst attempts I've seen in a while.

[ab63587]

I agree with previous comments.  I'm listening to a playlist that is 222 songs and 15 hours long.  I am now in the 7th hour, and the songs are already cycling through for the second time.  I haven't heard half of the songs on the list.  To clarify, this is not my own playlist.  It is one I found in the 'Browse' section.  Not sure if that makes a difference.

I love Spotify, and think that it is far superior to iTunes, but is there a way to model after their 'shuffle algorithm'?  Something like keeping track of a play count, and that a song can't be replayed until every song has a '1' in the play count of a playlist?

I would appreciate any feedback.  Thanks!

[doylestownbooks]

I have not noticed any improvement. The shuffle feature still feels like it's constantly playing the same songs over and over.  We use spotify to play music in our store and have over 2000 songs on our playlist but it very noticeably plays the same songs, so much so that we are considering switching to a different service as it gets tiresome hearing the same things day in and day out. Spotify should feel embarassed by how poor the shuffle feature is.

[gonzaloaune]

Any progress in this shuffle feature? Because as I've read here in the forum, my shuffle is working exactly as the others, non shuffle at all and all the songs are being repeated in the same direction, 1 => 10 => 5, then begins again with 1 => 10 => 5, so it seems is shuffling only once and then playing all again and again which is pretty annoying. I also noticed whenever I add new song, that song is not inserted in the shuffling so unless I play it at least once, it wont never be added to the shuffling.

[smallseb]

I'm basically hearing the same songs again and again. Please do something

[nester999]

Hi all,

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the Spotify service, but this issue goes back to the days of iPod where the SAME random function is being used and therefore the same tracks come up over and over and over...and over. 

I would love to have a playlist that somehow flags each song that has been played and once, and ONLY once the last song in the playlist has been played will I EVER hear that other song again. I have at least 10,000 songs in my saved library so there is no reason why I should hear the same song twice in a day of commuting. If adding this 'beenPlayed' flag is a data issue, then please just implement it on my 'plussed' (starred, or whatever) songs in my Library. 

I would even take a randomizer on a set of rand() functions to at least mix it up a little more, but please Spotify, hear my plea. You guys are so awesome, but this could make you the proverbial awesome-r. 

Thank you and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE like this if you've ever experienced this yourself. Here's to what could be.

Peace and music,

Edan

[EddTally]

This isn't a good example but i just heard the same song Diamonds - Yung lean twice in 3 songs that have played, unlucky?

[nester999]

While I'm glad to see steps taken, I think what Ronin is talking about is something to the effect of a persistent shuffle, like even when you close the app and open it again the app still remembers how far through the 'stack' it was. I would imagine this would be a simple flag tacked onto each track. I have still heard repeats since the February 5th update. Progress is good though!

[user-removed]

I've also noticed the current shuffle chooses the most "popular" tracks in a playlist to include in its non-random order.

Since there is really no shuffle function I've started sorting playlists by song name and playing top to bottom. At least this way there is some randomness to the order of artists and every song is weighted the same