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.

[roemusics]

I am also frustrated by this "randomizing" instead of shuffling. Something specific I've been experiencing is that I'll shuffle a playlist and after first 3 or 4 songs play, those same 3 or 4 songs will play right after - in the same order! It's just annoying to deal with, especially since this was never an issue with Spotify before.

[tandre1016]

Well, I'm also very frustrated by the so called random which isn't random (on a long playlist, it plays the more recently added songs only, as if the random would not reach far enough from the first seed... but then even when I start from a song added months ago, random quickly comes back to the ones added more recently), and isn't a shuffle either given that it comes back to repeat before going through the entire playlist.

I've even started become suspicious about Spotify trying to play more the songs for which the costs are lowest and less the songs with higher costs... talk about being paranoid...

Guys @ Spotiy, either you have no idea what "random" and "shuffle" are all about, or you don't care, or you have a hidden agenda, and I don't know which one is more frustrating

[user-removed]

At the moment so called shuffle isn't even working like it should, last night I was listening to music with shuffle on (The artist who has 8 albums) and after an hour it played the same exact song which I heard an hour ago. Coincidence? I really don't think so.

[oli14]

Yeh, even after you have apparently changed how the shuffle works, Spotify, I still have the same section of songs repeating on my playlist. Really annoying, as i feel like i never hear half the tracks!! please change!

[Tobraham]

@oli14

See if this helps: www.riograndemud.com/shufflefly

[Tobraham]

smallseb

You say you were listening to a 45 song playlist all day long and got repeats? Well, 45 songs is only about 2 hours of music, so if you listened for more than two hours, guess what... you're going to get a repeat. No way around it. Just sayin'...

[tardolus]

It works here like this:
I have 900 tracks on my playlist, Shuffle on. I can hear same song 2 times in one hour. Yea... DOESN'T WORK.

[pflo_76]

I'm not a developer, but I'm pretty sure the algorithm should go something like this:

{current listening session}

if<song-x>=already played

then play <song-y>

Rinse, repeat

Please send me my paycheck for figuring this out ASAP.

[smallseb]

Start spotify on a playlist ; listen to 4/5 tunes ; start again 50 mins later ; listen to 4/5 songs.
On the 10 songs listened to, at least 2 of them were the same.

[coreykliewer]

Yea for the last 2 weeks - I have a playlist when I run - the shuffle used to be AWESOME now I hear the same darn songs OVER and OVER and OVER.