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.

[Tobraham]

@kcpz
Yes, it's web based so it will work on anything with web access, even an
Xbox.
--------------
You wrote:
Will this work on my phone as well?

[AlexinItalics]

Songs on "shuffle," play in the same order. Sometimes i can even guess the next song right

[Worldmind]

Your shuffle algorithm is pretty awful. It tends to select 50 songs from my latest added instead going through my Song List.
If I pick a song in the middle of the list it just selects like a certain range of songs and I get repeats of the same band, sometimes the same song replays after a couple.
I've had 7 songs just play over and over.
Like look at this.



I would use Winamp a bunch it had a perfect Shuffle system, you could adjust the scale of shuffle and it would choose songs by BPM, I could make it erratic change and it would jump all over my playlist or I could make it gradual and it would find songs that matched the bpm of the previous one. Often making seemless playlist once you add crossfade.

That is what I want to see from your Shuffle Program, give us some control or mix it up some more. 

[edgarfabre]

I have 151 songs on my list, but Spotify play sames songs all day, there is more than 100 song thats never played.

we need a better shuffle/randomize algorithm.

[ObeyConsume]

I am a programmer by trade, and have been one for many years. I understand that sometimes problems can be a lot more complicated than they seem, or features may be much harder to implement than an outsider looking in would assume. However this is not one of those.

This feature is broken and has been for years now. It's not random, it's not a shuffle. At this point I am convinced 'payola' is a factor, or if not payola, Spotify is watching out for their bottom line by playing whatever is cheaper. After this much time its obvious that money is the issue here, not a simple-ass algorithm that any first year programmer could crank out.

[julianerenee]

this is one of the most annoying issues I have with Spotify. I spent/spend a lot of time on building playlists and I pay for this service every month. Spotify should have enough money from their customers by now, to get a decent shuffle set up… pathetic.

[rednblu]

Absolutely, you should have a "decent shuffle set-up" from Spotify.

But . . . .

In the meantime, you might try @Tobraham's >> perfect Shuffler. <<  What that perfect Shuffler does is create the next TimeDated playlist of 200 perfectly shuffled tracks gathered only from all of your personal playlists in your account.  That perfect Shuffler will not give you even one repeat until all of the tracks in all of your personal playlists have been queued for your play.

>> For example, I get zero repeats << except for the few tracks that I queue up deliberately to get repeats-- See my "three repeats" at the top of that sorted-descending list of the last 2000 tracks I have played from my Spotify account?

I would say that @Tobraham's perfect shuffler demonstrates the "system architecture" that Spotify needs to provide for all of Spotify's paying customers.  What do you say?

[cassidyslabaugh]

This is a very interesting point. I'm curious, what would make songs more
expensive to play than others? I thought it was a flat rate per song (.06
cents I believe) regardless of the artist, but I could definitely be wrong.

[julianerenee]

thanks!!   

[rednblu]

!!