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.

[AFCMatt]

This has been a problem for a long, long time.

Spotify have pushed their own "Shuffle algorithm" on us when all I want is a purely random shuffle function so I have complete variety. I really don't know why they still insist on forcing this on us as quite a few of my friends have noted how frustrating it is also.

[InfinitySpiritD]

I would really appreciate it if you guys fixed the Shuffle feature on Spotify. The Shuffle button should shuffle the order of the music on your playlist, not randomize it completely. You know there is music on my custom playlist that I haven't heard in weeks, maybe even months. And no, trust me, that isn't an exaggeration. Just, please fix it. It will be greatly appreciated.

[ws1482]

I was just listening on shuffle to my 166 song playlist and the same song repeated itself within 20 songs. Come on this is not right

[RockieRat]

That's a common, every day occurance. Sometimes, the "shuffle" plays same songs in the exact same order. Actually, not sometimes, but all the time! I have to go through the song list and click on something I haven't heard in six months to mix it up. And the next day? I'll hear it again. In the same order. So dumb.

[InfinitySpiritD]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. My favorite shuffle so far has been on the PS3. It will shuffle the order of the music, play every single song without repeating a song once, and once it has played every song, the songs will be shuffled again. I may have worded it wrong, but people who hear music on the PS3 should know what I mean.

[alwaysnarnar]

I've noticed songs I skip through on Shuffle play over again, usually right after I listen through the next song in my queue in its entirety--it just starts up at the top of the shuffle pile like it started over again. But I skipped those songs for a reason. Kind of irksome bug. Any troubleshooting tips? 🎵🎵🎵

[rednblu]

The Vandals likely will paint-over and make illegible this posting, @alwaysnarnar, before you get to read it, but here goes. (I laugh-- because-- Does it matter in the cosmic scheme of things

@alwaysnarnar posed the intelligent question:
_______________________________________
. . . Kind of irksome bug. Any troubleshooting tips?
________________________________________

Tragically and lethally "irksome bug"-- Yes, I agree . . . .

I suggest the following "programming fixes" which work perfectly for 0.9.15.27 in Windows-- but maybe you can adapt these "programming fixes" to some of the various toy Spotify players that have followed 0.9.15.17--

* Ctrl-A in the playlist, to highlight the whole playlist that you want to "truly shuffle"-- as many as 70,000 tracks-- and probably more.

* Click "Edit" in the menu at the upper left, Then click Copy in the drop-down menu-- then wait until the menu disappears-- which is a signal that the CopyToBuffer operation has completed.

* In the upper panel at >> this link, << Right-click then Click on "Paste".

* Click the "Randomize the order" radio-button.

* Then Click the "Sort-list" button.

* In less than a minute, the lower panel will populate with your "truly shuffled" playlist-- with no Spotify insertions of "promoted Payola tracks".

* Ctrl-A in that lower panel-- Then Ctrl-X to cut. (If you are "truly shuffling" more than 9000 tracks, just estimate the fraction that will give you a "cut" of less than 9000 tracks.)

* In an empty playlist, such as "ShuffledPlaylist"-- Ctrl-V to Paste.

* Then CutToYourPlaylistQueue the top section of your "ShuffledPlaylist". (If you are using a fully functional Spotify player-- such as 0.9.15.27-- just Ctrl-A in your "ShuffledPlaylist"-- then RightClick-- and click "Queue"-- to put all your "ShuffledPlaylist" on your PlaylistQueue-- up to 70,000 tracks.

* Then click the PlayNext icon.

From using the above "programming fixes", I get >> zero repeats << except for the few RequestedRepeats that I deliberately insert to the top of my PlayQueue.

(I give you many Virtual kudos, @alwaysnarnar-- for looking for practical solutions here-- by posing your intelligent question -- Instead of throwing useless unanswered curses and prayers to the heavens.)

(I laugh.)

You will notice that all of your three comments to this date on this and all other Spotify forums >> have been blocked deliberately << so that Nobody can give you Kudos for anything intelligent that you might say or ask.

Spotify cannot do anything about this "irksome bug"-- because more than 80% of Spotify's paying customers actually like those repeats-- I say from my polling my friends on Spotify's forums. So we Spotify users have to trade "solutions" and "programming fixes" among ourselves to make Spotify work.

[julianerenee]

pretty pathetic in this day and age!

[Mtmxdd]

I have the EXACT same issue.  I have had it play the same song three times within 10 songs in a playlist of more than 2000 songs, and I have triple checked that there aren't any duplicate tracks! 
**bleep** Spotify, this should be simple as **bleep** for such a huge company, right?!

[NospmasD]

Spotify has chosen to ignore all of our complaints about shuffle. I received a ridiculous message from Spotify suggesting that I close the app and reopen it. Really pathetic.