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.
Hey everyone,
We wanted to add some more context to the changes that have taken place in case anyone stumbles upon this idea. We've introduced the Fewer Repeats shuffling option, which takes your recent listening history into account and can be found in Settings - Playback - Shuffle mode. Check out this For the Record post for more info.
Once again, thanks for helping us make Spotify better, by participating here on the Community!