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.

[J_Dub]

 I agree. I have a 2000 song playlist and I scratch my head when the same artist comes up 3 times in a row on shuffle.

[steveflavel]

The Shuffle function is horrible. I have a playlist of 1,699 songs, yet when I click next track again and again, it doesn't take long before SEVERAL of the same songs come up over and over again. If this shuffle functionality doesn't get better soon, I'm going to leave Spotify for an alternative.

[KorkuVeren]

 Well, since you wanted my feedback here, this is it. 

Guys, this is honestly pathetic. As I said in my tweet- barring a logistical issue with bandwidth, there is no reason why you cannot implement a proper shuffle. 

The problem is that after some amount of time, your playlist regresses towards about 8-10 songs. You fix this by selecting all the songs in your playlist in Spotify, then copying the URL, going to a list randomizer to shuffle the playlist, then creating a new playlist in Spotify and pasting the random list in. If I can be honest with you (as in Spotify), I find it amusing that a paid service requires the end-user to resort to a free & manual solution in order to properly work. If the goal is to minimize bandwidth, manually shuffling the playlist would not bring new songs to the play queue. 

Asking me to reinstall is a joke. This is not a problem with my installation. I know that 'random' could be pulling the same songs by sheer chance, but the songs appear in the same order no matter how many I skip. This should not be happening. 

[cassidyslabaugh]

I tweeted them a screenshot of my emails from this thread (I get one every time someone comments) and told them, literally multiple times a day people complain about your shuffle, Spotify. They then sent me HERE with this message, "No worries, help's here. We’ve recently made some improvements to our shuffle algorithm. We’d love to hear your feedback here: (link to this thread) /RP" YES, that links to THIS VERY THREAD that I sent them a screenshot of. They clearly are not reading this, nor do they care if they truly answer our complaints. I've had a very good experience with SpotifyCares in the past, but this one is not so positive. I responded back to them (in the DM's) that the link they sent me was indeed the very thread that I had sent them a screenshot of, and they said "Thanks for the comments. We'll make sure they're passed on to the relevant folks /RP" but I doubt it. I'm a paying member and I'm sick of this! I also feel helpless because there's no way to export my playlists onto another platform... I have a ton of playlists and many are very large (one has 4,000 songs). The idea of having to recreate them completely overwhelms me. I'm at a loss. What can we as consumers do??

Sep 11

Thanks for the comments. We'll make sure they're passed on to the relevant folks /RP

Sep 11

Thanks for the comments. We'll make sure they're passed on to the relevant folks /RP

[Viralpoet]

Well let see if we can get that twitter hashtag trending 🙂

#FixSpotifyShuffle

[Viralpoet]

.......And they just sent me back here.

Hey! We’ve recently made improvements to our shuffle algorithm. We’d love to hear your feedback at http://spoti.fi/1TeeWHS

[elibishop]

First off, marking this as "implemented" is pretty insulting, considering we all know it's not solved. This issue is the #1 complaint across Google results, Reddit, these forums, and really any place or thread involving Spotify. In fact, I ended up here from doing a Google search to see if this was fixed after reading a recent complaint (the #1 in the thread) on Reddit.

So it's still not actually fixed? Look, I get if you want to "weigh" one artist over another and play their songs more often. However, "shuffle" means one of every card before a repeat. As others have said, it doesn't mean "random." Spotify (in their blog post about it) needlessly over-complicates the situation AND the algorithm. They are defining and explaining a "random" order, not "shuffle." Again, it's the NUMBER ONE thing wrong with the service, listed on any thread or forum on the web. Please reconsider your logic and speak with your programmers / decision makers, as this seems like an incredibly easy fix that solves what everyone is complaining about. Again, I have NO issue with weighing an artist to be more at the "top" of the pile, but I do have an issue with hearing the same song over and over, and other songs not at all. My personal solution is to physically custom shuffle the playlists myself and turn OFF shuffle, thus fixing the problem, yet taking a lot of my personal time to fix an error with the Spotify service, that they have teams dedicated to working on.

Do what you will with the free customers, I get it. But I pay each month - I shouldn't have to create a tedious physical workaround for a known issue that is easily solved.

[cornelas90]

This is exactly how I feel. I have been a premium member for longer than a
year.

How can they perfectly predict songs I will like with Discover Weekly but
they can't implement a proper shuffle function. It seriously cannot be that
hard.

[cornelas90]

This is exactly how I feel. I have been a premium member for longer than a
year.

How can they perfectly predict songs I will like with Discover Weekly but
they can't implement a proper shuffle function. It seriously cannot be that
hard.

[127067621]

Shuffle still sucks and is terrible. It's becoming a real issue and I'm almost considering not using spotify anymore