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.

[Allisong]

I have playlists with a mix of music styles. For the last few weeks, when i play them on Random Shuffle, the pieces of the same style are played in a clump and then the pieces of another style. I made a new playlist that put pieces in an alternating sequence and played it without Shuffle, but it became predictable and spoiled the limited surprise factor and serendipitous juxtapositions I enjoyed before. Is it possible to make the clumping feature optional?

[rednblu]

                             Limited time offer

chrisshakes,
tbryancooper,
other adventurers and Spotify's best customers, (I laugh-- Is this how they treat us-- their Best?)

I so much admire everybody's persistence that this problem should be fixed-- and everybody here has given me so many inventive ideas that I have found useful in making Spotify work acceptably for me!-- in gratitude, I offer the following PersonalizedShufflingService.

* Make your playlist a "Collaborative playlist" and give me permission to edit-- if you want your playlist shuffled so that every track plays before there is any repeat.

* When you play the TrulyShuffledPlaylist that I give back to you, please make sure that you turn that fakeSpotifyShuffle "OFF"-- otherwise, as designed, the payolaModule-- or whateverIncompetenceItActuallyIs-- will introduce the repeats that you hate.

* Keep backups of your playlist 1) before and 2) after I shuffle it, ok?

* Occasionally, in your desktop app, please delete from the top of your ShuffledPlaylist, starting just above the track that is playing to the very top from your shuffled playlist-- so that if you restart, you can just say "Play" from the top remaining track without repeating what you have already played. This deletionOfWhatYouHaveAlreadyPlayed technique also works admirably on the playlist that you want to play on your mobile-- just do the deletion using your desktop app-- for convenience.

* Post a shuffle request here on this forum, addressed to me please, giving me the name of your "Collaborative" playlist that you want shuffled-- You see, all of us here will establish a documented record of how incompetent and stubborn Spotify is at what we pay them to give us!-- the solution is clearly simple-- as the many excellent systemDesigners on this "Implemented"-- Did you notice?-- complaint forum have demonstrated for me over and over.

* I will shuffle the playlist that you requested-- first come first serve-- in about a week or so, depending on crowding events in the similarly insane campaign for US President-- Can you believe the endOfCivilization as we watch it?

* You can tell when I have shuffled your playlist by scrolling all the way to the right in the playlistDisplay and looking at the "User" column which will be filled with many Rednblus after I have shuffled the playlist that you made "collaborative".

* In case the Spotify juvenile delinquents break-in with their typical religious zeal and vandalize each and every Solution that all of us have made for each other here, we will just have to [ . . . multiply censored . . . ] (I laugh-- because it is like

[elMindo]

Spotify states (on Feb 5, 2016) to have improvements their shuffle algorithm.

But I still experience the same problems as this post and its comments, all the way back from 2012. I feel like Shuffle plays your songs in the exact same order every time. Shuffle needs to reset its play order so it plays songs in playlists randomly vs. the same order every time.

Every time I start the app, the same music I played yesterday will play today and tomorrow almost in the same order. I have hundreds of songs and I keep on hearing only a few of them, I have to keep changing songs manually if I want to hear something different.

Can someone help me randomize the songs playing, automatically?

[rudf0rd]

Still not working well at all.  558 song playlist with 40+ albums and it only plays 4 of the albums in repetition.  Please, please fix this.

Sad solution:  sort by name and play.  :((

[deckyflynn]

I have to join in with the reast of this thread, I experience the rough same set of songs on continual rolling shuffle on Android, which is very frustrating. The desktop player is actually far better at giving a truly random experience, but for my offline playlists of 1000+ songs, to not have a truly effective random feature is very frustrating.

[santiagoraffo]

I have a HUGE problem...since a few month, the random started playing only songs from artists that are nearly listed. As an example, if I play a song from Amy Winehouse...the list of following songs will include all songs from artists that start with letter "A". Incredibily....

[lov3mypony]

My songs get shuffled... sort of. It seems that the same 50 or so songs always play first (in random order) and there are some songs on my list that never get played.

[PEROSN715]

While there are a few songs that always seem to want to play no matter how I begin a shuffled playlist, my issue is that after about 40-50 songs it goes back to the very first song played in that session and replays the exact same 40-50 songs in the exact same order. This is on a playlist of 1800+ songs as well.

[rednblu]

Bravo and [virtual] Kudos, @PEROSN715-- [virtual] since Spotify strictly forbids any Kudos to anything that we say on a "Solved" thread-- Is it "Solved"?

Falsifiable hypothesis:  In every Spotify "Shuffle", the repeats will start after fifty tracks have played-- even for a 9,000 track playlist!

[Barttos]

Hi there,

I have to admit I haven't read 70 pages of comments so see if this is already mentioned, however:

I have the "feeling" that when I use the Shuffle function, more popular songs are more likely to be played than less popular and/or less well know songs (this in specific case when I shuffle all songs from an artist). I think I hear them more often. 

Is this true? Is it incorporated in the shuffle algorithm that more popular songs are more likely to be played early on in the shuffled playlist? 

If so, I would very much like it to be either turned off or have an option to turn it off. I would like to experience other songs by an artist as well. If I want to listen to the top songs, I'll just play the top 10.

Or are popular songs more often available multiple times on an artists page due to compilation albums etc? If so, could they be filtered out such that each song title is only selected once for a shuffled playlist?

Thank you for your reply