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.

[BenRees21]

Please make it more random....

[TR33]

Whenever I shuffle an artist Id like to hear a little of everything. If I pick something off of an old album it's not like I don't expect that there's a chance that something new or a live song could possibly play next. My problem with the algorithm is that if pick any song, old or new, it plays nothing but live or new songs. For example, I played jimmy eat world recently and I played something off of an old album with shuffle enabled. The next song was off of their newest album and so were the next 7. After three new songs I opted to just press "shuffle songs" on the artists main page to try and mix it up again. All that did was play more from the newest album. I noticed that the algorithm basically strictly promotes the artists latest content. I like LCD sound systems entire catalog of albums so you'd think having shuffle on wouldn't be a problem. Well I was wrong since their latest releases were live recordings so as soon as I hear one studio recorded song literally the rest are off the live albums. I can press next as many times as I want but it's all live. Same thing with Led Zepelin. Please fix this because it makes my driving experience terrible. 

[mosch]

 same here... can you make some real randomness happen... I have 1000 songs in my playlist and I want them have treaten equially... 

[LordGolder]

If Spotify are receiving even half as many emails about comments on this group, then it's a wonder they haven't been annoyed into fixing this.

It's CLEARLY still an issue seeing as so many people are going out of their way to comment about it.

Maybe just make it so every song that is played was added to the playlist on a different day than the previous one. 

[eblues]

I have not yet found a suitable replacement for Spotify. Not that many services allow for making playlists. Google Play would be the next best alternative, however, they currently limit playlist size to 1000 tracks, which is a deal breaker for me.

Getting back to Spotify, it sounds like there are several issues with their shuffle. However, I have stumbled onto something that seems to be helping in my particular case.  I do almost all of my listening in my car via bluetooth through my phone. When I start the car, it automatically syncs to the phone..If I was listening via bluetooth when I last shut the car off (which is usually the case), then it also automatically launches spotify. This happens even if I have manaully closed the Spotify app on my cell phone. Yes, that's right, even if the Spotify app is closed, when my car syncs to my phone Spotify resumes playing where it left off.

For the past week or so, I've been starting up Spotify manaully on my phone BEFORE I start the car, rather than letting it launch automatically when the car and phone sync.So far, it seems like I am getting a much more varied selection from my 3,000+ song playlist when I start things up this.way. It will take more time to evaluate this process and see if it's just been coincidence, or if it really makes a difference. I'll report back in a couple weeks.

[SeanT]

I've had spotify shuffle play the same song twice, it's basically a "pick random" rather than a "shuffle", and even then its picking isn't great as it always seem to be a certain few song that it picks from rather than the whole list.

[LeoJLeBrut]

I am going to be promoting activity aimed at this email address:     android-support@spotify.com

This email address came from the app download (in the "More" section). As they don't seem to be paying attention to this forum (helloooooo?) or the tweets being sent, maybe a campaign via email will work.

[truxaln]

Nothing has changed, i can still shuffle and listen to the same "playlist" if you will, and it will repeat. I have a bunch of music in my library and i can only listen to make 1/16th of it if i use the shuffle function.

[jgarrity12]

This is not a new technical problem post, see here or here or other countless threads that have already been posted on this site. I've put up with this issue over the past couple years since 2014 hoping eventually for Spotify to roll out an update to fix this. 

I see now that this will most likely go unchanged from here on out. My only reasoning for this going "unnoticed" is for financial motives. It costs less for Spotify to keep playing the same songs, even when I the user, hit shuffle all multiple times across seperate sessions of listening. This astonishes me that to this day as a premium user, I hear the same 30-50 songs/artists over and over when I have a huge library to select from. 

Coming to this realization, I can only conclude to one thing, unsubscribing. If this issue can't be resolved, the only way to raise issue to this is by hitting their pocket. I will soon stop my premium coverage in an attempt, maybe with others to heighten the need for an actual shuffle all button across all platforms (windows, android, etc). Spotify is an amazing application with 1 major flaw at its core that going unfixed ceases my interest in paying money to use it. 

Sincerely,

Jordan

[TheLithuanian]

Spotify, please fix your shuffle function.

I have noticed that especially in the latest Android version I can't shuffle a playlist without tracks repeating themselves several times. It makes it impossible to listen to a playlist without manning the device constantly. This is a crippling bug.

It had previously functioned much better. A playlist would play through and then stop after completing all songs once, unless the repeat function was on. This concept has been around since the good old Discman.

I know others have posted similar concerns for years but seem to be ignored. Please fix this immediately.

Cheers.