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.

[pbrownpb18]

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/All-Platforms-Shuffle-play-does-not-work-properly/...

[fcking_MOSH]

So it would seem that nobody at Spotify gives a flying f*ck how we feel about this. I'll just leave this here.

Microsoft's music platform, Groove Music, has a real shuffle. A shuffle that works. It plays every song in a random order, then starts again. No repeating songs.

$10 a month. Just sayin.

[paulitaramayoni]

hi, i have my playlist , i didn;t put shuffle play , but how come  if i have my playlist , i wanna hear it in order , again did not put shffle mode and its annoyed can't follow my songs in order , i really don't like it, i payed al=ready so i don't know what to do !

[pbrownpb18]

People. Post in the other thread, in the New Ideas section. Maybe we can catch their attention. 

Especially the one by fcking_MOSH.

Link to it here (I hope):

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/All-Platforms-Shuffle-play-does-not-work-properly/...

[pbrownpb18]

Sorry. It appears that a moderator has merged my new thread with this old one.

Are you listening Spotify? There have been several threatening to go elsewhere for their music streaming...

[fcking_MOSH]

Plus Groove music happens to have a Swallow The Sun album that you guys don't have available so...your move, Spotify. Better impress me soon, because I'm beginning to copy my playlists over to Groove, and I'm telling you I'm not the only one.

[CasualJustice]

Almost all of my playlists have over 100 songs and my favorite playlist have over 300 songs and the shuffle doesn't even get them all so please fix it and make it shuffle ALL of the songs when I press shuffle not just the same ones 

[sfinger100]

I actually wrote to Spotify support asking them to comment about this thread a few days ago and no response. 

Every day I ride roundtrip to work for 40 minutes and will minimally hear at least 3 songs I heard the day before from a playlist that has over 1000 songs. Sometimes I'll hear the same song going to work and coming home.

As a paying user and writing to them directly and they don't have the courtesy to respond, I am going to look at the alternatives. It's too frustrating to deal with a company that doesn't care.

[drewtangclan]

I understand that there've been issues with Spotify's shuffle in the past, and that they claim they shifted their algorithm because "people don't want *actual* random shuffling," but when you shuffle a playlist, you shouldn't hear some songs multiple times before hearing other songs in the playlist at all. I can't imagine why anyone would prefer it as such. Please fix this!

[NctrnlBst]

The issue I've experienced is that shuffle tends to favor newer songs over older or more obscure works by an artist. I was recently listening to the Hans Zimmer channel and everything that played was works he did for Christopher Nolan films. I had to skip several times before getting a song from his pre-Nolan catalog.