[All Platforms] Option to have a true shuffle

[jonathanleyerle]

So I’ve been noticing more and more recently that Spotify’s default shuffle feature doesn’t fully shuffle your songs. It does some sort of grouping to try to get similar songs together based off of what I’m sure is dozens of factors. Every time I shuffle a playlist (the one I noticed this with the most is ~100 songs and 6 hours of mostly full albums) it will group the songs mostly or completely together by album/artist, and given the number of times I’ve re-shuffled and checked the order there’s no way it’s just a coincidence. They also generally seem to be in the same order as well. If I hit shuffle play on a playlist it’ll generally put the same artists at the beginning every time.

With larger playlists of albums I am really not a fan of this shuffling method. If I have 6 hours of music on a playlist I will hardly ever have 6 hours to actually listen through the whole thing, but when I do listen to it I would like to hear all of the music on it equally, and not just the artist or two your algorithm likes to shuffle to first.

Anyways, I’m a reasonable man, all I’m asking for is an option to have a true shuffle (take all songs in the list, put them in a random order, and once they’re all played reshuffle them and play them again). Make it premium only if you want. I don’t think you should scrap the current shuffle algorithm because it sucks. Looking at some of the suggestions on here it seems like some people lobbied hard to have it that way. Just add an option for a true shuffle for those of us that don’t care about potentially getting the same song twice in a row.

[kangafeet]

Same here. Looks like tidal has a transfer button. 30 day trial so not much to lose I suppose.
I can get rid of the playlists that Spotify adds thinking I want them too then.
It works me nice to have control back.

[rozeboosje]

Yes it's too long ago to remember exactly how I did it. There are tools out there that let you do it, up to a certain size for free, and beyond that for a small price well worth paying in my opinion.

[Someone209]

"...It is my belief that Spotify decided if they play songs you like over again, (based on the fact that you listened to them recently), then you will be happier and listen to S. more often. OVER THINKING IT!! I am an inch away from Apple Music!"
That would be stupid. It might work on the casual listeners, but those who really use the platform for their acoustic needs will be left disappointed.
I don't care if true random can cause 5 AC/DC songs to play after each other. They're in that list for a reason!
I like those songs and I want to be able to hear all of them with equal probability.

[lantauguitarlessons]

I have a playlist of music from all over the world, and it's over 25 hours long.  I enjoy running down memory lane and sharing the playlist with roadtripping friends, but, and it is a very BIG **bleep**.  the playlist never actually is random.  i know your algo does its best to not play the same artist over and over, but i'm having the issue where it plays the same songs over and over.  In a playlist of over 700 songs there should be a 1 in a million chance I will hear "Ni tu Ni Yo by Jlo" every drive, but somehow I do. 

I know you have a smart shuffle feature, but I'd love to see a 'full random' feature.  I don't care about hearing the same artist close together, cause i have literally hundreds, but I do care about hearing the same 20-30 songs each time I pull up the playlist.  The first song is 'sweet melissa' by the allman brothers band, and every car ride I hear it, but almost never any of the music I added from Europe or Asia.

WHY SPOTIFY WHY.  WHAT ARE YOU DOING.  I took statistics in college, I know a stacked deck when I see one 😜

[bestknighter]

I had the same experience happen to me before. My workaround was to toggle shuffle off, skip one song and then toggling shuffle on again. I don't know if it'll work well in your case, but for me it was enough.

[KfeerBlau]

turn off automix and it should be better

[BerkshireGregory]

Okay, well, do you like it when Spotify almost never plays your Judas Priest or Def Leppard songs because it is stuck on those AC/DC songs?

I have lots of songs on a playlist because I happen to like variety!

[jesuslivesinme]

I agree. I have a large main playlist (2001 songs, 137 hours) and I experience far too many repeats for the shuffle to be truly random. It seems to me that the algorithm tries to weigh songs by tracking things like how many times I skip a song or select it manually to play. Maybe if the song is on the Liked playlist it will get played more, etc. I would really like a shuffle option that is purely random, otherwise there will be songs from my list that I may not hear for a very long time.

Along these lines, I think it would also be helpful to have a button for "shuffle now".

I would also like to take this opportunity to beg you to put back the "Liked song" heart icon next to songs in the Liked playlist. It was incredibly helpful to be able to see at a glance if a song from other playlists is in the Liked list.

[oddindeed]

According to an official NASA webpage, the next total eclipse will occur August 12, 2026. Do you guys think they will fix this issue by then or nha?

[Mookpsu]

Zero chance. You will own a house on Pluto before this gets changed. Fix is
the wrong word because it implies it's something technical causing the lack
of a true random shuffle. My five disc CD player from 1993 could play every
song without any repeats when put in shuffle mode, same with my mid 2000's
MP3 player. What does that tell you???