[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.

[rozeboosje]

Whoa you actually managed to escape this basket case and you CAME BACK? What in the names of Gehenna and Hades is ailing you my dear fellow?

[DrKriegerAUS]

Lol.  I was curious to try the generative stuff. It was great at first, but as per the last post just gets narrower and narrower as time goes on and Spotify tries its best to shove you in a bucket. 

[rozeboosje]

Yup. The kindest explanation for the insanity I can think of is that they're a victim of their success being the first serious legal streaming platform and now they're being held over a barrel by the likes of contractual obligations that later arrivals such as Amazon Music managed to avoid.

Either that, or Daniel Ek is as stupid as he is stubborn thinking that he knows his listeners better than they know themselves and he can tell them what they like.

[armedzerox]

Please someone make a reddit post for us to launch a coordinated unsubscribe attack on Spotify. Same day same time all across the globe. Show Spotify we're united. Probably That'll teach them a lesson.

[Ivr]

I don't think it's nefarious contractual obligations. I don't see the shuffle preferring big labels over obscure self-published artists.

I think it's engineers trying to protect the performance of the app. The larger the list it needs to shuffle the more things slow down and then they'll be the ones who take the blame for it. Much easier to quietly narrow down the real playlist into a shortlist and gaslight their users about what's truly shuffling. In smaller playlists this is less noticeable but the music nerds who have 2,000 songs in their playlist, curate it daily and listen to it every day will notice it when they haven't heard a couple of their favourite songs of theirs for literally years. That's beyond implausible.

Another test I like to do is to rapidly skip through my large playlists, and indeed at around 80 songs (estimate, not going to count my frantic skipping) things get 'stuck' and it takes a while for the next song to start playing. Or the last song keeps playing even though the player displays the new song already and things process until the last song has fully finished. Really weird stuff happens when you push the app to its limits. 

However, after that, after the 80 songs (like 5 hours worth of listening) do indeed become more diverse. As if you break the bias the shuffle starts with and you force it to play whatever it hasn't preselected. Spotify probably figured that most people don't listen more than 5 hours to a single playlist and thus that's the range it has to shuffle. Again, and again.

Spotify isn't transparent about this. Probably because they don't awake any sleeping dogs. But the moment the other streaming platforms start profiling their shuffle, there could indeed be an exodus.  

If it's truly a performance issue, then there creative ways engineers can still reclaim at least the sense that the shuffle is fair. For instance by clearing the "shortlist" and generating a new one every week (though ideally this is done daily) during the quiet hours.  

I'd even settle for a 'scramble' button on a playlist to do this manually and get a fresh shortlist, even if that means having to wait a couple of minutes before I can use the playlist again.

But of course, that would require Spotify to admit they're pulling shenanigans with the current shuffle. And I don't see them doing that until their competitors force them to.

[rozeboosje]

"I'd even settle for a 'scramble' button on a playlist to do this manually and get a fresh shortlist, even if that means having to wait a couple of minutes before I can use the playlist again."

Firstly.... seriously folks, this is *exactly* what Amazon Music gives you with its option to "randomise playlist"

Also "couple of minutes"? Nah. On my playlist with over 1,000 songs in it, "randomise playlist" takes a fraction of a second.

There is no technical excuse for not providing this functionality. The reason must be something else.

[Ivr]

I would love a 'randomize playlist order'. Spotify already offers different ways to sort a playlist. Adding a random function would be an elegant way to placate us 'shuffleheads' without admitting that they're tampering with the shuffle AND without creating performance issues to anyone who doesn't notice.

[rozeboosje]

"I would love a 'randomize playlist order'"

... and you can have that. Today. Just not with Spotify, it seems.

You don't owe Spotify any loyalty. Considering their refusal to do anything about this I would say that Spotify do not deserve your loyalty.

[kangafeet]

It amazes me that nearly 4 years later this still hasn't been resolved. I have playlists with 300+ songs and yet within a hour or so I'm hearing repeats of songs. 

A simple solution would be to create a queue within the playlist. 

[Leo129]

Oh my my… I can’t think they mark “Real Shuffle” is a new feature. It’s just Shuffle. What happened to Spotify product?!

I think I’m done with sending other feedbacks since we’re not on the same mindset.