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[All Platforms] Option to have a true shuffle

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.

Updated on 2024-05-01

Hello everyone, 

 

Thank you for your continued engagement and valuable feedback on this idea. 

 

I'm afraid there hasn't been any change on the status of this idea since our last update. However, we've been reading all your comments and feedback which have been incredibly insightful. 

 

We’ll keep you folks posted as soon as we have any new info to share.

Comments
Twstanley72
I must not know how to use i then. My ios is up to date. When i had a free
3 month subscription to apple music i tried using it and it didnt have any
music i searched. Right now i can only use radio stations. But in library
its says “music purchased from itunes or added from your pc will apear
here” and theres nothing there. So i find apple music to be useless to me.
With spotify i have every song i ever wanted to hear.
Theboks

The algorithm sucks  hours of music in one playlist and spotify plays the same 5 songs over and over again. I imagine it's only so that spotify doesn't  have to cut a cheques to most of the artists.  Why would you need to have a "smart" shuffle on a playlist that you have already hand picked songs yourself. Just play the songs randomly for ef sakes

LadyPenelopeC

I cannot understand why Spotify is dragging the chain on this and persisting with unwanted personalisation of our playlists and song radios. It might make sense in the boardroom but I’m afraid it’s turning your users towards other music platforms that recognise music listening on Spotify is not like scrolling reels on Tik Tok - we want new, fresh and unheard music! Not repetition and algorithmically driven loops of the same old same old. Less personalisation will equal more listening!

disc_count

I think you do understand though. you said it yourself that "it might make sense in the boardroom" and they've shown many times over that that's all they care about. majority of users probably do not even notice this and if they do, they just deal with it. despite how massive this thread is, pretty sure we're a very small slice of the total users, and so it remains unaddressed

BeechCedar727

I initially thought this was a "me" problem, but I'm at least glad to see I'm not alone. This is so annoying. Could you at least have two options - like "Shuffle - Algorithm That Sucks" and "Shuffle - What You Think It Means". I can't imagine it's easier to do the former than the latter. It's a big enough problem that I may just cancel Premium Family and go elsewhere.

Mookpsu
BeechCedar727, this forum started in Jan 2020 with 157 pages worth of
complaints so they obviously ain't fixing it. Cancel your membership today
and give your hard earned money to a company that gives a s**t about its
customers!
rozeboosje

There is a serious problem with all these kinds of algorithms. The way they work boils down to "you spent time watching/reading/listening to THIS so this must mean you like THIS so we will keep showing you THIS or at best things that are a lot like THIS"

 

I guess it must be a model that works with most consumers so there is no incentive to change it. It's a nightmare to people like us. People who like see/hear/read THAT after THIS, not MORE OF THIS. People who like a bit of variety in their lives. There should be a "surprise me" setting for things like playlists, timelines, whatever.

 

 

BeechCedar727

@mookpsu - thanks for the candor. What do you recommend?

Mookpsu
BeechCedar727 I'm back to Amazon Music. I started with them and only
switched because their app doesn't always play nice with my Chromecast. I
can live with that to have a true shuffle
zx6dude

BeechCedar727 most providers have a trial, I tried Amazon Music and Apple Music. Unfortunately, where I live Tidal and YouTube Music aren't available, but from what I can see they have trials. 

I suggest you try them all and see what works best for you. 

I ended up with Apple Music as Amazon Music has a few things that annoy me. 

I think that Spotify has a better interface than either of them, and does proper handover between devices, which neither Amazon or Apple do. 

I'm happy to live with Apple Music's limitations to have shuffle.

I'm also happy that I'm not giving Spotify my money.