[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.

[iprotsyuk]

The non-randomness of shuffle playing is pretty annoying when I listen to editorial playlists. Spotify seems to always play most popular songs first, so each shuffle play starts with same songs over and over again (maybe in a different order). My expectation is that I'll gradually listen to most of a playlist if I shuffle-play it multiple times for extended periods of time. In reality, Spotify mostly plays same songs every time, so I have to manually skip them till I hear something I haven't listened to previously 😞

[Frostman233]

I just got done driving two trips which were 15 hours of straight driving, each. I had Spotify random on a playlist of roughly 2,500 songs and 150 hours the duration of both drives... I probably had the same group of 10 artists play on BOTH drives. It is kinda crazy, I can be out of my car for 5 days and then hop back in and Spotify will play almost the exact same "random" songs as it played on the 15 hour drive 5 days prior. If I were in a profession where I was on the road all the time, I would most certainly seek an alternative to Spotify. I had to, at times, change the song 10-15 times to hear a song I had not already heard. This can't be that hard of a problem to solve...

[ScoobyKitesurf]

The problem is that Spotify don't see this a a  "problem to fix", there will have been weeks of design and coding to make shuffle anything but random. As posted earlier in the thread, it's about 20 to 30 lines of code to make truly random, non repeating shuffle. I've written a few in my time it's easy. My guess is that songs with the lowest royalties or paid promotion are put at the top of the shuffle list, as ever follow the money.

[crazichik_93]

PLLLLLEEASSSSE HUURRRRYY UPP and fix the shuffle! I have a playlist with over 400 songs yet I'll manage to hear several songs repeated throughout the day. It's like listening to free to air radio! 😠

[PrestonSale]

Do we know if this is a problem in other streaming services like Apple
iTunes, Pandora, etc...? I'm ready to change providers over this matter.
For me, the biggest issue is a Streisand massive catalog of music I like to
hear smatterings of the little-known songs over the course of her seven
straight decades as a Top Billboard 200 player. I'm tired of hearing the
same ole same ole every time I want to put Babs on random play using the
playlist I have with nearly 500 songs and differing versions of songs. I
take it they are really not interested in this matter considering the
various comments I'm seeing about it. That is good enough reason to go
elsewhere!

[PrestonSale]

This is my issue posted by another listener here:  "...I wouldn't mind if ONE TIME artists got bundled together in a playthrough - my main complaint is that on the 60th playthrough of my likes on my commute 25%-50% of tracks never EVER get played and will never get played." I'm seeing no personal responses by Spotify here amid these comments and so I plan to make an attempt to send a letter SOMEWHERE and grandstand SOMEHOW in one attempt. After that, I am leaving Spotify. Life is too short. Even if other services don't offer a True shuffle, I don't like the lack of personal support to an issue that I am SURE AND CERTAIN isn't peculiar to just the 700 people who have expressed some questioning on this matter. It is a personal affront at some point. I won't pay for a personal affront like being completely ignored though. 

[sabertaylor]

Please fix.

[coleseagroves]

Just add a toggle in preferences to do a blind shuffle. No algorithms, no personal preferences. It's that easy.

[superheart-4]

I think it would be a good idea if people had a choice. I think that in spotify settings, there should be an option to turn blind shuffle on or off, so you have a choice if you want your most played songs played first or not.

[CaribbeanCarlos]

I switched to YouTube Music for this exact reason. It felt that I heard, at most, 100 songs from my 700+ playlist.  I left Spotify and won't consider going back till the fix feature.