[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.

[-l9j28_xbe53o]

it makes absolutely no sense why this isn't a thing yet. you are going to end up losing costumers. spotify is malfunctional. just do this simple update and let's move on.

[Mookpsu]

They don't care because for every customer they lose they gain 100 more.
Until their current model is no longer profitable nothing is going to
change. If you want a true shuffle give your hard earned money to another
provider like many of us have

[BeechCedar727]

I just canceled our Family Plan yesterday, effective as of the end of the month. That's 4 lost customers. We switched to A.M.

[zx6dude]

It is funny how many times you read on this forum "if it isn't resolved soon" or "I'm considering moving to another provider". 

It hasn't been resolved in over 4 years, and you have this "dead" idea with thousands of votes and loads of comments.

I'm not sure what makes anyone think that Spotify is going to fix it soon, all indications are they won't fix it at all - if they even think it's a problem! 

If shuffle and customer service are important to you, there are plenty other choices out there. 

I, for one, am very happy I'm not paying Spotify for a subpar service. 

[eblues]

Please enable a true randomized shuffle already....  how hard can it be?

[Acores108]

As a frequent Spotify user, I would like to share my thoughts on something I find frustrating: the shuffle (random) mode.

It doesn’t feel truly random at all. Even in a large playlist with hundreds or even thousands of tracks, the same songs keep playing repeatedly. I can almost predict the next song, even in a playlist with over 1,000 tracks.

This isn’t just my experience—many of my friends who also use Spotify regularly feel the same way.

[Mookpsu]

Welcome to our group, it's where dreams come to die. We've been asking for
a true shuffle for the last four years and it's obviously never going to
happen. If you want a true random shuffled playlist (like the one I'm
listening to right now), you're going to have to change to a new provider,
like many of us have. I'm back with Amazon Music and have zero regrets.
Best of luck to you and I highly recommend you spend your time researching
other providers because Spotify is never going to give you the one simple
logical feature you want and deserve.

[m2nis]

Let's try to thing a little. 😅 Why doesn't Spotify implement a so easy to do true shuffle mode ?

Despite a bit of research, it's not easy to find out what the rules are for paying rightsholders.

Let's take a guess. In order to avoid looped playback of certain songs or artists by a robot, there must be rules allowing only a few plays of the same track by the same user to be remunerated. This is a potentially reasonable rule to avoid abuse by rights holders.

But it's also possible that this rule is being abused by Spotify to save money. Imagine. If they make us listen to the same songs again and again, these are no longer remunerated, as they fall within the rules of abuse protection. Spotify therefore probably has a direct financial interest in not introducing a random mode. And some others like Apple Music too.

So why is AM giving a true shuffle mode ? My money's on dumping...

Based on this point of view, assuming it's correct, we won't have anything for a long time. Some will leave, some will stay, each with a reasonable good reason.

[zx6dude]

There are only two logical reasons for Spotify not to implement this idea: it's making them money or saving them money. Meaning that they will never implement the feature. 

Spotify is not even gracious enough to admit it, and they do not engage with their customers in a meaningful way. 

I'm sure people have their reasons to remain with Spotify, but with so many other providers out there, you don't have to stay with them.

[Rhakete]

Dear diary,

It has been 1801 days but the great and powerful Spotify is still completely incapable of properly implementing the Shuffle function, one of the most basic features of any medium that plays music.

I wonder sometimes...is it really incompetence? Or are they maybe just a little lazy? We do pay them so you'd think things would improve instead of getting worse but I think they know the position they're in and that they can afford their app to be that bad. 

I suppose we'll never get shuffle on Spotify, I wonder if one of those other streaming services can do it...