[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.

[zx6dude]

"Spotify is rubbish, they don't care about their users... it's all about $$$$" - 100% this.

If you want a reasonable shuffle play, choose another provider. Spotify hasn't fixed this, and they won't fix it, they don't see it as a problem. They will only see it as a problem when thousands of subscriptions are cancelled and starts costing them more money then they are making with their "shuffle" play. 

They don't even have the courtesy of telling this "live" (very dead in my opinion) idea that they will not fix it.

6.8K votes and their last canned communication is from 2024 - that should tell anyone how much they care (or don't) about this.

[rozeboosje]

This is a common occurrence with companies that become too successful.

People like quick and easy access to the music they like. So pirates find
ways to share music online. Spotify comes along and they come up with an
idea that lets people stream music legally. People are happy. Spotify
becomes a huge success. Spotify makes lots of money by making people happy.

And then it goes horribly wrong. Suddenly there are other parties involved.
Record companies that demand to be kept happy. Shareholders that demand to
be kept happy. Other parties that become more important to Spotify than the
people that helped it become the success it was.

When that happens to a company, it forgets about the people it was
originally created for. When that happens to a company, it becomes evil.
When that happens to a company, it's time for that company to die.

[dank13]

Yup I've cancelled my Spotify Subscription 5 month ago, and went with apple music for this reason and the reason Spotify doesn't offer native support for apple HomePod speakers....

I know my $$$ is not worth anything to Spotify, as I'm a grain in the sand in between the 276 million out there.

But for me, I rather give my money to a company that cares a little bit more about their users. I'm not saying apple is the God of good companies, but at the moment for me was the ideal solution. I was paying Apple Music already because of HomePod support, so may as well just stop paying for Spotify, plus Apple Music offers easy transfer of playlists from other services...

Yes, there are a couple of things that Spotify is better than Apple, and I miss them, like recommended songs, DJ thing, but definitely not worth paying for it IMO.

[majogl]

It is mind boggling they still ignore this with hands over their ears going "LALALA". It's been an issue from the start and this is by far the most constant community request. Well my patience at least hath runneth out. Cancelled my subscription, moved to Youtube Music and I'm pretty happy with their shuffle. I encourage as many of you as possible to do the same and vote with your wallets.

[jesuslivesinme]

I posted my desire for this to change a little while ago, but I think I am going to keep this thread alive and hopefully, others of you will help. The more posts we can generate, the better the odds that something might get done. I love everything about Spotify EXCEPT for the HORRIBLE repeat problem. Maybe if we can generate some momentum, it will get Spotify's attention. I know recently they finally added lossless, and that has been requested for quite a while. Maybe if we can overwhelm them with complaints to tech support, posts here, and we take every opportunity to use any and all routes of communication to express our feelings about the situation. If we can band together a little, maybe get friends to also help - anybody that you know who uses Spotify, we can make a difference. 

If anyone is interested, we could all start looking for any and all communication points. Perhaps with everyone looking for an email address for someone in the Spotify leadership, we could all blast it with complaints about this issue. Let me know what you think. 

However, having said all that, I am getting really tired of waiting. I want a "plan B" in the likely event that nothing gets done. I want to find out if it is possible to export all of my playlists and import them into some other service. I have spent a great deal of time creating and curating a fair number of playlists, many of which are over 1000 songs each. I can't see starting from scratch on another service.

[rozeboosje]

" [is it] possible to export all of my playlists and import them into some other service [?]"

yes. Many of us did exactly that and are only here to keep watching this slow motion train wreck.

[dank13]

Yes it's totally possible, Apple Music has it built in, but if you are moving else where you can use services like FreeYourMusic, or song shift...

[Stardusted]

It wouldn’t even be hard to code in, I don’t get why they arnt doing this! Just make a program that chooses a random number out of however many are in the playlist, and play that song. They literally already have the playlists set up numbered! Spotify, you can keep your old shuffle if u want to (I’m sure some people like it), just put it with your other fancy shuffles. Shuffle, true shuffle, smart shuffle. It’s not that hard!! This one element really does show they don’t care for their user base anymore, instead they just want to use more ai to make it cheaper to run, and to make us spend more money with their odd audiobook system.

[rozeboosje]

"Just make a program that chooses a random number out of however many are in the playlist, and play that song."

That is one of the worst kinds of "shuffle" possible. It all but guarantees unwanted repeats.

What you're looking for is not a "shuffle". No dynamic shuffle will ever be able to behave the way people *think* a "random" shuffle would work. What you're looking for is not a "shuffle" but something like "randomize play list". It shuffles the play list like an enormous deck of cards, then persists the new order, so you can then play through the play list in the new order from top to bottom. When you finally do reach the bottom (in a play list with 1000s of songs that will take some time), you can randomize it again. Rinse and repeat.

That is what Spotify should have implemented 5 years ago.

[franciscoissaly]

That, with the addition of a memory of the last song played per playlist,
so you can resume from where you were on, when you come back to each
playlist