[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.

[Some_Psycho]

Lately Spotify’s shuffle has been repeating the same songs from my playlists instead of playing tracks evenly. It seems weighted toward favorites or recent plays, but I just want a true random shuffle option that plays everything equally. Please give users the ability to turn off algorithmic bias in shuffle.

[Tahuur]

I can’t believe this isn’t a standard option. The lack of a true shuffle mode is one of the most frustrating flaws in the Spotify experience, and it’s honestly pushing me to consider switching platforms.

Why call it “shuffle” if it doesn’t actually shuffle? I have very large playlists — over a thousand songs, including full albums — that I build specifically to enjoy days and days of continuous, non-repetitive listening and to immerse myself in a genre’s depth. Instead, Spotify keeps feeding me the same songs repeatedly, which completely breaks that experience.

This isn’t just frustrating for listeners — it’s also unfair to artists. Tracks that I’ve added and supported by including them in my playlists barely get played, while a small subset of others get repeated exposure (and monetization) by default.

Please fix this. A genuine, unbiased shuffle mode should be a basic feature, and it’s hard to understand why it hasn’t been implemented yet. This is a major weakness in an otherwise great platform.

[Cheeze__Man]

I understand that the algorithm detecting your recent listening history is convenient, and can be a great feature. However, when I'm listening for hours on the road to and from college, I don't want my queue to repeat after 30-40 songs and have to get on my phone and reshuffle, only to risk AGAIN hearing more of those same songs. I want it to be TRULY random, with the only exception being that it cannot repeat songs until going through every song in the playlist.

[14sirs]

Spotify shuffle is terrible. I will get the same group of songs play in the exact same order quite frequently. This isn't very shuffled. I know there's an algorithm, but there should also be an option to disable this algorithm and turn on TRULY RANDOM shuffle and playback. If I like a song and want to hear it, I would add it to the queue.

[Phaethon]

The fact they haven't fixed this yet is a clear indication that the company simply don't give a sh*t about the listening experience. Instead, they have become hopelessly lost in the algorithm, AI junkies  providing services no one asked for, but everyone is forced to use. Even the most basic, built in music apps can properly shuffle songs, making sure no song repeats until the whole list is through. It's not complex - they just refuse. 

It's a sinking ship, and I look forward to the absolute sh*t-show that their demise will become.

Good riddance. 

[rachel83186]

My liked songs are my liked songs. When I play my liked songs, I want it to shuffle the entire list instead of creating an algorithm that forces it to only play 100 of my 1500 songs over and over again. If I want to listen to certain songs or genres then I will tell it to do that but when I want to listen to my 1500 liked songs then let me do that. I hear the same liked songs over and over and over again as if I have them on repeat.

[Vatroslav]

Since I've been battling with this issue for quite a while now, I’ve created my own solution: a free Windows desktop tool called Spotify Auto-Skipper.

It automatically skips songs on Spotify that you’ve recently listened to (scrobbled) on Last.fm, giving you a true shuffle experience without repeats or algorithmic grouping.

It runs quietly in the background from the system tray, requires minimal setup, and works great for anyone frustrated with Spotify’s current shuffle logic.

You can check it out here: https://github . com/Vatroslav/spotify-auto-skipper 
There’s already a ready-to-use .exe build for Windows here: https://github . com/Vatroslav/spotify-auto-skipper/releases/tag/v1.0.0

Download SpotifyAutoSkipper.exe and config.ini, and set up your data in the config.ini (instructions inside).

I don’t have a Mac build since I don’t use macOS, but the Python source code is available if anyone wants to adapt it.

[rednblu]

          >>  It automatically skips songs on Spotify that you’ve recently listened to . . . . 

Bingo-- That is the logic of the solution that keeps my six family accounts on Spotify!

Spotify is worth it-- as long as I never hear from shuffle any track that I have already played in the last 90 days.

Brilliant!  I say, @Vatroslav!

[edshern]

One question; WHY?

Why not talk to us. Communicate. Share! WHY?

[dank13]

Money, that's why... I've listened to an interview with a high up on Spotify, here are the reason:


1. Record labels pay Spotify to promote certain artists, they get priority plays.
2. Artists only receive a payout after a certain threshold, so low play count artists also get priority
3. Some artist sell their songs to Spotify, which means they don't have to pay per play... that also gets priority
4. Spotify also creates lots of ai music 0 royalties... so guess what? They get priority too...

On top of that, shuffle on big playlists only get the first 75 songs and shuffle them, then it adds another song from your entire list including the first 75 songs...  at the end of the list after a song plays...

So there you have it... Spotify is rubbish, they don't care about their users... it's all about $$$$