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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 2021-09-14

Hey everyone,

 

Thanks for your votes and for bringing us your feedback in the Spotify Idea Exchange.

 

As this idea has gathered a fair amount of votes, we've discussed it with the relevant team once again. We actually want to take a closer look at what you're experiencing and get some of you in touch with our devs.

 

@jonathanleyerle- since you initiated the thread it would be great if we can have you on board.

@j4m1eb, @PrestonSale@decker12@jules99- what you mention is particularly interesting, so we'd like to have you on board as well.

 

We'll send you more info via Community PM, so please make sure they're enabled in your Community settings.

 

If anyone else is interested in participating, please let us know in this thread. We'll reach out to you, should we need more folks.

 

Thanks!

Comments
Polserjoe

Spotify is like a cancer that just keeps getting worse. Literally, thousands of users complaining about a single issue that used to not exist and now they won't even give an update for this topic that would take hours to solve. Unfortunately, they don't seem to care because they know it would be difficult to switch to a different service.

JennNicole96

I agree with this 1000% 

My work playlist had around 650 songs and I’d hit shuffle and it would still play them in the exact same order everyyyyy day. Quite annoying 

rozeboosje

"they know it would be difficult to switch to a different service"

I'm happy to report that it isn't. Scroll back up and see how some of us have done exactly that.

CloudCastle

What's the progress on this? Getting really annoyed by hearing the same few songs over and over again from a playlist that is 34 hours long.... 

Marshall3911

I think there won't be any "progress" on this , problem is it is not much better for other services , except Amazon it seems....

rozeboosje

Amazon isn't perfect either (see my previous comments) but their issues are ones I can live with. This Spotify issue, on the other hand, is totally unacceptable. And that's why my money is going to Amazon now. Having said that, if Spotify actually fix this I might move back.

jc7721

Switching to another service isn't impossible of course, but they know there are factors that'll keep a lot of people kinda stuck. For me the really big factor is being able to add my own offline music. Then I also have a family plan so I'd have to make sure a family plan elsewhere wouldn't be a big difference in price and make sure the rest are ok with switching. The offline music is all that's kept us from Tidal. I'll have to look in to Amazon. 

Seffial

I have a very large library, I explore music as a hobby, and run an online music exchange/rating type server on discord, so I'm always adding more. I certainly dont have the time to listen to all of it all time, and I much prefer the randomness of shuffling anyway, so that's what I do. But I hear the same songs within just a couple of hours of each other, even as close as 20 minutes, and I get a smattering of my most popular artists and those I've recently added. And while I very much want to hear these songs still, I want to hear those I didn't just hear too. The algorithm is self feeding its selections by choosing the same songs it decides to choose in those moments of actual randomness in the algorithm. I can't imagine why a shuffle wouldn't be a true shuffle and the people asking for something different shouldnt be the ones having to beg for a different additional option. I have over 14,000 songs, I dont want to hear the same things within a day, let alone 6 hours. Come on already.

If fixing the shuffle isn't within your capabilities, then at least give us a sort option for both last time played and total play count so I can play the most overlooked songs from the algorithm. 

t3chfre4k

Sounds like it's time to file for a class action lawsuit against spotify to make this thing get any attention. Or does anyone have a good idea how to get spotify to stop ignoring this. Maybe some elaborate coupe to get it viral outside of this forum which spotify gladly sees us stuck in under their control. Hey, anonymous! We need your help here with a really serious matter to humanity! Free us from spotifys' tyrant shuffle!

t3chfre4k

@jonathanleyerle

Have you heard anything? Since spotify wanted your input, how did it go?