[All Platforms] Shuffle algorithm that favours "unpopular" songs

[fraktalisman]

As a paying Spotify premium customer, I need a shuffle algorithm different from the current, non-random shuffle that seems to favor "popular" songs, as has been pointed out by other customers who experimented with what is actually happening (see links to other posts below).

Currently there are only two possible ways to listen to music in playlists, either in the listed order, or shuffled by an algorithm that makes listeners miss out on about 20% to 30% of the songs in the list, favoring the ones that we already listened to hundreds or thousands of times.

I want to be able to choose another algorithm that does exactly the opposite: play songs in a pseudo-random order but leaving out the ones that already have been played frequently, and instead focusing on songs seldom listened to, in order to make me rediscover new songs and inspirations! This is even more important when listening to playlists made by other people, to help me discover new music.

The new algorithm could be called something like "serendipity shuffle" or "discover mode". This could be an option to activate in the user's settings, so the existing popularity shuffle would stay the default option.

In case a serendipity shuffle is too hard for you to implement, a simple randomized shuffle function would also be much better than the current one. This has already been pointed out in other posts in this forum.

See other posts in this community:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Shuffle-Is-Only-Going-Through-A-Handful-Of-Songs/idc...

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Please-stop-marking-shuffle-complaints-as-quot-not-a...

[IVANLEVAR]

I'm frankly sick of the app's random mode working poorly. I'm quitting the app if Spotify doesn't fix this problem. It always plays the same 20 songs from each list. Even if it has 100 themes. There should also be a way to be able to shuffle all the personal lists in the library. Please they should take this more seriously and fix the bugs because otherwise it's not worth spending time and effort to make custom playlists. I have seen in the forum and this problem persists without solution.

[vinni-the-pooh]

Dear IVANLEVAR,

Spotify doesn't care this issue.

Many years existence and full ignoring. I thin they have more than 60 millions of customers which are happy with their 30-60 tracks and their don't care. And also Spotify know that competitors have the same issue (I'm Deezer customer in the past).

Also I think Spotify and others using this logic (30-60 same tracks) to save their traffic - let customers to cache their 30-60 tracks and after it the load on Spotify system will reduced from this customer, it's benefit.

So they don't care and won't care!

[IVANLEVAR]

Thanks for the comment and information Vinnie-the-pooh. This reality is quite disappointing to me.

[nastia_om]

This is an extremely irritating issue, which is in place since 2017 as I can see from other issues raised on the platform. And whether it's a new feature or fixing the shuffle so it works as it is supposed to be working under the name 'shuffle' it would be really great if you do something about it. 

[Jeanasfun]

Seriously Spotify, this is an epic fail on your part and the only response is great idea, but no plans to change a thing. Everyone wants to hear their full playlist at some point when on shuffle, not just the same songs over and over. For whatever reason the other day I heard a song on a playlist I didn't even recall was on there. It has not played for literally years on this playlist. I started looking at the full playlist and there are more songs I don't hear on this particular playlist than there are ones I do hear. How do you not see this as an issue for Premium subscribers? 

[Javierba]

Spotify doesn't care

[tillterran]

I love this idea, if it's too hard then at least give us a real shuffle option, though having a shuffle as described by the idea section, playing more the songs we don't listen to often.(of course as a togglable option, either that or a custom order for playlists depending on the number of plays, which could be put in most listened first or least listened first)

[BigDoggeTom]

Bumping because despite all the great features Spotify has, having a shuffle function that only plays the same 100 songs out of my 1200 song playlist is enough to make me go somewhere else. This has been a continuous issue for years, and it's only getting worse