[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.

[WebExtension]

I get why they did it, but it's awful. One of my most played songs is Evil by Interpol. I don't recall actually clicking play on it, ever. Despite being in a playlist with hundreds of songs, I get Evil so much I had to just remove it from the playlist.

[_Vly_]

Crazy idea, make shuffle actually shuffle.

[_Vly_]

Having very little competition truly gets companies lazy.

Why do anything at all when people will stay regardless?

[taradavey1]

Last updated in 2021, but still no progres at all. So sad.

[blondothenerd]

I have so many great ideas to help you improve this algorithm, considering every knows how bad Spotify shuffle is.

Just one of my many examples that will certainly improve the feeling of SHUFFLE:
1. Play songs with the lowest play count more often (Personal Count)
2. Play the Oldest songs added to the playlist first (Opposite of recently added)

The current shuffle algorithm is bias towards playing "liked songs" more often and songs that are more "popular on Spotify".

If you make the shuffle algorithm punish itself mathematically like Apple did with iTunes to give a better feeling random.

People certainly don't want 'True Random', but they do want 'Feels Random'.

I also want you to implement a scrutiny within the algorithm that will not allow in a shuffle a song played within the last 72 hours, this will prevent it feeling like there are only 10 songs in a 1347 song playlist.  

[blondothenerd]

Let's Also not just talk about Shuffle, but SMART SHUFFLE:

One Expectation I have when it comes to shuffle, is I expect the music to never repeat! I have to repeat myself in order to drive this point in!

The algorithm needs to have rules for itself, something like:
1. No repeating a song (Playlist stops once every song has played once - unless playlist is looped)
2. When Smart Shuffle, Playlist must never end! No Ending! (start adding suggested content if you run out of playlist songs)
3. Fix the shuffle algorithm to be truly feeling like it's random. - Please *fingers crossed*

[blondothenerd]

Let's Also not just talk about Shuffle, but SMART SHUFFLE:

One Expectation I have when it comes to shuffle, is I expect the music to never repeat! I have to repeat myself in order to drive this point in!

The algorithm needs to have rules for itself, something like:
1. No repeating a song (Playlist stops once every song has played once - unless playlist is looped)
2. When Smart Shuffle, Playlist must never end! No Ending! (start adding suggested content if you run out of playlist songs)
3. Fix the shuffle algorithm to be truly feeling like it's random. - Please *fingers crossed*

[Peanut99]

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@blondothenerd wrote:

People certainly don't want 'True Random',

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No one mentioned random, that results in lots of repeats of the songs. People want SHUFFLE. Like a deck of cards, you shuffle the songs in random order and then you play the stack. Like it always has been with literally every media player for decades. It is much much simpler to develop than an algorithm that tries to understand what you want to listen to.

Frankly, the fact that they went out of their way to develop this algorithm, which doesn't play what I want, makes me feel like Spotify has motives that go beyond giving an optimal user experience. Which kind of rhymes with the empty promises of HQ audio. User experience is not their priority. I don't know what is though.

[rozeboosje]

"I don't know what is though"

Just follow the money.... What is Spotify's main revenue stream and what contractual obligations are they bound by? Being the first legal streaming service they started off from a position of conflict with record labels. To overcome this they were held over a barrel until a "compromise" was reached which means Spotify cannot prioritise its listeners. Not even its PAYING listeners.

Their competitors are not in that unenviable position. They came upon the scene when streaming music was a long established practice, and record labels were no longer in a position to simply impose their will on the newcomers.

Spotify is a victim of its early success. Seems to be a recurring theme in the software industry.

[cybrwire]

The fact that this has been a problem for so long is kinda suspicious. A simple Math.random() function can give me a better shuffle than Spotify's "shuffle".