Shuffle not really shuffling

[smarris]

I have a playlist with over 1,000 songs that I always listen to in the "shuffle" mode.  The problem is that I keep hearing the same songs repeat mulitple times in a listening session.  I'm not sure why this is and I do not have the desire to edit the queue everytime I listen to my music, so is this being addressed?  I did see in a post that the shuffle algorithm was being updated, but with over 1,000 songs I'd think the likelihood of a repeat would be extremely rare.  With that said, there are some songs that I've never heard except for when they were first added to the playlist.

[teollo]

this function is very bad.

it simply does not work.

you can test it by yourselves.

i don't understand how this is possible.

example:

you play shuffle, playlist ordered by name: you listen just to songs starting by A-B

playlist ordere by last added, you just listen to latest songs

playlist ordered by artist, you just listen to song from artist A-B

very bad,,,,,,,,,,

[Erika]

Hey! Welcome to our Community.

Could you let us know what device, operating system and Spotify version you're using? Also, did this started happening after a specific update or event?

We'll see what we can suggest. 

[smarris]

Erika,

Thank you for the welcome.  

I use the Spotify app on my iPhone 6s+, Spotify on my MacBook Pro, or I will play Spotify through Sonos - using the Sonos app.  Everything is updated to the latest versions of iOS, mac OS Sierra, and the Sonos app.

I just made this particular playlist about 2 weeks ago, and I noticed it from the first time I listened to it.

[teollo]

I use spotify on android and on a windows computer.
same problem about shuffle.

am I the first to notice this?

[smarris]

One other thing that I've noticed is that certain artists have a tendency to play more than others.  For example, out of 1,145 songs I might have several hundred different artists, some of which have only 1 or 2 songs on the playlist, but I have 10 or so songs by Bob Marley and I usually hear Bob Marley 2-3 times out of every 25 songs. I would think with this large of a playlist and this diverse of an artist mix, that songs and artists would rarely repeat.

I only listen in shuffle mode, so there hasn't been any queue setup by me.

[ZullyB]

Thanks for the info, @smarris and @teollo!

We’ve recently made some improvements to our shuffle algorithm. We’d love to hear your feedback here.

Let us know if you have more doubts 🙂 

[smarris]

Zullly, when did you make the improvements?  If they were prior to my post above, then the issue is still there.  If they have been since my post, then I will give it a listen and see how it goes.

[19punkrock76]

I have a playlist of1600 songs and the same thing happens? Not sure why but it pretty much plays20 songs then it will repeat the same20again in the same order. I'm on a chromebook and an LG aristo cell phone

[ZullyB]

Thanks for letting us know, @19punkrock76 and @smarris!

We appreciate your feedback. We’re always testing things in order to improve & we'll pass on your thoughts to the right team. 

Give us a shout if you need more assistance 🙂