“Alexa shuffle playlist” always plays same song first, then shuffles

[inspirekelly]

Plan

Premium

Country

 Australia

Device

Echo 

Operating System

Amazon Echo

My Question or Issue

The Spotify skill for shuffling my playlist, always plays the first song in my playlist and then shuffles the rest of the playlist beautifully. I’m sure this would be a small tweak to the Amazon skill to ensure it shuffles straight away when we ask ‘Alexa shuffle playlist’ 

[AndyTaylor1978]

Same issue for me - really frustrating

[Goorrnco]

Same here. Until December the Spotify shuffle functioned reliably on Google Home devices, but there are now also problems. It seems that Amazon and Google don't want the shuffle to work on Spotify. It works for Amazon Music and Google Music.

Since Spotify does not respond to user complaints I don't see any reason why I shouldn't change to another music provider.

[Berliner77]

Same issue here (in Germany). Very frustrating. 

[waces]

Same here. Quite funny that spotify so called "developers" was not able to fix a very simple change in the last 2.5 years. and (cherry on the top) they ignore all user compliants, questions, etc. They need subscribers only for the time they pay but nothing else. neither alexa nor google home are something new, they are on the market for many years. maybe would be good for spotify to hire at least one person who can code

[Mihail]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for reaching out and searching for the answer you need her.

We appreciate your reports of Alexa devices starting to shuffle playlists with the same song when using voice command and have passed them on to the relevant team.

We can't set a specific timeframe for when this issue will be fixed, but recommend that you keep your Spotify and Alexa apps up to date, so you can make use of all fixes, as soon as they are made available.

Hope this shines a bit of light on the matter. We'll be here if you have any other questions.

[waces]

"We can't set a specific timeframe for when this issue will be fixed"

probably never. alexa is in the market since 2014 so if 6 years weren't enough to fix this probably the next 123456789 years also wouln't be enough

[edonkeydolittle]

7 months later.. any news from Spotify?

[niki_in_france]

There is a track called One Second of Silence by Quality Assured Hipsters. Put this as the first track in your playlist.  https://open.spotify.com/track/4jaXxB0DJ6X4PdjMK8XVfu?si=cb2dbc525a684640

It's a hack, but it works. 

[AustinSeraphin]

I just got an Alexa and noticed the problem right away and found this thread. I have written radio automation software and know that this does not take much work to get right.

[AustinSeraphin]

OK I take it back. It looks like they fixed the problem. I only recently got an Alexa, and Spotify for that matter. Saying something like "Shuffle 80s pop" now seems to work, whereas "play 80s pop" plays the same songs in the same order as expected. I don't want to speak too soon, but hopefully they fixed it.

[waces]

Yep but that's still not working if you want to start a playlist in a routine for example. Wouldn't be rocket science to add a shuffle and a repeat all switch....

[JAKEYYV]

I’ve cracked this if it’s any help:

New routine: Spotify liked (doesn’t have to be the same as mine)

When this happens : voice

When: A1exa play my play list, A1exa play my liked songs, A1exa play my liked playlist

Add action: music & podcasts

Play: My like songs & shuffle

Tick provider & select Spotify

[aswinter90]

Thanks, this helped! For me it was also important to do it in German, which is my device language. So far my routine worked with English commands but recently Alex would just start the last played song instead of shuffling my favorites. Very annoying.

[nousername23]

Any update from Spotify when this Alexa routine will be fixed?

[waces]

Never will be fixed as they simply cannot write proper code. The issues with the skill exists since it was released for the first time. But the good news that they totally ignore the users as well