Introducing Smart Shuffle!

[Joan]

Introducing Smart Shuffle! 

We know that our users love creating their own playlists to capture key moments in time – in fact, playlists created by users often become their most-streamed playlist for the first several months but listening to these playlists slowly fades overtime, and users are eager to discover new music.

With this in mind, we’re excited to launch a new play mode called Smart Shuffle that keeps listening sessions fresh and provides personalized recommendations that perfectly match any listeners’ playlist vibe. 

This update will roll out to Premium users on mobile devices starting today.

How does Smart Shuffle work?

• You can use it in any playlist created by you, and your Liked Songs.
• To activate it, just use the Shuffle button to switch between regular play, Shuffle mode and Smart Shuffle.
• When Smart Shuffle is on, recommendations are added to your session automatically. You can find all the recommendations sitting in your queue.
• You will be able to recognize the music we are recommending with the sparkle (✨) symbol next to the track. For a playlist with more than 15 songs, we’ll recommend one song for every three tracks.
• And the best part, your original playlist remains untouched, so you can add any new track that catches your ear.
• If you like a specific recommendation, just save it using the plus button in the Now Playing View. If that song doesn’t hit right, just tap the minus to remove it from the recommendations. This is then used to better adjust the suggestions we put forward.
• Every time you turn Smart Shuffle off, a new mix will be available every time you activate it again.

Introductory pageHow the queue will look

Adding and removing recommendations.

Different playback options.

FAQ

What about the Enhance feature?

For now, Smart Shuffle will replace the Enhance feature.

What will happen to Discover Weekly and other regularly updated playlists?

For the time being, no changes to those will be made. Smart Shuffle aims to improve the listening experience for user curated playlists.

Does this mean that using Smart Shuffle will cause my carefully curated playlists to get cluttered with new recommendations?

No! Your original playlist remains untouched, so you can add any new track that catches your ear. Smart Shuffle won’t change your playlist without your explicit permission. What changes instead is what you'll hear during each specific listening session

We hope you're as excited as we are about this new play mode. The official Newsroom announcement is out, you can check that out too. For any and all feedback on the matter you may have, you're more than welcome to comment in the thread below.

[Brucemcphee37]

I’m canceling my family subscription by Dec 31, if Smart Shuffle is still part of the app.  I’m not paying for the hassle of disabling or to have crappy “suggestions” infiltrating my play list. 

[Dresius]

"Smart" Shuffle keeps re-activating seconds after I turn it off. Makes it literally impossible to listen to the music I want to. Incredibly annoying, will switch to other service if this keeps happening since you clearly do not care about your customers.

[Meme_1226]

PLEASE ALLOW US TO PERMANENTLY DISABLE SMART SHUFFLE. 

I don’t understand why this is a required button. Every time I press the shuffle button and it hires to smart shuffle, it freezes. I can’t select normal shuffle again unless I restart the app.

I WILL NEVER USE SMART SHUFFLE. Please make it optional in settings, this is a waste of time and I bet it will cause car accidents as people try to get out of smart shuffle.

as paying PREMIUM members we should have the option to remove this feature. Please remove it!!!! Or make it optional! 

it’s the worst feature I’ve ever seen! 

[OutOfTown]

Good bye, and only because of this worst UX I have ever experienced (using this as show case how to NOT do it in our company (no joke!). Thx at least for that 

[SpookiusMortem]

It seems like a great idea, the problem is it doesn't respect the genre of the playlist. It shuffles in music from non-related and non-complementary genres. Is there a way to adjust this?

[bubbinsmcgee]

Have an option to disable**bleep** for the love of god. this app's UI is so braindead.  I'm sick of having to manually clear my whole cue to get rid of the recommendations because it wont remove them itself. 

[tisteegz]

I miss enhance playlist. 😞 Smart shuffle is just moving playlist radio into a more difficult button to use. Why not just keep playlist radio and enhance playlist together and remove smart shuffle?? 

[98stella]

Sharing my 2 cents as an individual with multiple TBIs I often use my particularly curated playlists to keep track of passing time when I am unable to reach my phone (showers/while running/in a tight space/etc.) and have had the regular experience of setting the playlist on or off shuffle (attempting to (unsuccessfully) rid the issue) only to have my locked phone start playing music I am unfamiliar with and cannot use to track time. (Yep - Spotify's "smart" shuffle strikes again). This will pull me awake from sleep - pull me dripping from a shower, etc. and is infuriating for someone who is reliant on music to reach a functional "zone" in order get daily things completed and work done to sustain my bills. I have hand crafted music specifically to help my self function through my days and this feature is an absolute wrench in the system.
Finally looking into YouTube music which has been a headache, but at this point I just want to have access to my own music, my way, and I'll happily leave Spotify in the dust if accessibility is not a priority. Too many corporations serve the masses to optimize their dollar without care for their users' experiences - especially of the disabled and discriminated. Life does not have to be so greedy. Be good to your users or watch them leave.

[Bittereye]

Imagine... you have a big playlist, press shuffle and want to disable it... using mobile data... then "smart" shuffle... starts to pop songs on your playlist and download them.... YOU CANT EVEN STOP**bleep**... then after 2 minutes of waiting you are allowed to disabled... because no matter how many times you try... you cant... visually disabled but the process didnt stop.

THEN THEY COME TO YOU ASKING INCREASING THE PRICE.... are you **bleep**ing serious? you dont even care about ux experience of users... make this feature disabled by option, please.

[greeblehaus]

Please make it possible to disable Smart Shuffle at the preferences level. I make hundreds of my own playlists and want them to be the way I made them. If I want to discover, I will look at the ones you make. It's incredibly poor UI/UX that you can barely tell which setting it is on (between regular shuffle and smart shuffle). Thank you.

[cadeneuwirth]

Boy, for a feature claiming to be "Smart", Spotify sure isn't smart for adding it. I HATE HATE HATE that little menu that pops up when all I want to do is enable shuffle. Better yet, if I want to enable shuffle in my car, it sometimes has to LOAD FOR AS MUCH AS HALF A MINUTE BEFORE I CAN TURN SMART SHUFFLE OFF.

I'm off to greener grasses with Apple Music I think.

Spotify - does anyone actually like this new feature? Listen to your community.

[user-removed]

The Enhance feature worked okay.  This not-so-obvious smart shuffle "option" stinks. It took me a while... too long... to figure out what was going on with my playlists. Oh... two kinds of shuffle... the usual one, and the new obnoxious unwanted disturbing lousy "smart" shuffle.  I hate it.  I'll never use it. I want to disable it permanently. This is not the way to try something new with your customers. Bad business.

[MarimoTM]

well  f *** you for not allowing spotify free user to turn it off dum*a**

[MarimoTM]

i fricking hate this mode it wont even turn off

[triproberts12]

Give me the option to disable this permanently. New features are fine. Good even. Forcing them on people is BS.

[triproberts12]

Also, stop turning on these features by default. If no one wants to use your feature, the solution is not to enable it by default and wait for people to see how clever you are. That's the kind of arrogant domineering that makes people hate the tech sector. 

[mishru]

they don't even allow premium users to turn it off 💀

[PeterPolak]

Make smart shuffle an option. This thread has 995 replies at this point and everybody is telling you they hate the feature. 

Oh, and do us a favor, fire all your product managers who don't understand their customers. 

[Sedawk]

How does it work even though I don't have WiFi or mobile data turned on? Songs not in my library are added and can play without data. Is it still using data even though I don't have it turned on? I also have the settings set to offline mode and it still works.

[9611idth]

Every single time I turn off shuffle and then turn off smart shuffle, the smart shuffle is still on the next time I change song. I have never enjoyed smart shuffle as I don't want to listen to random music I don't care about when I have chosen a playlist to listen to.