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.

[jjf46n2]

It's ridiculous this thread is still accumulating complaints and we can't
even have an acknowledgment of an issue, months after it should have been
dealt with. I'm beginning to think Spotify doesn't even deserve customers,
let alone to make money.

[sspenst]

I can see from my email notifications that moderators are merging new complaints into this thread, so Spotify must know that we all hate this abomination of a feature. I've seen the following moderators merge posts into this thread:

• Alex
• Joan
• Maria
• MihailY
• Novy
• OscarDC

Can one of you please acknowledge there is an issue here and talk about steps Spotify is taking to resolve it?

[sspenst]

I tried to send a direct message to the above moderators and reached a limit after multiple failed attempts (more than one recipient, moderators not open to messages, invalid HTML in message...). This is the error message:

"You have reached the limit for number of private messages that you can send for now. Please try again later."

No messages were even sent, there were only send attempts. I tried to create a new thread to describe this issue and Spotify is not even allowing new issues at this point.

This company is really going downhill.

[phillip_tranmer]

Just let me be able to completely disable it. I pay to listen to my music uninterrupted when I’m switching from regular shuffling to default. I don’t want to wait 5 seconds in between the different mode available. Just add a feature to turn it off completely. NOBODY ASKED FOR THIS. 

[thedeclaimer]

Yes, this is my biggest pet peeve with this "feature". It adds an unnecessary delay if you want to turn shuffle on or off, or just want to reshuffle the queue.

It's also a huge PITA if you're in an area with poor cell service. One time, I was a rest stop with poor reception and Spotify took its sweet time to disable shuffle because it has to load the terrible recommendations into the queue. Did they not test this feature? Who in the right mind thinks it's a genius idea to use the same damn button.

[ArrrThePirate]

How do I disable this permanently? Don't tell me to press the shuffle icon again, I don't even want to see it there.

[GailyForward]

I wish there was a way to permanently disable Smart Shuffle! I hate it - I can add to my own playlists myself. Spotify's normal shuffle seems algorithm-based anyway and I still hear the same songs over and over despite having some playlists with months worth of songs. Can we have an unbiased, pure shuffle please? Or at least give us that option?

[Camillece]

Still waiting to be able to disable this useless "smart" feature.

When I'm playing a playlist sometimes it's "on" but it displays as no shuffle at all. I have to manually go back to my plalist and play a song of my choosing because I put the effort to select the musics I like in a specific mood and then spotify thinks it knows better than me.

Just give us a toggle in the settings ffs

[crynightmare]

Just add long press to open up a menu for smart shuffle, or make an option so that we can disable it through settings. It really shouldn't take that long to discover that no one likes this. You can search through ideas or reddit or twitter and see it. Do we really have to track down the person that decided this feature is a great addition and show them ourselves that this isn't a great idea? We just need an option to disable it, you don't need to remove the feature at all. 

[Zheta]

Bring back the Enhance button!!! I was using it to add to my playlists by quickly discovering new songs that weren't in my playlist... I have seen features be removed from the app over the years and done nothing about it, but this change makes me angryyy.

[herpladerp]

This feature is absolutely horrible.

[Olllyyyj]

Four months on since I last commented on this post, and smart shuffle is still here.

The overall sentiment in this thread is that smart shuffle absolutely needs to go. Nobody wants it. Nobody asked for it, in fact we've all asked for it to be removed. Or at least for a setting to completely disable this feature.

But instead of listening to the user feedback, Spotify has continued to roll out this unwanted feature, and now it's plaguing the MacOS app. 

This feature serves no purpose other than to inconvenience the users. Hundreds of people here are asking for it to be removed. Apparently they fall on deaf ears. 

What's the point of the forum if the feedback is going to be tossed aside?

[Kpackom]

It's awful, it's useless, it turns on by itself or is on by default when starting to listen and is just an annoying feature. Make a way to turn it off permanently please - I pay premium sub, so I could listen without annoyances like these.

[jjf46n2]

**bleep** this. I pay for this app so I can listen to what I want to. You won't
listen to us, so **bleep** you I'm out.

[LexusMariah]

I strongly dislike the smart shuffle feature. I really wish there was a way to turn it off and it not auto turn on when you open the app. I have to disable it every time I open Spotify and it is extremely frustrating. 

[eoinparkinson]

Please disable this awful feature. I hate it. I am a paying customer - I refuse to pay for a **bleep** experience.

Regular shuffle and inline playback is all I need, maybe a small handful of users like this feature, but I certainly don't. And neither do many other people.

I want the option to disable it permanently in settings. I get that Spotify wants some user analytics for this feature before they make it optional/disregard it, but forcing it down our throats is just going to make people like me move to an alternative music provider such as Apple Music or Deezer.

Make it optional in settings for both iOS/Android and Mac/Windows apps or I'm leaving. Absolute disgrace.

[seasidewarfare]

Dear big tech overlords. Your algorithmic music recommendations are good for finding the occasional gem among the sea of garbage that the algorithm thinks I'll like due to superficial similarities to the music I've carefully picked and curated over the years, that's why things like Discover Weekly are decent, because sometimes among the 50 or so mediocre offerings you've served up to me, I sometimes find a song worth listening to. However, smart shuffle is a huge mistake as it assumes the discerning listener will lap up any nonsense your computer code has identified as acceptable and takes it as given that we will gladly welcome all of it into our music listening experience. That's a big problem as it is, without the added issue of labels and artists buying their way into the algorithm. So I'll join the chorus of paying customers demanding you put an end to this travesty of a feature, or at least let us disable it. Why not, instead of adding pathetic features not a single person has asked for, you utilise your talented software engineers in fixing bugs that have been present for years, or perhaps give us a shuffle function that actually shuffles. Thanks and kind regards.

[Robby_vww]

When I'm listening to my own playlist, I don't want your stupid "sMaRt ShUfFlE" to intervene with my vibe. 

Please THE **bleep** make it possible to disable**bleep**. 

[arkanesky]

you guys are confusing my old dad. he puts on "classic rock" shuffle at home and Smart Shuffle™ inserts taylor swift every 5 songs. leave my god damn dad alone and let him listen to his rolling stones in PEACE. he doesnt understand what's going on because your ux is dogpiss

remove smart shuffle you worthless cowards.

DO IT FOR MY POPS

[Conqz]

Complete and utter trash.