Albums & Playlists: Have BOTH Play & Shuffle buttons at the top

[MattSuda]

Albums and Playlists should have BOTH a Play Button and a Shuffle Button at the top in the mobile and desktop apps

Some users want to easily play the list in order and other users want to play it in shuffle. Some buttons are currently play and some are shuffle. Why not put both buttons there so we can choose if we want to shuffle it or play it? Right now to play in order you can press or click on the first item in the list, but with the different types of play buttons this is still confusing for most users. Shuffle can also be controlled by clicking on the shuffle button on the now playing screen.

Right now the play buttons are inconsistent across all of the Spotify apps. On mobile it was recently changed so now when you go to album pages, the button at the top is no longer a shuffle play button but instead a regular play button. Playlists still have the shuffle play button on mobile. On desktop all play buttons are regular play buttons and do not shuffle. See how confusing that is? Why not do like other music apps already do and have both a PLAY and SHUFFLE option buttons at the top of the playlist or album. Problem solved, you get to pick how you want to play it. Doesn't make sense how inconsistent it is currently. I never use the play buttons because you never know if it's going to shuffle or regular play. I just click the first song in the list to play the songs in order usually and if I want to shuffle I just turn shuffle on from the now playing view.

For artist pages you can just leave it the way it is now with only a shuffle play button since playing in order wouldn't make sense. You could still add it and pressing the play button would play their most recent releases in order. If you end up keeping the shuffle button then change the icon on it to a shuffle instead of the play with the little shuffle icon underneath it.

This is how it would look like at the top of the album and playlist pages in the mobile app. It would look similar in the desktop app too.

Keywords: Adele album shuffle play button change

[Luan]

Updated on 2021-03-03

Hello!

Your idea has been submitted a while ago but unfortunately hasn't gathered enough kudos. In order to keep an overview of the active ideas in this forum, we will close this idea for now. However, this does not mean that your idea has been declined by Spotify.

If you still feel strongly about your request, we encourage you to post your idea in a little different form again! Maybe now is the right time to receive the support of our community for your suggestion!

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[Jose_M]

Updated on 2021-03-23

Hello @Bryceyb!

It looks like your idea was posted a while ago but, unfortunately, it hasn't gathered the minimum amount of votes to stay active in the Ideas Exchange (50 votes in the first 3 months). I'll mark your idea as "Closed - Not Enough Votes". You can learn more on how the Ideas Exchange works here.

Have a nice day 🙂

[Jose_M]

Updated on 2021-03-23

Hello there!

It looks like your idea was posted a while ago but, unfortunately, it hasn't gathered the minimum amount of votes to stay active in the Ideas Exchange (50 votes in the first 3 months). I'll mark your idea as "Closed - Not Enough Votes". You can learn more on how the Ideas Exchange works here.

Have a nice day 🙂

[_rightclick]

This is a necessary feature in my book. I don't know when the "shuffle play" button was added to the album page, but if I recall it wasn't there since the first version of the app (I've been a user since the release), because one day, a few years ago I distinctly remember being stumped as to how to play an album from the beginning. Thanks for creating this idea. 

My interpretation of the need for implementation of this idea is that artists spend a lot of time deciding track list order, so that listeners get a certain experience. I argue that Spotify UI doesn't support that experience. In order to listen to an album one must click the first song in the album, and also have nothing else in the queue (often I click on a song in an album, and after its through it returns to whatever playlist I was previously listening to) - Essentially there is no easy way or 1 click solution to listen to an entire album as the artist intends.

[Arikabeth]

This sounds like a simple and good solution, I hope it gets implemented and that it doesn't get hindered if some statistics on spotify's end indicate that "having playlists use shuffle as default increases consumer retention" or some other unfortunate reasoning for not changing it.

I mostly use the desktop version, so I didn't even realize that albums and playlists are shuffled by default, but it baffles me that shuffle would shown as the default option without having the option to play normally, or at least having the option to change the default play button to not shuffle in the settings somewhere (also albums still shuffle on my android app, so I guess the update hasn't been rolled out and/or enabled server side for me yet).

[MattSuda]

@Arikabeth 

Thanks for the vote!

Yeah in the mobile app a new change is still rolling out that changes the shuffle play button on album pages to regular play buttons so that the album plays in order when you press on the button.

But you could already do that before by tapping on the first song in the album list. The play buttons being either regular play or shuffle play just end up confusing everyone. And all the play buttons in the desktop app are regular play and not shuffle which makes it inconsistent. I think just having both play and shuffle buttons at the top would solve this confusion. You'd still be able to press on any song, but just being able to press one of the 2 play buttons for either in order or shuffle would make things easier.

[MattSuda]

I'm learning that lots of people didn't know that before all you had to do was press the first song in an album or playlist to play in order. Crazy that the UI is that confusing that people don't know how it works. Now this change means people who wanted an easy shuffle button at the top can no longer use it. Having both buttons would solve this. 

[MattSuda]

I found this comment on Reddit:

"On mobile the shuffle button is so tiny I never know if anything is set to shuffle until I press play."

Exactly this! They should change the design of the play button to either a play symbol for playing in order or a shuffle button for shuffle play. Add both buttons like this idea suggests and problem is solved.

[Spaceboy88]

Apple does this in Apple Music and it’s perfect. Please do this, Spotify. 

[sinklair]

Bring back shuffle!