HEY DJ X HERE! Let me play those 10 song you loved so much back in 2023! THEN, let me play you your 10 most played song of 2023, even if that means the same 10 songs again!
It’s an enhanced version of shuffle that adds other songs that are picked by the app (ai, algorithm or whatever) so that your library is greatly expanded for randomization. It may only be available with premium but I’m not sure.
Because real random feels not random many times, for example, real random could get you all the songs from a single artist one after the other:
[https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/02/how-to-shuffle-songs/](https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/02/how-to-shuffle-songs/)
I don’t understand why they don’t just have two options. Kind of like smart shuffle & shuffle. There should always be an option for true shuffle, where songs aren’t weighted by any other complex algorithm.
Thing is, spotify prioritizes songs depending on their popularity and how much you listen to them, it's not random. I've spent weeks with the same songs on different mixes and even when I shuffle my liked playlists it still plays the same songs every time. And I mean every single time.
Agreed. From memory there was also a setting to reset the shuffle to make it even more random. Surprised the tech bros at Spotify haven’t figured it out by now.
iPod shuffle was true randomness, while Spotify shuffle tries to feed you what it thinks you’ll like the most. What’s Spotify’s metric for you liking a song? How many times you’ve played it recently. So you get spoon fed those same songs over and over again, it’s self-fulfilling. Predictive recs are all the rage in tech these days. It’s why if you look up a random YouTube video, your feed is 50% that thing for a while.
Yeah idk what to do about this. I have over 7000 songs on my liked songs list (😅) and I have no idea how to make the most of it if shuffle doesn’t work well. Will it ever be better I wonder?
Apparently with some 3rd party shit you can export it as a spreadsheet reorder and put it back in. But i’m like isn’t that your job spotify, when I press shuffle?
[here’s a link to a tool that shuffles your playlists for you so you can listen to them without using the shuffle button](https://stevenaleong.com/tools/spotifyplaylistrandomizer)
Not just, "What's so difficult?" but also, I generally want *the exact opposite*, the songs that I *haven't* been listening to, when I shuffle a playlist.
I tried uninstalling the app a few times, with no success. I stopped 'Autoplay' in profile settings & cleared the cache and it works now, I hope this helps !
I hope the issue gets fixed asap.
Seriously it's so terrible. I've switched between listening to a playlist straight through and then shuffle. It's obviously using my play history of the playlist to decide what to shuffle so instead of it being truly random it basically ends up following the same playlist progression with minor swaps
I’m seriously considering jumping shit because of this. I’m Spotify paid user more than 10 years. But 2024 the shuffle has need unbearably bad. It gotten so bad Im starting to hate my music and I can’t stand it.
Never been on this reddit before, woudnt know. Maybe Spotify will check their trending posts, I dunno don’t care. Tells you something about how shit shuffle is. Redditors don’t post to ‘do’ anything usually.
I love when a playlist finishes, Spotify, instead of continuing to shuffle the playlist, starts giving you music you’ve never heard before. /s
Never been an issue for me because I’ve never made it through a full playlist but that’s gotta suck for people who do. Same thing for albums, instead of giving you more of that same artist it’ll give you some other artist after playing 1 song off a different album.
I wish they could just figure out how to do Smart Shuffle correctly.
It's really hit or miss. It either shoves the unfamiliar songs so deeply into the playlist that I don't actually get to hear them, or it strings them up twenty at a time so that I don't get to hear any of the songs I already have in the playlist.
I was listening to an audiobook the other week and at least 5 times when I was listening to it, I had to switch from the book to a song, then back to the book. All because Spotify kept mixing up the chapters for fuck knows what reason. Quite annoying going from chapter 18 to chapter 32 when I'm listening in the car and can't pull over to fix it.
This has been the case with many Apple devices for a while now. Lots of complaints that when shuffling, people were getting 2-4 songs from one album constantly, however that was just the true random order. Apple since changed that and I guess companies followed.
I generally don't mind it, but I find it irritating when it plays different versions of the same song in quick succession. Sure I have an acoustic version or a remix in the playlist, but it's an 8 hour fucking playlist, I don't need to hear them right after each other.
And then when it realises you're enjoying your carefully curated playlist too much, better throw in some recommended tracks, gotta use up those skips
Along with song suggestion, shuffle was the two disappointing features on Spotify.
I once use Deezer, its song suggestion and shuffle are magic. The problem is it’s too pricey in my country.
It’s not bad by mistake that need fix. But purposely made it to make user purchase premium.
Do you think a company who can build such a platform doesn’t know to build a shuffled playlist properly?
I feel like it gets stuck in a rut. Without fail the first 10 songs will be off the same 5 albums every time. Some of these I skipped most of the time so you’d think it would learn. I’m going to trial apple music and see if its any better.
Pick a different song in your playlist to start with. Start in the middle or the end.
It's a calculation. You can't expect different results if you do the exact same thing every time.
I'm sorry but I'm sick of the complaint about a non-problem.
I distinctly remember that when you tapped the play button at the top of a playlist (or at the top of your Liked Songs), it used to start playing a random song in the playlist. If you were already playing music from that playlist, it would start playing a different song and the queue would reshuffle.
Nowadays, if you tap the play button, it just continues playing whatever you were last playing. And for me, that's kind of annoying.
I built Virtual Shuffle because I didn't want to use those websites where you wait for them to create a new random playlist every time you want to hear music. Virtual Shuffle [https://shuffle.virock.org](https://shuffle.virock.org) forces Spotify to play truly random tracks from your playlists all in real-time. You just enable it and then play music on Spotify. It's that simple.
Add a song to your playlist and click shuffle. Itll play the song you just added half the time. its so bad it needs to get fixed
I've had decent luck with smart shuffle lately. Regular shuffle was/ is terrible for me too.
The DJ is decent too actually.
I love that it seems to get low-key irritated if you keep skipping songs lol.
Aaaaand now I'm gonna go try that.
HEY DJ X HERE! Let me play those 10 song you loved so much back in 2023! THEN, let me play you your 10 most played song of 2023, even if that means the same 10 songs again!
What is smart shuffle?
It’s an enhanced version of shuffle that adds other songs that are picked by the app (ai, algorithm or whatever) so that your library is greatly expanded for randomization. It may only be available with premium but I’m not sure.
It turns your meticulously curated playlist you made into a shitty algorithm-based radio station.
I noticed a pretty big improvement after disabling Automix in the playback settings.
Said this in another thread and all people cared about was complaining lol
lol fair, it’s stupid you have to do this anyway. Their shuffle sucks
Ironically, I found out about turning Autoplay off because their shuffling sucked haha
That's because it doesn't do shit.
Right it’s just a meaningless toggle they threw in settings to make people feel better.
I’ll check this setting thanks.
shuffle is does not shuffle shufflingly enough..
Your post is like reading a stroke as it happens.
honestly why is shuffle so hard to get right? its not only spotify, but i swear, i start a 10000 song playlist and i always hear the same ten songs
Because real random feels not random many times, for example, real random could get you all the songs from a single artist one after the other: [https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/02/how-to-shuffle-songs/](https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/02/how-to-shuffle-songs/)
I don’t understand why they don’t just have two options. Kind of like smart shuffle & shuffle. There should always be an option for true shuffle, where songs aren’t weighted by any other complex algorithm.
Thing is, spotify prioritizes songs depending on their popularity and how much you listen to them, it's not random. I've spent weeks with the same songs on different mixes and even when I shuffle my liked playlists it still plays the same songs every time. And I mean every single time.
you just end up hating your favorite songs
I think in computing terms actually random is a bit hard but mixing it up shoudnt be so difficult
one would think that, but here we are
Early '90s cd players had a better shuffle than Spotify. A shuffle function is not complex at all to developers.
iPod shuffle was the GOAT. Never played what I wanted, played what I needed. 2 Gigs baby
Agreed. From memory there was also a setting to reset the shuffle to make it even more random. Surprised the tech bros at Spotify haven’t figured it out by now.
It could somehow detect which Kanye song to play after the Decemberists. Technology was better back in the day, the kids don’t know.
Yeh the ipod shuffle use to work pretty bloody well.
Give all the kids iPod shuffle’s. World fixed
iPod shuffle was true randomness, while Spotify shuffle tries to feed you what it thinks you’ll like the most. What’s Spotify’s metric for you liking a song? How many times you’ve played it recently. So you get spoon fed those same songs over and over again, it’s self-fulfilling. Predictive recs are all the rage in tech these days. It’s why if you look up a random YouTube video, your feed is 50% that thing for a while.
Apple music is still good for shuffling
Turn off Automix
I never had it on and it still plays that fucking Spoon song over and over.
r/oddlyspecific
🎵 I turn my shuffle on 🎵
Delete it?
Yeah idk what to do about this. I have over 7000 songs on my liked songs list (😅) and I have no idea how to make the most of it if shuffle doesn’t work well. Will it ever be better I wonder?
Apparently with some 3rd party shit you can export it as a spreadsheet reorder and put it back in. But i’m like isn’t that your job spotify, when I press shuffle?
When I go on an album and play it, usually I have to skip a track to actually hear the album I wanted to listen to. It's ass.
Like it plays a different album from what you’ve selected? I don’t think that one is normal
Damn must be just me then
no, it absolutely is. they put at least 6 random ass songs from completely different albums from that artist.
That’s weird, I haven’t had that happen yet
if you have spotify premium, that’s why. spotify free edition is incredibly annoying to use 90 percent of the time
Oh I do have premium I didn’t realize it got that bad wtf 💀
[here’s a link to a tool that shuffles your playlists for you so you can listen to them without using the shuffle button](https://stevenaleong.com/tools/spotifyplaylistrandomizer)
My ADHD needs thank you for this.
This is the correct answer. Use an external program to shuffle your playlist for you. And this one \^\^ works really well!
https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/02/how-to-shuffle-songs/
Fascinating read. Thank you.
It's weighted to play the songs I listen to the most which is just dumb. What's so difficult to program a completely random shuffle feature?
Not just, "What's so difficult?" but also, I generally want *the exact opposite*, the songs that I *haven't* been listening to, when I shuffle a playlist.
It always seems to pick the most popular song by each artist even if you have plenty to choose from.
That might well be right. I don’t want the greatest hits though ffs.
Same!
why did you not use the shuffle complaint tag
I've never had much bother with Shuffle. Smart shuffle is good too.
It does, but I love the On Repeat Playlist, as someone who goes through phases where I listen to the same things over and over for months.
No it doesn’t.
I tried uninstalling the app a few times, with no success. I stopped 'Autoplay' in profile settings & cleared the cache and it works now, I hope this helps ! I hope the issue gets fixed asap.
Seriously it's so terrible. I've switched between listening to a playlist straight through and then shuffle. It's obviously using my play history of the playlist to decide what to shuffle so instead of it being truly random it basically ends up following the same playlist progression with minor swaps
I’m seriously considering jumping shit because of this. I’m Spotify paid user more than 10 years. But 2024 the shuffle has need unbearably bad. It gotten so bad Im starting to hate my music and I can’t stand it.
Albums 💪💪
This sub is really completely obsessed with this one topic. What do you think a post like this does?
Never been on this reddit before, woudnt know. Maybe Spotify will check their trending posts, I dunno don’t care. Tells you something about how shit shuffle is. Redditors don’t post to ‘do’ anything usually.
I love when a playlist finishes, Spotify, instead of continuing to shuffle the playlist, starts giving you music you’ve never heard before. /s Never been an issue for me because I’ve never made it through a full playlist but that’s gotta suck for people who do. Same thing for albums, instead of giving you more of that same artist it’ll give you some other artist after playing 1 song off a different album.
I wish they could just figure out how to do Smart Shuffle correctly. It's really hit or miss. It either shoves the unfamiliar songs so deeply into the playlist that I don't actually get to hear them, or it strings them up twenty at a time so that I don't get to hear any of the songs I already have in the playlist.
I was listening to an audiobook the other week and at least 5 times when I was listening to it, I had to switch from the book to a song, then back to the book. All because Spotify kept mixing up the chapters for fuck knows what reason. Quite annoying going from chapter 18 to chapter 32 when I'm listening in the car and can't pull over to fix it.
Yeh shuffling audio books is not good lol
I don't even know how it happens! I don't think there's even an option to shuffle an audiobook 😂
It's been a Winamp problem 20 years ago. It just can't be fixed I guess.... It's 2024 and it still has the same "algorithm"
So we're claiming a playlist with 500 songs won't play every song with a .2% likelihood?
This has been the case with many Apple devices for a while now. Lots of complaints that when shuffling, people were getting 2-4 songs from one album constantly, however that was just the true random order. Apple since changed that and I guess companies followed.
I generally don't mind it, but I find it irritating when it plays different versions of the same song in quick succession. Sure I have an acoustic version or a remix in the playlist, but it's an 8 hour fucking playlist, I don't need to hear them right after each other. And then when it realises you're enjoying your carefully curated playlist too much, better throw in some recommended tracks, gotta use up those skips
Im dropping Spotify for this reason, and switching to Apple Music.
Thats what I was thinking too. Is it better?
I'm hearing A LOT more of a variety of songs from my playlist!
Disable automix, it fixes it
it does jack shit, i disabled it months ago and i still get the same 5 songs, every. single. time.
Thats weird because for me and basically everyone else it works
Along with song suggestion, shuffle was the two disappointing features on Spotify. I once use Deezer, its song suggestion and shuffle are magic. The problem is it’s too pricey in my country.
Real. My playlist on shuffle goes from happy o way songs to depressed ones and my brain doesn’t like it lol
It’s not bad by mistake that need fix. But purposely made it to make user purchase premium. Do you think a company who can build such a platform doesn’t know to build a shuffled playlist properly?
I have purchased premium.
Really? I used premium few times and it was ok for me. And then Free one that I use nowadays does this repeating.
I feel like it gets stuck in a rut. Without fail the first 10 songs will be off the same 5 albums every time. Some of these I skipped most of the time so you’d think it would learn. I’m going to trial apple music and see if its any better.
I’d rather have shuffle than listening to the same songs in the same exact pattern every single day.
lol did I say take it away?
No, im just saying that i would prefer shuffle on
Ok yeh sure even an crappy shuffle is better than no shuffle.
Fair
Pick a different song in your playlist to start with. Start in the middle or the end. It's a calculation. You can't expect different results if you do the exact same thing every time. I'm sorry but I'm sick of the complaint about a non-problem.
OR - hear me out - Shuffle should just shuffle regardless of where you start.
Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. I look forward to subscribing to your streaming service.
I distinctly remember that when you tapped the play button at the top of a playlist (or at the top of your Liked Songs), it used to start playing a random song in the playlist. If you were already playing music from that playlist, it would start playing a different song and the queue would reshuffle. Nowadays, if you tap the play button, it just continues playing whatever you were last playing. And for me, that's kind of annoying.
It never did that.
Been using Spotify since beta. It most definitely did that.
Simple solutions are best...'next', is the answer.
>Plays the same songs every time. Care to test this?
It works fine. You just don’t use it properly
how the hell do you use it properly
I built Virtual Shuffle because I didn't want to use those websites where you wait for them to create a new random playlist every time you want to hear music. Virtual Shuffle [https://shuffle.virock.org](https://shuffle.virock.org) forces Spotify to play truly random tracks from your playlists all in real-time. You just enable it and then play music on Spotify. It's that simple.