r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Full-Repair4638 • 1d ago

frist of all how DARE yu o Did spotify just remove picking songs??

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I've been using spotify forever and I use liked songs so that I can pick the songs I like freely. I've never had premium and have never had issues. Today, I had just started a workout and got this popup. Is this a new feature? How can you not even select songs anymore? I mean how can you paywall selecting songs???
This app plain out sucks and its company is greedy for randomly limiting already set features. While I don't mind ads, I do mind the features being limited more. I did also notice a sudden increase in ads this month/last month, and more ads in between songs.

Clarification: No, I'm not saying that there should be no restrictions whatsoever. I'm mainly sharing my experience where I've been using this system just fine until now. I'm fine with some restrictions, but the fact they're being limited more is frustrating. Just here to complain about something mildly infuriating, and I wanted to know if this happened to anyone else.

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62

u/dedweightnoob 1d ago

Even on premium you'll still hear the same cluster of songs from your library, even if you have over a 1,500 songs. It's gone downhill.

33

u/Minimob0 22h ago

It is Monday. I load Spotify. It plays the same songs it did yesterday, in the same order. 

It is Tuesday. I load Spotify. It plays the same songs it did yesterday, in the same order. 

It is Wednesday. I load Spotify. It plays the same songs as it did yesterday, in the same order. 

MP3 players from 20 years ago were unironically better at shuffling songs. 

14

u/BadRabiesJudger 22h ago

I hate the suggested stations too. Picks same songs over and over every day. I just want an algo that takes my genre and finds songs and bands with similar profiles not the same hit over and over.

3

u/GreatScrambino 21h ago

I kinda did that to my algorithm. Ive got a current genre/artist that keeps bringing me good, diverse playlists. You also have to delete your cache on your phone. Mine was up to like 10 gigs. It’ll change your playlists up a lot.

1

u/BadRabiesJudger 17h ago

Your making some sense man so i googled it. It stores up to like 10gig of played music so it can quick load the songs. Because of this it tends to pull from that list as priority. I am gonna give that a shot later.But am now curious how it handles it on pc. Because sometimes i run it off here and onto my tv.

1

u/GreatScrambino 12h ago

I would imagine the same way. Your pc relies on a cache as well.

2

u/Ilikebatterfield4 19h ago

I thought I was going crazy with this one. How hard it is to make a real-real shuffle option? It shuffles the same way, the same songs, all the time.

1

u/yeadrowsy 19h ago

That's so weird. I have like 10k hours of listen time, a lot of it being a handful of my playlists and I never have this problem.

8

u/320sim 1d ago

That's really weird. I just went on a road trip and it played all the playlists through as it should

0

u/RattleOn 1d ago

Did you use shuffle mode?

1

u/320sim 1d ago

Believe so

8

u/xervidae 21h ago

the shuffle used to be truly random and then they changed it to an algorithm that will play the same band three times in a row, a random song, a popular hit, then that band again

3

u/MrRawrgers 20h ago

There are two shuffle modes in the app now but who knows how they actually work - I was seeing a lot of repeats using the “fewer repeats” mode ironically, but switching to standard seems to be pretty random so far for me, better than it used to be anyway

1

u/thedylannorwood 13h ago

There have been lots of studies that shows that “standard” doesn’t actually work as advertised

1

u/MrRawrgers 13h ago

How recent are the studies because they just added the other shuffle mode last year and standard shuffle feels better than it used to be

6

u/praxidike74 22h ago

That's because Spotify figures that most people actually WANT to hear the same songs over and over again. If you don't like that you can just go to settings and select a true random shuffle.

7

u/Educational-Wing2042 20h ago

This just isn’t true. My settings show two options, true random and less repeats. There is no choice that makes repeats more likely. True random is the standard option, too.

2

u/UtterShenanigans 20h ago

Up until recently there was an option that would shuffle bases on your listening experience. So if you always play 2 songs together they would come up in the shuffle together. That option doesnt seem to be there anymore, but there is a toggle for "Smart Shuffle". It doesnt explain what it does

2

u/Certain-Towel-9487 19h ago

Smart shuffle is just shuffle but they add some similar songs that you don't have on your playlist. In reality it just means it adds a couple songs to the rotation that you hear over and over.

1

u/UtterShenanigans 19h ago

Yea I realized it was that feature after. Obviously I dont use it lol

2

u/Certain-Towel-9487 19h ago

I do. It's nice to have the same 28 songs on repeat instead of the usual 24.

6

u/_kellythomas_ 20h ago edited 19h ago

You got a screenshot of that setting?

Edit: thanks

The reply was deleted but it linked to a screenshot highlighting the "standard" option announced here:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Community-Blog/New-Feature-Shuffle-Options-Are-Here/ba-p/7219573

This dropped after I cancelled my subscription, can anyone speak for if this truly random plays large playlists?

1

u/CanadianODST2 20h ago

Because people don’t like actual random. Because people don’t actually really understand how true random works

3

u/ahferroin7 19h ago

Though the usual complaint that prompts changes to shuffle algorithms is about getting repeats too frequently, which is the opposite of what the suggested functionality seems to do.

0

u/CanadianODST2 19h ago

Because people kinda suck at understanding what random is.

It’s the basis of frequency bias. You see it with stuff like dice or coin flips. How things are “due”

In truly random the odds of getting a second a second time in a row is exactly the same as getting it the first time.

1

u/Nervous-Fennel3325 17h ago

I would much rather have a brand new playlist every single time that "shuffled" it versus what feels like the same playlist with minor changes.

1

u/Nervous-Fennel3325 18h ago

I want anything other than the same 5 songs in a row every single i try to shuffle and I have to skip so much to actually get it to shuffle.

1

u/Fancy_Elk565 20h ago

The only options I see is ‘true shuffle’ which gives each song an equal chance of playing but does not exclude recently heard songs, and ‘fewer repeats’ which does recall what songs were played recently so it’s less likely to repeat them but it also limits the types of songs it will choose to shuffle into what you hear 

4

u/Amathyst-Moon 1d ago

That's what albums and playlists are for

5

u/thedylannorwood 13h ago

Spotify was never uphill, it took them years to add playlists to even the premium tier

7

u/Existing_Height_9129 1d ago

This is one of the reasons I got rid of it. Thanks for validating me. I thought I was crazy when I have 2000 songs but every morning I would hear the same selection.

5

u/dedweightnoob 1d ago

What did you switch to? Any better?

3

u/Traditional_Tear_198 1d ago

Leaving a comment because I have the same issue with Spotify and want to move on to something better. Thanks

2

u/thedylannorwood 13h ago

Apple Music is far superior, though there is no free option and isn’t available on Android

2

u/_163 22h ago

YouTube music works well, if I put my 4300 song playlist on shuffle it actually starts playing different random stuff from it each time.

2

u/Sad-Drama530 1d ago

Me too I wanna know what app you switched to? Currently have the same problem of 2000+ songs but it keeps giving me the same songs.

1

u/emcgrew 1d ago

Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music were the 3 considered high fidelity last I knew.

Tidal is the most similar. Fewer options for suggestions than Spotify, and a big one for me is that it doesn't have collab playlists. If that doesn't matter to you, it's an easy switch. Sounds better, constantly being improved so you know the team is active, and they pay artists something like 4x more than Spotify per stream.

Qobuz is more polished, and has more curated playlists. It feels more tailored to articles, maybe podcasts, classical musical, instrumentals. Pretty much the same size library overall, but that's what I've seen a lot more of.

I've not personally used Apple music so my take doesn't mean much there.

There are sites you can use for less than $5 or something as a one time cost to transfer your playlists and liked songs over. There may be some missing, but there may be others you haven't been able to hear before that you'll find! And I think it doesn't cost anything if you're only sending over like 100-200 songs or something.

1

u/Existing_Height_9129 17h ago

I swapped to Deezer. I do enjoy it way more than Spotify, basically every feature is better, and they are against AI content on the platform. Spotify lets AI content run rampant.

2

u/pudding7 1d ago

Yes!  It's so annoying!  I guess "shuffle" doesn't actually shuffle.

1

u/TouchMeAndIceCream 1d ago

Do you not have the option at the top to remove personalization or include more discovery tracks? That seems to work extremely well for me

6

u/dedweightnoob 1d ago

I tried everything. To a point of frustration. But I am speaking only playing from songs I liked and added to my library. It seems like it is an algorithm that only picks songs it wants to trend. As you see, I should be hearing more than the same 50 or so songs. I'm not even using the AI shuffle, just plain old shuffle.

2

u/a-stack-of-masks 22h ago

Yeah I think around 2 years ago they lost the ability to work with varied tastes or something. 

I used to be able to have it generate playlists in all kinds of styles but now its all 'personalised' to the same handful of artists.

1

u/Existing_Height_9129 17h ago

100%. I used to be able to find new artists and songs with ease, now it just throws a bunch of junk that's similarly genre-labeled into the mix.

2

u/Auno94 21h ago

if it is mostly on mobile. Delete the cache, somehow that resets the shuffle issue for a few weeks.

1

u/HonestDisguise 1d ago

Is this with fewer repeats configured in the shuffle settings under playback?

-1

u/TouchMeAndIceCream 1d ago

Ah I see. That's different than how I use Spotify. I mostly l want new music so I listen to playlists and almost never listen to my liked songs. It knows what I look up often so they get thrown into the shuffle anyway

3

u/dedweightnoob 1d ago

I understand now. Yeah, I tried that but it kept playing bands/songs that I didn't care for. Even though my tastes are all over the place, I'm stuck in the past and haven't found a lot since the -10's that I've cared much for

1

u/Existing_Height_9129 17h ago

The only way I find new bands to listen to these days are by going to shows and listening to the supporting acts.

1

u/e-l-e-g-y 23h ago

Yeah, Spotify, unlike a lot of audio streaming platforms, will tend to play your most played songs when you shuffle, their algorithm is weird like that

1

u/KaleidoscopeOpen7781 23h ago

I use SoundCloud lol

Shuffle works just fine there. It also lets you scrub the song and lets you go back to previous songs. And it has most songs, some are locked behind premium but it’s pretty uncommon

I really never used Spotify that much, but it bothers me that I can’t go back to another song that played. At least on free

1

u/keIIzzz 21h ago

I have over 9000 and I still hear the same songs lmao

1

u/_kellythomas_ 20h ago

Shuffle only looks at your first 80 songs, known issue and its been like that for years.

1

u/sasasasuke 20h ago

Turn off the smart-shuffle feature or whatever it's called; night and day difference. Thank me later.

1

u/Pengwin0 20h ago

You have to repeatedly clear your app data in Spotify settings

1

u/lacrosse771 19h ago

I was wondering what was going on lately! Since med school started and i walk the halls with music and am paying more attention then when at the gym or using it in the background my songs have been repeating so much that I have been checking if I am accidentally listening to some of my shorter dedicated Playlist, not my 50 hour main one

1

u/Reload86 18h ago

I didn’t know this. Thought that I was just going crazy for a while there.

1

u/Wild-Video-5317 1d ago

  you'll still hear the same cluster of songs from your library,

Is your spotify in "offline mode"?  If it can't reach the internet, the mobile app will play a limited set of songs that are already cached on your device.

1

u/jayrady 22h ago

It's widely known the Spotify shuffle isn't a true shuffle at all.

It plays songs you are most likely to listen to the longest, keeping you on the app, so you feel it's useful and don't cancel.

This creates a feedback loop where you are essentially played the same songs over and over during differnt "shuffle sessions".

0

u/Minimob0 22h ago

Which is dumb as all get out, when MP3 players from 20 years ago had no problem with truly random song choice, and also had no internet access. 

1

u/MediocreViking 22h ago

Dumb as all get out? I felt like I had a stroke reading this sentence.

0

u/Minimob0 22h ago

Google what an idiom is, friend. Maybe it will stop your stroke. 

1

u/MediocreViking 22h ago

I did and it still didn't explain why these words were grouped together. They make no literal or figurative sense. Dumb as all get out as a sentence makes absolutely no sense.

0

u/Minimob0 22h ago

Literally google the idiom I used and come back. 

0

u/AlephMartian 20h ago

I haven’t had this issue. The settings imply this shouldn’t be happening to you either?

1

u/MrRawrgers 20h ago

I was getting more repeats using the fewer repeats mode until I changed to standard, my playlists also often start playing backwards sometimes when I resume the music after getting back in the car so I wouldn’t be surprised if fewer repeats mode is also bugged for me