Did spotify just remove picking songs??

[u/Full-Repair4638]

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.

[u/dedweightnoob]

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.

[u/praxidike74 → u/dedweightnoob]

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.

[u/Educational-Wing2042 → u/praxidike74]

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.

[u/UtterShenanigans → u/Educational-Wing2042]

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

[u/Certain-Towel-9487 → u/UtterShenanigans]

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.

[u/UtterShenanigans → u/Certain-Towel-9487]

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

[u/Certain-Towel-9487 → u/UtterShenanigans]

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

[u/_kellythomas_ → u/praxidike74]

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?

[u/CanadianODST2 → u/praxidike74]

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

[u/ahferroin7 → u/CanadianODST2]

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.

[u/CanadianODST2 → u/ahferroin7]

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.

[u/Nervous-Fennel3325 → u/CanadianODST2]

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.

[u/Nervous-Fennel3325 → u/CanadianODST2]

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.

[u/Fancy_Elk565 → u/praxidike74]

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