4 ms·
I actually tested the random distribution of Spotify's shuffle functionality: http://michaelmcmillan.net http://michaelmcmillan.net
by michaelmcmillan 9y ago
I actually tested the random distribution of Spotify's shuffle functionality: http://michaelmcmillan.net http://michaelmcmillan.net
- Jackim 9y agoI appreciate the simplicity of your site but it is definitely difficult to quickly see where one post ends and another one starts.
- RugnirViking 9y agoOn your website you put a source mark on the statement 'This is the same reason the Brits mistakenly assumed that the Germans had an exceptionally good aim with their V-1 flying bombs during World War II ' I'd like to read about this, do you still have the intended link?
- feider 9y agoThinking fast & slow by D.Kahneman mentioned this same story
- michaelmcmillan 9y agohttps://www.wired.com/2012/12/what-does-randomness-look-like/ https://www.wired.com/2012/12/what-does-randomness-look-like...
- wodenokoto 9y agoI have a theory that Spotify doesn't do random shuffling, but weighted shuffling, so that new items are more likely to be at the top of a shuffle (or maybe even popular items). I also believe that this will satisfy users better than true random shuffling. About your linked post: You don't test the randomness of the shuffling, you only test if a shuffled list contain one and only of each original item.
- c3534l 9y agoSpotify officially says it's not random.
- surement 9y ago>I have a theory that Spotify doesn't do random shuffling, but weighted shuffling, so that new items are more likely to be at the top of a shuffle Amazon Music does this and it annoys me. Just because I added something a while ago doesn't mean I want to hear it less.
- lwansbrough 9y agoSpotify's shuffling is most certainly not random. Every once in a while I get a bug where it simply shuffles through various songs from 4-5 albums and will never pick songs outside that set. Restarting the app corrects the behaviour. To me that's some level of proof, because the songs are all there. So what's the algorithm really doing?
- fhood 9y agoI get this as well, and I think it gets worse the larger the playlist. It really makes me miss itunes' shuffling algorithms.
- ganonm 9y agoSpotify wrote a brilliant blog post on this. Highly recommend reading. https://labs.spotify.com/2014/02/28/how-to-shuffle-songs/ https://labs.spotify.com/2014/02/28/how-to-shuffle-songs/
- gt565k 9y agoAs it is apparent from the comments, most people want the playlists shuffled, but after a song is played, it is taken out of the set that's to be shuffled. So a song is never repeated.
- hoschicz 9y agoRead the blog post, what you their feedback was about is the same artist playing for too long.
- GrantSolar 9y agoFrom anecdotal evidence, I understand that the algorithm has since been changed