Ipod Classic's "Shuffle Songs" feature is not random at all..same artists often

[Siciliano611]

I have had my 120gb ipod classic for nearly 2 years now and I have been realizing for a while that when I use the "shuffle songs" feature it basically cycles through the same artist's songs everytime. I searched on this a lot last night and saw many others have the same problem, is there any good solution to this? Would restoring the ipod and putting all 12k of my songs back on it do anything? Thanks in advance....

[MrChurchyard]

I have had my 120gb ipod classic for nearly 2 years now and I have been realizing for a while that when I use the "shuffle songs" feature it basically cycles through the same artist's songs everytime. I searched on this a lot last night and saw many others have the same problem, is there any good solution to this? Would restoring the ipod and putting all 12k of my songs back on it do anything? Thanks in advance....

Haven't used a Classic in years, but the shuffle feature shuffles through the songs of the current selection, or not? So if you invoke it from the all songs overview of an artist, it will obviously shuffle through those only.

[Siciliano611]

No I mean the shuffle songs feature...the same artists basically show up a lot, and certain ones i havent heard through shuffle in a LONG LONG time....doesn't seem random is too random

[vettefanZR1]

No I mean the shuffle songs feature...the same artists basically show up a lot, and certain ones i havent heard through shuffle in a LONG LONG time....doesn't seem random is too random

The same artists show up a lot because it is random. Random means exactly that: at any given time, every song has an equal percent chance of being played next. I would assume you just need to keep shuffling. I mean, if you got one song from every artist, that wouldn't be random, now would it?

[dvince2]

I've noticed this on a lot of iPod models...
I understand how random works... but the probability of drawing the only two songs by the same artists in my library back to back repeatedly is ridiculously small...

[Alan64]

Do you rate your songs? I think there's a setting option that causes higher-rated songs to be played more often.

[Fuzzy14]

Where does it say that shuffle is random?

I find my Classic will also go through a phase, one day it will play several Rolling Stones songs but not consecutively. Other days it will do it with another artist. Like Alan64 said, my higher rated songs get played more.

Not sure what algorithm is at work but it isn't quite random.

[decafjava]

Can the classic do smartlists?

[combatcolin]

I had a 3rd gen iPod for years.

Have most of Queens catalogue.

Did they ever turn up when playing random songs?...

[toypadlock]

it's cognitive bias. you notice when two songs by the same artist play, you don't when they don't.

sorry, shuffle *is* random, you are not.

[combatcolin]

it's cognitive bias. you notice when two songs by the same artist play, you don't when they don't.

sorry, shuffle *is* random, you are not.

I also own a bucket load of Stones albums, and they were on every other song.

[koruki]

I wonder who is better at being random, your human brain or a computer... :rolleyes:

[iEvolution]

If it really bothers you, restore seems to "reset" whatever algorithm apple uses. I do agree that the iPod tends to favor songs after a few weeks of using it and I'm pretty sure if you are using the rating system that it tends to favor higher rated songs.

Alternatively you could fix this issue by creating a smart playlist that follows these rules:
Last Played - is not in the last - 2 weeks (or whatever date you want)

[alamein]

Higher rated and most played songs almost always get played when in shuffle mode. Also, I noticed that my iPod plays songs from the same artist a lot, especially if there are many songs under that one artist.

[caspersoong]

Does not seem to be the case on my iPod touch and my friend's old iPod classic.