Spotify to Separate Play and Shuffle Buttons for Premium Subscribers

[MacRumors]

Spotify is separating its play and shuffle buttons for paying subscribers, the streaming service has announced.

Currently, the Spotify interface uses a combined play and shuffle button at the top of playlists and artist pages, so the change should make things simpler for Premium customers who prefer to listen to songs in the order they are listed.

Writing in a blog post, the company said the individual play and shuffle buttons would be rolling out on iOS and Android devices for Spotify subscribers worldwide over the coming weeks.

This new change will allow you to choose the mode you prefer at the top of playlists and albums and listen the way you want to. Whether you love the joy of the unexpected with Shuffle mode, or prefer listening to tunes in order by simply pressing Play, Spotify has you covered.

Spotify has received criticism in the past for its penchant for shuffling tracks, not just from users, but also artists frustrated that their albums are not being experienced in their proper running order.

Following the release of "30" by Adele last November, the singer thanked Spotify for removing the shuffle button as the default option when playing albums. Artists "don't create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason," she tweeted. "Thank you Spotify for listening."

Article Link: Spotify to Separate Play and Shuffle Buttons for Premium Subscribers

 

[dantracht]

Ooooo how exciting. Apple Music all the way for me. I gave up Spotify last year.

 

[incoherent_1]

Never understood this design choice to begin with, but glad it's finally done.

 

[orbital~debris]

Wait, what?

They are making a song & dance (no pun intended) about adding basic functionality?!

 

[contacos]

I did not even notice that it was one button and I use Spotify daily lol

 

[Berti10]

A chronological timeline, how innovative…*rollseyes*

 

[dannys1]

"We decided that chronological playing of the album as the original artist intended was old fashioned and used an algorithm to decide the order of the tracks for you instead"

 

[chkay]

Wait, what?

They are making a song & dance (no pun intended) about adding basic functionality?!

Theres no functionality being added, its a UI tweak.

 

[pvinesy]

Never understood this design choice to begin with, but glad it's finally done.

I guess the idea came from old stereos where one bottom toggled between shuffle, play in order and repeat song.

 

[kirky29]

Does anybody else find (with both Spotify and Apple Music) shuffle mode seems to be crap, it always feels like it just plays the same 20 songs on loop. My main playlist has 800 songs in yet it's always the same ones played. Maybe it's just in my head!

 

[krspkbl]

i don't get what this means...

that image shows that the shuffle and play buttons are seperate and that's what it looks like in Spotify for me right now... so WTF are they doing?

this is what it looks like for me on iOS... so i already have this change? i'm sure it's been like that forever... or am i being dumb and missing something here?

 

[Wokis]

Hmm never thought of it. I usually start my playlists by tapping/clicking the first song and then it doesn't shuffle.

 

[krspkbl]

Ooooo how exciting. Apple Music all the way for me. I gave up Spotify last year.

i would give up Spotify if Apple bothered their ass to make a proper modern Apple Music app for Windows. iTunes/Web player doesn't count.

 

[arkitect]

Does anybody else find (with both Spotify and Apple Music) shuffle mode seems to be crap, it always feels like it just plays the same 20 songs on loop. My main playlist has 800 songs in yet it's always the same ones played. Maybe it's just in my head!

I had the same suspicion when I used iTunes and now Apple Music on MacOS…

I still think they only shuffle the same 20 or so songs! 🤣

 

[contacos]

Does anybody else find (with both Spotify and Apple Music) shuffle mode seems to be crap, it always feels like it just plays the same 20 songs on loop. My main playlist has 800 songs in yet it's always the same ones played. Maybe it's just in my head!

yes, I feel like every time I start shuffle, it starts with the same songs "shuffled" in the same order from the beginning.

 

[No5tromo]

Does anybody else find (with both Spotify and Apple Music) shuffle mode seems to be crap, it always feels like it just plays the same 20 songs on loop. My main playlist has 800 songs in yet it's always the same ones played. Maybe it's just in my head!

I've also noticed that it will often pick the same "shuffled" order when you play a playlist, I don't know what shuffling algorithm they use but I second that it's pretty lame.

On a similar note, their radio or "auto-complete" playlist feature is also pretty terrible, it can suggest folk music out of a synthwave playlist.

Before jumping to Spotify I was using Napster (marketed as "Rhapsody" in some markets) and they had a much better software engine that matched the correct music style, it would even have a relevance scale which you could tweak to tell it how much it is allowed to deviate from the style of the playlist.

Unfortunately, it wasn't offering a desktop app for a long time (it does now), had less pre-made playlists to discover from, it was prone to bugs and slow on updates. It's a shame really cause I think they have a more robust service at its core but not the budget that Spotify has to push it further. I might be giving it another chance though cause there have been changes since last time I used it.

 

[pauloregan]

Apple Carplay needs a similar update. When you go to library > artist to play your favourite songs from that artist there is only a shuffle button.

 

[StoneJack]

Does anybody else find (with both Spotify and Apple Music) shuffle mode seems to be crap, it always feels like it just plays the same 20 songs on loop. My main playlist has 800 songs in yet it's always the same ones played. Maybe it's just in my head!

you need to reboot lol

 

[StoneJack]

yes, I feel like every time I start shuffle, it starts with the same songs "shuffled" in the same order from the beginning.

thats the algorithm, obviously Apple Music's only one lol

 

[alexe]

Great, now all they need is a proper shuffle function that actually plays all songs in random order with each song being played exactly once, as the word "shuffle" would imply, instead of whatever weird BS their shuffle function is doing.

 

[XXPP]

Spotify is a joke.

 

[grouch]

I like that Spotify sometimes listens to their community.. except when it comes to HiFi.

 

[krspkbl]

Spotify is a joke.

i'd be happy to move to Apple Music but it's not a good as Spotify. music discovery is better on Spotify by a mile. AM also lacks some features like auto play after music ends. I gave Apple Music a shot (still got the free trial) and it was annoying having to go back into the app to to start music again.

also, the biggest issue for me is that there is no proper way to listen to it on Windows. I'm not using iTunes lmfao and the web player is a broken buggy mess which constantly logs me out, regularly doesn't play songs when i click them, and just generally feels so slow to navigate. I did try using Apple Music Cider which is probably the best way to listen to AM on PC but it's run by trashy people and the app is very buggy still.

i know some will be like "just get a Mac duh!" but if Apple wants to be a true competitor to Spotify and get more subscribers they will need to start taking Windows seriously. It is significantly larger market share than MacOS and they are missing out on a lot of money. i mean, they decided to release AM on Android.

I decided to go back to Spotify because it doesn't make sense for me to have Apple Music on my iPhone/iPad and Spotify on PC. Spotify works brilliant across any device and it's Apple loss. I'd be happy to jump on the Apple One sub but nah they need to do better.

 

[Logamaniac]

Does anybody else find (with both Spotify and Apple Music) shuffle mode seems to be crap, it always feels like it just plays the same 20 songs on loop. My main playlist has 800 songs in yet it's always the same ones played. Maybe it's just in my head!

I’ve always assumed it accounts for royalty payments, establishing a preference for the lowest cost.

 

[tweaknmod]

i'd be happy to move to Apple Music but it's not a good as Spotify. music discovery is better on Spotify by a mile. AM also lacks some features like auto play after music ends. I gave Apple Music a shot (still got the free trial) and it was annoying having to go back into the app to to start music again.

Music discovery was the primary reason for my move to Spotify, and I've been loving it ever since.

This is a perfect example of why competition is good. If Apple ups their game in the music discovery algorithm area, I might give it another shot.

The same could be said for improving Siri - if they did, I'd give their speakers another shot. As it stands now, the Google assistant, and a few nest minis are far more effective than Siri and the Homepods I tried for a couple of weeks.

I am an absolute Apple fan, but I hold zero loyalty to any corporation. I go where the products and services suit me best.

Want me back? Do better.