The Reason Why Spotify’s Shuffle Isn’t Actually Random (and How to Fix It)
I can listen to Taylor Swift’s Midnights on repeat this month, but I like to shuffle well, just like everyone else. It’s a great way to rediscover the music in your library that you haven’t been listening to in the heat of the moment. Sometimes it’s nice to sit back, relax, and let the odds take over.
However, if you frequently switch to Spotify, you may find something strange. Spotify’s shuffling doesn’t feel completely random. In fact, they seem to be more curated than anything else. Instead of listening to a mixture of songs, you can listen to similar if not the same songs over and over again. What gives?
As it turns out, Spotify deliberately puts a finger on the play bar in random order. In his opinion, shuffling should be seamless. He doesn’t like it when completely different songs bump into each other. Instead, he believes that songs should be similar and blend into each other. It essentially works like a digital DJ, so you’ll never be subjected to abrupt transitions from one song to the next.
In some cases, this is welcome. Of course, it sounds good when the songs are similar in a row. But most of us use the random play feature because we want random songs to play. The intentional selection of only songs that fit together means that there are many tracks that will never see the light of day, and other songs are played much more frequently.
Another problem is that this feature is enabled by default: you will try to use random play, thinking that Spotify will randomize your playlists, not realizing that the game was rigged from the start.
How to make Spotify randomly shuffle music
To solve this problem, you need to disable the related feature: Automix. On an iPhone or Android, go to the app’s settings, then select Playback. On the desktop, click on your profile, then select Settings. On all platforms, tap the switch next to Automix to turn it off.
If you find yourself missing Spotify DJ, you can always turn automix back on by following the steps above. After all, randomness is really random. You never know what will play.