- Spotify is adding a Fewer Repeats shuffle mode
- Premium users can still switch back to Standard
- Smart Shuffle become optional earlier this year
Spotify’s shuffle function, it’s fair to say, has been a bit of a mess up to this point: we’ve had algorithms that bring too many repeats, we’ve had a Smart Shuffle feature that introduces songs not actually in the playlist, and now Spotify is changing up shuffle again.
The new default shuffle mode – previously just called Standard – is changing to become known as Fewer Repeats. It doesn’t take too much detective work to figure out that you should hear fewer repeated songs with this mode enabled.
If you’re a Premium subscriber, you can go back to the Standard shuffle mode if you prefer it. Under Playback on the settings screen in the Spotify app, there’s a new option to choose Fewer Repeats or Standard.
“More randomness in your playlist can mean hearing the same tracks more often,” says Spotify. “That’s why we recommend sticking with the Fewer Repeats default, which is designed to keep your listening experience more varied and engaging.”
Unnecessarily complicated?
We first got a hint about this new functionality back in September, when code hidden in the Spotify app pointed towards a new shuffle mode that would serve up fewer repeats – which is exactly what we now have.
That followed Spotify giving Premium users the option to turn off Smart Shuffle, earlier in the year. Smart Shuffle was introduced in 2023, but plenty of users didn’t appreciate the way it inserted songs that weren’t in the current playlist at all.
I must admit to never having dug too deeply into the various Spotify shuffle algorithms, because even though I’m a Premium subscriber, I tend to listen to entire albums from the start to the end – in the order the artist intended.
However, it seems that Spotify is continuing to make shuffle unnecessarily complicated: shouldn’t it just cycle through every song in a playlist, in a random order? That way each track should get the same amount of airtime.
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