Is Spotify’s shuffle actually random? User finds 72-song repeating sequence
If you have ever felt like Spotify’s shuffle feature is just cycling through the same handful of tracks on repeat, you are certainly not alone. Users have spent years venting their frustrations about…
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If you have ever felt like Spotify’s shuffle feature is just cycling through the same handful of tracks on repeat, you are certainly not alone. Users have spent years venting their frustrations about Spotify’s shuffle algorithm , frequently questioning whether the system is truly randomized or simply running your favorites through an endless echo chamber. While listener complaints are usually dismissed as mere confirmation bias, one user went down a data rabbit hole to prove that the music streaming giant’s playback queue might actually be serving up exact clones of previously heard playlists.
Reddit user Driftking_88 claims to have tracked their listening history across a 2,000-song playlist after noticing they could reliably predict upcoming tracks. By pulling their extended streaming history and cross-referencing timestamps, track IDs, playlist context, and other data, the user discovered an exact 72-song sequence that played twice in the same order on consecutive days. The user also reported observing smaller repeated blocks, including an instance in which 27 of 30 upcoming songs matched an earlier queue.
Surprisingly and crucially, the repetition occurred despite having Spotify’s “Fewer Repeats” toggle switched on and without switching devices or playlists.
Other users on Reddit echo the frustration, pointing to an ongoing problem in which playback enters an algorithmic loop, endlessly prioritizing a tiny sliver of artists and tracks while neglecting the rest of the large libraries.
The finding suggests Spotify might be either caching queues more aggressively than it should, or reusing shuffle seeds instead of genuinely re-randomizing playlists each session. It is another annoyance in a list of playback quirks that have previously led listeners to disable Smart Shuffle entirely to regain control.
Whatever the reason for this not-so-random behavior, serving an identical 72-song block from a multi-thousand-track library suggests that Spotify’s shuffle system is due for a tune-up once again. Maybe the company can also finally fix those Android app issues alongside, though I wouldn’t advise you to hold your breath for either.
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