Shuffle mode is USELESS

My conspiracy theory is pretty wild, and based on ignorance, admittedly.  However, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that some tracks have lower royalties than others.  I would guess, and I stress the word guess, that songs  that are out of copyright are cheaper, and I do have a lot of old blues songs in my playlist.  I don’t know how the music industry works, but I suspect that it is complicated, and I have to doubt that songs from Taylor Swift’s new album cost Deezer the same as an obscure indie tune.  I could be wrong.  It’s possible that Swift is paid less per song, in order too enhance her revenue, and encourage streamers to serve up her music.  All I know, as a former IT guy, is that Deezer is not implementing something that should be trivial, just randomly selecting tunes instead of curating them.  They choose not to divulge why, so I’m left with conspiracies.

But thank you for the respectful response, and I may try your suggestion, to see if that helps, though it sounds like it might be a ton of mouse clicks to accomplish.  The other suggestion I have seen, is to export the playlist to a third party site that will randomize it, and then upload the playlist to Deezer again.  That also sounds like a lot of work, for something that is meant to be pleasurable, but I may also give that a try.  My hope would be that Deezer would give us that option in an automated way, so i could periodically randomize the order and avoid that shuffle feature entirely.

Some more feedback, in case I’m not the only person for whom the shuffle mode with playlists is completely broken.  ChatGPT led me down a rabbit hole to use the Deezer API connection to automate resorting my playlist.  According to ChatGPT (I know, not completely reliable) Deezer no long makes the key available to use in a python script.  OK, maybe for good reasons, maybe not.  So, I investigated a third party tool that allows me to download, sort, and upload a Deezer playlist.  This actually works, though the free version of the tool only allows up to 500 tracks.

For me, the best option is to split my playlist into chunks smaller than 500 tracks, sort, and upload to Deezer.   I will have to do this fairly frequently, when I get tired of hearing the first tracks every time I access the playlist (yes, shuffle is still broken, even on the smaller playlists).  This is a pain, and Deezer could, and should, make it unnecessary.

It is true that Deezer is not alone in this perverse version of “shuffle”.  Amazon music and Spotify both have similar disfunction.  The motivation of the streaming platforms have for doing this is difficult for me to understand.  If anyone knows of a music service that doesn’t try  to curate my playlists in shuffle mode, please respond.

​@Jim Gallagher I have tried, literally, every single streaming service out there and it seems to be an issue with all of them.

I’m starting to think it’s a technical limitation of some sort that we as humankind have been unable to overcome. Perhaps when our robot overlords take charge, they will grace us with a true shuffle function for the streaming services (that are now listenable via our cranial implants).

Yes, we can but comply, and pray for mercy!😝

Update #2, should anyone care:  ChatGPT directed me to Steve Aleong’s website (search for “Steven Aleong Deezer Randomizer”).  His Deezer randomizer will permanently resequence your playlist.  Then you just play the playlist, not in the infuriating shuffle mode, and you will get a truly random track selection.  You have to randomize periodically, but that is a quick and painless process.  I can’t resist the snark of mentioning that Deezer could implement this option on its desktop site. Might take an afternoon.