I’m ready for downvotes but I use Apple Music and it plays me new music all the time. And if it repeats a song I just say suggest less and it goes away. I play my station and it’s a nice mix of music I like and new stuff.

I have the same gripe with Spotify, you dare like a song and that's all you get over and over.

I really miss Google Play Music!

Same gripe. I recently requested all my data from Spotify, scraped play counts out of it (thanks for not providing that in the API) and made a playlist of my liked songs in ascending play count order. Shuffling that, I'm hearing songs I love which I haven't heard in years. Sucks that it takes so much effort

I have been using https://spotifyshuffler.com/. This allows you to create a shuffled version of your playlist, then you play through that version once with Spotify's shuffling disabled.

Is it weird that I don't use any of these streaming services and just use my own library via FTP (if I'm not at home)?

It seems most people are complaining about when Spotify plays random stuff it thinks you like, but I'm having the same issue with my actual created playlist. I've carefully gathered and downloaded all my favorite songs into a playlist that has about 3 days worth of music on it... Yet it plays the same 100-200 or so songs no matter what, even on shuffle. I'm pretty sure most songs in this list have never been played. Very irritating

I use Tidal and it shares the same problem, especially if you are using it in drive mode in your car (Android Auto). I guess they do it to minimize data transmission costs by buffering your favorite songs on your device, but it annoys the hell out of me.

Also, Tidal has a Hip-hop/Rap bias that I was unable to remove after some 2 years of using it. I don't have a single song from those genres in my favorites or playlists, but it will suggest them all the same. I will block the artists and they will pop up on the new releases page.

Regarding music quality it is miles ahead of Spotify. I don't know if Spotify has finally released an hi-fi/lossless tier, but at the time Tidal was unmatched. After listening to Tidal hi-fi I could not go back to Spotify's mungled up audio.

I've set up my Spotify to tell Last.fm what songs I listen to (aka scrobble). Over time, Last.fm gets a pretty good idea of what songs you like, so when I wanna discover new songs, I go to Last.fm, ask it to play me a mix, and direct it to play the songs through my Spotify. I find that its recommendations are much better than what I get from using Spotify alone.

One of the main reasons I stuck with YouTube Music is that I find the algorhitms superior to spotify. Maybe this is placebo, but I think between the 7 mixes + discovery + artist / song radio I always have something that does not feel the same, and I feel like any intentionally searched listening updates the mixes fairly quickly.

This wasn't what you asked for, but I have to add it in here: I switched to YouTube music because I was told the shuffle actually was random there. From my experience the past couple of months it seems to be the case, at the very least it's better. But discovering new music (without putting in much effort) has been harder. Their playlist sorting is non-existent (you're stuck with alphabetic order, no folders). And for some idiotic reason the playlists are shared with YouTube... Everything with it, except for its working shuffle, is horrendous.

How the fuck can Spotify just not have a true fucking random shuffle, it's so annoying! It does everything else fairly well, but I'm not switching back to starting a playlist of 8+ hrs and getting a recognizable pattern depending on what I skip and don't. Or whatever goddamn algorithm they think is better than /dev/urandom.

This gave me hope for a while, but I've now given up: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/All-Platforms-Option-to-have-a-true-shuffle/idi-p/4880594/page/103#comments

I don't seem to have this problem. I create playlists all the time and shuffle them. I never listen to artist radio and rarely use suggested songs. I find a lot of great music through Spotify and end up finding so many bands that I can't listen to them all.

YouTube Music is what I use. You can start a radio from a song, and it’ll play new music. You can also change the Up Next to different styles if you want familiar or new music.

I’ve been using Deezer for a while and I like its variety. They have a “Flow” button where you can let it play random music with favorites mixed in, but you can also select a “mood” (like Focus, Party, Chill, and others) or genres (like R&B, Alternative, Rock, and others). You can also have Flow lean more towards new music or already favorited tracks, but that’s been inconsistent for me in the past where sometimes it’ll only play my favorited songs when I chose to listen to new music or vice versa.

I’ve discovered a lot of new songs and artists by letting Flow do its thing on my drive to and from work. Although, sometimes Flow gets stuck in a certain style of music, like playing back-to-back-to-back Golden Oldies, and it’s frustrating trying to get it to play anything else without manually selecting a genre or mood each time you launch the app. That’s a small gripe because the variety is typically good, with favorites mixed in.

On Android install InnerTune from F-Droid. Allows you to play Youtube Music for free and no ads.

I've been having the same issue. Then I saw a meme implying it's laziness is a caching issue? I'm going to try clearing the cache daily (or more often if I am using it a lot) and seeing if that helps Spotify be more spontaneous

https://www.radio-browser.info/

Many, many streaming radio stations from all over the world (some over-the-air, some internet only). Open database, so there's apps for just about everything.

I don't suppose you've tried the "DJ" feature? It's usually pretty good for me, but of course your mileage may vary.

I've run into the same problem of the shuffle (and "smart" shuffle) just plays the exact same thing all the time, even in a playlist with thousands of songs. Tried out YouTube music for a while, and it's not much better. So I'll be interested in what others say here.

The best one for me a long time ago was Pandora - for some reason I was under the impression they weren't around anymore, but it looks like they are. But, I don't know if they are still as great as they were back then.

I think this article can help you https://www.newvisiontheatres.com/spotify-shuffle-plays-same-songs

Pandora sort of has some of that but not so far in depth. You can customize with crowd favorite songs or hits or deep cuts or discovery. Their library is much smaller though, and you’re stuck in a genre based on the station for the most part.

Don't read unless you remember what burning a CD was or if you want a viable answer

Shuffle no repeat on my 60 gb ipod classic. Also shuffle no repeat using VLC for android on my phone.