Ask HN: How random you think Spotify(or companies with user data) is?

2 points by log101 3y ago ↗ HN

Hi HN, I have a question! As you know you can listen Spotify playlists in a "random" order. I've been wondering about this lately and I don't think there's any chance that these randomizers are implemented using regular rand() functions. Do you have any experience/idea on how these random functions are implemented in companies that have massive user data? What factors they take into account?

3 comments

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r721 3y ago ↗

Here is related Spotify Engineering blog post from 2014:

>How to shuffle songs?

https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/02/how-to-shuffle-son...

mtmail 3y ago ↗

It's knows not be true random "It doesn’t like songs that are totally different bumping up against one another" and users wouldn't like if the same song is played twice in a row regardless how logical that would be with rand().

https://lifehacker.com/the-reason-spotify-shuffles-aren-t-re...

https://medium.com/immensity/how-spotifys-shuffle-algorithm-...

Raed667 3y ago ↗

Even since the iPod, it was found that people don't really want real randomness when they shuffle their music.