Request for feedback: Shuffle

Ben,

I recently installed this beta version as my first participation in public beta.  I've been using SONOS for more than four years and sent to SONOS my first complaint about shuffle performance more than three years ago.  Personally, I'm pretty pleased with the shuffle enhancement.  Operation is not fully intuitive, but it's pretty good and intuitiveness is helped a lot by the visibility of the shuffled order in the queue.  Thank you for getting this done.

One further revision that I suggest is that functionality of the key to advance to the next track now needs to be changed to advance to the next track in the queue, regardless of whether it is a shuffled queue or a non-shuffled queue.  Right now, when the "shuffle" mode is selected, when one attempts to advance to the next track, play skips to a pseudo-random location in the queue that looks like a residual response of the old shuffle program.  Seems to me it should now advance to the next track displayed in the queue, whether that is a shuffled queue or a non-shuffled queue.  It looks like the old shuffle program feature is messing up the new shuffle feature.

I've also submitted this suggestion via your beta feedback page.


Thanks John! Will look into this.

I have just submitted some beta feedback on one thing that really annoys me.  Here is the scenario.

1.  I create or load a playlist and hit shuffle.  (The visibility of this shuffle is now great btw).

2.  A while later, I want to switch to Radio so I hit pause on the queue and listen to radio.

3. When I want to go back to my shuffled playlist.  The playlist is still in the queue but it is not paused on the position I left it in.  So I end up having to guess where I was.  Which is a pain!!

Hope this can be addressed.

Ben - please don't be too hasty in "have the team deselect shuffle when the queue is cleared." Will this apply on when clearing the queue manually or also replacing the queue with new music ? I might well wish to replace the queue but have the new tracks still shuffle without having to press shuffle button again - especially since I have to listen to that first track again !! I think the best option is as Jason suggests which is both a 'shuffle and replace' option in addition to a straight 'replace without shuffle'

How about just hit forward button to next tack.

Jason - thanks for taking time to describe your daily use. It's helpful. I will have the team deselect shuffle when the queue is cleared. This only makes sense. Nick/Jason - On continuing to play the track that is playing, this is one were reasonable people will disagree on the desired behavior. I respect both POVs. For us at Sonos, it's a principle that music never drops or stops, so have an chosen to keep playing the playing track when the queue is shuffled and unshuffled.

Just to clarify one of the challenges I have with the current system (though I like many aspects of the new shuffle), let me run you through a sample of my real world usage yesterday.  After listening to the news for a while on a TuneIn station (so not utilizing the queue), I wanted to listed to a random mix of some music from a particular genre.  I click to replace the queue with all tracks from that genre, but the player was not set to shuffle, so it begins with the first song in the first album in that genre.  I click over to the player part, click the queue, then click shuffle, then click fast forward to switch over to a new track (having heard that first track too many times already since it always used to start there).  At this point it's working great.  Then my wife comes home from a long day at work, and so we want to switch over to listening to a string quartet album.  I replace the queue with the album we want, except that now it begins playing that in a randomly shuffled order, so I click over to the player, click the queue, turn off the shuffle, then start it playing again from the first track on the album. 
What would be terrific is if there was a "Shuffle and replace queue" item that turned on the shuffle at the time you add the tracks to the queue, while "Replace queue" would replace the queue with the album/tracks/whatever in order with shuffle turned off.  "Add to queue..." would maintain whatever shuffle status currently exists on the player (Allowing me to listen to another string quartet after this one, or to add some more shuffled tunes to my current shuffle).

After sign up beta go into current desktop app and check for updates.

Not just you Jay, I can only see the Android version as well in the Sonos Beta Download section.....Ben,  is there a Windows or iOS version please?

FYI - Turns out I was wrong on one detail here. When you add tracks to an already shuffled queue , they will be shuffled in the order using a mini-card shuffle. They are not added to the end.

User35102 it is a public beta. All you do is sign up in your account online.

That's good news Ben! I was wondering what changes were made to the algorithm, and I personally like the new shuffled queue view much better! Visual confirmation of a real shuffle. I hope in the future many more of the forum ideas are implemented, there are so many simple requests like these that shouldn't be that difficult to do. In the meantime, thanks for the shuffle update, it's much better now! (needs album art tho...)

Hello, We just rolled out the Public Beta of our next update and it includes an overhaul of shuffle. Most notably, we made it so that you can see the shuffled and reshuffled order of the queue by selecting, deselecting, and reselecting the shuffle option. The shuffle algorithm is a standard card deck shuffle with the exception of the currently playing track which keeps playing as the first track in the shuffled order. New tracks added post-shuffle are appended to the queue. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say through the Beta. I also want you know that we fully acknowledge that the shuffle experience has been a broken experience for some time. It's our fault for not being more responsive. While we might not get every individual’s desired behavior for shuffle into this release, we have heard loud and clear that shuffle is an important part of the ultimate home music experience and we are committed to making it better for you. Thanks! Ben Smith

Updated Shuffle Play has been announced in Public Beta 5.4