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

Question

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?

r721 · Accepted Answer

Here is related Spotify Engineering blog post from 2014:>How to shuffle songs?https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/02/how-to-shuffle-son...

mtmail · Answer

It's knows not be true random "It doesn&rsquo;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 · Answer

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