How much of your listening is in shuffle? poll

zero to ten. Shuffle just causes me to completely zone out on the music.

I'm more or less the same way - I tend to prefer to listen to albums, or at least deliberately sequenced playlists (that, incidentally, tend to be 30-50 minutes long aka, album length.)

I listen to shuffle a bit more, though, mostly to find stuff I've forgotten about. The most annoying thing about shuffle is hearing an out-of-context movement of a longish classical piece.

so, 20-30, maybe.

0% I never use this function.

My selection on my mp3 player is far too random. I wouldn't want to hear a nice Ravel piece segue into some Photek slasher.

Never.

0%

i don't really get why anyone would ever do this, maybe if i was crazy bored and in one of those i-hate-all-my-music type moods trying to find something new, but even then there are better ways

oilyrags, most media players make it very easy to create playlists that will come up with 'forgotten' tunes. even in itunes, a simple 'haven't listened to in >3 months' + 'listened to more than once' will do the trick well enough

These days, once I hear an album in its proper order a few times, I usually start playing it in shuffle. Sometimes really soon, sometimes much later, depending on how much I like or dislike the running order, or if there's some stretch of songs I really don't like hearing all in a row. Plus I'll put a certain genre or playlist on shuffle a lot too. So i'll say 50-60% .

lucas - I'm sure that's true, but it doesn't take into account how very, very lazy I am.

71%-80%

I'm usually listening while driving and I can't really flip through songs. I'll usually just hit next until I find something I like. If it's a really long drive, when I find something I like, I'll listen to the album. I usually download tons of stuff, and shuffle is how I really discover it.

uh like what? i've been shuffling more and more as i fill up an 80 gig ipod because scrolling through everything is starting to be a real pain and i listen in my car a lot. true making a playlist and shuffling through that is more likely to turn up what i haven't heard, but that's even more scrolling. i'll probably use shuffle less once i find my usb cable and can work out what i haven't heard and line it all up. plus its nice to hear something without knowing what it is and what it's "supposed" to sound like.

xxxxpost

that sounded more defensive than i wanted it to. mainly i'm just lazy :)

0-10%. I got an iPod for Christmas, so that will probably change. As is, 90% or so of my music is on CD, not very conducive to shuffling.

And usually when I listen to mp3s on my computer I search out the specific tracks/albums I feel like listening to at the moment rather than letting chance dictate.

thanks to digitizing of music/vinyl collection in temporary storage (sad), 80%. Not actually terribly happy about that, but it's true.

0-10%. Unless you count my DJ gigs. Then I guess it's all in "analog shuffle" mode.

I'm definitely an album / CD person, but occasionally when I'm in the office / backroom and working on the computer / browsing the net, I'll whack iTunes on random play. Since we moved I barely ever use the iPod anymore. I have a CD player in this room too, which gets used if I'm reading (I stick some ambient on, Stars Of The Lid or Eno) or having a headphone session. So I voted 10-20%.

Zero. I want to hear what I want to hear when I want to hear it; being at the mercy of some digital dj is not my idea of a good time. (Good grief, I sound just like Geir!)

Virtually never. I am not a single track guy, and the sequence on an album is there for a reason.

Hmm. About 30% of my listening is via iTunes/iPod, and about 50% of that is on shuffle. So that makes 15%.

I'm on shuffle at work. Never at home. 41-50%.

if I'm not in the mood for listening to albums or the radio I'll make a playlist of my own choosing rather than shuffle, usually - shuffle's just a novelty for me.

I use it a little more than half the time. Usually I'll create some kind of playlist - by genre, by year, or all my recent purchases - and then do that on shuffle. Sometimes when I'm feeling ambivalent or negative about a recent purchase, hearing the songs out of order, within a larger mix, can offer a new point of entry.

don't use it, i almost aways want to hear a specific song or band.

sometimes I want to hear a specific band, but I don't know/care which song, so I let shuffle decide.

especially if I don't have enough time to listen to a whole album, and don't want to start listening to one and then stop halfway through.

I'm around 80%. I listen to my ipod mainly to drown out the rest of the world, and I still have like 4000 tracks in my unlistened folder.

i'm about 50/50. if i am in the car or running, i am almost always on shuffle. if i am hanging out at my house or working on something, it's very often full albums.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I wish "0%-10%" wasn't an option, now I'm wondering how many of those 20 people listen to no music on shuffle at all or just between 1% and 10%.

I'm always listen on shuffle. I like the element of surprise. Plus, I catch myself liking stuff I didn't think I liked.

Good point. Wish I'd thought of that, Alex.

I voted 0-10% and it's basically close to 0. Maybe one time out of a hundred I'll be tempted to shuffle. Usually I listen to albums (THE WAY THE ARTIST INTENDED) or mixes or I'll make a playlist.

Yeah, Alex in SF I'm the same way.

100%

the artist's intention can go fuck itself

.... said the producer

anyway i never do this

Yeah, sometimes the "artists" do it plain WRONG! and don't know any better.

Anyways, I missed the poll completely but woulda said 21-30%, with all the determinants already covered (ie. stereo vs. ipod, home vs. elsewhere, new purchase vs. old favourite, etc.)

Um guys I was just doing my bestworst Geir imitation.

Plus, I catch myself liking stuff I didn't think I liked.

Provided you put stuff you don't like on your iPod then?

Yeah, sometimes the "artists" do it plain WRONG!

I'm sure the producer is able to tell him.

And, yes, sometimes the artist does it plain wrong by just writing a bad song too. But that's part of art too. Sometimes art is bad art.

This is a really interesting result. I finally gave in and bought an iPod recently and I guess I would have thought shuffling was more popular than it seems to be. I'm disappointed that I don't seem able to shuffle a specific playlist directly on the iPod, though, only in iTunes. I can't see myself using the feature much, though, even if I could do that.

I shuffle playlists but not albums or the iPod as a whole. If I have a list of 100 songs shuffle is nice.

I put a lot of stuff on my ipod I've maybe skimmed through or only heard a song or two. Shuffle is like listening to a radio station programmed by someone who I think has the best taste ever (me!)

I can understand why there is a shuffle mode (On iPod and on CD players as well although there will be fewer tracks to choose from there), but it doesn't make much sense other than for fun once in a while. I don't think I've ever used it though.

Plus, I catch myself liking stuff I didn't think I liked.

Provided you put stuff you don't like on your iPod then?

Yup. I put lots of anthologies and assorted mix cds from friends on my iPod. I might also include some albums by an artist that I'm a bit apathetic about since I *think* I only like a few of an their songs.

Anyway, I really like hearing tracks out of their original context. I find some songs compliment others and maybe it helps me shed some baggage when listening.

I use shuffle almost always in transit, not nearly so much at home. 21-30% sounds about right. That said, too often when my iPod is in shuffle mode (esp. while riding the subway), I find myself skipping tracks (constantly sometimes) to get to something I'm in the mood for. I usually don't know what I'm in the mood for, else I would've just chosen it on my own. Sometimes shuffle will bring up a tune that will make me realize what I'm in the mood for, so I scroll over to the playlist/genre/artist/whatever. It's like shuffle tends to work for me as much as a preview function as it does to hear a random mix of tracks (though sometimes the randomness is startlingly good; sometimes it's terrible).

Also, I always have lots of stuff I don't like stored on my iPod. Some of these are things I don't know well (i.e., tracks from LPs I'm unfamiliar with), sometimes it's stuff I thought I liked better, but hearing it on my iPod makes me realize otherwise. Obviously, when I hear something I don't like, I try and make a point of removing it, but in no way is everything I have stored on there things my ears necessarily approve of.

Poll's over, but I thought I'd chime in anyway:

"Plus, I catch myself liking stuff I didn't think I liked."

"Provided you put stuff you don't like on your iPod then?"

I sure as hell don't. I also reprogram my CD's to avoid terrible songs.

Generally I treat an iPod like the longest mixed tape in the world. I hardly ever rip entire albums like most do, unless it's something borrowed from someone else. And even then, if only ONE song is uninteresting, then that one tune is GONE. Hello, delete button.

I generally do all my iPod listening in shuffle. Maybe every now and then I'm in the mood to hear something particular, but I basically hit the "shuffle" option and let it roll. Yeah, there are some weird juxtapositions that come up sometimes, but that's part of the appeal.

'I generally do all my iPod listening in shuffle. Maybe every now and then I'm in the mood to hear something particular, but I basically hit the "shuffle" option and let it roll. Yeah, there are some weird juxtapositions that come up sometimes, but that's part of the appeal."

OTM, werd.

I would add that the thing has some kind of bizarrely gifted mind of its own.

I gotta be honest, a lot of the shuffle plays have been strangely sympathetic. Not saying that all the transitions make sense, but if it plays, say, a fifties doo-wop track, it'll be followed up by a 70's uptempo vocal tune by the Spinners, followed by a funk track with hard-rock guitar (say, the Isleys), followed by an actual hard rock track by Sir Lord Baltimore - that kind of thing. Different kinds of songs with a connecting thread. Obviously this wasn't planned, but these kind of segways have been coming up.

I shuffle probably 90% of the time, the only exception being when I've just bought a new album and want to listen to it all the way through. For me, the whole charm of iTunes is that I listen to songs it never would have occurred to me to pull out and play on purpose.

Shuffle's great when I get bored. I've marked ~1,500 of my favourites and created a random smart playlist (ipod). Bliss.

I mostly use my iPod when jogging. In this context I prefer the music be familiar, but shuffle adds a (mostly) pleasing element of unpredictability. So most of what's on the iPod is stuff I've heard a few times at least. With all the other sound around, the music inevitably gets blocked out to an extent, so it's almost more like a reminder of the music than music itself sometimes — thus not really ideal for hearing new music (though I know some folks use it for that very purpose). However, all my MP3 downloads (I don't do all that many) end up on the iPod too, so I still get the odd unlistened-to track and find myself wondering what it is for the duration.

Sometimes when I have a limited amount of time on my hands (just before work, say) it's easier to just put iTunes on shuffle than decide what album to play.

So had I voted I think I would've been at 10-20%. I used to shuffle with CDs (especially compilations) all the time, but only rarely now.

I gotta think shuffle mode is the dominant approach for "normal" non-ILM listeners. As more and more devices can play music, everyone has a chance to add their favorite 100 songs or whatever to their GPS, phone, digital picture frame, etc.

the artist's intention can go fuck itself

― electricsound, Saturday, 29 December 2007 14:40 (2 years ago)

lol

my first listen to most things these days is in the 'intended' track sequence but from then on it's still all shuffle, all the time

Shuffle is funny on iPod by the computer, but when I listen on my headphones it is still the old portable CD playing full albums in correct order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92i4oA1Dd3g

I love shuffle, but every f--in' Ipod I've ever had crashes in shuffle...are they any good non-Ipod mp3 players for a Mac user? The thing fucking sucks

I've had my ipod for 3 yrs, play it almost exclusively on shuffle, and rarely have a problem. guess i'm lucky?
there's some strange, almost paranoid attitudes towards shuffle itt.

Weird thing about WMP (whichever version I have) in random mode is the way it'll be shuffling along fine until it reaches a point where it basically decides "enough is enough!" and replays the previous song, then the one before that, etc etc., like a yo-yo rewinding itself.

Oh yeah, it also has repeat shuffles sometimes, no joke--my ipods are possessed

i don't get shuffle at all, never use it - i don't necessarily listen to "albums" either but i tend to decide spontaneously what songs i feel like listening to and it's really not hard to change track manually? shuffle puts you way too much at risk of jarring segues (like when i'm blissing out to nina sky do i really want courtney love bellowing at me next?), half the time you'd alight on a track you're not in the mood for and have to change it manually anyway.

never use shuffle.
my daily listening diet depends on mood + weather, i aint letting some random maths algorithm tell me what to listen to.

Not sure on percentage. Whenever I have my walkman on it's on shuffle mode. I have gradually excised tracks I don't want to hear so pretty much everything on it is great. I'm still surprised by juxtaposition and mix like sequences of tracks that might suggest thought not randomness writing the playlist.

From the time I got my 3 changer mini system to about the time I moved in here I would tend to listen to cds on there in shuffle mode. It left audible gaps & you could hear the motor that drove the 3 changing tray working. Not sure if that's why i eventually stopped.
I think my shuffling tracks had been a conscious thing about absorbing influence anyway.

Otherwise, both here at the computer where i'm listening to things through Foobar and in the bedroom where it's the 3-changer still I'm back to linear mode. Listening to lps & live sets in sequence preprogrammed by somebody else.

I have a few playlists that I listen to extensively in shuffle, but rarely my whole library. I'd guess at it being more than 60% for me.

shuffle puts you way too much at risk of jarring segues (like when i'm blissing out to nina sky do i really want courtney love bellowing at me next?)

suggested solution: delete courtney love from hard drive

I'm very happy to shuffle through playlists based on certain themes / topics / moods / other common factors. Must make some Genius playlists.

^ there you go, that's the ticket. I don't do regular shuffle because of jarring transitions.. and I usually have in mind what I want to hear, so if I need randomness then Genius is the way to go.

Genius never works well at all for me, although that might be because it only recognizes or knows how to categorize a relatively small percentage of my iTunes library

^^^ this. I get annoyed.

I listen to shuffle about 90% of the time. I'll usually focus on one playlist for a while and then move on to a different one if I start getting sick of particular songs. I only tend to listen to whole albums when they are new to me.

My playlists are:

Master: Everything except DJ sets, about 10,000 tracks overall - good when I want to hear stuff that I don't listen to as much, but there are a lot of longer tracks and also the overall vibe tends to be a bit more mellow.
DJ Sets: I group all DJ mixes together because I never want a 60+ minute mix coming up while shuffling through shorter songs.
New: I usually put all newer stuff together in its own list. This runs around 500 tracks, give or take. I listen to this one the most, but sometimes burn out on it.
Recycler: only contains tracks I haven't listened to in the last 3 months that are shorter than 6 minutes. Usually good for peppy tracks that I don't hear as much.

I also try to make playlists that stick to a particular vibe, for example upbeat music vs. more spacey music. My problem with this is that I'm too lazy to do a really good job of making these truly comprehensive lists.

per my wife's asking "what's so great about metal?" -- i made an all-metal iTunes playlist last week, everything i own metal-related (about 250-300 albums) and introduced my wife to a ton of metal & related artists on shuffle. ended up w/ her discovering that she really likes black sabbath ("they're not really that metal!") and related sabbath-influenced doom (st. vitus!), iron maiden ("sounds kinda like queen!"), faith no more ("i like his singing!" - especially the first couple albums w/ patton) but also rejecting about 80% of what i played her. most hated act was godflesh ("there is literally nothing redeeming about this")

^^ was mostly in shuffle mode btw, which is why i mention it here on this thread

shuffle puts you way too much at risk of jarring segues

OH NO THE HORROR!!! MUST AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!

i aint letting some random maths algorithm tell me what to listen to.

RISE AGAINST THE MASHEENS!!1

reasons why I listen almost exclusively to shuffle (which includes having some huge smart playlists on shuffle ie hip hop w 4-5 stars, stuff that hasn't been played in 8 mos, etc):

- too many songs on my ipod combined with me often not knowing what song got tagged with which artist (was it under Lee Perry, or Max Romeo, or is it grouped as a comp??). often don't know the names of tracks or what album they're on.

- not knowing what I want to hear until I hear it. got too many favorites to keep them catalogued in my brain. if i just "listened to what i want to hear" I'd probably wind up listening to a very small selection of what I have over and over.

- total ADD w/r/t music. ipod/mp3 has contributed to this, but that tendency was def dormant in me forever.

- love the anticipation of what will pop up next

- not really into "transitions" I guess? if I want a mood experience or some shit I listen to a dj set.

- I listen mostly at work. I'd waste at least 1/2 hour each day if I was constantly searching for songs to play. Already waste enough of the workday w/o that.

agreeing mostly with Granny D.
I've always been using shuffle exclusively for all my ipod/mobile listening but I realize that for the last couple of years this is now turning into a drag - I spend my commute skipping tracks and I'm lucky when I manage to listen to one song all the way through. Listening to music on the go has become a bit of a chore really.
so far I've tried countering this through increasingly complicated "smart playlists" but there's limits to that. I think I'll need to start building manual playlists or use Genius a bit more.

When I find myself skipping a lot, it's time to switch to a new playlist.

Also, I've noticed that the shorter the drive, the more skipping that happens because I need to cram in that one perfect track. With more time on my hands, I'm more open to hearing whatever comes up.

I've only used shuffle once. Prefer playlists.

Do you shuffle playlists?

out: shuffle 100%
in: shuffle 50%