[Closed] Enough with the Depeche Mode already!

You say you're fed up, but secretly I bet you just can't get enough.

ITunes' shuffle feature makes a random path through your iTunes music library, jumping from song to artist to album with no logic or order. Or does it? Some people swear that it does, others claim to see patterns all the time. But what's the truth?

The truth of how iTunes shuffle works lies in the spaces between our expectations, our perceptions, and our understanding of the difference between shuffle and random. What we may expect out of a "shuffle" feature is not necessarily what it's designed to do.

How It Works
According to Newsweek's Steven Levy, who has written a book on the iPod and is one of the leading chroniclers of all things Apple, the shuffle feature works this way:

“When an iPod does a shuffle, it reorders the songs much the way a Vegas dealer shuffles a deck of cards, then plays them back in the new order. So if you keep listening for the week or so it takes to complete the list, you will hear everything, just once.”
But note that you need to listen to the entire library all the way through without stopping for the randomness of shuffle to be perfect.

As Levy points out, most people don't do this. Instead, they reshuffle the "deck" constantly, creating new paths through their music libraries each time they listen on shuffle. This causes some tracks or orders of tracks to appear to repeat or group together.

The Factors that Impact iTunes Shuffle Order
The shuffle order can also be affected by a user's individual settings. In iTunes' Up Next mode, users can tell iTunes to play songs that are highly rated more often, which skews the randomness. Songs can also be marked "Skip When Shuffling" so that they're excluded from the shuffle mode.

The other thing that causes shuffle to look less than random has to do with statistics and probability. Take a coin flip, for example. While it's extremely unlikely that one person flipping a coin 10 times would get heads every time, it's statistically possible (as illustrated in the opening to Tom Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"). This is because each coin flip is a distinct event, and probabilities reset each time. The events only look related to humans observing it.

How the Human Brain Affects iTunes' Shuffle Mode
The last element that causes us to suspect that iTunes Shuffle isn't truly random is our brains. The human brain is wired to seek out and see patterns—sometimes even where they don’t exist. This is an important function of the brain and makes our brains pretty powerful tools, but it can mislead us when examining questions like this.

Ultimately there's no simple answer to whether iTunes' shuffle function is truly random. It's just too deeply influenced by our perception, expectations, iTunes settings, and how we use iTunes. Still, it's fun to see what songs come after each other in iTunes shuffle mode and create our own patterns and explanations.

I think it’s an apple thing.
I’ve noticed that if i put it on random it seems to choose an artist and play everything by them, with other songs interspersed among them.
If i reset the player, it just chooses a different artist.

You say you’re fed up, but secretly I bet you just can’t get enough

Aggghhhhhh!

If it's an iPod go into 'options', then 'settings', then in 'shuffle' under 'modes' deselect 'depeche'

don't turn the stereo on and enjoy the silence

Do all iPods favour Depeche Mode in random mode or is it just mine?

I have 2 songs by DM on my iPod. Don't remember the last time they were played. Pretty sure "Wrong" has come up on my NAS's random song play once. I don't think any particular artist has been favoured, but then I have more tracks than Spotify* in my library.

*(well, more good ones, less rubbish )

I know Everything Counts when you're Behind The Wheel, but my thoughts on the iPod were "It's No Good" so I switched to Spotify and it's Never Let Me Down Again.

Its not personal, jesus!

That picture. How was Vince Clarke in his mid 50's before Dave Gahan reached puberty.

I too have a Mode obsessed i-pod
Thousands of songs,but put it on shuffle and at least every week I hear.

There's only one way to soothe my soul
There's only one way to soothe my soul
There's only one way to soothe my soul
Only one way to soothe my soul
Only one way
Only one way
Only one way
Only one way
Only one way
Only one way
Only one way
Only one way

I'm coming for you
I need to feel your skin
I'm coming for you
To stop this crawling

Freeeeakkkyyyy

If it’s an iPod go into ‘options’, then ‘settings’, then in ‘shuffle’ under ‘modes’ deselect ‘depeche’

Actual lol, thank you

Blimey. DG looks like a pre-pubescent Jo Brand.

VC looks like a 45 year old functioning alcoholic and MG looks like he's planning something
shockingly deviant.

Awesome quips chaps, proper LOL

If it’s an iPod go into ‘options’, then ‘settings’, then in ‘shuffle’ under ‘modes’ deselect ‘depeche’

Thats inspired

Prizes please for nickjb's genius reply.

Apple's native aps can't shuffle properly.

I use 'TrueShuffle' on my iPhone for music in the car, otherwise it is the same dozen or so tunes from a third of the albums on there all the damn time.

theotherjonv

Subscriber
You say you’re fed up, but secretly I bet you just can’t get enough.

That ipod, its no good. Don't "shout" at it as you have "nothing to fear". Best just to "leave in silence" after a "two minute warning". Clearly "somebody" wants to see you "stripped" but that's just "blasphemous rumors"

My old ipod would put a random number of skipped songs between each track. Which as long as you had a small library worked fine, but if for example someone gave you the entire Metallica back catalogue it would take several songs to get through it before playing something else.

I think I prefer the Johnny Cash version of Personal Jesus and mixed up the two versions to busk with:

Do all iPods favour Depeche Mode in random mode or is it just mine?

No. Mine has never played a la Mode. It's Aretha Franklin, one song after another. Does it have no respect? Anyway now I use Spotify on my portable telephone, and it just plays the last things I downloaded, completely ignoring the rest. There are lots of online posts about this subject, which are then followed by some arch mansplaining about probability from the man at Spotify. I understand that it just as likely that my phone will play wall to wall Bobby Gentry as anything else downloaded (I soon deleted that double CD download) as anything else, but two days in a row? Well apparently yes.

Do you keep some BabyBel with your iPod? Your own personal cheeses?

I empathise with this issue. I feel you.

While it’s extremely unlikely that one person flipping a coin 10 times would get heads every time, it’s statistically possible

If you repeat the experiment enough times, it's a statistical certainty.

For anyone who espouses the "bet on red or black and double up your losses" approach to roulette, I've seen 15 red ones drop in a row.

Don't get me started on the monkey cage...

kill mother ****ing depeche mode

I hope you can cure your affliction and shake the disease.

I know Everything Counts

We changed the lyrics to that song too..

Elephants come in large amounts

ohhh the hilarity

I got a review published in the NME many years ago about Depeche Mode. It was in the subject 'My worse gig'. It was a free gig too

Same issue with Google Play. Constantly get repeats of Cocteau Twins and I keep meaning to delete the albums as I can't stand them. You'd think some West Coast Gen-Zer with a PhD in randomness would have delivered an alternative music player app by now. The available players are surely too clever for their own good. We don't need algorithms to shuffle music. It just needs to pick another song in the library completely at random and forget where it started from each time.

If it’s an iPod go into ‘options’, then ‘settings’, then in ‘shuffle’ under ‘modes’ deselect ‘depeche’

Inspired

I did the nostalgia gig last night, Def Leppard plays Hysteria, 31 years since its release. What's the song on the PA just before they come on stage?

Yeah, that came up on my YouTube feed.. I think it’s really rather good.

I have something similar with Deezer when using the flow function. It works really well and is actually great at playing tracks from your library interspersed with other stuff. Yet for some reason Breeze blocks by Alt J will always play. Not in my library, favourite tracks or any playlists. Press flow, guaranteed within half an hour every time.

I tried to select Depeche Mode on my iPod, but it didn't work, so I had to Enjoy the Silence.

don’t turn the stereo on and enjoy the silence

Judas!

I got a review published in the NME many years ago about Depeche Mode. It was in the subject ‘My worse gig’. It was a free gig too

That’s some condemnation.