Spotify is dropping its auto-shuffle feature and replacing it with a 'play' button

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Best holiday playlists on Spotify
Best holiday playlists on Spotify (Image credit: Joseph Keller/iMore)

What you need to know

  • Spotify is replacing its shuffle album playback system with a traditional 'play' button.
  • Adele asked Spotify to make the move for her new album and now it's rolling out to all of them.

Music streamer Spotify is ditching its shuffle button as the default album playback option, replacing it with the more traditional 'play' button that other services like Apple Music already offer. The move comes after Adele asked that her new album get such a button and now it's rolling out to everyone.

According to Mashable, this all came about thanks to the arrival of a new album that Adele wanted people to listen to in track order.

On Saturday, Adele retweeted a post from entertainment news site Pop Crave, confirming Spotify had removed the auto-shuffle feature on the premium version of her new album, 30. This means subscribers listening on the platform will not have the tracks randomized by default. Instead, 30's songs will play in the order designed for the album, unless the listener chooses to shuffle them.

Once Adele's song got the 'play' button it was only a matter of time before we saw it come to every album on Spotify's platform. And sure enough, here we are.

Responding to a request for comment via email, a Spotify spokesperson told Mashable auto-shuffle would soon be removed for all albums on the premium (aka paid) version of the platform."As Adele mentioned, we are excited to share that we have begun rolling out a new Premium feature that has long been requested by both users and artists to make play the default button on all albums," they said. "For those users still wishing to shuffle an album, they can go to the Now Playing View and select the shuffle toggle. As always, we will continue to iterate our products and features to create the best experiences for both artists and their fans."

So, thanks for that, Adele!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.