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• iTunes: Just how random is random?

iTunes: Just how random is random?

By David Braue on 08 March 2007

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  genie commented on 02/09/2009 17:22 Report abuse

  I noticed this not-so-random issue a while back. Since I'm a heavy iTunes user(10k+ Songs), there should be some time between two plays of the same song, which is not with certain songs.
  
  What I also noticed, since I use diffent libraries at home and at work. On some days the "random" choises of iTunes resemple each other quite close. I usualy listen in album-shuffle over my whole lib(s), and sometimes I even get the same album on the same position in both instances. I say, at least since 2006, that the iTunes shuffe is either crap or forged.

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  Poak Tilama commented on 02/09/2009 05:16 Report abuse

  Im all for conspiracy theories.. And I very much agree with this one.
  But why would the record companies be poushing certain artists, when you obviously already own and like their music.

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  Funkleberry commented on 30/08/2009 20:01 Report abuse

  The reason for my 2 years late comment is that I have done everything to date to avoid becoming involved with Apple. However, having dropped my Creative Zen W Vision and being advised that Creative don't support it any longer, there was no other viable option (ie price and function). Needless to say I assembled my collection of 11,000 mp3's outside of itunes and can also report that since buying a 120gb classic, many repeated songs when others never play.... So far with a 13:0 ratio. Given some of the often played artists are very old, I am happy to concede that in the case of my collection there does not appear to be any benefit to Apple or the music industry for playing Francoise Hardy repeatedly. So we can forget the science and live with the fact that it is a crappy piece of programming and that the ipod is basically a dumb terminal which can't walk and chew gum at the same time ... or in this case hold the play count and adjust its selections accordingly. I am 56 years old and am hoping to hear all of my songs at least once before I die at the age of 100 yrs.

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  BlueSkyIS commented on 28/08/2009 07:48 Report abuse

  Pretty funny. I came across this site while trying to figure out why I have been hearing 2 songs in a row by the same artist lately. My stats: 25,448 songs, but just heard 2 Robyn Hitchcock in a row. Again.

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  Mike commented on 28/08/2009 04:09 Report abuse

  Great article. I've seen it myself with my own iTunes, that it seems certain songs show up more frequently. Maybe coincidence, but I have found that many others experience the same thing!

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  tuller16549 commented on 17/08/2009 04:04 Report abuse

  I have over 3500 songs on my itunes player and i have it set to only shuffle, but it seems that i hear the same songs all the time and some song i never hear unless i go in and request to hear the song. The randomness of itunes is not totally random at all.

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  dknybravo commented on 01/08/2009 16:42 Report abuse

  There is major validity to this. I wondered why my itunes played the same songs all the time, so I did a search..."Why does my itunes play the same songs"...lol...and this article came up. Now how RANDOM is that? Ha.

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  td commented on 23/07/2009 05:20 Report abuse

  I'm no statistician, but I am an expert when it comes to the "randomness" of my iPod, which plays in my car all of the time in shuffle mode.
  
  Two things: I hear the EXACT same one or two songs from certain artists all of the time...VERY annoying when you'd like to hear a "deep cut" once in a while. This is not some "pattern within randomness"... I've been at this for three years and it is constant.
  
  Second: If, say, Aerosmith plays, without exception I hear another Aerosmith song about 3/4 tunes later. Same thing with nearly every artist that plays. Anyone else experience this? Very odd. Again, I've heard this dozens and dozens of times, to the point that I goof around with friends to make them think that I'm psychic!

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  steve commented on 11/07/2009 05:45 Report abuse

  On the spectrum of mathematical ability I am one notch up from aardvark, however I, in all my humility, proffer this damn fool theory: that shuffle must include patterns because randomness does not exclude patterns. Genius right? For more on this amazing insight see my blog entry: http://stephenwarrington.com/2009/06/ipod-shuffle-code-cracked-aka-my-ipod-is-artificially-intelligent/

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  Sylvain commented on 30/05/2009 00:35 Report abuse

  Here's an interesting test I found :
  http://www.plasticvicar.com/iTunes/tracks.html