iShuffle!

I was listening to some music from my Ericsson last day, and I was intrigued by its shuffle algorithm. It seemed to play some songs of the same genre before moving on to another. In short, producing a good mood to the listener. That’s when I thought about what my idea of a good shuffle algorithm would be. That’s how this post was born.

Here are some rules I made up for making a good shuffle algorithm. Any mobile companies or music player companies, if by any chance happen to see this post, please credit me accordingly. :P

The Rules

1. If the playlist consists of only songs which are among the most played list, then it doesn’t really matter which order you shuffle it. But to please the listener, play according to the frequency of each song played, starting from the most played. Also, make it a point to mix up genres every two or three songs.

2. If the playlist consists of songs never played or rarely played by the user, then genre’s the most important criterion. Try mixin’ up a few soft ones followed by one or two hard rock songs, back to a melody and rock again. Again, a reference to the most played statistics may help to decide which genre to play the most.

3. If the playlist’s a mix of both, then give preference to the newer ones. And then, play the familiar ones in between them, giving the listener a good effect. If done so, the listener gets to listen to new ones and also does not feel bad listening to songs which he doesn’t know for a long time. Personally, I prefer songs which I know the lyrics. So.. :-) Here also, genre must be taken into consideration. Just as above.

4. Since genre’s an important criterion in this algorithm, it might be difficult for the player if the genre’s not entered in the tag of the song. So, if the player wants to be a step ahead, it can use the internet connection to connect to its server to find out the genre of the songs being played. In this age, where internet connection is far-flung, it wont be a problem at all.

That’s it, I guess. This is what I had in mind when I was engrossed in my music. If anyone wants to add any more points, feel free to do so at the comments section. I’ll add them here. :-)

P.S. Whatever you try to do, it always depends on the listener's mood. So this aint a foolproof method, and I'm not responsible for any damage caused. :D