The mixed-up history of the shuffle button
Image: Mengxin Li / The Verge
A couple years ago, Adele had a complaint about Spotify. Her complaint was not about the miserly rates at which it compensates musicians, the monopolistic stranglehold it has on the music industry, or the misinformation-spewing podcast hosts that it employs. No, she had a gripe with the shuffle feature.
“Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended,” Adele tweeted shortly after the release of her album 30, a release so massive that almost no one could escape its story even if they would like to. In 2020, Spotify began to automatically shuffle albums for all listeners instead of playing them in assigned order. But Adele’s wish proved to be Spotify’s command, and the company removed its auto-shuffle function,…
