Shuffle preferring track 1 of albums?

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Server Version#: 1.41.5.9626
Player Version#: 4.149.0

I write a music blog where I write about the first five songs that shuffle produces from my library, and my observation is that shuffle seems to prefer the first track of albums more than I would expect. I’ll note that yes, in the abstract, you’d expect more track 1s than any other slot because every album has a track 1, and if the algorithm is to randomly pick an album and then pick a track, you would expect track 1s to be the tallest item in the histogram. However, even correcting for that, it still appears that I’m getting more track 1s than I would expect. While I haven’t sat down to do the detailed analysis, I’m hoping to get some more information on how the shuffle works, if possible.

2

I have also noticed this behavior, though in my experience it is almost always one of the first three tracks.

I am using PlexAmp 4.12.4. Here is the list of the first 50 track numbers I got from pulling it up on my phone right now and going to Library > Tracks > Shuffle button:

3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 4, 1, 3, 3, 2, 19, 3, 2, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 6

3

Thank you, I thought I was maybe losing my marbles.

4

I noticed the same pattern today. I have a very large smart playlist, and both Plexamp and the web app are only ever selecting tracks numbered 01 through 03. (I use two-digit track numbers across my library.)

5

I’m convinced that this is a real effect at this point. I’d love to just get more information about how they’re doing randomness at this point.