Shuffle play is a mode of music playback in which songs are played in a
randomized order that is decided upon for all tracks at once. It is commonly found on
CD players,
digital audio players and
media player software. Shuffle playback prevents repeated tracks, which makes it distinct from random playback, in which the next track is chosen at random after the last track has ended.
In CD players
In a CD player one can only shuffle songs on that CD, or with some models that could hold more than one CD, shuffle the songs on all of those CDs. Some CDs have been designed for the shuffle feature on CD players, such as
They Might Be Giants' ''
Apollo 18''. More modern CD players come with the shuffle feature.
In media devices
Almost all
software on computers has the shuffle feature including
Windows Media Player and
MediaMonkey. Most electronic devices including
mobile phones
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
and
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
s have the shuffle feature and devices have even been created just for the shuffle feature, such as the
Apple iPod Shuffle. Media devices and players can usually shuffle more than just albums: they can also shuffle all of an artist's music, all of the music in a certain genre, and even all songs on the device. Users can also create playlists of whatever songs they like and shuffle them.
Applications of randomness
Digital audio players
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