Shuffle music from an artist using iOS 8.4

I Appreciate the help. This works. However, it is NOT easier or better than the previous set up. I've come to the conclusion (after 12+ years of using apple products) that they can't leave good things alone. They "improve" them until they are absolute crap. sometimes it is better to leave a great system alone And don't fix what isn't broken. We get just enough time to figure out all the new irritating tweaks and then they change it all up. Imagine driving a car you love for years with no issues, then one day you get in it and all the buttons and switches are scrambled around. F*** off and leave stuff alone, jeez!

agreed - shuffles all the songs from one album but not for the songs from the same artist from multiple albums

The hidden shuffle icon is just one of the many offenses bundled with the latest "music" release. (Personally, I'd like to remove Radio.) And don't get me started on the alphabetical sort that appears only AFTER one starts scrolling.

Back to the new shuffle workflow--thanks to this thread I've discovered how to retrieve it. So far, I have no problems with shuffling my one of my artist's library between 3 albums, 1 EP, and a couple of remixes pulled from SoundCloud or elsewhere.

will Apple revert back to a more user friendly music interface? In all honest, my music listening experience has become more of a chore instead of a delight. This whole shuffle scandal my be the most frustrating change ever(hyperbole). I loved when I could just push shuffle at the beginning of my musical experience and sit back and enjoy.

This just doesn't work on my iPhone. will Apple revert back to a more user friendly music interface? In all honest, my music listening experience has become more of a chore instead of a delight. This whole shuffle scandal my be the most frustrating change ever(hyperbole). I loved when I could just push shuffle at the beginning of my musical experience and sit back and enjoy.

Donnie St. James helped me see that if an artist has two or fewer albums, then there's a "Shuffle" choice above that artist's album list -- but if there are three or more, that shuffle button isn't displayed. Thank you for helping me see that, because that's helpful. (Weird, but helpful.)

But it does lead me to wonder: honestly, what were they thinking? I ask this sincerely, not meaning to sound frustrated (even though I suppose I probably do anyhow).

This whole thread might never have arisen if Apple had given us that Shuffle option regardless of the number of albums. I don't know about the rest of you, but for myself, I'd have been happy with that.

I don't mean this question to sound snippy. It's an honest question. Does anybody here know why Apple made that decision? It seems like such a strange user experience design to say that one or two albums is enough to justify a Shuffle option but three is just too many. What were the Apple designers thinking that I'm not seeing?

I would believe that if Apple got enough (as in viral) complaints about this they would just re-install the shuffle button no matter how many albums you have. Let's try that!

i tried this when i first got the 'upgrade' to 8. tap the box with the arrow in it pointing upward and NOTHING happens or appears.

the only way i've figured out how to shuffle an artist is to tap the ellipsis on the far right and add the artist to 'Up Next' and make sure that the full screen player is on 'shuffle', which is a real pain compared to how it used to function. plus, you still can't shuffle all songs within one genre.

'first world problems', i know...but still a pain in the ***.

YES, PLEASE! just bring back shuffle on ALL levels (songs, artists, albums, genres). why did it have to be removed in the first place?

YES, Apple please heed these statements and return the shuffle mode as it existed. Plz.

In case this helps others, I have two recommendations. Neither is perfect by itself. Each is very well done, for what it's trying to achieve (although I'd gripe here and there: one can't restart music if music is interrupted by another app, the other isn't designed for the iPad, and neither supports landscape orientation). Neither would be anything close to a standalone replacement for the Music app. But together with the Music app, I find that I can use them to shuffle just about anything any way I can imagine.

To be clear, I am not associated in any way with these apps and I'm not trying to sell them on their behalf. I just happen to like them. I'm not profiting by mentioning them; I mention them because together, they give me the ability to shuffle anything I can think of. If Apple isn't going to let me do so, there are other apps that will.

I recommend AlbumMixer for shuffling whole albums one at a time by genre, artist, playlist, etc.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/albummixer-shuffle-by-album/id329552764?mt=8

... and Ecoute for shuffling songs based on pretty much any kind of grouping -- all artists, a single artist, a single playlist, a whole genre, etc.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ecoute-beautiful-music-player/id536882653?mt=8

Now that I think about it, neither lets me select sets of artists on the fly to shuffle those artists as a group, but since I can shuffle by a wide variety of categories such as by artist or playlist, by genre (all Rock or Jazz or Classical) or by composer (all Beethoven or all John Williams), I can come pretty close to being able to shuffle just about anything I can think of.

This really works. The problem with Apple is that they do not document the changes they make and so you have to rely on users who have somehow figured it out on their own. Thanks TomekOsiowy for figuring this out...

Yes, it really works ... up to a point. And that point is the point at which you start to play an album, intending to play it all the way through from start to end, and then you discover that "Oh s#it, my shuffle mode icon is still on."

TomekOsiowy's approach is great, sure, but only if you intend to stay in shuffle mode from now until the end of time. If, however, you ever want to go back to non-shuffle mode, you have to remember to turn off the shuffle icon. This is bad design, no matter how you look at it. Yes, it works, but it's a kludge, and a bad user experience, and Apple should know better.

If this is Apple's preferred solution, documented or not, it's idiotic. I can only hope that this isn't what Apple is offering as their solution to a simple problem, because we know they're capable of much more, and much better. They've failed to do so this time, in very fundamental ways. If I want to shuffle an artist, I should be able to do so WITHOUT putting my music player into a mode that will cause it to shuffle every ****** thing I try to play from then on. That's either thoughtlessness or lunacy, or both, plain and simple.

If it works for you, dwripper, more power to you, but for those of us who don't want to keep shifting in and out of shuffle mode just because we want to shuffle an artist occasionally, it's a ridiculous way to go about it. Apple can, could have, and should have thought this through. They didn't, which is why we're left with half-sensible solutions that involve turning on shuffle mode as a workaround to deal with Apple's thoughtless user experience design failure.

Does anyone know how to get Apple exec's, programmers or the right dept. to read (heed) this comment blog. If so please post it so we can get the "normal" user-friendly shuffle button back in place as it was.

Thx.

tthanks for some of the pointers here but it is still WAY too time consuming when it should take two seconds to press a big old shuffle button.

I Also find if I make a playlist I get a shuffle option but that only really works when you have an album or two that is done by band + someone who you wanted to add just to listen with the other single albums.

Aand I also agree they need to have the A-Z on the sidebar permanently like it was before. That drives me up the wall Almost as much as not having a working shuffle button