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I’ve realised I like the endings of songs; whether I like a song or not, entirely depends on how it ends.

Apple’s iPod shuffle algorithm is incredible. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time listening to it, and I’m sure it’s not random; I think it’s picking next tracks based partly on the similarity of metadata between the current and candidate tracks, which is quite neat as an automated mixing technique.

So is it random? Google says:

• yes
• no; a commenter on that article notes the same thing I’m talking about
• yes
• no; can’t say I’ve noticed the Beatles getting a push on mine
• yes
• and finally, no answer here, but a pretty cool stats experiment