Random Song Generator

The Random Song Generator picks one track at random from a list of 65 songs and loads it in an embedded Spotify player, right on the page. You can hit play immediately, or open it in the Spotify app. The list is the set of global streaming hits from 2017: "Despacito", "Shape of You", "HUMBLE.", "Believer", "Something Just Like This", "Attention", "Sign of the Times", "Mask Off" and their neighbors on that year's chart. If you want a quick, familiar song to put on rather than a deep cut, that's what this does.

How it works

There's a single Generate Song button. Each click shuffles the list and shows the first result as a Spotify embed with cover art, title and artist. Click again and you get another. There are no genre, year or artist filters, and it plays one song at a time rather than building a playlist. Playback uses Spotify's embed: without being logged in you get a 30-second preview, and if you're signed in to Spotify in the same browser the full track plays.

What's on the list

All 65 tracks were among the most streamed songs on Spotify worldwide in 2017, so it leans heavily toward pop, hip-hop and Latin pop from that year:

• Pop: Ed Sheeran ("Shape of You", "Galway Girl"), Bruno Mars ("That's What I Like"), Shawn Mendes ("There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back"), Harry Styles ("Sign of the Times"), Charlie Puth ("Attention"), Miley Cyrus ("Malibu"), Lady Gaga ("The Cure"), Halsey, Julia Michaels, Imagine Dragons ("Believer", "Thunder").
• Hip-hop and R&B: Kendrick Lamar ("HUMBLE.", "DNA."), Future ("Mask Off"), Drake ("Passionfruit"), Post Malone ("Congratulations"), Lil Uzi Vert ("XO TOUR Llif3"), Khalid ("Location"), Logic ("1-800-273-8255"), French Montana ("Unforgettable"), KYLE ("iSpy").
• Dance and collaborations: The Chainsmokers with Coldplay, Zedd with Alessia Cara ("Stay"), Kygo with Selena Gomez and with Ellie Goulding, Calvin Harris ("Slide", "Rollin"), Clean Bandit ("Symphony", "Rockabye"), Martin Garrix with Dua Lipa, Cheat Codes with Demi Lovato, Jason Derulo ("Swalla").
• Latin: both versions of "Despacito", Maluma ("Felices los 4"), Enrique Iglesias ("SUBEME LA RADIO"), Danny Ocean ("Me Rehúso").

Because it's a fixed list of 65, you'll start seeing repeats after a couple of dozen clicks. It isn't a "random Spotify song" tool that samples the whole catalog; it's a randomizer over one well-known chart.

Ways to use it

• Deciding what to play first. Party, road trip, workout: click, press play, and stop debating.
• Name-that-tune rounds. The 30-second preview starts at a recognizable part of the song, which makes it a fair guessing game for anyone who was listening to the radio in 2017.
• Dance or karaoke picks. Everyone on the list is singable or danceable by design; no ballads from obscure albums.
• Icebreakers. "Which of these was your song that summer?" works better with a random prompt than an open question.

Other music pickers

If you want a whole discography from one artist rather than a chart, the Random Taylor Swift Song Generator works the same way for her catalog. To pick a style before you pick a song, use the Random Genre Generator; to pick something to play it on, the Random Instrument Generator. For writing rather than listening, the Random Lyrics Generator gives you a line to start from, and the Random Movie Generator covers film night. Everything in this group is under all movie, TV and music generators.