Finding music to run with seems easy until you try. Maybe your favorite playlist works perfectly for a leisurely jog, then you feel completely sick when you’re going through intervals. And after hearing the same handful of workout songs a hundred times, even a good playlist can feel painfully predictable.
Spotify says it has a better solution. The new Run mode now available for premium subscribers on Android and iOS in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden, and instead of simply handing over another workout playlisthe builds one around the run he is about to do. This means that Spotify can take into account everything from how long you plan to run, the type of workout you want, your favorite music, and even the pace of your steps.
Your playlist can now track your workout”
Running Mode is in Spotify’s Fitness hub, where you can choose from 25 presets covering different workouts and music genres. For example, if you only have 20 minutes before work, you can pop in a simple Just Run session and get moving. If you follow a more structured training routine, you can choose intervals, pyramid training, easier runs and longer workouts. You can set the training duration between 10 and 90 minutes.
The music will also be customizable. You can choose genres like pop, EDM, country, and hip-hop, then decide whether Spotify sticks mostly to familiar tracks or adds more discoveries to the mix. Things get even more interesting when you want to control it yourself. Running Mode uses Spotify’s Prompted Playlist feature, which means you can actually edit the prompt used to create the soundtrack. You can ask Spotify to dig up songs you once loved but haven’t played recently, for example, or you can ask for songs under three minutes. The resulting playlists are updated every day, although particularly good playlists can be saved for another run.
Spotify can even match the music to your feet
The smartest feature, however, might be Beat Matching. Instead of just choosing energetic music and hoping it works, you can choose a target beat rate (BPM) and Spotify will search for tracks that match that beat. According to Spotify, 160 BPM is currently the most popular choice, while runners looking for a faster pace may prefer values around 170-180 BPM. You can even adjust the song playback slightly to match the tracks to the selected BPM. If the thought of Spotify messing with the speed of your favorite song sounds terrifying, you can turn this setting off and hear everything normally.
For more structured workouts, Running Mode can sprinkle in optional English coaching cues. These can provide guidance and encouragement during a session, or you can turn them off completely if you’d rather just hear music. And if you’ve ever spent longer choosing your workout playlist than actually warming up, this might be a surprisingly useful upgrade.
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