In Mad Max: Fury Road's dystopian future, there's a musical element to violent offensives. There's the flame-spewing guitar, and a car dedicated to war drums. The same goes for Vikings in cartoons with beats to coordinate their rowing, or snares for marching soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Music and marching into battle just go together.
That makes you file Spotify's new system under, "Why didn't someone already do that?" The thing is, developers have tried to build services that match music to your workout, pumping in tracks that keep you motivated. But none have done it as seamlessly as Spotify has in a new update that rolled out today.
Here's how it works: Fire up the new version of Spotify on your phone and go to the Running tab. Pick from a playlist, such as "Recommended For You," "Pop Hits," or "Electronic Moves," and you'll hear a woman's voice say, "Start running to detect tempo." Your stride shows up as pulses on the green circle until she says that she knows your stride. It takes a few seconds—about ten paces. Then you'll get a track with matching beats per minute.
Wanting to see what up-tempo tracks Spotify might offer me, I sprinted up to an unsustainable sprint (170 steps/min—I know, I'm out of shape) and selected "Recommended For You," That cued up "Stoned and Starving" by Parquet Courts, a song that was on my Starred list months back, but that I hadn't listened to in a while.
The effect is motivational. Without any conscious adjusting, the snare hit just when my right foot touched the ground. My typical mental space during a run is a deep dread over how much farther I need to go to call it a "run." Here, though, your brain goes into a mode where you just think about keeping that pace. It's a military march.
I hit the arrows at the bottom to adjust the rhythm down to 160 bpm, which got me to another track: "What Difference Does It Make?" by the Smiths, music I'd never choose for anything except brooding while looking out a window. Same effect. Keep hitting that same stride.
It sounds like novelty, but there's science to back up the idea that running with a rhythm hits a part of your brain that can override a fixation on fatigue or exertion. Dance does the same thing.
If a particular song isn't doing it for you, skip ahead or double-click the in-line microphone and the track takes a half-second to fade into the next so that beat hits in sync with the last song and you never break stride.
For now, Spotify only measures beats per minute in increments of 5. You can select 170, 175, or 180 bpm, for instance, but you can't tell it to give you 173. This situation won't work for precision runners. But for the casual runner, or someone like me who only exercises under duress or peer pressure, it's a way to forego listening to that same workout mix you've had on your phone for years.
As Editor in Chief, Alexander oversees all of Popular Mechanics’ editorial coverage across digital, print, and video. He has been a science and technology journalist for over 10 years and holds a Master of Arts degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was previously Technology Editor for Popular Mechanics and before that, a contributor to publications including the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Outside, and was a product tester and reviewer for The Wirecutter. He has been called on to appear on live and taped broadcast programs including Today and programs on MSNBC. He lives in Pennsylvania and rides a 2012 Triumph Street Triple R motorcycle.
