Musical Context

I recently used Spotify's running playlist and it is incredibly cool. So cool, I felt it justified a blog! 

I am deadly serious, if you run, you need Spotify's running playlist in your life. I have been using their Discover Weekly playlists for sometime and whilst this service is pretty good, it didn't compel me to write a blog post about it!

The thing about the running playlist is that it opens up a whole new way to enjoy music. There is an absolute wealth of music available at the touch of screen in Spotify and services like it, but frankly it can be a tad overwhelming to manage playlists and keep up with the latest albums. Music is also contextual. You wouldn't play Death Metal whilst you are trying to sleep - for example. Actually - some of you might but frankly, this makes you a weirdo. Spotify does a great job of classifying music into mood types and genres but it is going even further to make music more appropriate to the moment you happen to be tuning into it. 

Spotify's running playlist is an example of this. All I had to do was click on the playlist, run and enjoy - Spotify did the rest. It chose the music -dynamically- and mixed it seamlessly for the full 90 minutes that I went running for.

Why is it so good and how does Spotify do it? (This is my interpretation by the way... I don't know for sure)

Spotify UNDERSTANDS context

Spotify has taken the time to sort through the world's wealth of music to find tracks that are indeed appropriate for running. I love music and I spend a lot of time listening to it, but I am no expert and frankly, I don't have the time to experiment with thousands of playlists that might encourage me to run. Spotify do and have... 

Spotify UNDERSTANDS you
As well as understanding music and the types of music that suit a particular context (like running), Spotify also knows what type of music you like to listen to. Spotify has a detailed record of all the music you have ever listed to -via their service- and will choose music based on your preferences. Immense! So now we have music that is suitable to running and your particular tastes... If this isn't enough, Spotify go a step further.... (pun fully intended)

Spotify UNDERSTANDS tempo
As well as understanding that you are going for a run and what music you prefer, Spotify can also tap into the motion sensors on your smartphone in order to gauge how fast you are running. It can adjust the playlist based on your tempo to help you settle into a rhythm or challenge you to run faster. 

So now you have music suitable for running, based on your taste and dynamically adjusted to your tempo. All this, simply by pushing play..... 

Spotify got me through my student life, my exams, my house parties and now it is helping me run!

 It really is an incredible service that is extremely easy to use and it genuinely kept me going on my recent run. However, in the interest of full disclosure, the playlist did drop an absolute stinker around mile 6/7. Aside from it being in Portuguese or Spanish, it was easily one of the worst tracks I have ever had to suffer. I comforted myself by believing this was some kind of Spotify developer's joke... they've earned that one. 

Thanks for Reading,

Chancey

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 22, 2016 at 3:20 PM

    Hey Chancey - glad you believe context is important to music! We believe so to, though we have our own unique twist on it, so we created an app called RockMyRun specifically for this. Would you be willing to give it a shot and see how it compares? - Adam from RockMyRun

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChanceySeptember 22, 2016 at 3:49 PM

    Will do Adam. Thanks for making me aware of the service. I will let you know my thoughts

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please feel free to comment, I believe in freedom of thought and freedom of speech. I will, however, only reply to respectful discourse.

Popular posts from this blog

Engineered & Automated Biases

"White House is investigating Google after Donald Trump claims bias" Bias can be a problem in all aspects of society - both in humans (conscious and unconscious) and in algorithms (engineered and learned). Whilst I think this is an area that warrants further research -particularly into algorithms- it concerns me when the state decides it wants to try and police bias. Unconscious Bias in people and learned bias in algorithms is an extremely difficult thing to identify with any certainty due to the number of variables (along with the interpretation of context) that affect decision making.
Read more

Start up life

Working at a high growth startup that is moving at a million miles an hour is a lot of fun. It is also a lot of hard work... For startups, the 'hard work' bit is rarely a problem. Most people join startups because they are passionate about the mission and are often emboldened by the odds that are stacked against them. Startup people are typically very accountable, positive and predisposed to high levels of ownership. This really helps when you need to get a lot of stuff done. As a startup begins to scale though, culture becomes increasingly important. With new people joining all of the time and often the new outnumbering the old, it is important to have a strong understanding of the cultural values you want to persist. This is not a trivial thing to achieve.  How do you establish a benchmark in a sea of rapid change -both in your marketplace and employee base?  Most company cultures are anchored in some thing . Most com...
Read more

Are you able to enjoy the big moments in your life?

Are you able to enjoy the big moments in your life? Or do you stress out, overanalyze, withdraw, or even self-sabotage?  We have all been there to some degree or another. We have these images in our head of where we want to be, either physically or figuratively.  It might be closing the biggest of the contract of the Quarter in your team, region or even company. It could be a massive marketing event you've been driving people toward for the past couple of Quarters or even a new business meeting you secured with an Executive that has been evading you. Outside of your job you could be playing in a cup final or racing for a gold medal at the weekend, you might have plucked up the courage to propose marriage to your partner, having a child with them or simply meeting someone who means a great deal to you that you haven't seen for a while.  All of these are big moments, moments that you are highly invested in - on an emotional and practical level. Youv'e put in a ton of hardwo...
Read more