Spotify is the new Nike

On October 7, 2005. Steve Jobs stood on the stage of the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. He pointed to the small pocket of his Jeans, asking "Ever wonder what this is for?". 

With the introduction of the iPod nano Apple then ended the era of hard drives and marked the rise of Flash storage, which is now in all our smartphones, USB thumb drives and thin laptops.

But it was also the beginning of another era. One of a small, shock-proof and almost endless supply of music. Ideal for runners, especially when one year later Nike+ saw the light of day. Now all you needed to do was to put a sensor into your shoe, connect the Bluetooth adaptor to your nano and record your run. A milestone for ambitious runners.

Music is perfect to distract runners from boring or painful stretches, but there's another thing that keeps them going: the voice of a determined and supporting coach.

Nike knew this. With the nano being a perfect mobile player, they created Sport Music and Nike+ Workouts for the iTunes store. In these, fitness instructor Jay Blahnik and top athletes recorded coached runs. Their voice was accompanied by music that perfectly matched the instructions – fast for speedy sections and mellow when it was time to recharge. Now you had music AND your personal trainer with you.

Despite being a great idea, it was ahead of the technical possibilities. The music got old after a few weeks and since every workout was simply a single long soundtrack there was no way to skip or change the tracks. US$15 per workout was also too much for most people to churn out and so Nike put a stop to it.

Today, the Nike+ Running App features individual running schedules depending on your goals and it can remind you when it's time to go out there. But during the workout this coach is mute. The only vocal notification is an update every kilometer or mile about your time and pace. Sadly, this is a robotic voice, bare of emotions and unable to react to your performance with regards to the training program. Neither is the music linked to what you're doing. It's as if Nike took a step backwards from what they had set out to do.

Other apps like RunKeeper, Strava were launched to try and fill the gap. But here's the thing: I've invested 10 years in recording workouts with Nike+ and am only willing to ditch them for a new platform, if the experience is outstandingly superior. And it isn't in either of them.

So, a decade after the introduction of the iPod nano, personal training programs have essentially not progressed. With the introduction of fitness trackers, Apple Watch, Health Kit and an overall awareness for the need of a fit lifestyle there's a substantial market out there. You'd think that someone made a move into it.

And someone did.

Last week saw a game changer to music-supported running. And it's not from Nike, not Asics or any of the established running apps. It's from that other app you're using during every single run anyway.

Enter Spotify

Spotify Running uses your phone's accelerometer and an algorithm to match the pace of the music to the pace of your feet. What sounds rather unimposing is indeed extraordinary when you take it for a spin.

As I put it to the test, my overall pace was considerably faster than with my regular music. There's something so magical about moving to a beat that your feet inadvertently keep their pace.

“There is something so magical about moving to a beat that your feet inadvertently keep their pace.”

Spotify offers a vast selection of different music types and playlists, so you are sure to find an auto-matched beat. Mine happened to be "Indie Kick", which added a nice attitude and was more interesting to listen to than the purely electronic tracks.

The UI is Spotify-typical and fits well into the app. The UX is straight forward, leaving no questions. Play control was possible both via the app and the headphone buttons. There's a way to manually change the pace, but the app promises to do this automatically, leaving basically no need to touch the screen unless you want to change playlists. Easy, simple and single-minded.

Given that this is the first version of Spotify Running, I see a few things that have room for improvement:

• The app needs data connection for streaming the music. With mobile broadband readily available in most countries, playback should work fine, but it's going to be an issue for many people's phone bill. Without the possibility to pre-download the playlist package, my monthly data plan will be used up after two weeks.
• Spotify doesn't yet have an Apple Watch interface. Like many people, I have my phone strapped to my arm during running and it's extremely unpleasant to try and hit the right buttons to change the playlist.
• After hitting play, the app asks you to start running, so it can determine your tempo. For me this created a certain insecurity. I usually start my run with a slow and easy warm-up, but I felt compelled to use my full running speed from the get-go in order to not set a pace that's too slow.
• While the app promises to auto-change pace, I was never able to get it to do so. My slow and fast pace seemed to appear the same to Spotify. A quicker and more precise pace detection would be welcome.

Overall though, this is a great move by Spotify. It's easy, simple and single-minded.  And most of all, it is completely user-centric.

An obn.ux.ious request for the future

Now that Spotify has solved pace-matching music, I have an ambitious request: Connect Spotify, Nike+ and Apple Watch to create truly dynamic and personalised coaching sessions.

Imagine an API that allowed Nike coaching sessions to use Spotify's adaptive music. It would be able to change tracks at the right moment and use your actual speed to feedback into the coach module for a customized follow-up reaction. And with the Apple Watch's ability to add your pulse into the mix, the system could be truly personalized.

Any good coach would, for instance, make use of the opportunity when a runner suddenly speeds up. I'd love for the app to immediately switch to a power song and have the coach in my ear: "Fantastic break-out move. Your pulse looks good - add another couple of seconds for a quick burst to make it a full 30sec sprint – GO" Contrary, when the pulse is too high it should slow down the music and have the coach tell me to switch to a jog.

Geared towards the runner, this system would respond to their every move, eliminating the need for almost all interfaces instead of forcing them to fiddle with their devices. What's left would be a pure human-centric workout experience without any distractions. In essence, the ultimate goal for any user experience design.

We're not yet in a world where computers can relate to us emotionally, but we're not far away from them becoming capable coaches. This needs some serious R&D. The question is - can these corporations overcome commercial protectionism?

published on LinkedIn on June 7, 2015