Which workout app has the best music?
Music can make or break a workout. The right tunes keep you motivated and push you further, while the wrong playlist brings your workout to a screeching halt. When choosing a workout app, the quality and variety of music options should be an important consideration.
Apps like Peloton, Fitbit Coach, Nike Training Club, and Aaptiv have become popular for their extensive workout programs and ability to track progress. But a key feature that sets them apart is the music they provide. With different genres, celebrity playlists, and the ability to use your own tunes, the best workout apps understand the science behind exercise music and how to keep users engaged.
In this article, we compare the music selection, customization, and audio quality of the top workout apps. Whether you want to rock out to heavy metal or zen out to Mozart, we’ll help you find the app with the playlist to power your next workout.
Top Workout Apps
There are many great workout apps to choose from in 2023. Here are some of the top options:
Apple Fitness+ – Apple’s workout app provides guided workouts and meditations across different categories like HIIT, yoga, dance, cycling, rowing, and more. It syncs with Apple Watch and has new content added weekly. (Source)
Nike Training Club – Nike’s free app offers over 185 free workouts ranging from endurance, strength, mobility to yoga. It provides video demonstrations and audio coaching from world-class Nike Master Trainers. (Source)
Peloton – Peloton is known for their stationary bikes but also has an app with strength, yoga, meditation, bootcamp, cycling, running and other workout programs. Users can filter by workout type, instructor, duration, and music genre. (Source)
Sweat – Sweat provides personal training programs designed by top fitness trainers like Kayla Itsines. It offers workout programs for different goals like building muscle, losing weight, and post-pregnancy. (Source)
Alo Moves – Alo Moves has over 3000 yoga, pilates, barre, and meditation classes filmed in beautiful studios. Users can filter classes by difficulty, style, instructor, duration, focus, and more. (Source)
Music Selection
One of the key differentiators between workout apps is how they curate their music libraries and playlists. Here’s an overview of how some top apps approach music selection:
Apple Music’s workout playlists are expertly curated by editors and include songs from various genres that match different exercise intensities. Playlists are organized by workout type like running, cycling, yoga, and more (Source). Spotify also offers human-curated workout playlists organized by genre, tempo, and activity. Editors regularly refresh the playlists with new music.
Peloton takes a different approach, working directly with artists to create original workout music. Their instructors curate playlists of popular hits and emerging artists. This music is exclusive to Peloton. Classes feature playlists tailored to the workout style and instructor’s personality (Source).
Some apps like SoundHound use advanced audio recognition technology to detect music and suggest similar artists and songs to expand your listening. It can identify music playing around you in the real world and build customized stations from your tastes (Source). Pandora uses its pioneering Music Genome Project to analyze songs based on hundreds of attributes to generate personalized stations.
Music Genres
When it comes to the range of music genres offered, Music Genre Identifier claims to identify over 1300 musical genres using advanced AI technology. This gives it the largest genre identification capability among the top workout apps. Chosic’s Music Genre Finder can identify over 500 genres based on analyzing a song’s tempo, rhythm, instrumentation and more. While not as robust as Music Genre Identifier, Chosic still covers an extensive range. Reddit users report mixed experiences with finding niche or emerging genres on various apps, so accuracy seems to depend on how cutting-edge the genres are. Overall, Music Genre Identifier appears to offer the most exhaustive genre classification capabilities.
Customization
One of the most important features of a workout app’s music is the ability to customize playlists and select specific songs that match your workout style and taste. Being able to personalize music selections helps keep you motivated and focused during exercise. According to a Spotify blog post, apps like Spotify allow you to rename autogenerated playlists to your liking, with creative or personalized titles.
Custom playlists also let you control the song order, remove tracks you don’t enjoy, and select music that matches your workout pace or intensity. Whether you want uptempo pop songs for cardio, aggressive rock for strength training, or slower instrumental mixes for yoga, a robust music app will enable you to handpick songs to achieve your ideal workout atmosphere.
In addition to creating your own playlists, top workout apps use advanced algorithms to generate customized playlists and stations based on your listening habits and musical tastes. Spotify’s popular Discover Weekly and Release Radar mixes are examples of this curated personalization. While you can’t directly choose songs on these auto-playlists, their data-driven music selections keep your workouts feeling fresh.
Music Discovery
Discovering new workout music that matches your taste can be a challenge. Thankfully, many top workout apps now include excellent music discovery features to help you find fresh tunes and customize your playlists. Shazam, for example, can identify any song playing around you in seconds. You can then save it or listen to related songs. SoundHound offers similar instant music recognition. It also has a feature where you can hum a melody to find a song match.
Apps like Pandora and Spotify employ advanced recommendation algorithms to suggest new music based on your existing library and listening patterns. You can fine-tune stations and get customized workout playlists suited to your tastes. With regularly updated playlists and wide-ranging music libraries, these apps make finding fresh, motivational workout tracks effortless.
Being able to easily identify new songs and get recommendations for workout-friendly music can make your fitness routine more enjoyable and effective. The best apps give you powerful music discovery tools right at your fingertips.
Music Licensing
Music licensing for workout apps allows users to legally stream popular songs while exercising. Most top workout apps like Peloton, Apple Fitness+, and Fitbit Premium have agreements with major music licensing companies like ASCAP and BMI to legally use their catalog of songs.
According to ASCAP, their blanket license covers performance rights for musical works on mobile apps and can provide access to over 10 million songs. Peloton has licensing deals with these major organizations to provide instructor-led classes with popular music.
Apple Fitness+ also has agreements with record labels and licensing groups to use their music catalog. Their service costs $9.99/month but does not require additional music licensing fees for access during workouts. This allows them to incorporate popular music into different class formats.
Other apps like Fitbit Premium at $9.99/month and Nike Training Club at $14.99/month also provide licensed music selections during workouts as part of the subscription cost. This allows users to stream and download playlists to their devices.
Audio Quality
The audio quality offered by workout apps can vary significantly depending on the app’s focus and streaming technology. Two key factors that determine audio quality are streaming bitrate and sound engineering.
Streaming bitrate refers to the amount of data transferred per second when streaming audio. Higher bitrates allow for less compression and therefore better audio quality. However, higher bitrates also require more data usage which can get expensive on mobile devices. Most workout apps aim for bitrates of at least 128kbps for decent quality, while premium services like Tidal can stream lossless audio up to 1411kbps.
Sound engineering also plays a big role. Well-mastered tracks will sound clearer and more balanced compared to tracks with poor mastering. Features like EQ adjustment allow users to customize the sound profile to their preferences. Apps like EXPOSE can analyze audio tracks and identify issues to fix through processing. Advanced audio processing can make lower bitrate streams sound better.
The highest audio quality generally comes from premium music services integrated into workout apps. But many free apps also provide satisfactory quality for casual users. Checking user reviews can help determine if an app’s audio quality meets expectations.
Price
When looking at workout apps, one of the biggest considerations is often the price of the music subscription. The top music streaming services available today include Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Spotify. These services generally range from $5-12 per month for an individual subscription.
Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited both offer individual plans for $9.99 per month. Apple Music also has a Voice Plan for $4.99 per month and a family plan for $14.99 per month. Amazon Music Unlimited has a single device plan for $3.99 per month and a family plan for $14.99 per month. Spotify has a standard individual plan for $9.99 per month, a Premium Duo plan for $12.99, and family plans ranging from $15.99-$22.99 per month depending on the number of premium accounts.
When weighing the price of music subscriptions, factors to consider are number of devices supported, audio quality, music discovery features, size of song catalog, and any bundled services or discounts available. Overall, most leading music services are competitively priced in the $10 per month range, with variations for single device or family plans.
Conclusion
After looking at the available workout apps and the types of music selections they offer along with the ability to customize your own playlists, Aaptiv stands out as the best overall for music integration. Although the selection may be slightly limited compared to apps paired with music services, Aaptiv’s original playlists created by fitness experts provide ideal music motivation for each workout. The songs are selected based on beats per minute to match workout intensity. Aaptiv also allows users to integrate their own music libraries for an even more personalized experience. For those looking for diverse genres, music discovery features, and seamless integration while working out, Aaptiv is the top recommendation.