In order to figure out what makes songs good to run with, I do most of my solo workouts testing music for running. So as an ongoing theme of the Running Rocks blog I will be posting my playlists along with ideas of how to incorporate them into training. This means using songs to cue speed intervals, hill repeats and tempo workouts.
If you are looking to refresh your old playlists or make long run, marathon or half marathon race playlists this will be a good resource for finding new running music.
I’m starting by posting songs in my and my boyfriend’s iTunes libraries but I will be adding to the lists frequently so rather than list them all in the blog post check by clicking the links to see what’s new.
These Running Songs:
- Are at or around a 180 bpm cadence or tempo. Some of them maybe a little over or a little under but they are all in the neighborhood.
- Have a rhythm and driving force that makes for great running music.
- Have been tested and approved by Lady Southpaw
- Tend to have a rock aesthetic… that’s just what I like! Hip hop and electronica are also really good for running and I have incorporated a few different genres but this list will be best for people looking for rock and roll running playlists.
How This Running Playlist was Created
My boyfriend and I each have thousands and thousands of songs on our computers. I ran a cadence app over all of them to find out which ones were either around 90 bpm or around 180 bpm. Then I tested all of those to make sure that the app was correct and to make sure the songs felt right for running. That left only 99 songs! Then thanks to various DRM and distribution restrictions not all of them could be posted. Good running music is not easy to come by. Thanks to new platforms allowing you to stream music I will be testing 1,000s more songs in the coming months and adding them as well.
The 180 bpm Running Song Archive
Rhapsody Running Songs
I confess, I am a pretty committed Rhapsody user and have been for nearly 5 years. As a result, a lot of the music I know I don’t actually own. So I already have lots of ideas of things to test. Rhapsody is my favorite of all the platforms because it’s the one I use the most so I’m the most comfortable finding my way around it. Still I was only able to get 80+ songs in my initial posting.
Rhapsody allows you to test and buy songs without being a member. It’s very ad heavy when you’re not a member but that goes away if you create an account. They offer a 30 day free trial which is well worth it, just make sure to cancel if you don’t want to become a member because they will charge your credit card. The price levels are $9.99 and $14.99 per month depending on how many mobile devices you want to activate. You get access to millions of songs without having to download anything to your computer meaning you can log in anywhere (that’s my favorite part!) It’s also really easy to use.
Link to 180 bpm Running Songs on Rhapsody
Spotify Running Songs
Spotify is the new kid on the block and I’m still kicking its tires. You can do a free version without any mobile devices. It is super integrated with Facebook, which is both convenient and a little annoying because almost everything you do gets posted to your profile. Although It is fun to stalk your friends’ publicly posted playlists. The thing I don’t like about it is that you have to download the software to your computer in order to use it, which makes it harder to stream from your work computer for example. Although because of that you can incorporate the music on your hard drive so I was able to post most of the songs from my iTunes playlist. I’m not sure if other people stream the ones only available on my hard drive or not, I would guess not. It doesn’t seem “cloudy” enough. Also, non-members would have to create an account and download the software to test any of them. That’s good for business and annoying for people.
Link to 180 bpm Running Songs on Spotify
iTunes Running Songs
Then there is the classic iTunes. Sadly, I was only able to post 45 of the songs on my playlist thanks to DRM and their availability in the iTunes Store! The other big downer is that they now require you to publish playlists through Ping, their horrific social network. I’m pretty sure Steve Jobs was not very involved in the user experience of this network because it does not hold up to Apple’s standards of elegant design, ease of use or function. I find it frustrating, not the least because it doesn’t make that many songs available for playlists.
Link to 180 bpm Running Songs on iTunes
Google Music is in Beta right now, and I’m itching to test that! Hopefully there will be a Google version of the playlist soon.
