How Tempo Tunes works,
side A to side B
Every screen in the order you will meet it. Playlists that match your Pace.
01The walkthrough
Open the app and you land on Make. From there it is a straight line: set a tempo, pick your sound, generate, listen, save. Here is every screen in the order you meet it.
Step 1: Set your target tempo
The big number is the BPM every song aims for. 120 for a steady ride, 150 for an easy run, 174 for intervals. Step it with the buttons or drag the slider.
Underneath, Tolerance sets how far a song may drift from that target. It starts at ±8, which reads as 112 to 128 BPM at a target of 120. Tighten it when the pace really matters.
Make · Target Tempo Step 2: Or give the playlist an arc
Same screen, one row up. Steady holds one tempo the whole way. The other three move: Rise climbs from a start to an end, Bell builds to a peak and eases back down, Fade starts hot and lands soft.
Pick one and the single tempo becomes two, with a curve drawn between them. Tolerance still applies, now measured around the curve the whole way along. More on this in Tempo Shapes.
Rise · 90 → 160 BPM 
Bell · 85 → 140 → 85 BPM 
Fade · 150 → 80 BPM Step 3: Set the wiggle room and your taste
Tolerance is how far a song may drift from the target, up to ±30. On a shaped playlist the range follows the curve the whole way along, so ±8 on a 150→80 Fade covers 72 to 158 BPM across the playlist.
Below it, Obscure or Popular is the taste slider. Toward Popular you get songs people can sing along to; toward Obscure it digs up deep cuts at the same tempo. Center blends both.
Make · Tolerance and taste Step 4: Pick how long it runs
Playlist Length works cassette style: C60 holds 15 songs, C90 holds 22, C120 holds 30, and C180 holds 50. Shorter playlists save faster.
Right below it, Musical preference starts, which is the next stop.
Make · Playlist Length Step 5: Pick your sound
Tap Genre to pick up to 10, or Artist to lean the mix toward acts you love. Eras sit at the top: pin the 70s, 80s, and 90s at once and the whole playlist stays in those decades.
Each tile shows how many songs it holds, so you can see the pool before you commit. Tap Done when the count looks right, or skip the whole card and get the full library.
Make · Musical preference Step 6: Lean it toward songs you love
Sounds like takes up to 5 songs you love (optional) and leans the playlist toward their sound. Search any song or artist and tap to pick.
Pick a song outside your BPM range and the app says so: it will still shape the sound, and a one tap Widen chip stretches your tolerance to pull it in. The To my taste slider underneath sets how strongly the playlist matches your picks, Subtle to Strong.
Make · Sounds like Step 7: Name it, then hit Generate
Name your playlist is optional. Leave it and the app names the playlist after its tempo, like Tempo 150→80 BPM.
The line under the button is your recipe read back to you: target, range, length, era, genres, and your Sounds like picks. Check it, then tap Generate playlist.
Make · Generate playlist Step 8: Your playlist, built and playing
The playlist arrives as a cassette with its own J-card. Hit play and 30 second previews start rolling, no music account needed.
Every row carries its measured BPM in orange. On this Fade playlist you can watch it work: the list opens at 149 and eases down, because the song order is the curve you picked. The ↗ on a row opens that song in your music service for the full track.
The finished playlist Step 9: It is already on your shelf
Nothing to save first. Tap Playlists in the bottom bar and every playlist you have made is sitting there as a cassette, tempo on the spine, genre and track count on the label.
Tap any one to reopen it, play it, or take it further.
Playlists tab Step 10: Save it into your music app
This is the step people miss. With a playlist open, tap Save to… at the top. The sheet lists Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music, plus Spotify while it is invite gated.
Sign in once when asked and the playlist is built in your own library. Every save is verified: the app confirms the playlist really exists before it says Saved.
Save to… menu Step 11: Bonus: find any song's BPM
The BPM tab is a tool on its own. Mic a song playing in the room to name it, search any track by title, or drop in a file of your own.
You get its tempo, and that tempo can become your next target. Great for building a playlist around a song you already love.
BPM tab
02Every control on the Make screen
Top to bottom, in the order they appear.
- Target Tempo
- The BPM every song aims for. Step it, drag it, or nudge it. If you know your cadence or your class pace, start there.
- Tempo shape
- Steady, Rise, Bell, or Fade. Anything but Steady turns the single tempo into a start and an end (a start and a peak, for Bell) and draws the curve between them.
- Tolerance (±)
- Wiggle room around the target, 0 to 30 BPM, stepping by 2. It starts at ±8, which is comfortable. Tighten to ±2 or ±3 for dance practice or interval work. On a shaped playlist the range follows the curve the whole way along.
- Obscure or Popular
- The taste slider. Toward Popular you get songs people can sing along to. Toward Obscure it digs up deep cuts at the same tempo that nobody else is playing. Center blends both. Same tempo, two different worlds.
- Playlist Length
- How many songs fit on the playlist, cassette style. Shorter playlists save faster.C60 · 15 songsC90 · 22 songsC120 · 30 songsC180 · 50 songs
- Musical preference
- Genre picks up to 10 at once: Rock, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Country, Soul & Jazz, Classical, Chill, and more. Artist leans the mix toward acts you name and their musical neighbors. It is a compass, not a fence, so expect kindred artists too.
- Era
- Pin one or more decades, 1940s through 2020s. An era pick is a hard filter that ANDs with everything else, so 80s rock at 120 means all three at once. Leave it alone for all decades.
- Sounds like
- Pick up to 5 songs you love (optional) and the playlist leans toward their sound. A pick outside your BPM range still shapes the sound, and a one tap Widen chip stretches the tolerance to pull it in.
- To my taste
- How strongly the playlist matches the sound of your Sounds like picks, from Subtle to Strong.
- Name your playlist
- Optional. Skip it and the playlist is named after its tempo.
- Make playlist public
- Off by default. Flip it on if you want the playlist shareable with the world.
03Tempo Shapes: playlists with a story arc
A steady playlist holds one tempo start to finish. A shaped playlist moves. Pick a shape and a second tempo, and the playlist orders itself along the curve. You saw all four in step 2.
Shapes are picked in the iPhone and Android apps. A shaped playlist opens and plays anywhere, web included, curve order intact.
04Listening in the app
Every playlist plays 30 second previews right in the app, no music account needed. The cassette deck spins, the counter rolls, and you can skim the whole playlist before saving a thing. The loop button at the left of the transport row repeats the playlist.
Songs without a preview show a small note in their row. Use the ↗ button on any song to open it in your music service and hear the full thing.
05Saving to your music app
Step 10 of the walkthrough, in full. The playlists you make here can live in your own music library.
Open a playlist and tap Save to… at the top of the screen. Under Save this playlist to you will see:
Apple MusicTidalYouTube MusicSpotify · invite gated for now
Pick a service, sign in to it once when asked, and the playlist is created in your library on that service. Every save is verified: the app confirms the playlist actually exists in your library before it ever says Saved. Once a playlist is saved, that row turns into Open in Apple Music (or Tidal, or YouTube Music) so you can jump straight to it.
Apple Music notes
Apple Music can take a minute to sync a new playlist. Look under Library → Playlists, and close and reopen the Music app if it has not appeared yet. If a save ever fails you get a clear error, and a Save to Apple Music again option lives right in the same menu.
Where do song links open?
The ↗ button on each song follows the service the playlist was saved to. Saved to Apple Music? Links open Apple Music. Want it fixed to one service always? Use Song links open in at the bottom of the save menu and tap to cycle: Auto, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube Music.
About Spotify
Spotify support is built and working, but Spotify reserves full access for apps that reach 250,000 monthly active users, so Spotify saves are invite gated for now. Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music work for everyone today. Every person who joins moves us toward that number, and hitting it unlocks the door to Spotify for everybody.
06Editing, refilling, remixing
Open a playlist from your shelf. Per song controls sit on each row, and the rest live behind the ⋯ menu at the top.
- Remove a song
- Tap the remove control on any row. Removed songs are remembered, and a refill never brings them back.
- Refill playlist
- Tops the playlist back up to its intended length with fresh songs at your tempo. Your own songs all stay. New arrivals wear a NEW tag until you next close the playlist.
- Remix
- Reopens the playlist's recipe on the Make screen so you can tweak the tempo, genres, or slider and generate a fresh take.
- Share
- Sends a link with the tracklist so anyone can see the playlist, even without the app.
- Sort
- Tap the sort pill to cycle Newest, A to Z, Z to A, BPM up, BPM down. Shaped playlists have no sort pill, because the order is the curve.
- Delete
- Removes the playlist from your shelf. It sits at the bottom of the same ⋯ menu.
07Why the BPM is right
Public BPM data is famously messy: half-time and double-time confusion, 6/8 songs logged at twice their felt tempo, live takes that drift. Tempo Tunes runs on its own database of 1.5M+ tempo-verified tracks and growing, and tracks are re-verified by audio analysis with a vote across independent methods before they count as verified. Genre-aware tempo ranges catch the octave errors that trip up most databases.
That is why every row in a playlist can show its BPM in the open. Spot one that looks wrong anyway? Remove it and it stays gone. Better yet, tell us, because every report makes the library sharper.
Curious about a single song? That is the BPM tab from step 11. It looks up any track's tempo on its own, no playlist required.
08FAQ
Is it free?
Yes. Free, no ads. Built by one person who wanted it to exist.
Do I need Spotify?
No. Building and playing playlists needs no account at all, and saves work with Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music today.
I saved to Apple Music and do not see the playlist.
Give it a minute and check Library → Playlists, then close and reopen the Music app. Still missing? Use Save to Apple Music again from the playlist menu. Saves are verified now, so a success message means the playlist really is there.
Why did I get songs by artists I did not pick?
Artist picks lean the mix rather than lock it, so you get the artists you named plus their musical neighbors at your tempo. Want a hard edge? Use a genre or an era, which do filter strictly.
Can it import or re-order my existing playlists?
Not yet. It is the most requested feature and it is on the roadmap.
What platforms does it run on?
iPhone, Android, and right here on the web. Same playlists, same cassette soul.
Why cassettes?
The whole app is styled after old school cassettes, J-cards included, in a throwback brown and gold. It started with a childhood yellow Sony Sports Walkman and never really ended.