Live, on iPhone and Apple Watch

Music that moves with you.

Your heart rate sets the mood. Your steps set the beat. Start Live on your watch and Tempo Tunes picks every next song as you go, all day, on a walk, or on the bike.

Get it on the App StoreRead the manual
  1. 1

    Pick an activity and a goal

    All day, Walk or Run, or Bike. Then Steady, Zone 2 or Push. Zone 2 is the default: the easy, all-day effort, 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate. The music comes from any playlist you have made, or from the whole library.

  2. 2

    Tap Start, on either screen

    Start from the phone or the watch, like any workout. The phone stays in your pocket and plays full songs through Apple Music. A walk or a ride is saved to Health when you finish. An All day session is not, so a day of listening never lands in your workouts.

  3. 3

    Every next song is picked for you

    About thirty seconds before a song ends, Tempo Tunes looks at the last minute from your wrist and picks the next one at the tempo your body is asking for. Skip a song early and the next pick leans the other way.

What your watch tells the music

Each activity listens to different signals from your wrist. Nothing else to wear, nothing to pair.

All day

Starts around 100 BPM

Reads: Heart rate, and steps when you walk

Music that flows with your day. Working at a desk, the music rests with you. Get up and walk to lunch and it picks up your steps within a song.

Walk or Run

Starts around 112 BPM

Reads: Steps per minute, heart rate

One beat per step. With Zone 2 or Push set, your heart rate corrects the next pick: above the zone, a few BPM slower; below it, a few faster.

Bike

Starts around 130 BPM

Reads: GPS speed, barometric grade, heart rate

The road sets the tempo in three bands: a climb follows your pedal stroke around 110, rolling sits around 140, a descent follows your speed around 168. Speed nudges within the band and your zone corrects on top.

Snow

Starts around 112 BPM

Reads: Strides, GPS speed, grade, heart rate

Skin up to your heart rate, and the moment you drop in the music cuts to about 168. On the lift and at the bottom of a run it settles. In the next update, for splitboards, touring skis and resort days.

How the next song gets picked

Thirty seconds before the song ends, Tempo Tunes takes the last minute from your watch, your typical heart rate and your typical steps per minute, and works out a target. In order:

  1. 1Dropping in on snow: the hill sets it, about 168, and the song changes now rather than at the end.
  2. 2On foot and stepping: one beat per step. With a zone set, above it the next song is 4 to 12 BPM slower; below it, 3 to 8 faster.
  3. 3On a bike: the grade sets the band (climb, rolling, descent), speed nudges inside it, and the zone corrects on top.
  4. 4At rest: no steps for a minute: your heart rate alone, from the bottom of the library at your resting rate up to about 130. Down at most 15 a song, up at most 10.

Then it picks a song you have not heard this session, close to the target, from an artist you have not heard in the last three songs. Skip inside the first 45 seconds and the next pick leans 5 BPM the other way, once. The full walkthrough, with screens, is in the manual.

Questions people ask

Why steps for the beat, and heart rate for the mood?
People lock their steps to a beat without trying, and the watch counts steps the moment they change. Heart rate lags your effort by up to a minute, so it steers instead of leading: a few BPM slower when you run hot, a few faster when you coast, and all the way down when you sit.
What happens when I stop?
On foot, a minute with no steps counts as rest, whatever your goal. The tempo then follows your heart rate alone, from the bottom of the library at your resting heart rate up to about 130 as it climbs. It comes down at most 15 BPM a song, so the music settles instead of dropping off a cliff.
What is Zone 2?
Roughly 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate: easy enough to talk, hard enough to build your base. Tempo Tunes takes your max from your age in Health, or you can set your own. The zone steers only while you are moving; at rest the music rests too.
What do I need?
An iPhone, an Apple Watch with Tempo Tunes installed from the Watch app, and an Apple Music subscription. Live plays full songs through Apple Music. Bike and Snow use the watch's GPS and barometer, which cost more battery than heart rate alone.
Does it need a cadence sensor or a chest strap?
No. Everything Live reads comes from the watch you already wear. Nothing to buy, nothing to pair.
Can I keep the songs?
Yes. When you finish, the summary shows your minutes, steps, average heart rate and how long you stayed in your zone, with a chart of song tempo against your steps. Save it as a playlist and it lands in Playlists with everything else, ready to save to Apple Music.
Android and Spotify?
Live on Wear OS is next. Spotify reserves full access for apps that reach 250,000 monthly listeners, so every walker who joins gets us closer.
Does it cost anything?
No. Tempo Tunes is free on iPhone, Android, and the web.

Stay in Tempo with Tempo Tunes

Live is the center tab in the iPhone app. Install Tempo Tunes on your Apple Watch from the Watch app, and your day has a soundtrack that keeps up.

Get it on the App Store