Live, on iPhone, with or without a watch

Music that moves with you.

A dynamic playlist from your sensors. Your heart rate sets the mood, your steps set the beat, and Tempo Tunes picks every next song as you go. All day, Walk, Run, Hike, Bike, Snow and Skate.

Get it on the App StoreRead the manual
  1. 1

    Pick an activity and a goal

    All day, Walk, Run, Hike, Bike, Snow or Skate. 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. No watch? Live runs on the phone alone, from its own motion sensors. A walk, a run, a hike 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 sensors 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. Tap Send it and the next song is a fast one, then the activity takes over again. When you finish, the session is kept with its playlist in Playlists, with your stats and the tempo chart.

What your sensors tell the music

Each activity listens to different signals from your wrist or your pocket. 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

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.

Run

Starts around 160 BPM

Reads: Stride per minute, heart rate

One beat per stride, so the music sits where your feet land. A climb lifts it a little, and your zone corrects the next pick the same way a walk does. Saved to Health as a run.

Hike

Starts around 112 BPM

Reads: Steps per minute, barometric climb, heart rate

One beat per step, like a walk, with the barometer watching the climb. A slow, steep stretch reads as effort, not rest, so the music stays with you up the hill. Elevation gain shows in your readouts and in the summary.

Bike

Starts around 130 BPM

Reads: GPS speed, barometric grade, heart rate

The road sets the tempo in three bands: a climb sits on your doubled pedal stroke, 130 to 142, rolling sits around 140, a descent follows your speed around 168. Speed nudges within the band; your zone corrects the flats and descents, never a climb. Send it on the watch or phone jumps to the descent band for one song.

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. Send it for one fast song whenever you want it. For splitboards, touring skis and resort days, and it keeps playing where the signal does not reach.

Skate

Starts around 120 BPM

Reads: Phone motion, no watch needed

Built for the park and the street, where nobody wears a watch. The phone in your pocket reads the pushes and the drops, and the music runs hot while you are rolling. Send it when you drop in and the next song is a fast one.

How the next song gets picked

Thirty seconds before the song ends, Tempo Tunes takes the last minute from your sensors, 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 and an Apple Music subscription. Live plays full songs through Apple Music. With an Apple Watch, install Tempo Tunes from the Watch app and Live reads your heart rate from your wrist. Without one, Live runs from the phone's own motion sensors; Skate is built that way. Bike and Snow use GPS and the 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?
Every session is kept. When you finish, the summary shows your minutes, steps, climb, average heart rate and how long you stayed in your zone, with a chart of song tempo against your steps. The session lands in Playlists on its own, with the chart on the playlist page, ready to save to Apple Music.
What happens when the signal drops?
Live keeps going. Add downloaded songs to Take it offline and they play only when streaming misses, and only for the picks they were added for. Techno stays techno. The moment the signal is back, Live streams again.
What is Send it?
One button, one meaning, on every activity: the next song is a fast one, then the activity takes over again. On a bike it jumps to the descent band, on a board it is the drop-in song, on a skateboard it is the run you have been waiting for.
Android and Spotify?
Live is built for iPhone and Apple Watch. Make, with every mode, is on Android and the web. 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. Add the Apple Watch app for your heart rate, or run it from the phone alone, and your day has a soundtrack that keeps up.

Get it on the App Store