Spotify

Last updated: 2025-04-25, 1992 tracks

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time doing fast-paced things like running and cycling. I’m pretty good at picking up the beat of music while I’m doing it. Hence, as I am a programmer, I started experimenting with the Spotify API. I found an interesting piece of data for music, the tempo field in the audio-features:

The overall estimated tempo of a track in beats per minute (BPM). In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece and derives directly from the average beat duration.

I would also call attention to the word “average” here because it is indeed average. If a track starts at a slower tempo and later speeds up to 160 BPM, the average tempo will be less than 160 – depending on how long the intro was. In machine-generated data, there are errors, too. Please think about this when listening to playlists.

But the point is, I use a little program to generate BPM lists of my own taste from the tracks I like, which I then make available in a public format on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/szeghybarna

What can these lists be used for?

When you are walking, running or cycling and want to keep a particular beat, you can step/thrust to the beat of the music. For example, I walk at 5 km/h (or 12 min/km) to a 125 BPM beat and go to infinity and beyond because that’s my comfortable pace. I listen to the music, pick up the beat and switch off.

For jogging and running, it’s a bit more hassle because I start at a higher BPM, and as my heart rate rises, I switch playlists to lower and lower BPM; it usually settles after 20 minutes.

I’ve exported the playlist here, too; you can search it. I update it every week or so, always with the newest tracks.

These lists are mixed because, with a little attention, you can transition between 60 BPM and 120 BPM in the same manner; you simply need to halve or double the beat. Our brains automatically adjust to this, so we won’t run at a different pace. Therefore, the 60 list includes the 120, and vice versa.

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Playlists:

Tracks (last 100):

Feel free to use it!

• spotify

Translations:

• hu: Spotify