Retirement of our Running Feature

[meahtenoha]

Hey everyone, the Spotify Community team here.

We’re here to let you know we will be retiring our Running feature on 26 February 2018.

We always take retiring features in Spotify very seriously. We’re pouring our energy into new ways of creating the best experience for our users.

Of course, you can still workout with Spotify as your Running companion. You can find Running playlists in the Workout section of Browse section.

You can also connect your Spotify running music with an exercise app. Check out our support articles on Nike+ Run Club and Runkeeper for more information.

If you’re interested to learn more about how the app evolves, check out our article about testing and why features change.

Please post here with any questions or feedback you might have. We’ll be sure it reaches the right teams.

Thanks!

[Cjs48]

#MSGA

Make Spotify Great Again, bring back the running app

[JJGelineau]

That was the main reason i loved Spotify.  I felt lost when i went running today.  BRING IT BACK!!!!

[Chillimart]

Big mistake Spotify. This is the main reason for a lot of your custom and as others have already pointed out was something that I really sold to friends. I find it contemptuous that you would just withdraw such a great feature so suddenly without warning. Bring it back or you’ve lost my sub 

[brandocruz]

BRING BACK RUNNING!!!!

This was the best feature and no one else offers anything similar. You guys owned this market.

Then again, someone else might come along and fill this void. 

[soimgonnalose]

I am dissapointed as well. For me, this was a major selling point of Spotify.

For those looking at Rockmyrun. It seems like there are groupons available to further reduce the cost.

[Wmartin1]

This is a huge shame. Like many other peopleo on here, this was one of only a couple of features I used on Spotify. On every single run I would use this feature and it would motivate me to get to 10k, every time, twice a week. I could discover new music through it and get excited for my workouts. 

I tried your new running playlists today. They are terrible!!! The beats change hugely between songs, the song quality is awful, and there are only 4 or 5 to choose from! No more Latin beats or top hits.

This is a huge mistake, Spotify. Please bring this feature back ASAP!!

[OMartin]

Big disappointment. Was ready to use it to force my intervals today at a steady pace, but hey, there I stand on the treadmill after warming up, ready to go,  with just some random 165-170 playlists?! This was a main reason for not considering other streaming contenders. One of the greatest functions of Spotify is just gone without any real notice, and now our family subscription is likely to move elsewhere.

[sarith]

This feature was the only thing keeping me in Spotify. I used it multiple times a week! Very sad to see such a loved and USEFUL feature go away!

The "Running BPM" playlists that are in there are so bad, i just tried it out today (after fiddling around for 10mins looking for the Running feature). 
1. They do not all have the same BPM there's one song that's about 185 then the next song is 170 then another at 190. It's all over the place. "170 to 180" is a really bad range of BPM as there's a big difference between the songs.

2. Theres some really slow songs in those lists. 

3. They're not well synced. 

On the bright side this has now freed me to go check out Apple music. 

[Timbo696]

This is a truly devastating development! The running playlists in the workout section at 150-160bpm are ridiculous. Research has shown most serious runners will hold a cadence of 175-190bpm. Please don’t retire this Spotify! This is the only reason I subscribe to Spotify and recommend it to all my running patients!! Pleeeeease!!!!! 

[Cjs48]

Pretty nice that there’s still a how-to video on the app that shows the running and tempo feature...

[lklaus]

This feature was one of the best and most recommendable features about Spotify. There is now nothing about Spotify in particular that convinces me to continue being a loyal premium subscriber. If another music streaming service released a similar feature - even without the auto tempo detection - I would IMMEDIATELY switch. 

The running playlists that remain are a joke at best. They are cryptically named and span a massive range of tempos and are thus completely useless.

I'm also livid that this feature disappeared without even mentioning it on the Google play page. "What's new: we're improving Spotify so enable auto updates!" Yeah right. If I had known this was happening I would never allow this app to update ever again.

[Danpenn95]

Wow. I am devastated. I almost never leave comments or reviews on anything. This was one of the only reasons I had kept my subscription. Before the running playlist, I could hardly run a mile without stopping. Bring it back. The new 150-165?! WHAT?! Are you serious?! Clearly you’ve never tried changing pace from 150 to 165. Very upset by this loss of feature. Nike is not the same. Bring it back, please.

[Nikkb]

Please don't. This is awful. I just started running 5 months ago and this feature was the only thing that kept me going. I wasn't aware of this retirement until I went to find it today before my run. This is heart breaking really. There is nothing else like it and I don't know what I can do to replace it  reconsider retiring this feature. 

[Martzw]

Guys I downloaded Fit Radio for my run today. Has all the BPM you need. It seems like it will take some getting used to and finding the right mix but, good news: ran 10 seconds per mile ahead of previous pace. And if running is the only reason you use Spotify, then this does the trick. 

[Demrun]

I had recently started using spotify running, can't believe it is just gone without a similar replacement.

Meredith, your bulletin says that the app is continually evolving - can you explain how removing something without replacing it with something better is 'Evolving'?

[Martzw]

Try Fit Radio. I downloaded tonight after finding this out and it did the trick. Will need to get used to it but has all the same features. I will miss my “Embrace” mix for sure though. 

[Martzw]

For Radio. Used it for the first time tonight. Will have to get used to it but all the same features. 

[Russ929]

WHY would you take one of the best features of the app?!?! I thinking it’s time to cancel my subscription. Bad move. 

[Johnb911]

 Very disappointing. I hope you will reconsider. If not i will be cancelling my premium family account 

[centrin0]

Hello Spotify, 

like others I don't know why you change (remove) feature, that was used by your customers. Can somebody explain what new feature will users get (that cannot be used with dynamic running playlists)?

What leads you to remove this feature?

Thank you for your feedback.