Build a running playlist from your Spotify Liked Songs

A running playlist made of music you already like, at the tempo you actually run at, is two filters in Playlistation. Set a BPM range, add an energy floor, and it gathers the matching tracks from your Spotify Liked Songs into a real Spotify playlist that keeps refilling itself as you like more music. The Tempo and Energy filters read Spotify's audio analysis, so this one needs the Plus or Pro plan.

Pick the range for your pace

The Tempo filter's slider runs from 0 to 200 BPM, and three of its presets cover running:

A common way to choose is to take your cadence in steps per minute and use that number as the BPM, one beat per step. Half of it works too, and the arithmetic is why: a 180 spm cadence falls on the beat of a 90 BPM track every second step. Clicking two neighbouring presets extends the range across both, so Running plus Fast running is 156 to 200 in two clicks.

Build it in three steps

1. Create a playlist called Running.
2. Add the Tempo (BPM) filter and click the preset that matches your pace, or drag the handles. The sentence reads The track BPM is between 156 and 176.
3. Add the Energy filter and set it to 70% and above: drag the lower handle to 70 and the upper one to 100. The sentence only reads The track energy is at least 70% once the top handle is at the maximum; leave it where it opens and you get between 70% and 75% instead.

The summary under the list confirms what you built: This playlist gathers tracks between 156 and 176 BPM and with energy at 70% or above. Create it, and Playlistation fills it from your Liked Songs.

Why the energy filter is not optional

Tempo measures speed, not intensity. A ballad in 6/8 can be estimated at 170 BPM, which puts it squarely inside the Running range and squarely outside what you want at kilometre eight. The Energy filter is what removes it: it reads Spotify's estimate of how intense and active a track sounds, and a floor of 70% drops most of the quiet ones without hand-picking anything.

Variations worth building

The last one is the reason to build this in Playlistation rather than by hand: it is a playlist that renews itself. Everything you liked in the last three months that runs at your pace is in it, and everything older has left. See organizing Liked Songs by date added.

Cycling, rowing and walking

The same two filters cover any cadence. For cycling, use your cadence in revolutions per minute as the BPM, or double it: 90 rpm works with 90 BPM and with 180 BPM. For a walk, the Walking speed preset is 66 to 108 BPM and Fast walking speed is 108 to 120. The whole scale, preset by preset, is on filtering Liked Songs by BPM.

What limits it

• Only your Liked Songs are used. A running playlist here is the fast part of your own library, not a recommendation. If it comes out short, the answer is to like more music at that tempo, not to change the filter.
• A track Spotify has not analysed has no tempo, and never matches. Spotify has been winding that analysis down, so these gaps are not rare.
• The estimate is sometimes half or double the beat you count. When a track you expected is missing, expand it in the track list at the bottom of the playlist page: the Tempo line shows the value the filter used.

The references are the Tempo filter and the Energy filter.

It is ready before you are

The filters are stored, so the playlist does not need preparing before a run. Playlistation refreshes it every hour on the Plus plan and every 30 minutes on Pro, adding what you have liked since and dropping what you unliked. See how syncing works.

Questions about Spotify running playlists