Spotify’s new personalized playlists are designed for your workouts

Spotify is adding to its collection of personalized playlists with a new feature aimed at those who like fresh music for their workouts. But unlike its flagship offering, “Discover Weekly,” which shows up automatically based on your listening history, the workout playlists are built for you after you answer a short quiz hosted on the microsite, Soundtrack Your Workout.

Here, users will click through and answer a few questions about the type of exercises they do, their workout length, who they work out with (kids, alone, with a partner, etc.), intensity level and mood. Spotify will then sync this information with your musical tastes in order to customize a workout playlist for you. You also can opt to have both music and podcasts combined in this playlist, if you choose.

You can retake the quiz at any time to create more personalized playlists by answering the questions differently as you change your workout activity. These are also then added to your collection of playlists in the Spotify app for easy access in the future.

Workout music is already hugely popular on the streaming service, particularly among younger users. The company found that more than half (53%) of those streaming workout tunes were ages 18 to 29, for example. And under coronavirus lockdowns, interest in workout music has remained high, despite users’ inability to hit the gym. In the past two months, for instance, Spotify listeners have created more than a million workout-themed playlists.

“Workout audio has always been a big focus for listeners on Spotify around the globe, and now more than ever, users are finding creative ways to stay active and healthy in this current climate,” noted Spotify’s Trends Expert, Shanon Cook, in a statement about the launch.

To kick off the new feature, Spotify partnered with celebrity trainer Corey Calliet who created his own personalized soundtrack, which is shared here.

This is not the first time Spotify has made use of a microsite to promote its service. The company more recently launched efforts like Listen Local, which directs users to answer a quiz and optionally connect with Spotify for local recommendations in select markets. It also launched Listening Together to showcase when people are starting to play the same song at the same time, for example.

But it’s less common for Spotify to require a quiz to collect information before customizing a playlist on users’ behalf. In this case, it was more necessary because workouts can be very different experiences. That is, the tunes and tempo you want while centering your mind during a yoga session and the music that keeps you running on the treadmill are often very different.

Spotify may be able to use the information collected here in other ways, we should note — perhaps to suggest future playlists that match your interests or for advertising purposes.

Of course, like any personalized playlist Spotify makes, the result is only as good as the data you’ve already fed the service. If you’ve allowed kids or other family members to use your account or don’t often use Spotify in favor of a different service, the playlist may not perfectly reflect your interests.

The new Soundtrack Your Workout destination is live today.