by John | Jun 16, 2014 | Music, Spotify
Prime Music is a great deal for listening – but won't work for your cycling class.
I love my Amazon Prime membership and our family easily recoups the annual fees with the free two day shipping they offer. So when I saw that they are now offering a free music streaming service as part of Prime, I figured I needed to see if this service could be a replacement for Spotify – it's only available in the USA.
I downloaded the Prime Music App and was instantly underwhelmed by how clunky this was to get working. I won't go through all of the steps (there's a lot) before you see music on your iPhone. Multiple steps on the App > which reference steps on your laptop had me questioning why I was bothering – that's your role John… you work hard so hundreds of other's don't mistakenly waste their time. You do have the option to download tracks for offline use, which is good, but I couldn't figure out how to rearrange or add/remove tracks. Admittedly I didn't spend too much time with it because…
by that point depression had set in. After finally sorting through enough to get a track on my phone and play it, I quickly found a deal breaker – NO TRACK LENGTH TIMER 🙁
OK, so who would want to take advantage of Amazon Prime Music?
I suppose someone who is still exclusively using iTunes and/or CD's, and has an Amazon prime account, may enjoy this. Beyond that I can't think of a reason. But hey, you get what you pay for!
New, Improved and Improving*
Amazon isn't looking to do battle with Spotify or a future iTunes streaming service. They're just looking to add some additional bling to Prime so they will:
- Retain their millions of current Prime subscribers.
- Convert existing Amazon customers into Prime members.
Learn more about Amazon Prime and Prime Music here.
*Credit for this goes to Barbara Hoots. During her presentation at WSSC she focused on studios needing to be continuously providing customers; New, Improved and Improving services if they want to want to grow and get/stay profitable.
by John | Jun 13, 2014 | Instructor Training, Music
You haven't heard it yet, I just finished recording an interview with Stages Indoor Cycling's Master Trainer Cameron Chinatti where we discuss participant evaluations; your riders telling you what you are great at and what you need to improve on. I know that at times I over communicate, cuing everyone on things they've heard multiple times before. Trust that they'll know what to do and let them do it.
This week's track, a remix of Ellie Goulding's How Long Will I Love You is one you don't need say anything over. If you listen carefully there's a subtle plug for us dads – fitting as Father's Day is this weekend.
I'm thinking it could be perfect as a second track, following your intro. Turn up the volume and ride 🙂
https://soundcloud.com/henry-krinkle/ellie-goulding-how-long-will-i
Here's an alternate version that may fit as well.
https://soundcloud.com/unitedubstep/ellie-goulding-how-long-will-i-love-you-aznar
The original could be your closing track… or this version if you need a bit more intensity. Click over and like their FB page – then scroll down for the free track.
https://soundcloud.com/solarheavy/ellie-goulding-remix
by John | Jun 13, 2014 | Instructor Tech Help, Instructor Training, iTunes & Spotify Training, Music, Spotify
Does Spotify seem to take forever to load on your iPhone? Did it close abruptly (crash) when you hit ‘play', act sluggish or is just not as responsive as when it was new? It may have bonked. Here's how to nurse your prized device back to life…
Wikipedia describes bonking as
In endurance sports such as cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk describes a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by sudden fatigue and loss of energy. Milder instances can be remedied by brief rest and the ingestion of food or drinks containing carbohydrates. The condition can usually be avoided by ensuring that glycogen levels are high when the exercise begins, maintaining glucose levels during exercise by eating or drinking carbohydrate-rich substances, or by reducing exercise intensity.
Your iPhone, or other portable device, can experience the bonk as well. No, not because the battery is low, or you haven't fed it enough GU, but from a depletion of available system memory (RAM – Random Access Memory). This results in slow operation, freezing / crashing Apps and mysteriously frustrating actions that have you wondering why you're not using CD's anymore 🙁
Two types of fuel
As a fitness professional you no doubt are aware that your body stores two types of energy; sugars (glycogen) and fat. Regardless of your fitness level, during a long period of exercise the limited amount of stored glycogen you have is consumed. If you don't eat carbohydrates before they are exhausted, you'll bonk. Interestingly, your body can't access the energy in your stored body fat quickly enough to prevent bonking, even though you have all the fat calories needed to keep you going for days. Yes, with proper training you can improve fat usage, but watch the Tour de France next month and you'll see very fit cyclists eating frequently during each stage.
The energy that fuels your iPhone is memory:
- System memory (RAM) which runs all of the phone's operations – a small amount @ 512MB (one half GB)
- Storage memory – that's the amount of memory you choose when you bought your iPhone; 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, etc… that holds your offline Spotify music files, iTunes tracks, videos and pictures.
Your iPhone bonks when it runs low on available RAM – none of the 32GB of storage memory you paid extra for is available to help out. You don't see it, but there are a bunch of processes running continuously on your phone, eating small bits of RAM. Typically this happens when you have multiple Apps running in the background or you have too many Apps looking for updates (push notifications) or GPS location updates. You can't add any additional RAM – so the solution to prevent bonking is to free up RAM – by closing unused Apps and turning off unneeded functions will free up some additional memory.
Step one – Close Unused Apps
Did you know that clicking the Home button doesn't actually close an App? It doesn't. There's a good chance that every App you've ever downloaded and opened is still quietly running, consuming the much needed RAM to run Spotify properly. Powering down your iPhone doesn't close them either – each App needs to be closed manually.
Double click the home button and then swipe up to close Apps.
Here's how…
- Double click the ‘Home' button quickly and you'll see thumbnails of the Apps currently running.
- Scroll left/right to select an App to close.
- Swipe the thumbnail up to close it – there's no reason not to close all of them.
Step two – Do you talk to Siri?
Besides it being annoying, Siri is a bit of a RAM hog. If you're not on speaking terms, turn her off. Settings>General>Siri
Step three – Reboot Regularly
Whenever you're tired, does it seem like your mental processor doesn't operate as sharply as it does after a good night's sleep? After a long day your brain's RAM has a bunch of “stuff” running in the background that it collected during the day; problems at work, anxiety about a future event, what to get your dad for Father's Day… stuff. The best way to clear it is an 8 hour horizontal reboot.
Computers are no different. They collect “stuff” as they work, reducing the amount of RAM needed for Spotify to crossfade between songs. NOTE: cross-fading streaming tracks is actually a very neat (and memory intensive) trick.
So when was the last time you powered down your iPhone and give it a rest? I've asked people this question and mostly been told that the only time they've rebooted their phone is when the battery goes dead. Same goes with your computer, Mac or PC – they all benefit from regularly being turned off. Wait until it has completely powered down and then bring it back to life 🙂
Step four -Turn off unneeded services
Every neat little thing your iPhone does requires RAM…
- Do you really need to instantly see every new FB comment displayed on your home screen? Turn a few off: General > Settings > Notification Center.
- Location tagging is a bit creepy. Does Shazam really need to know where I am? I don't think so. Turn off all of the nonessential location tags: General > Settings > Privacy > Location Services and scroll down to see who's tracking your location. I only have Facebook (for checking in) and Google Maps turned on.
There are multiple ways to reduce RAM usage beyond this list – these should be a great start to prevent your iPhone from bonking anytime soon!
by John | Jun 6, 2014 | Music, Spotify
With younger daughter home for the Summer, it's not uncommon from me to get in my car and turn on the radio tuned to a foreign (to me) station. Great for accidental music discovery 🙂 Going through my tagged tracks this AM in Shazam and wanted share a few with you.
Let's start with the track Sleeper Agent — Waves from the band Sleeper Agent. I can't remember exactly where I was when I first heard it – I just know that I was calling up Shazam, thinking this would be a fun, fast flat with a fun Summer vibe that I felt me class would enjoy. It's on the upper edge of too fast @ 115RPM – do you thing your class could follow it and stay smooth?
Next is another flat from The Cab — Lock Me Up @ 95RPM. This song has a very powerful, driving beat that would make a fabulous 3 minute “Best Effort” opening threshold segment. Looking for a great “Big Finish” track? One Of THOSE Nights @ 105RPM plugged in at the end of your class will motivate everyone to leave whatever they have left there in your class, where it belongs, once they complete the final 20 sec sprint at the end. If you have time I'd spend some time sampling the rest of The Cab‘s albums – good stuff.
Deadmau5 — Seeya is also on the cadence edge @ 110RPM – have to use this because it's just awesome and at over 6 minutes, there will be suffering!
If you ride/work along with your class, this track as a great message about how you're all together until the top of this 70RPM climb Bassnectar — You & Me (feat. W. Darling)
Florence + The Machine — Dog Days Are Over isn't new – but I wanted to use it in my next playlist as soon as it came on.
https://soundcloud.com/partyben/florence-the-machine-dog-days-are-over-party-ben-utilitarian-remix
Do you have any recent discovery's you'd like to share?
by John | May 30, 2014 | Music
I remember when, we were gambling to win. Everybody else, said better luck next time…
I love the motivational lyrics in this track Chris Hawthorne shared in her updated playlists for her Four Corners (Two Ways) profile. I'm a big fan of sisters Tegan & Sara and lead singer Emily Haines from Metric sounds like she's possibly a long, lost sibling.
The continuous refrains of “is it ever gonna be enough?” and “more and more… more and more…” in Gold Guns Girls could be fantastic cues for you to repeat, motivating everyone to dig deep and enjoy their private suffering all the way to the end of a huge effort.
Metric has produced this track in multiple versions:
Hard driving Metric — Gold Guns Girls which is my favorite. Clocking in at 90 RPM, this song will be perfect for a fast flat at threshold/TT tempo or for a three minute “Best Effort” to find everyone's PTP Personal Threshold Power.
Acoustic Metric — Gold Guns Girls could serve as a great closing song – or as the setup to a very intense interval – using the refrains to get everyone's heads in the right place and ready to work 🙂
I'm thinking I could use both in the same playlist. I'll let you know how it works out.
Looking for more faster tracks? Metric has couple of gems @ 80 RPM and above:
Metric — Speed The Collapse @ 95 RPM
Metric — Synthetica @ 80 RPM
Here is a 90 RPM remix of Gold Guns Girls you could download.
https://soundcloud.com/fake-money/gold-guns-girls-fake-money-remix
by John | May 27, 2014 | Music
Wikipedia image
Some of the profiles we provide our ICI/PRO members become instant classics. Case in point… Chrispins' (Chris Hawthorne) Four Corners (Two Ways) class profile.
Many Instructors have commented that they (and their classes) enjoy the simplicity and effectiveness of this profile. Many have added it to their portfolio of go-to profiles – which is awesome, except after a few classes the playlist maybe getting a bit tired.
Well Chris has published two new playlists you can use!
Chris has some additional cuing notes and Deezer links at her post here.
