It's “Equalizer” or “Equaliser” depending on what side of the pond your classes are held.
In a comparison of Deezer's and Spotify's iPhone Apps, I would always choose Spotify – their App includes adjustable crossfade playback. Once you have crossfade you won't want to go without it. Beyond that the IOS Apps are very similar.
A little bird notified me today that Deezer is going to release a new version of their music player App for both iPhone and Android soon… whatever that means? Based on the above graphic, the new Apps will allow higher quality 320kbps playback, crossfade and an Equalizer. I let you know when I hear more.
I know how to use crossfade effectively – OK, I just have it set at about 8 seconds and have left it there for at least a year.
But I'm going to be really curious to play with the Equalizer 🙂
Have you delivered your class music with your laptop and used the Equalizer that's in iTunes?
Amy and I aren't big on camping > actually we refuse to camp unless there's a hot shower in the tent. But this music festival in Dover, Delaware sounds like a blast.
You know Coachella and Bonnaroo, but you may not have heard of Firefly. This musical camping extravaganza kicks off its third year today in Dover, DE. What's nice about festivals like Firefly is that they give you a chance to see a slew of bands you already like discovering some of your future favorites en route to the different stages. Even if you’re not already familiar with the indie-rock scene, you still might recognize one of the 100-plus big name bands and emerging artists gracing the woodsy campgrounds this weekend.
They've published a playlist at shape.com from the top bands here – but no Spotify playlist… so I've created one for you 🙂
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.
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…
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!
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)
