iPhone trouble

"The trouble with becoming dependent on technology... we're then completely at the mercy of something we have near zero little control over."

Anonymous

I learned a valuable lesson this past Thursday night > check your device to ensure your make available offline/downloaded Spotify playlists are in fact available offline/downloaded before you leave your house!

I'm adding this post to the Best Practices category.

I teach two classes on Thursday's; 6:00 am and 5:30 pm and use my iPhone 4s to deliver the music via Spotify. I like to use the same playlist for both classes and teach a similar class, even though the morning class is only 45 minutes. The morning class when off without a hitch but when I tried to cue up the same class that evening - it wasn't showing as available offline. In fact none of my Spotify playlists showed as playable 🙁

Quickly thinking back to another Best Practice post > when something isn't working, your first move should be to reboot (power down) the device. No help at all. Thankfully I still had a few playlists in iTunes and was able to carry on with a class I wasn't ready to teach.

Then this morning Amy had the same problem on her Android phone. This problem isn't limited to just iPhones. Thankfully she had checked this morning and was able to download her class before heading off to teach.

The Spotify forum has a number of posts describing the problem, but no solutions. I spend some time trying to replicate the problem without success. So beyond what I've listed below, my advice for Spotify user's is to check and confirm that the playlist you will be using is in fact ready for offline use.

Always have an alternate form of music ready and waiting!

  • For years I had a "Rescue CD" tucked into my personal folder in the Dept Head's office. It's long gone. Today I'm burning a new one as I type this.
  • Have an old, unused iPod laying around? Add a few of your old iTunes playlists and throw it into your gym bag, along with a charger cord and wall transformer. I just bought a few spare cord/chargers from Amazon.com for about $5 each.
  • Subscribe to IndoorCyclingMusic.com's music podcast. These hour long mixed tracks on my iPhone have been lifesavers in the past. Because they're the actual mp3's they will be there as long as your device will turn on.
  • Don't forget that Indoor Cycling DVD's include a soundtrack. They might not be to your taste, but could do in a pinch when everything else fails.

As a last resort (say the studio's sound system fails completely) be mentally prepared to coach a class without music. Coach Troy Jacobson has made a fortune walking around with a clipboard and stopwatch. Sure they add a soundtrack to the finished Spinervals Cycling DVD, but there was no music playing during the taping of the episode I participated in.

You may even go so far as to prepare for a future disaster by choosing to teach a quiet class where it's just you, doing your best impression of Coach Troy > except you would be prepared in advance.

Dave Santiago's Racing with Pro's class profile may have the structure you'll need to look prepared and sounding professional.

What are your suggestions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally posted 2013-04-27 10:11:01.

John

Add Your Thoughts...

comments