Strava and Spotify Link Up

This linkup to leading music streaming service Spotify was imminent according to hints from @Strava’s Instagram feed.

How It Works

Check you are on today’s version of the Strava app. Once the two apps are linked via Strava settings in Record mode, you can access your Spotify playlists and play music directly within the Strava app during a workout. The Strava app will display your most recently played playlists, artists, and albums, as well as recommended music and podcasts from your local area.

Is This Another Subscriber-Only Feature?

This feature only works properly if you are a Spotify Premium subscriber. In that case, you can select the songs you want to listen to; otherwise there is the occasional advert plus the limitation imposed by Spotify that you can only shuffle through ‘available’ songs.

That’s about it. However, you could instead try SPAVA.CLUB’s more advanced Spotify/Strava hookup.

SPAVA

More: spava.club

Spava makes it easier to discover new songs to add to your running playlists. Spava will catalogue the music you play during any Strava activity, and if you choose, it will share your workout tracks with friends through an auto-generated Strava description and public feed. Conversely, you can get some great track recommendations that your running buddies have already tried out and shared with you.

On the Spava main feed, you can play 30-second Spotify song previews. If you like a song, it will be automatically added to your “Liked on Spava” Spotify playlist. Additionally, Spava will email you a weekly curated playlist with more of its recommendations.

Thoughts

Music is integral to some runners’ enjoyment of their workouts. I’m not one of those people but there are a LOT of you that are. Strava is the world’s leading Social sports platform and Spotify is the world’s leading music platform. You’d kinda thought that the two would have already hooked up. And you would also have thought that Strava/Spotify could have jointly come up with something a little deeper than this.

Fine, now you don’t have to tab between the Spotify and Strava apps when recording. But surely the way to make the hookup between the two companies zing is along the lines of what Club Spava has done — ie leveraging the social side of things to boost the sharing and discovery of new music for certain kinds of workouts. Perhaps also this could get a bit more scientific by enabling the discovery of music with certain kinds of tempo that best suit the planned intensity of runners’ workouts. Or perhaps even someone can go a bit crazy with ML/AI and determine the scientifically best tracks to make us run fast or longer.

All we have to do is hold our breath until Strava finds some spurious reason to shut down SPAVA’s linkup to put them out of business.

Here’s some bedtime reading of music/sport science:

• Keele Study: sciencedaily.com
• The Journal of Strength and Conditioning: How Does Music Aid 5km of Running?
• The Influence of Music Preference on Exercise Responses and Performance: A Review

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Last Updated on 28 May 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID