Your music, at your cadence.

Cadence is a running app that locks your music to your stride. You pick a target steps-per-minute (150–200 SPM) and every track is pitch-preserving time-stretched to play at exactly that tempo. A metronome clicks in time with the beat, and your live cadence and pace read straight off the phone's motion sensors — no GPS drain. It ships with 141 original tracks across 10 running-tuned genres.

Cadence is simply how many steps you take per minute. Running coaches often encourage a higher cadence because a faster, shorter stride reduces overstriding — landing with your foot out in front of your body — which is linked to braking forces and higher impact at the knee and hip. Research suggests that nudging your cadence up 5–10% can lower joint loading and injury risk, at no cost and with no equipment. It's one of the few form changes with broad coaching support. Here's a clear explainer:

You'll often hear "180 SPM," which came from a coach's observation of elite distance runners. It's a useful reference, not a universal rule — optimal cadence varies with your speed, leg length and biomechanics, and forcing 180 at an easy pace can feel unnatural. Most recreational runners sit around 150–170. A better approach than chasing a magic number is to raise your own cadence by about 5–10%. That's exactly what Cadence's target selector and Auto-SPM-by-pace are built for.

Gradually, and with a beat to follow. The standard method: bump your cadence about 5% and hold it for a stretch of your run, then add another 5% once it feels natural. A metronome — or music locked to the beat — makes this dramatically easier, which is the whole point of Cadence. Drills like high knees, quick strides and fast feet also train your legs to turn over faster. These coaches walk through it:

Cadence runs on iPhone (iOS 17+) and Android. Live cadence and pace come from the phone's built-in pedometer, so you need a physical device — pace is a solid estimate, not a race-grade GPS measurement. There's a full offline mode that plays bundled and cached tracks with no connection, and audio keeps playing with the screen locked.

Every track is original, made for running — steady tempo, loud clear bass — across 10 genres including House, Drum & Bass, Hardstyle, EDM, Pop Punk, Indie Rock, Hip-Hop, Folk and Synthwave. There are vocal "running anthems" and a no-lyrics instrumental option. New songs go live to everyone without an app update, and the app itself stays tiny (~24 MB) by streaming into a small on-device cache.