Ready-Made Workout Playlists: Music Apps You’ll Love

1. Pandora

Pandora and its Music Genome Project has been a part of my life for at least 10 years. I have about 20 stations based on a wide range of artists and songs (Sophie B. Hawkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, LL Cool J, The Nutcracker Suite … ).

Pros: You have the option to browse set genres and stations (including preset workout stations like 80s Cardio or Pop and Hip Hop Power Workout or you can create a station based on an artist or song. From there, you can further customize the station by giving specific songs a thumbs up (meaning you want to hear more songs like it), a thumbs down (you never want to hear that song again), or you can skip it (meaning you don’t want to block it forever, but you don’t want to listen to it right now).

Also, you can add variety to an existing station by adding — you guessed it — songs or artists to that station (which is how I ended up with a station based on M.I.A., Mumford and Sons, Weezer, Beastie Boys, Icona Pop and Less Than Jake, to name a few).

Cons: Unless you upgrade to Pandora One, you end up with quite a few ads, and with some stations, repetition can be an issue.

Cost: Pandora itself is free on the web and on mobile devices, but you have a limited number of skips and you’ll get frequent ads. Pandora One is $4.99 a month and offers unlimited skips and no ads.