FAQ

Can I use RowBeats with Spotify?

No. Spotify no longer allows an app with more than five users to play its music, so a Spotify version of RowBeats could never reach more than five people. Apple Music has no such limit, which is why RowBeats is built on Apple Music.

Do I need an Apple Music subscription?

Yes. RowBeats plays full tracks through Apple Music. It doesn’t include a subscription and doesn’t sell one. If you have none, Get Apple Music on the home screen shows Apple’s own offer without leaving the app. Tapping a cover on the playlist plays a 30-second preview, but that’s for trying a song. The workout itself plays full tracks, and that needs a subscription.

Can I save a RowBeats playlist to my Apple Music library?

No. Saving to your library would mean RowBeats holding the keys to your Apple Music account, which it never asks for. The upside is that it has nothing of yours to lose, and no sign-in to expire halfway through a row.

Can I use my own playlist, or pick specific songs?

Not your own playlist, and not song by song. RowBeats builds from the Apple Music catalog so it can be sure every track has a usable tempo. You can start from an album or an artist, though: see Albums and artists. Once a playlist exists you can drag it into any order, swap a single track for another at the same stroke rate, or swap all of them. An album keeps its own order.

I don’t know what to pick.

Start Quick row on the home screen: 20 minutes at 22–30 SPM, shuffled, from the day’s genres, all named on the card before you start. There’s a new one each day.

Or pick a length on Genre row and tap Surprise me at the foot of it. RowBeats picks two to four genres at random, opens the full stroke-rate range and every era, and builds from that. What it picked lights up on Genre row, so you can see the choices it made and change any of them next time. The one thing it keeps is Exclude explicit tracks.

What is Album row?

An album rowed from the first song to the last, in its own order, with each song at its own stroke rate. There’s no rate to set: each album shows its range before you tap it, and every rate on it falls between 18 and 38 SPM. Row the full album, or Side A or Side B.

Because the order is the album’s, there’s no reordering or swapping, on the playlist or while you row. A song you heard last week still plays, because an album is the album. A song you swapped away in an earlier workout is skipped, and the playlist says so.

Why can I only choose from a shelf?

Not every album keeps a rowable beat all the way through, so every album on the shelf has been checked song by song, and only the ones that do are on it. New albums are checked every week. If one you want is missing, suggest it from Feedback in Settings.

With Exclude explicit tracks on, you get Apple Music’s clean version of an album, and an explicit album with no clean version is left off the shelf.

What is Artist row?

Pick an artist, then your row. RowBeats takes Apple Music’s Essentials playlist for that artist and keeps the songs that fit your stroke rate. Before you build, it says how many of them fit, and it offers only the lengths, from 10 to 60 minutes, that those songs can fill. Everything else works as on Genre row, from the order and the swaps to leaving out songs you heard lately.

How can a 100 BPM song be a 25 SPM row?

Because you don’t take a stroke on every beat. Almost no music is written at rowing speed, so RowBeats counts a stroke every few beats: at 100 BPM that’s one stroke every four, which is 25 a minute. The beat still lands exactly where your stroke does, just four times as often.

Does the music speed up if I do?

No. RowBeats gives you a beat to hold. Music that chased your rate would take away the steady thing you’re rowing against, so if you drift, the beat stays put and tells you.

If a song just isn’t working for you, the swap button on the player trades it for another at about the same stroke rate. With an ERG connected, RowBeats can offer that swap itself.

Is every song matched to my stroke rate?

Yes. A song only makes the playlist if its tempo has been measured and its beat lands on your range. When a narrow range has too little music to fill the time, RowBeats may take a song a stroke or two outside it, and the playlist says so. Songs nobody has measured are left out, which is one reason a very narrow setting can come up short. The support page says what to do then.

Tempos come from ReccoBeats, with some audio analysis by FreqBlog. RowBeats also times the beat in each song’s preview clip itself, and when that and FreqBlog agree with each other but not with ReccoBeats, their tempo is the one used.

Will I get the same songs every time?

No. Anything you rowed to in the last month sits out of the next playlist. You can make that a week, two weeks or three months instead, under Recently played on the Settings screen. It will never cut your workout short to do that, though: if leaving them out means too little music, the ones you heard longest ago come back first.

What is a workout shape?

The order your stroke rates arrive in. Climb goes from lowest to highest, Descend from highest to lowest, Pyramid climbs to a peak and comes back, Waves alternates, Shuffle mixes them, or you can drag the list into your own order. It reorders the same tracks whichever you pick.

The song is a waltz

This is the common one, and it gives you a stroke rate that’s wrong.

Nearly all popular music has four beats to the bar, and RowBeats is built on that: it counts a stroke every four beats, or every eight, or every two. A waltz has three beats to the bar. A stroke every four beats then lands in a different place each time round, so it never settles, however well you row it.

RowBeats leaves out the waltzes it can hear. Two beat trackers listen to each song’s 30-second preview, and a song they hear in threes is kept out of playlists. They catch more than half of them, not all: some waltzes fool both, and a song that only became available since last night hasn’t been checked yet. If a track feels like it’s sliding around rather than landing, this is still the likeliest reason.

The tempo is wrong

Tempos come from software listening to the recording, and it sometimes gets one wrong. A sparse intro, a live recording or anything rhythmically unusual can come back with a tempo that simply isn’t the one you hear, and everything after that is wrong too.

The rate is right but you’re between the beats

RowBeats knows how fast a song is, but not where its first beat falls. A track with a loose intro, a count-in or a long fade can be at exactly the right stroke rate and still leave you rowing just off the beat the whole way through. A song that changes tempo partway is the same problem, worse.

Take one slightly quicker stroke to catch up, the way you would falling in behind a crew.

It might be the rowing

Worth ruling out. Holding a beat is a skill, and drifting off it is what the app is there to show you. If you slide away gradually and can pull yourself back, that’s your rate. If it never locks on from the first stroke, it’s one of the three above.

The Rhythm Rowing tutorial in the app is there to practice with, and the home page shows the count it teaches.

Is there an Android version? An iPad or Apple Watch app?

RowBeats runs on iPhone and iPad, either way up, and on an iPad in Split View and Stage Manager windows too. There’s no Android or Apple Watch version.

Do I need a machine that connects to my phone?

No. The ERG is optional. Without one you get a single large target stroke-rate number and everything else works the same.

Which machines are supported?

Any Concept2 machine with a PM5 monitor. A PM3 or PM4 has no Bluetooth and will never show up.

Rowing machines from manufacturers other than Concept2 aren’t supported for Bluetooth connectivity.

The SkiErg works and has been tested. Ski stroke rates run a little higher than rowing ones, so you may want to set the range higher than you would for a row. A BikeErg monitor will show up in a scan too, but that one is untested.

Can I connect RowBeats to a rowing machine that isn’t a Concept2?

No. RowBeats connects to one thing, a Concept2 PM5 monitor. Rowers from other manufacturers won’t appear in a scan, and there’s no way to add one.

You can still use RowBeats on any of them. The only thing missing is your machine’s own time, distance and splits on the same screen, which your machine still shows on its own display.

Why does it need Bluetooth?

Only to find and read a Concept2 PM5. If you never connect an ERG, you can leave Bluetooth switched off for RowBeats entirely.

Does it work offline?

No. Apple Music streams the music, and building a playlist needs a connection too. If the signal drops mid-row, RowBeats says so and puts the controls out of reach until it’s back, because offline they’re certain to fail.

Can I use it for other workouts?

Nothing stops you. It’s a playlist at a tempo you chose, and it will play through anything. Just know the app is shaped around rowing: the range runs from 18 to 38 strokes a minute, and for something much faster, like running at around 180 steps a minute, the numbers on screen won’t mean what you want them to.

Can I control it from the lock screen or my AirPods?

Yes, and anything you do there shows up in the app straight away. Control Center works too.

Does the screen stay on? Can I turn the phone sideways?

The player keeps the screen awake, and every screen turns with your phone, so use it whichever way your cradle suits.

What is the ten-second count at the start?

Time to get on the machine and take a catch, so the first beat doesn’t arrive while you’re still putting your phone down.

What is the difference between continuous and interval?

Continuous plays the tracks back to back. Interval treats each track as a workout and puts a rest between them, anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes.

Why doesn’t my ERG reconnect on its own?

A PM5 only talks to one app at a time, and only announces itself briefly after you wake it. An app that grabbed it automatically would take the slot from whatever you actually wanted using it. RowBeats remembers your ERG and puts it at the top of the list, but connecting is your tap.

The one exception is a workout you started on that monitor. If the link drops partway through, RowBeats tries to get it back for 30 seconds while the music plays on.

I’ve never rowed to music before.

Start with Rhythm Rowing, the tutorial on the app’s home screen, which the home page shows in brief. The beat hits at the finish, when the handle reaches your chest, not the catch.

Do I need to create an account?

No. You give Apple Music permission on your phone once, and that’s all.

What do you collect?

Nothing that identifies you, and there are no analytics or ads. Your settings, your play history, your last playlist, the songs you swapped away while rowing and the ERG you last used stay on your phone. The privacy page lists everything in detail.

Does it record my workouts, or write to Apple Health?

No. Live numbers from a PM5 are shown as they arrive and then forgotten. RowBeats keeps no workout log and doesn’t connect to Apple Health or Strava.

How do I delete my data?

Delete the app. Everything RowBeats keeps goes with it. There’s no account to close. To clear only the play history, use Clear history under Recently played on the Settings screen; to let songs you swapped away while rowing come back, use Clear list under Refused songs there, or open the list and tap one song to let just that one back in.