Welcome to the playlist age. Spotify has paved the way for a new era in music culture, with customizable playlists and a weekly Discover series tailoring new music discovery for specific users’ tastes (not to mention Crave’s weekly New Music Tuesday playlists). The shift toward accessibility in streaming has enabled us to take our love of music and new exploration into virtually every area of our lives. With this in mind, a new device has arrived which syncs with your Spotify playlists to deliver the music you love on the go: Mighty Audio is the next step of listening convenience, without risking damage to your phone or vital devices.
Simplicity is essential when it comes to an on-the-go music player for the gym or outdoor activities. Apple’s iPod shuffle was a peak point of convenience on the consumer market a decade ago, enabling a durable, worry-free musical experience without the hassle of carrying your phone with you. But times have changed, and in the streaming era, a new evolution of sound convenience is necessary. This is the launch point for Mighty Audio.
The annoyances and risks of carrying your phone while exercising are numerous, and smartwatches have yet to find the sweet spot for offline playback. With their Kickstarter project, Mighty Audio sidesteps all that with a clip-on design much like iPod shuffle’s, though with Spotify’s color scheme. Sync playlists from your phone to the device for offline use, with 2GB of built-in storage offloading the data sag on your phone and setting you on track with roughly 48 hours of music, by Mighty’s estimate. Mighty will speak back the name of playlists as you cycle through them, so you know what you’re getting yourself into. Users can configure the device to their precise preferences while Bluetooth syncing makes the experience quick & painless.
A sleek, simple design makes it easy to control your music, and running the device on a modified version of Android means Mighty Audio can piggyback Spotify’s standard API, with ambitions to integrate other streaming apps in the future.
Both drop and water resistant, this little gadget is poised to pick up where the iPod shuffle left off for runners, athletes, gym rats, snowboarders, hikers, campers and anyone else who enjoys some musical accompaniment in their daily adventures. The annoyance of cords and computer-syncing necessities are gone for good – your Mighty device will detect your smartphone and sync automatically. And while the Mighty is jacked for plugged-headphones users, it does offer a Bluetooth listening option as well.
The idea for Mighty Audio was a matter of necessity for Chief Operations Officer Anthony Pu, who simply grew tired of cracking his displays – a costly inconvenience that’s all-too-common for the active body.
“It really came from personal pain points and frustration with what was out in the market,” said Pu, an alum of Live Nation and Apple Music predecessor MOG.
At publishing time, Mighty’s Kickstarter campaign is closing in on the halfway point to its goal of $250,000, with the first deliveries targeted for November 2016. Spending a little over $70 is all it will take to reserve your own – though you’ll need a Spotify Premium account to use it. The device is set to cost around $109 retail, making it a pretty sweet great deal out of the gate.
