Beloved iPod shuffle is reborn for the Spotify era

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Mighty Clipped and plugged in
The new Mighty wants to bring Spotify to those with an active lifestyle.
Photo: Mighty Audio

Today, the iPod shuffle you’ve been hoping for is getting a shot at life — no thanks to Apple. Mighty Audio is launching its Kickstarter campaign for the new Mighty streaming music player, a small clip-on device that can stream Spotify wherever you go without having to use your smartphone. A portable, affordable music player with streaming capabilities? Yes please.

“Mighty is the first and only device that plays your Spotify music without being connected to a smartphone,” the team enthusiastically wrote on the Kickstarter page.

Mighty is able to do this because it has local storage built in to the device. It promises to store up to 48 hours of offline Spotify music. Of course, you will have to initially pair your Mighty with your iOS or Android smartphone first. The Mighty app will launch alongside the product to sync over Spotify playlists to your player using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. But once the syncing process is done you can toss your phone aside with the peace of mind that you have 48 hours of Spotify music ready for offline playback. Note that this does require a Spotify Premium subscription; sorry, freebie users.

The Mighty seems to be designed with the active and adventurous person in mind — someone who doesn’t necessarily always have their phone available to them, or perhaps someone who just doesn’t want it around all the time. It’s also drop resistant and sweat resistant, plus features a clip like the iPod shuffle to latch on to your clothing.

The controls are pretty similar to the iPod shuffle too. The device features volume up and down buttons, song forward and backward, play/pause, LED indicator and a dedicated Playlists button. If you sync multiple playlists, you’ll be able to choose between them here by listening to the names through your headphones. It doesn’t appear to have a Shuffle button, but perhaps that something you can enable with your smartphone ahead of time.

mighty-spotify-streaming-player
Sync Spotify playlists from your phone, but after that Mighty is totally independent.
Photo: Mighty Audio

Right now the Mighty promises about five hours of battery life, which isn’t all that impressive for active customers. But the Kickstarter campaign notes that by final production the goal is to bump that up to 10 or more hours of music playback.

Just a few weeks ago a friend was complaining to me about how her iPhone is too big to wear on her arm at the gym and wished she had something smaller to wear that could also stream Spotify. Well if Mighty gets funded, she’ll have her solution and so will many other people.

The retail value of Mighty will be $109, but if you fund the project on Kickstarter you can pledge to get one for as little as $70. After that early bird special and the $75 special run out, you’ll be able to get one for $79, which is still pretty affordable. It’s more than the iPod shuffle, but the iPod shuffle hasn’t seen a decent update in years. It got a mild color update last year but other than that, Apple’s been selling the same 4th generation model since 2010.

The funding goal is a pretty steep $250,000 so if you want Mighty to become a reality, head over to the Kickstarter page that just launched and make a pledge.

https://youtu.be/p4EqxKy9r0w

Update: Mighty confirmed that Apple Music support is planned in the future. The only obstacle is if Apple permits it.

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