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How to Soundtrack Your Strava Routes with On Cue Music Player

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Strava is where your training lives — the loop you ride every Saturday, the 10K you run before work, the climb you keep coming back to. What Strava doesn't do is decide what you hear at the base of that climb.

That's the job On Cue Music Player does. It plays songs pinned to GPS locations: reach the spot, the song starts. And because both apps run happily in the background at the same time, you don't have to choose between them.

Strava keeps tracking the workout. We handle the soundtrack. Two apps, one route.

Why run a tracker and a music layer at the same time?

Runners and cyclists already stack apps. Strava records the activity — distance, pace, elevation, segments, the training log your friends can see. A music app supplies the audio. Usually that music app is a dumb queue: song 2 plays after song 1 whether you're on the climb or the descent.

On Cue Music Player replaces the queue with a map. Each song is anchored to a place on your route, not a position in a playlist. Your power track fires at the base of the hill because you arrived at the base of the hill — not because the previous song happened to end there. Strava never notices; it just keeps recording GPS like it always does.

Nothing to link, nothing to sign into twice. The two apps don't talk to each other, and they don't need to — they're both just listening to the same GPS signal on the same phone.

How to set it up, step by step

Total setup time for a route you know well: about ten minutes, once, before your first run or ride.

1. Recreate your regular loop as a Workout Route

Open On Cue Music Player and create a new Workout Route. You know your Saturday loop or weekday commute by heart — trace it on the map and name it. If you want a refresher on the mechanics, the route-based playlist guide walks through this in detail.

2. Pin Music Moments at the spots that matter

A Music Moment is a song pinned to a GPS coordinate. Think about where your route actually gets hard or gets good, and pin accordingly:

  • The base of the climb — your power track, right where you need it.
  • The top of the climb — the reward song.
  • The turnaround or a key intersection — a reset, a tempo change.
  • The final stretch — the finish song you want to empty the tank to.

Pick each track from your Apple Music library. On the free tier you get 1 Workout Route and 5 Music Moments — enough to soundtrack one full loop and see if it changes how you train.

3. Start your Strava recording

Head out, open Strava, and start recording your run or ride exactly as you always do. Nothing about your Strava setup changes.

4. Start the On Cue workout and go

Open On Cue Music Player, open your route, and press start. Then pocket the phone. Both apps run in the background — On Cue Music Player uses iOS background location and audio modes, so the music triggers with the screen locked and the phone in your pocket or on your bike mount. Strava records in the background the same way it always has.

As you cross each pinned point, the song you chose for that spot takes over. Hands-free, no skipping, no glancing at the screen mid-effort.

5. Finish both

At the end, stop the On Cue workout and save your Strava activity. Strava keeps the training log; On Cue keeps your route and moments ready for next time. The second time you do the loop, setup time is zero.

Does running two GPS apps at once cause problems?

In practice, no. iOS is built for multiple apps sharing location in the background — this is the same thing that happens when you navigate with a maps app while a fitness tracker records. Your Strava file comes out the same as it would alone.

Battery is the honest cost of any GPS + streaming session, with or without a second app. For long rides, the usual habits apply: start at full charge, and carry a small battery pack for anything past a couple of hours.

What you need

  • An iPhone. On Cue Music Player is iOS only.
  • An Apple Music subscription — playback streams from your Apple Music library, so an active subscription is required.
  • A Strava account, if Strava is your tracker. Free Strava works fine. Any GPS tracker works the same way alongside On Cue Music Player — the two apps never depend on each other.

Pricing

  • Free — 1 Workout Route, 5 Music Moments. Enough for one fully soundtracked loop.
  • Premium — unlimited Workout Routes and Music Moments. 1.99/monthwitha7−dayfreetrial,or1.99/month with a 7-day free trial, or 14.99/year, purchased through the App Store.

If you train on more than one regular route — a weekday short loop and a weekend long one, say — Premium is where this setup starts to compound.

Try it on your next workout

  1. Download On Cue Music Player on the App Store.
  2. Recreate your most-ridden or most-run loop as a Workout Route.
  3. Pin five songs to the five spots on that loop that matter most.
  4. Next workout: start Strava, start On Cue, pocket the phone, go.

If you're a cyclist, the cycling page covers how riders use route-anchored music on climbs; runners can start with the running page. Either way, your training log stays exactly where it's always been — this just fixes what you hear along the way.