This project will only be funded if at least $250,000 is pledged by .
Mighty is the first and only device that plays your Spotify music on-the-go without a smartphone. Finally.
About this project
Please check here for future major updates.
- 4GB Flash Hard Drive! Additional storage capacity has been the single most requested feature and we're moving quickly to address our backers' needs while still keeping our timing and promise to fulfill orders in mind. We're officially doubling the flash hard drive space to 4GB. And yes, the price of $79 will remain the same.
- Spreading the Mighty Love. If you want to help spread the word about Mighty, we've created a page that makes it super easy to introduce Mighty to your friends - www.mighty.audio/kickstarter
- Updated International Shipping. We've heard your feedback and have decided to lower all the non-US shipping rates by $10. We may take a hit on this as a small startup, but our goal is to get Mighty to the world. As we continue to increase volume through our awesome backers, we will pass on any potential additional savings to you!
“There's now a tech solution for those who are tired of having their phone tag along on fitness activities but don't want to give up their perfectly tailored Spotify playlists.” - Cool Hunting
"While Apple gets a lot of props for introducing tech concepts and devices to the hungry market, often another company comes along and fine-tunes the original idea. That’s the case with Mighty." - Digital Trends
“But what if another company reinvented the tiny, dead simple music player for the Spotify age? What if it played songs from Spotify? That's what Mighty Audio is trying to accomplish…” - The Verge
“It's no secret that running with your phone, well, it kind of sucks...the iPod Shuffle-sized device allows you to listen to Spotify playlists without having to carry your phone.” - Engadget
“Now a startup is reimagining the diminutive music player for the streaming generation with a new device that plays Spotify tracks instead of iTunes downloads.” - TIME
“Best of all, Mighty’s audio player also offers a number of additional features that Apple’s can’t match — including Bluetooth connectivity, USB-C, and a shell that’s both water and drop resistant.” - Hypebeast
Mighty is the first and only device that plays your Spotify music without being connected to a smartphone. Lightweight, durable, and small enough to clip-on to any piece of clothing, it's the perfect device for your active life. Mighty comes equipped with Bluetooth and WiFi, is compatible with iPhones and Androids, and can play 48 hours of music without any internet connection. All for under $80.
Mighty was born from personal frustration with the current on-the-go music experience. Today, every option to stream music while exercising requires a bulky, fragile smartphone. And phones are only getting larger, more fragile, more expensive, and more battery hungry. This motivated us to create a simple product that provides users with a comfortable and seamless music+fitness experience, all without a phone.
If you’re a Spotify user and have been asking yourself “why doesn’t this exist?!?”, please help us make Mighty a reality. Say goodbye to your iPod Shuffle, leave your smartphone at home, and Be Mighty!
Every current option for on-the-go streaming music requires a smartphone. That makes no sense to us. Smartphones are heavy, hard to carry during exercise, have a short battery life, come with expensive data plans, and have fragile and expensive screens. Studies have shown that 24% of iPhone users have a cracked screen, many of which undoubtedly were broken during exercise. In addition, 25% of all smartphone owners in the US incur data overage charges and streaming music is the number one culprit. To make it even worse, Spotify is documented as one of the most battery hungry apps in the world and can quickly drain your battery in just a few hours. Save your smartphone data, memory, battery, and screens - Mighty is the solution. (Sources: 1, 2, 3)
The iPod Shuffle is an alternative that provides a comfortable music+fitness experience, but it can’t play any streaming music (Spotify does not work with the iPod Shuffle or Nano). Mighty is the first device ever to play Spotify on-the-go without any need for a smartphone.
Here are more details on why Mighty beats the competition:
trainers // snowboarders // runners // hikers // dog walkers // yogis // beach combers // cyclists // dancers // weightlifters // treadmillers // campers // crossfitters // kayakers // golfers // sprinters // marathoners // triathletes // biathletes // mountain bikers // speed walkers // sailors // skateboarders // skiers // shooters // downhillers // meditators // joggers // gamers // rock climbers // ice skaters // rowers // etc
LAUNCH, SYNC & GO in three easy steps. No cords and no computer required.
1. Open Mobile App - Pair Mighty to your phone
2. Sync Your Music - Using familiar Spotify interface
3. Get Moving - For the first time ever, leave your phone and go
When you get back to your phone, you can easily sync new music to Mighty with a few clicks. Just open the app and the home screen will show you all of your synced playlists. Click the 'Manage My Music' button to add and remove playlists.
Powered by Android: Android is the perfect foundation for Mighty because it natively runs the Spotify application, the same app that’s installed on millions of iPhones and Androids. This means a stable integration and real-time access to all of the new features that Spotify releases. It also means that music is synced to Mighty the same way that it’s downloaded to a smartphone. There’s zero learning curve.
Your smartphone is a remote control: Mighty doesn’t have a screen like other Android devices, so we built software that allows you to control Mighty using your smartphone as a Bluetooth remote control. Simply launch the Mighty mobile app, login to Spotify Premium, and make your playlists available for offline play using the familiar 'Available Offline' button. Instead of downloading the selected playlists to your phone, the songs are stored directly on Mighty. Songs are transferred with WiFi, so the sync process is super quick. It only takes a few minutes to sync hundreds of songs to Mighty.
Once the sync is complete, put your phone down and take Mighty with you on-the-go. You won’t need your phone again until you want to change your playlist selections.
Controlled with physical buttons: Playing music on Mighty is easy and intuitive. To start playing a song, simply press the play button and Mighty will automatically launch the first song in your first synced playlist. Use the song forward/back buttons to scroll through all of the songs in that playlist.
If you want to navigate to a different playlist, press the playlist selector button to scroll through all synced playlists. Each time you hit the playlist selector button, Mighty will dictate the name of the playlist to you through your headphones. You even have the ability to record playlist names yourself, so you’ll always know what playlist you’re selecting. (Note: this is very useful if you’re like us and give your playlists names like “Pu’s Pump Up Mix”).
Battery life: Mighty will be capable of at least five hours of continuous music playback when fully charged. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve 10+ hours of playback without increasing the size of the device. Even after the first batch of Mighty is shipped, we can continue to improve battery life remotely by updating our software. No new hardware will be required. Optimizing battery life is the #1 priority for our development team.
Spotify's involvement: Mighty is not currently an official Spotify partner, but we've had multiple discussions with Spotify about a potential partnership. For the time being, Mighty functions just like any other offline device that has the ability to store music. Your smartphone, for example, is defined by Spotify as an offline device. Spotify's Terms of Use allow each Spotify Premium user to sync up to three offline devices with their account and each device can store up to 3,333 songs offline. Mighty is fully compliant with these terms. (Source)
We will provide our backers with real-time updates as we continue our discussions with Spotify.
PRODUCT SPECS
General:
- 1.5” square, 0.3” depth, 0.6 ounces
- Sweat proof and water resistant
- Full compatibility with iPhone 4S+ and Android version 4.4 (Kit Kat)
- One year limited warranty
- English language support
- Spotify Premium required (Sign-up or upgrade and get the first month free!)
Controls:
- Play/pause, volume up/down, song forward/back
- Playlist selection with VoiceOver dictation
- Power off/on, Bluetooth/WiFi off/on
Connectivity:
- Dual Mode Bluetooth 4.0
- WiFi Radio and 2.4GHZ Antenna
Memory:
- 4GB SDRAM Flash Hard Drive and 500MB DDR3 SDRAM
Sound:
- 3.5MM Stereo Audio Jack and Stereo Audio Codec
Power Management:
- Lithium Battery (likely 250 mAh but could change during production)
- At least 5 hours of continuous playback and 100 hours of standby time
- Micro-USB Type B charger; charges in less than 45 minutes
We’ve spent a lot of time studying about the market we are trying to serve, and we think it shows with our current solution. Ergonomics and usability were the most important aspects of the design, letting you keep your eyes on the scenery and not on a screen. Ever try to use that touchscreen with gloves on? Mighty doesn’t have this problem, the tactile buttons fall easily underneath your fingertips without looking. We also tried to keep Mighty as small and light as possible so that it can clip it to any article of clothing. Last but certainly not least, Mighty is tough. It’s sweat and drop resistant, just in case, because we’ve seen all those cracked smartphone screens.
We paid particular attention to people trying to use their phones while in motion. Switching a song while running can be an awkward experience - the fumbling and tripping that some of us encounter is never fun and occasionally dangerous. So we made the experience of switching songs and playlists very intuitive. As for the headphones, Mighty has a headphone jack for your favorite wired headphones. Additionally, you can pair Mighty with wireless Bluetooth headphones, giving you full cordless freedom.
Mighty was built by a passionate team with expertise in active living, tech, and music. We have decades of experience developing hardware, creating brands, establishing partnerships and launching businesses. Our team who has been through this before and we’re positive that we can successfully take Mighty from idea to final product.
Mighty was born from our personal frustrations with exercising with our smartphones. Every member of our team has cracked their phone screen while exercising. When we spoke to family and friends, we realized that this is a major pain point for a lot of people.
To take it a step further, we visited popular running trails in Los Angeles to ask runners why they run with their phone. Some people like staying connected at all times, but the majority only bring their phone so they can stream music. And many of them, at some point, had tossed their iPod Shuffles into a drawer, never to be used again. No one likes dealing with cords and computers and, honestly, who still downloads music?!? We truly wondered why this type of product didn’t already exist. So we decided that if nobody else was going to do it, we were going to give it a shot.
DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE
- Nov ʻ16 - First batch of Mighty will ship
- Jul ʻ16 - Working prototype will be finalized
- Feb ʻ16 - Kickstarter campaign launched
- Jan ʻ16 - Appearance model finalized
- Dec ʻ15 - Proof of concept complete
- Nov ʻ15 - Feasibility study complete
- Oct ʻ15 - Product development begins
- Aug ʻ15 - Mighty core team formed
- May ʻ15 - Product requirements documentation begin
- Apr ʻ15 - Product design begins
- Dec ʻ14 - The idea of Mighty is born
INVISIBLE MIGHTY IN AN INVISIBLE BOX - $5 (plus the $5 discount to buy Mighty when publicly released)
Check it out:
A VOTE TO DECIDE THE SPOTIFY SONG THAT MIGHTY HEAD OF OPERATIONS, ANTHONY PU, WILL PERFORM A DANCE VIDEO TO - $10 (plus the $5 discount to buy Mighty when publicly released)
He’s actually pretty good:
EXCLUSIVE MIGHTY KICKSTARTER T-SHIRT - $25
We made these just for our supporters. Join us and Be Mighty!
MIGHTY (OUR PRIDE AND JOY!) - $79
Here’s what you’ll receive (Spotify Premium required, sign up for your first month free here):
Risks and challenges
We know how important it is for us fulfill our promise to you, our backers, and deliver Mighty on time.
We’ve dedicated the past year to building our proof of concept and sourcing our components from manufacturers. We’ve done everything that we can to prepare for manufacturing and we’re ready to go as soon as we hit our funding goal. That being said, we realize that the two biggest risks for Mighty - like most hardware projects - are delivering our product on time while staying within our development budget.
1. MANUFACTURING
We plan on delivering the first batch of Mighty devices in November, in time for the holiday shopping season. We’ve already established partnerships with manufacturers in Taiwan who have decades of experience with consumer electronics and are ready to begin mass production as soon as we give the green light. Our internal team and our manufacturing partners all feel confident that we can deliver Mighty in November, but it’s possible that unforeseen issues will arise and cause delays. The most common issues are component shortages, facility issues, lengthy certification process, and failed QA. To mitigate these risks, we have a dedicated resource on our team who meets regularly with our manufacturers to ensure that we stay on schedule. In addition, we plan flying to Taiwan to meet with our manufacturers in person and ensure that the manufacturing process meets our high bar.
2. DEVELOPMENT BUDGET
Perhaps the most complex aspect of hardware development is managing costs. Mighty is clean and easy to operate on the exterior, but on the interior there are more than 25 components working in harmony to ensure that you have your Spotify music on-the-go without interruption. In order to keep Mighty affordable, we must evaluate dozens of options for each component and negotiate per unit prices with dozens of manufacturers across the globe. This is a complex, time consuming, and at times frustrating process.
We’ve already made significant progress on component sourcing, but we cannot finish this process until our campaign has concluded and we know the exact number of units that we will be producing in our first batch. With this in mind, we’ve set a realistic funding goal that will allow us to produce enough units to achieve economies of scale and maintain profitability while delivering Mighty at the stated price point.
If any issues should arise, we will be fully transparent and will over communicate to all of our backers. We realize there have been instances where hardware projects have had serious delays - we have no intention on being one of those projects.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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Yes, Mighty is compatible with both Bluetooth (and wired) headphones and Bluetooth speakers.
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Yes, Mighty is fully compatible with all iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android devices
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No, Mighty only works with Spotify Premium accounts. You can upgrade and get the first month free.
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Spotify's involvement: Mighty is not currently an official Spotify partner, but we've had multiple discussions with Spotify about a potential partnership. For the time being, Mighty functions just like any other offline device that has the ability to store music. Your smartphone, for example, is defined by Spotify as an offline device. Spotify's Terms of Use allow each Spotify Premium user to sync up to three offline devices with their account and each device can store up to 3,333 songs offline. Mighty is fully compliant with these terms.
We will provide our backers with real-time updates as we continue our discussions with Spotify.
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Currently, Mighty only works with playlists. We decided to stick with playlists so that Mighty is super easy to use with physical buttons. Each time you press the playlist selector button, Mighty will scroll through your synced playlists and will speak the name of the selected playlist to you.
If you want to sync an album or a collection of songs, just group them into a playlist and give it an intuitive name.
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We're very likely (but not guaranteed) to develop functionality to enable song shuffling within an individual playlist. Shuffling across all synced playlists is a bit more difficult, but definitely within the realm of possibility. We’ll keep our backers updated as final functionality decisions are made.
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Mighty is charged using a standard micro-USB Type-B cable. This is the same cable that charges most Android phones and other small, rechargeable electronics.
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We do not currently support USB Type-C, but we’re actively exploring is as an option. We’ll keep our backers updated as final functionality decisions are made.
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Currently, Mighty is water resistant. This means that Mighty won’t break if sweat all over it or if it gets rained on for a few seconds. But it’s not fully waterproof, so you don’t want to take it into the pool with you.
A waterproof version of Mighty is at the top of our product development list. We know it’s possible from a technical standpoint and we think that swimming with Mighty would be super cool, so we’re hoping to build that immediately after we release the first version of Mighty.
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Mighty currently has English language support. We will expand to other languages if we see demand.
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Yes, we ship to more than 30 international countries. Select a reward and follow the checkout process to see if Mighty is available in your country. If it’s not, send us a message and we’ll do our best to get a device to you!
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No, Mighty does not come with headphones. However, the device works with both wires and Bluetooth wireless headphones.
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Mighty currently works with iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android operating systems. We do not currently support Windows Mobile OS, but it’s something we plan on exploring in the near future.
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Mighty currently only works with Spotify and requires a Premium account. That being said, we have all of the infrastructure in place to sync with a variety of apps. Anything that runs on Android can technically work on Mighty. We plan on exploring integrations with other music streaming services at the conclusion of our campaign.
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Software updates will occur via your the Mighty mobile app. It will be as simple as pairing Mighty to your smartphone, connecting to WiFi, and following a set of simple instructions. No cords and no computer required.
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No! The playlists that you sync to Mighty are only stored on the Mighty device, not on your smartphone.
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Yes, Mighty is considered an offline device just like your smartphone. Spotify's Terms of Use allow each Spotify Premium user to sync up to three offline devices with their account and each device can store up to 3,333 songs offline. Mighty is fully compliant with these terms.
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No, Mighty can currently only be synced using an iOS (iPhone/iPad) or Android device. We want to make is as easy as possible to update your playlists, so we’ve completely done away with cords and computer. All you need is the Mighty mobile app installed on a smartphone and you’re good to go.
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Yes, Mighty is fully compliant with all of Spotify’s Terms of Use. Mighty runs on Android and follows all of the same DRM policies that are implemented on a smartphone. This means that Mighty must “check-in” with Spotify every 30 days to make record of what songs have been played. Luckily, Mighty checks-in each time you sync new playlists via the Mighty mobile app. So long as you sync once a month, you’re good!
Additional info on Spotify’s DRM policy is here: https://support.spotify.com/us/learn-more/faq/#!/article/Why-do-I-need-to-go-online-every-30-days/