Background Music is widely deployed to enhance exercise, yet far less is known about how an exerciser’s real-time physiological state feeds back to shape musical liking. Wearable sensors now permit second-by-second coupling of gait dynamics, activity load, and affective response.

Objective We developed a mobile workflow that predicts immediate like versus dislike judgments for unfamiliar songs by fusing clinical-grade inertial kinematics (Ambulosono), passive smartphone activity logs (Google Fit), and a single high-knees/low-knees gesture. The study tested whether momentary movement intensity biases preference, identified the strongest biometric predictors, and evaluated a sensor-aware classifier suitable for adaptive playlists.

Methods Seventy-three healthy undergraduates performed fifty 60-second stepping-in-place trials while listening to tempo-normalised tracks spanning five genres. Ambulosono units sampled lower-limb acceleration at 200 Hz; Google Fit recorded pre- and post-trial step counts. Four gait features—mean and peak cadence, mean and peak step length—were normalised and averaged into a Composite Motivation Score (CMS). Breathlessness and fatigue ratings were logged after each track. A 500-tree random forest trained on gait variables, activity counts, perceptual deltas, and CMS classified preference using 10-fold cross-validation. Statistical tests compared liked and disliked trials for physiological change and speed strata.

Results The protocol yielded 3 864 complete song exposures. Participants judged 54 % of tracks liked and 60 % disliked (paired t = –2.11, p = 0.036). Disliked trials exhibited larger breathlessness and fatigue increases (Wilcoxon p < 0.05). High-CMS trials showed a 68 % like-rate versus 37 % in low-CMS trials. The classifier achieved 0.78 accuracy and 0.82 AUC; permutation analysis ranked post-trial Google Fit steps, bout duration, and pre-trial steps as top predictors. Track-level analysis revealed that the ten most-disliked songs coincided with the highest mean stepping speeds, despite non-significant effects at coarse speed tiers.

Conclusions Immediate bodily engagement and short-term physiological strain strongly colour musical appraisal. Integrating wearable kinematics, smartphone step counts, and low-friction gestures enables accurate, interpretable prediction of liking, paving the way for context-adaptive playlists and emotionally intelligent rehabilitation cues.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study was partly supported by Alberta Ministry of Mental Health.

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Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from all subjects in accordance with ethical standards approved by the University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board (REB13-0009).

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