Kickstarter project of the week: Mighty Audio brings offline Spotify playback (Update: goal met)

Update (3/22): With about 40 hours left to go, Mighty has now exceeded its funding goal. If you’re interested in pledging your support, now’s the perfect time to do it.

Since the fall of the iPod, music streaming has been the go-to method of listening to your favorite tunes. However, problems have arisen for music lovers on the go. Right now, there just aren’t a whole lot of options that allow sleek music streaming for those with active lifestyles. Sure, you can strap your phone to your arm, but it’s bulky and awkward and expensive – one tumble from your bike or bad ski dive and you’re out $500 or more. And yes, LTE smartwatches exist, but damn… those prices. This is where Mighty comes in.

Mighty aims to pick up where the iPod shuffle left off. It’s a tiny, screenless gadget with a minimalist control scheme. Strap it to your wrist, drop it in your pocket, or clip it to your clothing, and you’re good to go with streaming Spotify music without having to lug around heavy and/or expensive hardware.

Although the Mighty doesn’t require a smartphone for music streaming, it does have a partner app that lets you configure the device to your exact preferences. Bluetooth syncing makes interacting with the Mighty a breeze, and of course it supports wireless Bluetooth earbuds. If you’re still working with wired headphones, no worries, it has a jack for that too.

The device appears to be fairly rugged, making it a perfect pick for lovers of more rough-and-tumble sporting activities. Clocking in at 1.5 inches square and less than a single ounce, it’s sure not to get in your way. Water resistant? Absolutely. If you’re concerned because your favorite activities often hurtle you out of cell service range, then you should know that the Mighty can store a collection of tracks offline in its internal storage. All this for under $80.

The catch is that Mighty doesn’t technically exist yet, at least not commercially. The Kickstarter project just launched, and so it’s in the crowdfunding stage. For those interested, you can secure yourself a Mighty for as little as $70 with the “super early bird” special, though once that runs out it will jump up to $75 as an “early bird special”, and then finally to $79. All tiers are expected to ship around November of 2016, but delays are pretty much an expected reality for most Kickstarter projects so we wouldn’t hold onto that date too tightly.

So far the project has secured a little over $6000 of its $250k goal, but it still has 29 days to go. You can check out the Mighty’s Kickstarter page over here for more details. In the meantime, what are your thoughts on this rugged little jam peddler? Your kind of party, or a device you’ll be passing on? Let us know your take in the comments below!