ICI Podcast 294 – Meet Nick Oram Master Instructor and Founder of CHS Revolution Indoor Cycling Studio
This podcast is no longer available.
2013 Was Another Awesome Year @ ICI/PRO
Thank You! With the one exception (losing our friend Jim Karanas) 2013 was an awesome year here at ICI/PRO!
I just got back from co-teaching a 90 minute Performance Cycle class with the Senior Group Fitness Instructor Amy. We had a great group of committed Endurance Athletes this AM – I say committed because many of them said they went to bed early (missing the ball-drop), just so they would be rested for class this morning.
Here's the playlist we used – which is a combination of Amy's and my songs selections.
2014 New Years Class Spotify Playlist
While Amy was leading the ride, I got to thinking; as we move into 2014 it would be fun to take a quick look back at 2013, by looking at the numbers…
141,174 – Number of unique visitors to ICI/PRO – up ~20% from 2012.
418,367 – Number of pages they read while here.
20,518 – Number of views of our most popular page Starting an Indoor Cycling or Spinning® studio….can it work? If you have the of dream of starting a new Indoor Cycling Studio, you're not alone 🙂
1,458 – Total number of posts published here to date.
377 – Posts published in 2013
And to think, when I started this 5 1/2 years ago I was concerned we would run out of things to talk about!
Here's to making your 2014 the best year ever!
Big change to your “Super Secret iTunes RSS Feed”!
Are you taking advantage of our Super Secret iTunes RSS Feed to listen to our Audio Class Profiles – through your computer or portable device [wlm_firstname]?
If so, we've made a significant change that will simplify finding just the right profile for your next class > now the Super Secret iTunes RSS Feed only contains profiles and PRO/Podcasts – not other free Podcast episodes.
Here's what happened .
Based on the sheer number of Podcasts and PROfiles we've published over the past 5 years, the iTunes RSS feed (that tells iTunes what's new here at ICI/PRO) has put on a bunch of weight. The sheer volume of content included in the feed was really slowing down our communication with the iTunes music store + many of our old episodes got pushed off the bottom of the list. As weight-loss is on the minds of many at the start of a new year – we felt this is a great time to shed a few pounds.
Now we are publishing two separate feeds:
- Our free iTunes RSS feed that's for everyone – .
- Our new Super Secret iTunes RSS Feed that's just for ICI/PRO members and only contains ICI/PRO member's only audio and video content.
If you're happy with things as they are, you don't need to make any changes.
But our suggestion is for ICI/PRO members to subscribe to both the free Podcast feed and the new Audio PROfiles RSS feeds.
Set up your Super Secret iTunes RSS Feed using iTunes on your computer
- You don't need to, but I would first open iTunes > select Podcasts and then delete the existing ICI/PRO Podcasts.
- to subscribe to the free Podcast.
- Scroll down this page and Right Click on the “RSS Link” below > Copy Link Address
- In iTunes – in the top left navigation select File > Subscribe to a Podcast > Right Click in the dialog box that will open and select > Paste (or us the keyboard Ctrl “V”) and then OK.
- Depending on your settings in iTunes you will probably see just the most recent episode. Use the old episode button to add more.
Super Secret iTunes RSS Feed on your mobile devise
Once you have a Podcast App installed on either an iDevice or Android, open this page on your device, Simply clicking the “RSS Feed” link below should open the App and asked if you want to subscribe to the Podcast > click OK and that's all you should need to do. Here's the link to the Apple Podcast App for iPhones and iPads – here's an App for your Android.
Please let me know if you have any difficulties.
ICI/PRO Members – the link to your RSS Feed is right below this. You'll also find it in the RH side bar of every post.
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Merry Christmas
Amy and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
We aren't big on holiday traditions in our home, but we do have one on Christmas day that we never miss. For as long as I can remember, Amy has baked Danish Kringler at some point during the day. Definitely not a diet food, most recipes include at least 3 sticks of butter. Fantastic and between the four of us, we'll finish this flaky, almond pastry it before it has a chance to completely cool.
I have my own musical tradition that I wanted to share. At some time during the holidays I'll cue up this 1977 duet between David Bowie and Bing Crosby – The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth.
This unlikely pairing has an interesting back story.
The year was 1977, and David Bowie seemed to become a commercial success overnight with the release of his album “Low”, and the hit single “Heroes”.
Until this point, while Bowie did have quite a following with his glam rock subculture, he was never considered a “popular artist.” Teenagers were listening to his music and worshiping the androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, while their parents shook their heads in disbelief.
That all changed when Bing Crosby, America’s most-loved crooner, invited Bowie on his television show to sing.
In the book by David Buckley, “Strange Fascination- David Bowie: The Definitive Story,” Bowie said he did not want to do the show because he believed people would see him as “actively trying to normalize his career.”
But he did, and he searched for reasons to do so.
“I just knew my mother liked him,” Bowie said.
Bing asked Bowie to sing “Little Drummer Boy” with him as it was inching near to Christmas.
“I hate this song,” Bowie said. “Is there anything else I could sing?”
The show producers then scrambled to find something for the odd couple to sing, and within a mere 75 minutes, they had written “Peace on Earth” for Bowie to sing while Bing sang “The Little Drummer Boy.”
Thus the collaboration of Peace on Earth and Little Drummer Boy was created and, like it or not America (and mom), according to “The Huffington Post,” David Bowie sings one of the most loved Christmas songs of all time.
Wishing you and your family this best – while I wait for my Kringler 🙂
John
Does this speak to you – like it did to me?
How could anything on my iPhone be as entertaining as this?
Our lives are filled with technology that can be pretty addicting. I, for one, recognise that at times I'll let my devises get between me and the real world around me.
Does this video describe you – or maybe someone you know?
Amy and I were at the Jimmy Buffett concert a few weeks ago. They started playing an unfamiliar song and sure enough I'm digging in my pocket for an alternate form of entertainment… instead of enjoying what was very real (the live music) and very special (there are a lot of interesting Parrotheads at a Jimmy Buffett concert). What's up with that?
So this Holiday Season I'm committed to be present and not hide behind my iPhone.
Care to join me?
In case you're wondering, the women in the video is Alexa Fischer > Founder and Chief Communicator at 1000 Watt Presence. I found Alexa and her video, while researching information on improving my presentation skills.
This might be cool – YouTube Music Service
There's talk of a new YouTube Streaming Music service, similar to what many of us enjoy with Spotify & Deezer for delivering our class music. Imagine a service where you could create a playlist of music videos, add them to your portable device and then make them available for off line use 🙂
The alleged on-demand music service would be geared towards mobile use, and offer a free tier that lets you select songs from a large catalog of tracks, in addition to music videos supported by advertisements. A paid version of the service, which will cost $10 per month, will reportedly remove ads and offer the ability to save music offline on your device.
Word is that YouTube's service will be launched in the first quarter of 2014 – possibly as part of the Google All Access Music service.
I can't wait to see this because I've discovered something…
We've refrained in the past from advocating the use of YouTube music videos here at ICI/PRO in the past. My understanding was that the terms and conditions used by YouTube expressly prohibit playing their videos in a commercial setting.
Now I'm not an attorney, but it appears that this is another misconception from those “They Say” people. I just spent an hour researching this and can't find anywhere where YouTube prohibits the commercial use of their videos.
What is (has always been) prohibited is the playing of copyrighted music (audio only or music video) in a commercial setting = your club or studio, unless you're paying the appropriate fees to the music licensing authority where you're located.
Actually projecting the videos off your iPhone using this new service will of course create some new technical hurdles for many of us Instructors and studio owners. When YouTube's new service gets more real, I have an audio & video technology expert standing by to help us integrate this new video option into our classes.