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.
If you're getting bored with your old Indoor Cycling DVDs and want to avoid the aggressive crowds at the mall, these two companies are offering special discounts this weekend. You can shop from the safety of your own home.
epicPLANET.tv is offering a 25% discount on all their titles through Dec 1st- use coupon code EPIC13 here. Epic RACE Day is awesome if you don't own it yet 🙂
Cycling Fusion has a bunch of deals you can access between Friday 11/29 morning and Sunday 12/2 night. Discounts include 20%-25% off individual DVDs and boxed sets + free shipping on orders over $100.00. No coupon code required. Just visit Cyclingfusion.com between Black Friday and Monday Dec 12th.
I woke up to this note from Allen Jones, the executive producer of the Epic Rides series of Indoor Cycling Class Videos and DVDs.
Hi John,
I just wanted to give you heads up on our newest epicRIDES release, Epic Amelia Island AND a special Epic Affiliate Coupon Code for a 20% discount on this title for one week (ending 9/15/13) that you can share with your followers.
COUPON CODE: amelia
Here are the details:
Epic Amelia Island
Join three avid cyclist riding the 62 mile route of the Katie Ride for Life, a major springtime cycling event held in Amelia Island, Florida, north of Jacksonville on the Florida-Georgia border.
With 13-miles of beautiful beaches, abundant native wildlife, and pristine waters, Amelia Island has long been a beloved destination for visitors and locals alike. For the sixth consecutive year, Amelia was voted among Top 10 North American Islands by Conde Nast Traveler's Reader's Choice Awards.
With it's flat terrain and consistent level of intensity, this Epic Amelia Island is an ideal Endurance training ride to build your aerobic base. 

Now, you can preview this route for yourself and get some serious training accomplished at the same time!
And, as an extra incentive, a percentage of the profits from Epic Amelia Island will go to the Katie Ride for Life to further it's mission of organ donor education.
DVD – $29.95, Download – $19.95, Combo Pack – $39.95
Teach to a full house of 50 riders and expect to receive $500.00 for your efforts.This isn't a typo – this outfit is planning to compensate Indoor Cycling Instructors up to $500.00 a class. Teach a regular schedule of 13 packed classes a week and you'll be interviewing stock brokers for ideas where you should invest your $300,000 annual compensation.
Want to work for Peloton Cycling? Check to see if they're hiring here.
To that end, Peloton has borrowed a lot from boutique studios and what riders are addicted to, starting with the charismatic instructor. “Instructors who can command an audience and have great fitness knowledge are arguably like actors, they should be paid as such. We’re tripling what the going rate is to work at a studio,” says Foley, adding that with this platform, Peloton teachers will become “global celebrities, capable of reaching thousands of riders at a time, instead of 50.” (We’re expecting defections any second now.) – I'm assuming they're referring to defections from SoulCycle & Flywheel – John
Peloton's goal here, as I see it, is to recruit the very best 10 Instructors… not just the 10 best Instructors in New York, but the 10 best Instructors from anywhere on the planet. $300k should be enough of an incentive to motivate just about anyone to pack their bags, move to a new gig and start teaching in the Big Apple.
How can they afford to pay Instructors so much?
The financial “Holy Grail” for Peloton is delivering on-demand classes to home users riding their new Peloton Indoor Cycles. This bike looks very cool/well designed and they recently raised over $300,000 using Kick Starter to fund the design and early production.
Created by John Foley, the former president of Barnes & Noble eCommerce, Peloton has built a sexy at-home bike that won’t look out of place in your high-design living room. It comes with a 22-inch tablet-like, touch-screen monitor that allows you to ride along with live classes at Peloton’s 50-bike studio in New York City (opening in Chelsea in the fall), or stream one on-demand.
So your potential class size is limited only by the number of those new cycles they sell.
I'm dying to learn more about all of this; the new Indoor Cycle, the technology, their plans for the Peloton Studio… everything. I'm working on getting a representative on the Podcast ASAP.
RAAM begins in Oceanside, CA and travels 3,000 miles, 170,000 feet of elevation change and the the film crew from epicPLANET.tv will be filming the riders all the way to the end in Annapolis, MD!
For this year's event starting in mid-June, epicPLANET.tv has embedded it's film crew with Team Break the Cycle from Bentonville, Arkansas. This four-person team is riding in support of the Northwest Arkansas Children's Shelter, a private, non-profit organization that provides 24-hour emergency residential care to children who are victims of family violence, neglect and physical and sexual abuse. So far, they've raised over $200,000. WOW!
Team cyclists, Mike Brady, Chip Gibbons, Randy Johnson, and Lori O'Connor will be riding around the clock for approximately seven days supported by a team of 14 dedicated volunteers led by Crew Chief Mark Burson. It's a cyclists dream come true!
Team Break the Cycle
EpicPlanet's producer, Allen Jones, is planning to create short videos from RAMM that we will be displaying here to track their progress.
Later this fall epicPLANET plans to produce a number of Indoor Cycling videos & DVDs that chronicle Team Break the Cycle's journey across the USA. I can't wait to show them to my classes, especially the parts where they climb across the Rocky Mountains 🙂
I've used Cirque Du Soleil DVDs in classes in the past with very good results. Participant's seem to really enjoy them and the original soundtrack is often perfect for a “and now for something completely different” class.
Amy saw Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away on RedBox and brought it home Sunday night. The visuals are amazing and I could easily see using this in a class.
From its Wikipedia page:
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away is a 2012 3D film directed by Andrew Adamson. The film premiered on October 20, 2012 at the Tokyo International Film Festival,[1] and it was released theatrically in the United States on December 21, 2012, the same day Jack Reacher was released.[4] It was released in 2D and 3D. It stars Erica Linz and Igor Zaripov as the main characters and incorporates acts from the seven Cirque du Soleil shows running in Las Vegas in 2011: O, Mystère, Kà , Love, Zumanity, Viva Elvis and Criss Angel Believe.
If you're not familiar with Cirque Du Soleil check out this video trailer.
Not only are they beautiful to watch live (or on video), but the sound tracks are performed live, incredibly well done and many are perfectly suitable for use in a class.
Cirque du Soleil — Alegria is probably the most popular. Amy and I have used it after first hearing it at a show they performed here in Minneapolis in the late 90's.
Finding music that encourages faster pedal speeds for endurance classes, can be a real challenge 🙁
Spend some time in Spotify Cirque du Soleil and you'll find a gold mine of potential tracks you could string together – or just click play on one of their albums and add some occasional cues for a quick, entertaining class!
Or better, click play on a Cirque video and turn up the soundtrack – I've never have a negative response to using these in a class. Our public library has a number of these DVDs available so that could save you from the expense of buying them – or check RedBox to see there's one near where you live.
