I recognize that there are a lot of people in my classes who, while not actually want to be “beat”, do want music that will give that general feel 🙂
Track 1. wasn't familiar to me – but a quick listen on Spotify told me Dropkick Murphys — I'm Shipping Up To Boston would make an awesome closing track. I typically will have everyone replicate (or improve on) their earlier “Best Effort” threshold interval. The only trouble is that this track is too short at only 2:34. I'm looking for a three minute + finale to empty the tank.
This 72 RPM instrumental remix is HUGELY motivating and @ exactly 4:00 is the perfect length. The composition of this remix is such that your riders will have no idea what they have coming at them and a nice, abrupt ending that will signal the end of the interval. Nice.
Michael's second suggestion isn't bad either Laidback Luke — Turbulence has a perfect cue right at the 4-to-go point.
The music wars are starting to heat up between Apple/iTunes and Spotify. Last week Apple added (without your permission) the new album Songs of Innocence to every iTunes account in the world. Some people weren't happy with either the free music… or the part about Apple adding it without telling anyone what they were doing. So Apple has created a free tool to remove all of the tracks if you don't want them.
From a marketing perspective this was very cool. In one day something like half a billion iTunes users had the songs in their possession, making this the largest ever album launch in history.
Except this has effectively locked this album out from Spotify and Deezer, neither of which have access to these tracks. One article said Apple paid U2 $100 million > I don't know about you, but I'd grant Apple an exclusive for that amount of zeros.
But you can add them to a Spotify or Deezer playlist 🙂Â
In iTunes go to your Library and if you search by date added you'll see the list of tracks from Songs of Innocence, but they'll be light grey because they aren't actually downloaded. What you are seeing are just links to the Apple iCloud. You'll need to click the little cloud icon next to each track to download it to your computer.
In Spotify or Deezer you'll see all your new U2 tracks listed in the Local Files section.
As I was bouncing between Indoor Cycling sessions at IDEA, I kept Shazam qued up on my iPhone. It came in handy for when I heard something fun… and there was a lot of great music at the conference!
During Nothing But the HIITS! (a Schwinn Cycling presentation from MI Tatiana Kolovou) she played Juno Reactor — Pistolero – Astrix Remix which I thought would make for an awesome long 7:16 climb @ 70 RPM. It includes a fabulous intro that you just know will lead to something challenging.
Here are the workshop notes for  Nothing But the HIITS! you can download if you didn't get the chance to attend IDEA.
The same version is available as a free download 🙂
A Playlist of offline video could make for a cool class 🙂
The word out is that YouTube is planning to launch a streaming service, similar to Spotify and Deezer, for music videos. The premium version would be advertisment free which would be very cool.
I realise that in the past we (and others) have pointed out that playing YouTube videos in a commercial setting (your class) is against YouTube's terms and conditions that prohibit displaying their videos in a club, bar or studio. iTunes, Spotify, Deezer and every other music service has nearly the exact T's&C's – no commercial use. Many of us are using these services to deliver our class music and your club or studio should be paying ASCAP and/or BMI for a commercial use license. My view* is that that license should cover your playing of music videos, just as it does for the audio versions of the songs. Or maybe there's a different license required for videos? If this becomes real I'll dig in and find out more.
Here's the basic rundown – YouTube is set to launch a service called YouTube Music Key, and Google is set to rebrand Google Play Music All Access to Google Play Music Key.
Specifically, it looks like YouTube Music Key will offer ad-free music, audio-only playback (for background or screen-off listening), and offline playback…
Of course, one of Music Key's major value propositions is that users will have access not just to official discographies, but to concert footage, covers, and remixes. Play Music already houses remixes and covers, but YouTube as a platform is significantly more open and workable for derivative content – the platform is much easier to add content to, and user discoverability is substantially different from Play Music. YouTube Music Key also promises to make suggestions for what to watch/listen to based on the other things you watch/listen to on YouTube.
Of course all of this is speculation / rumors – except that screenshot looks pretty legit > so we'll have to wait and see if/when it launches. Also if this will be available as an iPad app, or will it just be for android?
While we continue to wait for Deezer to make it here in the USA (which was promised for sometime in 2014) the potential that there could be an advert free, music video service that would play off a portable device means there's lots to look forward to 🙂
Does showing a playlist of music videos sound exciting to you?
*I'm not an attorney, so proceed at your own risk. If you have questions or concerns, seek competent legal representation.
Turning the tables a little bit this week. The owners of the cycle studio where I teach on Monday's and Friday's:Â http://cyclequeststudio.com/ are awesome! Patti (Joe's wife) pops into my class whenever she can and loves rock music. In an effort to ‘keep the boss happy' I try to incorporate a couple rock tunes into each of my profiles.
I'm starting to like ‘grunge' rock a bit myself.
This week's tune is not new, but it's really good- from a Seattle based American rock band founded in 1984.
It's a hard driving flat (heavy on the bass) at 93 rpm's and 4:07.
Spotify has added an Equalizer to their iPhone App in the latest update. NOTE: Spotify triggers software upgrades progressively, to groups of users over time. If you're not seeing the notification (pictured above) – you will soon.
This morning I saw the new notice, while I was checking that I had my playlist set to off-line mode and that it would play. This is cool, I thought and I had the chance to acquaint myself with how it worked, before my 6:00 am class. Wearing my ear buds, I found that the Electronic preset sounded the best… turns out I was wrong.
You'll find the new Equalizer in; Settings > Playback > (Scroll down) Equalizer toggle to turn it on/off. Spotify gives you 22 pre-set EQ settings or you can drag any of the six frequency ranges up/down to create you own personal settings.
I'm not sure why, but it seemed like I had to adjust both the sound system's and my iPhone's to a much higher volume level than normal. Please let me know if you experience something similar.
Class sounded OK – well actually I couldn't hear any difference where I sit. After class I connected my bluetooth receiver, so I could stand in the middle of the room to hear what my class hears – while changing the EQ settings.
Now I realise that this is completely subjective; what sounds good to me, may or may not be your preference and every studio's acoustics is different. The R&B setting sounded best, using Morgan Page — In the Air (feat. Angela McCluskey) as my demo track.
That track was part of today's playlist – 45 minutes. I built it from a larger playlist I followed from Instructor Gregg Pitts who teaches at Zengo Cycle in Washington DC – Gregg Pitts Cycle July Tunes.  Gregg was featured in this Active Life DC fitness instructor profile. Here's my playlist.
