How cool is this? The complete catalog of Beatles music is now available on Spotify! Yes, it's also on iTunes Music, however Spotify continues to be my choice of a streaming service.
I cued up a long (but not) forgotten favorite: Maxwell's Silver Hammer
I'm setting Spotify to shuffle and am excited to hear what follows throughout the long weekend 🙂
Amy and I are hoping you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!
PhD student Carla Alexandra Ramos
I've been in my share of Indoor Cycling studios where, by the end of class, the air is so thick with humidity that you can no longer see yourself in the mirrors. The room stinks and every breath feels like you're riding at 10,000 feet – your lungs starving for oxygen.
Are your experiences similar to mine?
I'm discovering that there's a very simple cause for poor/bad indoor air quality; insufficient ventilation that is the result of a HVAC (Heating,Ventilation & Air Conditioning) system that wasn't designed for the occupancy and activity levels of the rooms inhabitants.
Typically new small/boutique fitness studios are opening in retail spaces with HVAC designed for sedentary office workers – not 30 athletes riding below/@/above threshold for 60 minutes 🙁
Surprisingly, there isn't much actually research on air quality in fitness studios. However I was able to find a published study out of Lisbon, Portugal; Exposure to indoor air pollutants during physical activity in fitness centers of 11 fitness studios.
The lead author of the study is PhD student Carla Alexandra Ramos from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Carla agreed to join me to discuss her findings and offer suggestions to improving the quality indoor air in your club or studio on this addition of the Podcast.
Carla has published a number of research papers on indoor air polution that you can find them here at researchgate.net
Are you committed to the health & wellness of your participants?
Then shouldn't we all be doing something to improve the air we're breathing in class?
A good start would be completing this short survey on the quality of the air in your club or studio.
Create your own user feedback survey
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The music industry is figuring out that a great Indoor Cycling class is built on a fabulous playlist. Now they're making noises that they feel they should be charging fitness studios a higher rate for their commercial performance licenses…
By Andrew Sparkler, Vice President, Business Affairs & Operations
At this year’s SXSW, SoulCycle teamed up with Spotify and some of their favorite DJs at what was dubbed as “an epic music and movement experience.” While the popular fitness club’s trip to Austin underscores the importance of music to its business, it is unclear if the music business is spinning to the same beat.
SoulCycle, launched in 2006, is now filing for an IPO. Its business is primarily based on offering a high intensity spin class led by an instructor who also serves as a DJ. Take a class, glance at their website or read their S-1 filing and it is clear that music is perhaps as essential to their business as the bikes themselves.
SoulCycle’s SEC filing characterizes its product as a “carefully curated ‘cardio party’ [that] is fueled by the personalities of our instructors, their uniquely crafted musical playlists and the energy of the room” and says that “[w]ith inspirational coaching and high-energy music, SoulCycle was created to strengthen both the mind and the body.” Their instructors go as far as to claim that music “is the most important part of what we do at SoulCycle.”
Performing rights organizations like ASCAP and BMI are on constant lookout for ways to generate royalties for their songwriters and rights holders, but one publishing exec (and former ASCAP vp) argues they need to look harder — maybe even break a sweat — when dealing with your favorite fitness center.
In an op-ed for Medium, Downtown Publishing vp of business affairs Andrew Sparkler said PROs are dropping the proverbial medicine ball by classifying certain gyms under “general” licenses — the same umbrella as restaurants, bars and concert/sports venues — when music has become such an ubiquitous and personalized part of the workout experience.
To make his point, Sparkler cites the popular SoulCycle chain of spin classes, who in a recent SEC filing for an IPO called their product a “carefully curated ‘cardio party' [that] is fueled by the personalities of our instructors, their uniquely crafted musical playlists and the energy of the room.”
In its SEC filing, SoulCycle projects 2015 revenue to be around $140 million and said it hopes to expand to 250 locations (up from 36 in 2014) in the near future.
Sparkler figures each SoulCycle is currently bringing in about $3.1 million apiece for the company, but is only paying a tiny fraction of that to PROs under the “general” licenses for the music it plays. BMI, for example, charges fitness clubs a maximum of $2,123 per year per location — which would amount to .01 percent of what Sparkler estimates each SoulCycle makes. ASCAP also has a flat fee per location, but it slides depending on inflation.
According to his calculations, fitness center revenue increased over 104 percent in the U.S. between 2000 and 2014, and SoulCycle jumped 108 percent from 2012 to 2013 alone.
So where does this lead? My guess is that ASCAP and BMI will be looking for ways to monetize (make more money) off the excitement surrounding SoulCycle/Indoor Cycling and the ease of music delivery from Spotify/iTunes Music = they'll be contacting clubs and studios with “revised” (read more expensive) license agreements.
As someone who prefers to maintain a level of fair exchange, I can't begrudge them for asking a higher rate than a sports bar or restaurant would pay. My only hope is that club/studio owners/managers recognise the value great music brings to our classes and not follow the LA Fitness path that pretends to save money by enforcing canned Muzac use by their Instructors 🙁
Your thoughts?
I just became aware of a new Indiegogo campaign for an innovative* method of pedaling a bicycle. Similar in functionality to a KrankCycle, the Caron Bicycle uses independent left/right crankarms that create 6 different pedalling movements.
They have their crankset installed on a conventional IC in this video. Watch and then tell me if you feel these added exercises would improve your class… or is it just a solution in search of a problem that doesn't really exist?
This animated video shows the various muscle activation from the different pedalling techniques.
*I'd be curious to know if Matrix has patents on the KrankCycle that would extend to a leg powered bicycle?
In case you haven't seen the KrankCycle in action:
Caron claims this on their campaign page:
It might be cool to observe power output – especially during one legged work 🙂
I taught my final class for LifeTime Fitness yesterday and thought I would use my very last track as this week's free music Friday.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|PRO-Visitor|PRO-Studio']
Line of Fire from Junip is one of those sneaky songs that starts quiet and unassuming. Then it begins to build @ 92 RPM, in volume and intensity. Listen for the obvious places to cue additional load that come about 20 seconds apart. We built up to our Best Effort power over the first 2:30. Then there's a nice quiet spot to regroup before ramping up again to the BIG FINISH – you decide how long you want to keep everyone above threshold. The total length (before the outro) is 5:22. Plenty of time to really do something cool!
Download – Right Click Save target As
Here's the full Playlist I used 🙂
Enjoy! [/wlm_private]
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You switch from the Now Playing screen on your iPhone, back to the Playlist Screen to check what song is coming up next.
Except you're a ways into the class and to see the current song that's playing in the list, you need to carefully scroll down through the playlist. Easy to do when you're sitting at a desk. Not so easy when you are all sweaty and pedaling a bike. So what you intended as a swipe to scroll down the order, becomes a click that starts a different song. This of course messes up everything and has you flustered, trying to get back to the previous song – and at the correct point in the track 🙁
I found a solution for this today. I'm not sure how long it's been there, but there's now an option to see the Play Queue the list of what's coming up next. Here's how you can find it:
From the Now Playing screen > Click the top right icon.
That will open the Play Queue with the current track always at the top!
