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Can You Use Spotify in Fitness Classes? What Instructors Should Know

Spotify's own moderators say personal accounts are for personal use, not gyms. Here is what that means for instructors, plus the in-class problems Spotify users report.

October 26, 20263 min readPublished by Fitness Radio L.L.C.

Most instructors start with Spotify because it's already on their phone. It's a great personal service. It isn't built for teaching, and its terms don't cover playing music in a gym.

What Spotify says

Asked on the Spotify Community whether a studio could play Spotify in classes, a Spotify moderator answered that it isn't possible to use Spotify in public places such as gyms, and that accounts are for personal, non-commercial use. The moderator pointed businesses to Spotify's separate business offering instead.

The practical problems instructors report

Apart from terms of use, instructors on the same forum have described real teaching problems:

  • An update that hid the song timer after a few seconds, which made it hard for cycling instructors to see where they were in a track.
  • Tapping the screen to bring the timer back and accidentally skipping to the next song mid-class.
  • No way to set a class tempo, and songs that aren't phrased for choreography.

Licensing, briefly

In the US, playing recorded music to a class is a public performance. Public performance rights for songs are licensed through performing rights organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR, and many gyms hold those licenses for their facility. Rules vary by country and by service, so:

  1. Ask your facility which licenses it holds and what they cover.
  2. Read the terms of any music service before relying on it for licensing.
  3. If you teach online, check separately; live-stream and recorded classes are handled differently.

This is general information, not legal advice. If you run a facility, talk to the licensing organizations or a lawyer about your situation.

What a teaching tool should do

Whatever you use, look for music phrased in 32s, tempo you control, gapless playback so counts never break between songs, and playlists long enough to run a full hour without touching your phone.

From the publisher of this guide

Built for teaching, not commuting

Fitness Radio playlists typically run 60 minutes or more, play gaplessly, and are 32-count phrased. On Premium Pulse and up you set the BPM. Because every phrase is the same length at a given tempo, 15 seconds at 128 BPM, you can cue by the music instead of staring at a timer.

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Keep reading

Playback

Why Gapless Playback Matters for Workout Music

Two seconds of silence between songs breaks counts and drains energy. What gapless playback is, why phones add gaps, and how to keep class music non-stop.

For gyms

Gym Floor Music: How to Keep It Non-Stop, Clean and Fresh

Gym background music has to run all day without repeats, explicit lyrics or dead air. A practical checklist for owners, plus how Fitness Radio's stations and 48-hour playlists work.

Phrasing

What Is 32-Count Music? Phrasing Explained for Fitness Instructors

32-count music groups beats into phrases of four 8-counts so choreography lines up with the song. Here is how phrasing works and why it matters in class.

Teach to music that counts with you.

Fitness Radio streams 32-count phrased, gapless workout music, with tempo control on Premium Pulse and up. Try it with your own class before you commit.

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