I would suggest you, as an instructor, have to wear two hats when it comes to choosing the music for your classes, or maybe have two sets of ears!
On the one hand, music is a very personal thing but as a professional (just like me as a DJ) you have an audience in front of you and have to play the right style for the discipline you are teaching and music which will appeal to the people in your class, not just what ‘floats your boat’!
On the other hand, as a professional, the music you choose comes with associated costs that don’t apply to you when listening and consuming on a personal level. So it also becomes a business decision for you. If you want to play Original Artist music it comes with two royalties for you (or your gym) to pay for every class you teach. £1.98 (inclusive of VAT) is collected by PPL for the artist who performed the work and £2.06 (inclusive of VAT) is collected by PRS for the songwriter. These costs apply to you when you are teaching face-to-face classes but when you are teaching online, the situation changes!
You still need to account to PPL for each class taught but the PRS element is different. You will need a Limited Online Music Licence (LOML) which costs you £175.20 (inclusive of VAT). There are restrictions and requirements that come with this licence; you can read the detail here.
Add to this, if you are delivering classes online and you want to play copyrighted music on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram you will undoubtably get muted and taken down regardless of any payment you make to PPL and PRS. This is because these platforms weren’t set up as music streaming platforms, so can’t grant you the rights to play copyrighted music for your live classes.
Whilst this may be frustrating for instructors and DJs alike, it’s just the way it is until record labels and publishers decide otherwise. And by the way, I appreciate some instructors seem to play what they want online and get away with it (for now) but if you are a professional charging people for your class is it worth risking the disruption?
However, here’s the good news. There is music you can play which comes with no extra costs or online restrictions and it’s as good as the music you are wanting to stream on Spotify or those ‘Original Artist’ mixes you play in your classes. This comes in the shape of the GO label by Pure Energy. I really don’t like using the phrase ‘licence free’ as I believe it cheapens what we do. We have chosen to enlist renowned DJs, producers and musicians to work with us to create new, original music. It just so happens that we control the world wide rights and are happy for you, as fitness instructors, to buy it and use it without any additional payments. We have also chosen not to publish it, so Facebook and YouTube don’t have it registered as copyrighted music and automatically flick the ‘mute’ switch.
Pure Energy Music is a part of The Music Factory Entertainment Group and so at the heart of what we have done for over 30 years is to make music. We don’t make fitness music, we make music. What we then do is create fitness programmes with our music that is the right intensity for the appropriate discipline, the right BPM and 32 count phrased as required.
So when it comes to choosing the right music for your class that motivates and inspires but also keeps the pounds in your pocket and the peace of mind that you are not playing ‘Facebook Mute Russian Roulette’ when delivering a paid for live class, there is an alternative.
If you would like an example, check this release out, produced by world renowned producer and DJ Rob Tissera. If you saw Rob playing in Ibiza or bought a Ministry Of Sound album mixed by him, this is what you would get!
GO by Pure Energy is a record label consisting of people who think differently. We don’t produce licence free music we produce music and have chosen to control our copyrights and you, as fitness instructors, are free to use them.
If you have any questions about music copyright please get in touch and I will be happy to answer your questions.
