Energizing music is the heart and soul of a great workout, uplifting our spirits while getting our bodies moving to the beat. We know this intuitively, and in fact there is scientific evidence that our bodies and brains are hardwired to respond to workout music in predictable ways. By effectively intertwining music and fitness for your customers, your app can maximize user satisfaction and success and experience the benefits of music-led growth.
If you’re curious about licensing workout music, or what licensed music can do for your fitness app business, you’re in the right place. Feed.fm has been helping the world’s top fitness brands integrate licensed music in apps and connected devices for nearly a decade. We’ve learned a lot along the way and appreciate the opportunity to share a few tips for licensing music for fitness with you.
Disclaimer: Please note this is not a substitute for legal advice, but rather a quick overview of the complex music licensing world.
Be selective about the music you license for fitness
When it comes to selecting music for integration into your digital fitness app, not just any music will do. It’s got to be the right music for the right person at the right time. A workout music playlist should generally guide the user along a structured arc from warmup music, to high-intensity exercise music, to more relaxing cooldown music. The tunes need to be carefully curated to build energy and excitement, and pop music is one of the most reliable genres for sourcing music that gets people motivated and moving. In accordance with music rights, popular music must be licensed for business use.
Take music licensing seriously
The ability of music to power up your users’ workouts is undeniable. However, navigating music licensing on your own can be complex and time-consuming. Here we’ll give a quick overview of what you need to know about getting music onto digital fitness apps.
Almost all popular music is copyrighted. Using it commercially requires permission from and compensation for rightsholders like labels, publishers, and songwriters. This can be a costly and slow operation if done independently. It’s also not a one-time task: accurate usage tracking and ongoing administrative work is necessary for proper royalty allocation and compliance.
Royalty-free music or production music may offer a simpler approach with one-time fees or subscriptions. However, copyright still applies, so ensure your usage aligns with the granted rights.
Copyright infringement is serious, leading to both legal and financial trouble. Finding a partner, like Feed.fm, that specializes in music licensing for businesses can provide the tech and content needed to simplify the process. Full legal indemnification removes any chance of worry or concern.
Don’t forget compliance
Integrating and streaming music in fitness apps goes beyond licensing and user experience. Accurate song play tracking and royalty calculations are essential.
Feed.fm streamlines this process, providing a comprehensive suite of pre-cleared music, services, and technology, including a streaming music API and SDKs. These tools automate integration and streaming for quick and easy implementation, and automate all compliance requirements, including royalty payments.
Feed.fm's real-time analytics dashboard reveals how users interact with music (e.g., frequency of play, session duration, etc.). This data helps you measure impact and optimize your strategy for a better user experience.
Learn from the fitness brands that are thriving
When fitness apps use a unified music system (UMS) like Feed.fm to facilitate the licensing, curation, and streaming of workout music for their customers, the ROI is unmatched. Here are the stories of a sampling of successful apps that use Feed.fm’s music streaming for businesses to keep their customers coming back for more.
Future
Future has made popular music provided by Feed.fm a key feature of its personal training app. Feed.fm created a variety of workout music stations so that Future users could switch up their jams as they please; each station is regularly updated by the Feed.fm curation team so there are always fresh tunes available. Megh Duwadi, a Future customer, says, “Future allows me to select a soundtrack for every workout and mood—an approach I vastly prefer to slogging through a limited number of pre-set songs.” When Future customers listen to a Feed.fm music station during their workouts, they clock workout sessions that are 3.3 times longer.
Ergatta
Pioneer of the game-based digital fitness category, Ergatta markets rowing machines and a home-based rowing workout program. Early on, Ergatta’s leadership realized that licensing workout music would be crucial for their success, but that the logistics, time, and expense of managing all the music licensing on their own would be burdensome. With Feed.fm’s help, Ergatta has integrated licensed music into their app with amazing results for their users: Ergatta rowers listening to Feed.fm custom music stations continue rowing 5.5 times longer.
Aaptiv
Aaptiv’s personalized approach to fitness and meditation demanded an equally personalized approach to music for its home workout app. Partnering with Feed.fm allowed Aaptiv to focus on their core mission while Feed.fm took care of licensing music, curation, streaming, and data collection. Aaptiv’s customers have reaped the benefits with highly personalized music stations that keep the workout experience exciting. Stephania Martinez, Aaptiv’s Content Director, notes that Feed.fm has made the process “a lot easier by not only offering music that is current and fresh, but also allowing us to expand our in-app offerings, creating an even better experience for the users.”
Team up with Feed.fm, the expert on music for fitness apps
The team at Feed.fm has been managing music integration for fitness and wellness businesses for nearly a decade. We offer both royalty-free fitness music and pre-cleared popular songs to motivate your users.
Our unified music system is your end-to-end music solution, removing all licensing complexities and allowing you to focus on your core business. We take care of the music, so that you can focus on the workout.
Learn more about music for commercial use
If you’re ready to dive into the details of licensing music for commercial use, read our Feed.fm guide to music licensing.
And if you have any questions for us, one of the music specialists at Feed.fm would be happy to talk with you.
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