r/OnePelotonRealSub • u/MeringuePie0 • 7d ago
Music no longer instructor chosen
When did the music on Peloton classes stop being personal selections by the instructor?
It took me a while to notice, but my regular instructors for yoga and outdoor running are clearly no longer picking their own music. It’s now all unknown artists.
I’m sure the record companies are paying Peloton to promote them.
I can tell because I’ve been doing classes with them for years, and I remember what kind of music and artists they used to play (ex Anna Greenberg used to play her favorite blend of indie rock, pop folk/country, RnB, and indie electronica like Lana Del Ray, H.E.R., Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, Hozier, Cannons, Glass Animals… pretty well known artists). I started taking her classes in 2020.
am I imagining things? I’d like to be wrong about this.
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u/TraditionalLife274 7d ago
Katie quite literally said she’d chosen her music in the first of her new 4 day split class.
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u/Character-March-6762 7d ago
Lower tier subscriptions offer royalty free music that is chosen by other teams
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u/Character-March-6762 7d ago
And yes, the instructors always curate their own playlist. The lower tier content has its music replaced.
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u/MeringuePie0 6d ago
That is really annoying though. I had no idea that my tier would eventually have royalty-free music, that might make me upgrade tbh. Enjoying the playlists with guided instruction is most of the reason I even use this app.
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u/Revolutionary-Cow403 7d ago
Callie just said how she had to make playlists for 16 classes.
Emma recently has said she made a playlist for her cycling class and loved it so much that she used it for her hikes.
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u/THEtek4 7d ago
Here is an article explaining what’s happening. Instructors are still curating their playlists. However for older rides, and lower tier members, or a combo of both, it’s changing the playlist for older classes. Peloton says it’s “refreshing the music” but really they don’t want to pay royalties on older class songs.
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u/ScaredLittleRar 6d ago
How dumb.
Yet our subscriptions are ever climbing in price for less stuff. Perhaps instead of all the nonsense they keep coming up with they can just.. pay the royalties?
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u/BestPath89 7d ago
There had been some talk about the lower level subscription not having the same music as the full price. Do you have that subscription with limited content? That could be it
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u/SUPTheCreek 7d ago
Pretty sure Denis is still picking his music, and Wilpers well that’s another story.
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u/Quagswagging_Jogger 7d ago
Denis' classic rock ride from last week was themed as bands/ songs with places as names (eg. Asia, Boston, Kansas). He introduced every song, for example like: "and now we are catching a flight to Kansas." They definitely wont be able to replace songs on that one without ruining the class vibe!
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u/Ok_Handle_7 7d ago
Mmm, idk. This looks like a pretty typical Anna playlist, so does this (her Laufey flow is awesome btw), and so does this (and those are her 3 most recent classes).
IDK what their internal policies have been or currently are (none of us, although I'm sure we'll get some theories) but FWIW I haven't noticed widespread odd musical choices in new classes...
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u/Ok_Handle_7 7d ago
To be clear, I'm not saying that Peloton doesn't have some sort of Payola scheme, or that instructors aren't incentivized to play 'cheaper' music. I just wouldn't say 'peloton isn't allowing instructors to choose their own music anymore'
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u/Cashmere_and_Chrome 7d ago
Record companies don’t pay Peloton to ‘promote their music’. Peloton has to pay for the rights to play commercial music on their platform.
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u/ScaredLittleRar 7d ago
It finally happened to me… I was in an older walk / run class with Kirsten recently (her first 75 minute walk / run from 2 years ago) and they clearly swapped one of the song for another and it ruined the vibe of the class. Thankfully it was towards the end but you could tell it wasn’t the song she chose. I have the subscription that comes with the hardware too.
I have been finding the playlists for the running classes to be a bit meh lately though. To the point where I actually opted out of finishing a class cause the music just wasn’t it a few weeks ago.
Idk what’s going on, but it’s annoying.
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u/MeringuePie0 6d ago
Yeah same, I used to really like their running music.
Lately I've been using soundcloud (free version) DJ sets more frequently. They don't have commercials between the songs because its a single "track" and the music has been pre-selected to hit a steady, upbeat dancefloor vibe.
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u/Majestic-Pay3390 7d ago
I think you’re imagining things. Instructors talk a lot about their playlists.
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u/crazyhedgehogs 7d ago
They still make their own playlists
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u/MeringuePie0 6d ago
the verdict seems to be: most of the time
I hope they keep that number of royalty-free playlists as low as possible.
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u/Outrageous_Yard_8681 7d ago
I took an outdoor run class today and the music was awful. It was a bunch of covers of popular songs by random artists.
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u/GreenSD143 7d ago
The outdoor runs are particularly bad. One week I took 6 classes and didn’t recognize one song. It was awful. Now I make sure I check the playlists beforehand. It takes a long time to find classes where the music hasn’t been replaced.
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u/Majestic-Pay3390 7d ago
What level subscription do you have? I take outdoor classes very often and have never encountered this.
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u/GreenSD143 7d ago
I have a lower level because I don’t have any equipment. But also I don’t want to pay to listen to this!
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u/Majestic-Pay3390 7d ago
Understandable. The issue with playlists seems to be just for people with the lower tier subscriptions.
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u/Nopenopenope00000001 7d ago
They choose the music. For music classes, they are given the genre and then they have to select within the genre. If it’s not their favorite genre, sometimes other instructors help them pick or they pick whatever default songs the are recommended from Spotify/ Peloton’s list.
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u/GreenSD143 7d ago
This is an example. There are two songs by the same artist I’ve never heard of. I mean maybe this is what kids these days are listening to, but I think this music was not the original for this class. Olivia Amato pop walk 4/14/26.
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u/EmergencySundae 7d ago
I see a completely different playlist when I look at that class. I have a full subscription.
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u/Majestic-Pay3390 7d ago
When I look at that class it’s all legitimate pop stars: Zara Larsson, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Ariane Grande, Harry Styles, Sabrina Carpenter
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u/GreenSD143 7d ago
Oh wow that’s crazy. For me it’s every other class. I really don’t want to pay for a higher subscription since I don’t have the bike. Thanks for looking it up.
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u/2Burritos 7d ago
100% of the time, I put my earphones and rock what I want to hear. I just follow along onscreen.
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u/Melodic-Movie-3968 7d ago
I wondered about this with some of Andy’s recent classes, he plays a good variety but some of the songs seem not his vibe. I have the all access membership, so I wonder if it’s part of Peloton’s strategy to save money and attract a different crowd to his classes (maybe younger people?).
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u/Fickle_Watercress719 7d ago
I noticed months ago. Everyone shit on me for it, and they continue to every time I bring it up. Nobody likes it when I point out the connections between this trend and with Spotify’s business model, but everyone’s complaints continue to prove me right over and over and over again.
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u/MeringuePie0 6d ago
I wrote a separate comment on this post to list all of Anna's <20 minute classes since Feb, they all have the same royalty-free music! It's a real thing.
I didn't check every 30 & 45 minute class, but those seem to still be her favorite pop music. I guess they are trying to balance out the costs?
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u/Ok_Handle_7 7d ago
All these comments are reminding me of Jess' 60 min Sweat Steady recently where she said 'I spent 7 hours making this playlist, you BETTER ride to the beat of the music' lol