Boutique studio owners and fitness entrepreneurs are creating more online content than ever. With no end in sight for digital fitness, it’s a good idea to have a go-to resource for all your music needs: A library of non-copyright infringing music.
If you want to monetize fitness VOD (video on-demand) services, live stream classes, zoom exercise groups, and social media you need to find royalty-free music. Some services are cleared for social media platforms, so you’re all set with royalty free music for Instagram use or cueing up a Facebook live challenge if you’re keen to do so. Regardless of how you decide to use music for your fitness content, it’s a best practice to protect yourself against music licensing laws while creating a fun and motivational experience for your clients.
What is Royalty Free Music?
Let’s start with the basics. Essentially, royalty free music means that no one owns the copyright on the music. So, you don’t have to pay royalties. However, royalty free doesn’t necessarily mean free. You will still have to pay to access some of the music websites.
When you work have an account with a royalty free music website, you’re purchasing the license to whatever track you want. With some sites, you sign up for a monthly or yearly membership, giving you access to a royalty free music library. The other option is to buy individual tracks and albums.
You must secure the right music with suitable permissions. That way, you won’t have any issues with live stream classes or publishing fitness VOD content and classes. When you have a library of music you can dip into, you can create great fitness content without the worry of unknowingly committing any copyright infringement.
Pro tip (and likely required): Make sure to always credit the website you’ve obtained the music from and carefully read all the terms and conditions.
What are People Looking for in Online Fitness Classes?
We have our top tips for running a virtual fitness class in a previous blog, but we’d be foolish not to address music and the way the right song sets the tone for a class. It can help you create the ambiance for a meditation sound bath or the pace for a group boxing HIIT workout. To help with your planning, we’ve created a list of seven royalty free music licensing resources to make streaming and recording fitness content easier.
Whether you’re looking background tunes, like royalty free elevator music, or an absolute banger of a tune, Workout Music by WSHQ is a great resource. All music on the site is 100% royalty and license-free. You can download and use songs in public places and commercial and online fitness classes, live stream classes, and pre-recorded for YouTube and Facebook. You don’t have to pay any royalties or license fees to organizations like PPL, PRS (UK), and ASCAP (USA). You can purchase music through playlist downloads.
Move Ya! produces music for fitness entrepreneurs and all types of gyms. All songs are completely exclusive and copyrighted. When you pay for the user license, you enter a royalty and license-free exemption. You are then legally secure to use the music for online fitness classes without additional fees. The platform has developed various licensing models to suit different needs. The monthly membership starts at $19.99.
Power Music gives you access to a music library for your online fitness classes. To access the music license-free, you need the Power Music App user. You can trial the first month for free, and then it costs $14.95/month. It has over 750 albums to suit a variety of workouts. From royalty free meditation background music to pure cardio blast, it has a lot of variety. All the music in the “Virtual Class Music” section in the app is cleared for live stream classes.
MTrax Music features royalty free music for both in-person and live stream classes. With MTrax Music, you download mixes by categories. You can refine your search by activities like aerobics or kickboxing and even find appropriate music for cycling gyms. You buy the albums as an MP3 download. You can also get the MTrax Fitness Music App for free to use royalty free music downloads immediately.
Beatsuite has a library of royalty free workout music that you can use in your in person and online fitness VOD or live stream classes. It has a range of genres like pilates, yoga, zumba, high intensity, and general exercise. The music is cleared for use on all social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube as well as Zoom. And let’s be honest, if we must do Zoom exercise it should at least be cued to good tunes. Using their pay once, use forever payment, you can purchase a single track for $59.99 or purchase download credits starting at $99.
Comma Music is great for fitness content creators and boutique studios. If you’re looking for a huge variety of high-quality music, this is a good resource. Comma Music has their own composers who make the music. You can use the music in many ways like online yoga workshops, live stream classes, and on social media channels.
Soundstripe has a growing library of music, with 200 songs added every month. The membership covers the cost of every license, so you don’t have to worry about anything. You have unlimited downloads. When searching for music, you can filter by mood, tempo, pace, and beats per minute to find the best song for your workout. Pricing starts at $19/month.
As you can see, you have a few different choices when it comes to royalty free music. Many of the sites tend to offer free trials and track downloads to give you a taste of what to expect. If you’re creating a lot of fitness content, fitness VOD, and live stream classes, it’s so important to use the right music. Take the worry out of music licensing by having a music library you can dip into whenever you need it.