Gyms have become highly popular business ideas as the world enters a massive health craze. If you’re the owner of a gym, your focus is on creating as many paid members as possible. This gives you money every month to help your business grow.
At the same time, you want to retain your members while adding new ones. The best way to do this is by providing a great experience in your gym. Lots of things come into consideration, but one of them is the gym atmosphere. All gyms should have music playing to motivate members and create a great ambiance. But, did you know that you might be playing music illegally and putting your business at risk of big fines?
The law surrounding gym music
Technically speaking, if you load up a Spotify playlist and put it on in your gym, you could be breaking the law. You need to obtain a license that allows you to play music for commercial use. In the US, you have four different Performance rights Organizations that provide licenses: so you can use free music.
ASCAP
BMI
SESAC
GMR
Each one will cover a range of different musicians and artists. If you get a license for any or all of them, you will be allowed to play music by the artists covered by the organizations. Licenses can be obtained through their websites, though you can also find some music steaming services with packages that include all four licenses in them - like Gym Radio.
Are there ways to provide music for free?
Yes, there are ways to play music in your gym business without spending any money. The most common of which is to only play royalty-free music. This is music that has not been commercially licensed and is free for anyone to play, meaning you can use free music and find playlists online or on music streaming services that have lots of songs for you to play. The only downside is that you don’t get mainstream music, and your options are limited.
Another method is to obtain something like looptv. This is a little streaming box that hooks up to the TVs in your gym and can play videos through them. Most notably, it lets you play licensed music videos from some of the biggest record labels around - like Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music. Sync the TV screens together, blast the music through your speaker system, and you’ve pretty much got free music right here. Again, the only slight downside is that you might have a limited selection.
So, have you been illegally streaming music without realizing it? It’s not a good idea to continue doing so, even if you’ve not been caught out yet. You never know when someone can penalize you for this, leading to big fines for your gym business. Instead, explore options to play music without breaking the law. Consider the two options above if you want to play music for free, or obtain licenses to have a larger catalog of songs to play.
Now, you can focus on delivering a great gym atmosphere to retain members and encourage new ones to join.
