The news of the copyright tribunal decision is hitting the fitness industry, and Fernwood are another gym that are going all PPCA free music as of June 1st (or rather “gone”). I haven’t purchased any of the new releases as yet, since I’m currently not teaching and I’m working full time, so yesterday morning I did BODYPUMP with all PPCA free music.
I’ve heard lots of complaints and compliments about the other programs and so I was keenly interested to see what the music experience would be like as a participant. Let’s just say, I was pretty tuned in half of the time to the music, the other half the time I was in pain. I was pleasantly surprised and I didn’t think the music was too bad and there was only about 2 tracks (when I was noticing) that I kinda cringed and could tell that it was a cover. Some of the tracks were really bloody well done!
I think the main point I want to make here, is that if I wasn’t really paying attention to the music, I would never have noticed. The instructor did make a mention of the music being covers, and at one well known track a participant said “is this not the original?” I think there’s only going to be real problems if they cover the current top 40 music. I was never really keen on Les Mills using the latest top 40 music anyway, because we hear it all the time on the radio and then hammer it over and over in our classes. In light of the problem with covering these well known songs (because participants WILL notice these) I think Les Mills would be wise to do away with or steer away from using this type of music.
I’m 100% in support of going PPCA free since what the PPCA has done is ridiculous and greedy. I can’t see any gym going ahead and paying the fees. Why do we have to pay 3 times for the music anyway? First Les Mills pays for the licence to use the music, then we have to pay ARPA to be able to play music in businesses and then again to the PPCA. Imagine if BMW demanded fees for every time you take their car out and drove it on the road?
Ridiculous?