Will:  00:30

Hey, it's Will and welcome to Group Fitness Real Talk, the show where we get real about the things that instructors need to know. Okay, today's episode, this is one of those where I'm going to keep it real and hit you up front. I think that a lot of people listening to this podcast have entirely the wrong idea about rights included music. I know that you like to use the music that you hear on the radio, in your classes, but I'm gonna get real with you right now. We are living in a digital age where record companies and production houses are just going to make it more and more difficult for you to use that original artist music and your classes. Maybe not in person, depending on where you are around the world, but absolutely in a digital sense. And if you're listening to this podcast, you know that I think that instructors should have as many strings to their bow as possible. And that includes being able to teach their classes online and deliver a digital experience. So today on the show, I am interviewing Nikkie and and Sam from Pure Energy Go. Nikkie is an international fitness presenter and Sam is a DJ who is currently working in the music industry. And they're going to talk to you about how they work with some of the most famous DJs in the world to curate and create the best possible fitness music that can be used on any platform in person on demand, or live-streaming. This show is about telling you what you need to know not what you want to hear. And I'm here to tell you that if you're an instructor that feels a little bit annoyed about not being able to use radio music in your classes, that is not gonna get any easier. It's only gonna get harder. But don't despair. As you're gonna hear in this episode, the pandemic changed the way that we approached music specifically created for the fitness industry. It opened the gates to professional DJs world famous artists who are now creating music specifically for use by fitness instructors across every platform music that's never going to get muted when you put it on social media, music that you can use and commercialize across your live and digital businesses. So if you're an instructor who wants to be able to teach in as many venues as many places online and offline as possible, you need to keep listening.  Today I am talking to two experts in the area of fitness music Nikkie and Sam, welcome to the show. How are you guys?

Sam  03:04

Hi, Will thank you for having us.

Nikkie  03:05

Hi! Are you good?

Will:  03:07

I am very good, thank you. So today we're going to be talking about fitness for music. And you guys are here representing the both the fitness presenter and DJ side of things. And also the music partner that we use with SH1FT Fitness, which is Pure Energy. Why don't you guys introduce both yourselves and Pure Energy and what you do. We'll go ladies first Nikkie, let's start off with you. 

Nikkie  03:30

Oh, thank you. So I'm Nikki, I'm the Pure Energy Go label manager. So I help put a schedule in place for which album comes out and when and work with the producers to get the music right for each fitness discipline.

Will:  03:46

Perfect. And Sam?

Sam  03:48

My name is Sam Townsend and I am part of the Pure Energy team. I'm a bit of a floater within Pure Energy. I work across the board I am one of the label managers mainly involved in A&R. So working with the artists and the producers, to provide the music for the label and the musical, constructing the musical output with Nikkie.

Nikkie  04:07

And makes some amazing house music.

Sam  04:09

Oh yeah, and I'm also one of the producers.

Will:  04:12

Exactly. You're a DJ as well, we're gonna get to that, we're gonna get to that. And just so the number of our listeners use pure energy, and obviously I've talked about it before, because it's our partner with SH1FT. It's all the music that goes into our fitness content. But do one of you guys just want to give an intro to what pure energy is and sort of why you exist, how long you've existed for and the service that you provide to fitness instructors. 

Nikkie  04:34

So actually, this is our 30th year provide the music for the fitness industry. So we're celebrating this year, three decades...

Will:  04:41

Congratulations, happy birthday. Same age as me!

Nikkie  04:45

We're all babies together. So we've provided music for the fitness industry for 30 years, started mainly with original artists music, and then as licensing and things like that. changed through the decades, we started producing some ppl free which is like cover type music for people who have different types of music licenses. And then during the pandemic, we come up with a brand new label called Pure Energy Go, which is our license free new music for fitness that can be used like you guys do streaming face to face anywhere without any dramas involved or paying extra licensing. And so that's sort of where pure energy has come from and where we are going now.

Will:  05:33

Cool. So for the listeners, because we have people listening for those listening to the show from around the world. The tricky thing to note is that music laws are different in every jurisdiction. So in the States, I think they differ from state to state. Here in the UK, basically, you have performance licensing, and mechanical licensing. But effectively what that means for a GX instructor is the music that you're allowed to use for teaching live classes and teaching live stream classes and recording yourself teaching and then pushing that out on any digital platform all differs, and we're moving to a place where it's become more and more difficult to use original artists music, and it's now become even more difficult to use cover music of original songs. And so that's a situation that with SH1FT Fitness we find ourselves in because we use multiple partner platforms to put our digital content out all over the world. And we also allow our instructors to teach in person live stream and to pre-record themselves using music. And we partner with pure energy to do that, because we know that we can partner with you guys and then there are no struggles for our instructors in any platform. So there's no risk of being shut down on Facebook or being muted on YouTube. Our instructors can use your music and play it anywhere. So some people will be listening to this going, I use Spotify to teach my classes. And in the UK, that is definitely not allowed. So I'm not going to give any advice on what you as a listener should be doing other than to check it and to know that if you use pure energy, you don't have any stresses or any worries at all. So tell me a little bit about what happened during the pandemic and and how you pivoted towards the position you're in now, which is having an app and having a stable of DJs that produce content specifically for instructors to use anywhere and everywhere.

Sam  07:21

So yeah, during the pandemic, obviously, everything, everything went a little bit strange. And people have to adapt quite quickly to the ever changing, ever changing face of the world really. Now pure energy comes from a is under the umbrella of a company called Music Factory. Now Music Factory has many different arms to it. And one of those arms is it's a dance music brand called tidy. Tidy tracks has been around it...

Will:  07:49

Said with that accent.

Sam  07:50

You've got to say it with the accent otherwise...So, so basically the we've got, we've been around tidy has been around for 27 years, we're an array of award winning dance music producers, some of the biggest dance music producers in the world. And obviously, during the pandemic, many of these dance music producers were left twiddling their thumbs somewhat. Now Andy Pickles, who is the CEO of Music Factory, yeah, very good man and very forward thinking, he's got one foot in both camps in terms of Pure Energy and Tidy. Now, from the pure energy point of view, obviously all the all the instructors move their businesses online because obviously face to face and classes were prohibited. However, there were coming up against copyright issues. Like you've just mentioned, a lot of the major labels do not allow their music to be played or streamed via social media due to copyright and licensing issues. So there had to be a solution. And Andy very cleverly put the two things that he was involved with, together there being the pure energy had a problem and Tiday had a  solution that we had all these great dance music producers who could make the music to be played and not just, you know, it wasn't just any old music these guys you know, the producers that we work with aren't from pure energy are legitimate dance music producers. You know, they work with the biggest dance music artists across the world. They've had some of the biggest or they've been responsible for some of the biggest dance music records ever released. And that's not me just saying that you know we've got it's factually backed up so yeah, we kind of started making the turning our turn into dance music talents towards pure energy and creating the the license free music or the rights free music to for the dance for the fitness instructors and it's all just kind of snowballs. Yeah, it's just gonna obviously the the music was very well received. And, and yeah, it's just kind of grown from strength to strength as from that really. So it's weird how the the pandemic set a lot of things in process So and you know, we obviously benefited from it in a sense. It presented an opportunity. And we took it really so yeah.

Will:  10:08

So that's the interesting thing, right, because I guess a lot of instructors and I have a lot of Instructors have told me this person, they get really frustrated when their music will get muted on a social media platform. But I think because of the way we've consumed music, and the way that you know, I think my generation in particular, when Napster came around, and people were sharing music, you forgot that this music is created by an artist who has poured their creative talent, heart and soul into creating something that has value. And that the reason that gets blocked is not because a mean Corporation is doing it, although that's part of it. It definitely does play a little bit of a role. But at the end of the day, there is rights associated with that piece of art that you if you're using it in a class, you're using someone else's talent and creativity, and there has to be some way of compensating for that. And what you guys do, which is great is that you are creating music with the people that own the rights. And then you're making sure that all of that rights situation is cleared so that instructors by using pure energy, music, can be safe in teaching online, any venue that they want. But also the artists, the person creating that, the person pouring their heart and soul into it, like we pour our heart and soul into teaching is getting compensated properly. And the difference with you guys, and that's one of the reasons why obviously we've partnered together is that historically, before the pandemic, rights free music was seen as a real downgrade from using original. So you have the original, then you have the non original artist cover. And that already felt like a downgrade. And then you had you know, 10 years ago, the music that you could use online, and it was let's just say it was bad. And the reason it was bad is because nobody was focusing on it. But during the pandemic, you guys had real DJs, real producers use it that work with real artists that play in Ibiza that are on the club circuit moving into producing fitness. And so what you guys are producing is of a completely different level and experience to what it was before. Can you talk a little bit about what you look for when you are getting a DJ who is producing work in the music space and coming into fitness. What are the differences that they need to think about when they go about creating fitness specific music?

Nikkie  12:21

There's there's quite a lot really. Am I okay to jump in?

Will:  12:26

Lean in. Use your presenter voice.

Nikkie  12:28

There's quite a lot of love, care, and attention that goes into not just the mix, but every single track every track has to be right because I'm just going to go back to what you've just said about when people thought what license free music was, you have a perception that it's like lift music...And like Sam said, we've got the number one house dance music DJs on the label helping us put this together. It doesn't get any better than that. Two Tidy boys who pretty much built this business up in Ibiza right now show...

Will:  13:09

At closing parties as we as we are filming this in the first half of August. Sorry, October.

Nikkie  13:15

Exactly I mean, it doesn't get any better than that we...

Will:  13:19

Do you guys not get sent out there? Is that not like a work perk?

Nikkie  13:21

And so yeah, when when we have people like that it's very, it's, it's, it's, it's nice, it's easy it, they love what they do, then all we have to do is feed into them, right? This is going to be used for a certain type of discipline, please, can you make sure there's not too many dips in the music because we need the energy to build in the right places. Right, the energy isn't lost in the music and the intensity of the workout can can continue. So if you're doing a group cycle type class or a HIIT type class, we don't want what happens standardly in records that you hear on the radio, a song pretty much builds up, it gets to a level it goes back down again, back up to a peak and then it'll stay there and then there's the finish. In fitness, we don't want our music to do that because it will lower the intensity of workout as the track is running. So we have to be very careful that the beat is right, the music is in the right key, and it builds to...and some tracks it can go up and down if we're talking like mind body, which is our biggest selling type of music.

Will:  14:41

Yeah, that's interesting. We obviously use it for our mind program but I've seen your catalog and I was looking at your top 10 albums which is a very very helpful tab and the new in the new app. And I was seeing that mind body and the Ibiza classics, sort of the chill Ibiza classics used for stretch and pilates and and so forth, was the most popular.

Nikkie  15:00

And another good thing about like, talking about my buddy is, we started, like you say, people have an idea of what new music licensing will be. When we started was epic at the time. It's unbelievable now because we've grown and we found new ways to put more into the music, so it really doesn't get any better than where we are at the minute. And we're just going from strength to strength, find the new ways to find vocals different, more percussion, so it really does get more authentic as we progress and grow.

Will:  15:39

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I can I can speak from experience having been to Ibiza, just a few times. That like the mind body albums often sound like you have just stepped into Pasha, or you're at Blue Marlin on a summer's day like it they are 100% authentic in terms of the sound. So okay, you guys are working with DJs who are making this music and producing it. Sam, do you want to talk a little bit about like, what, what, what goes into the process of actually making the music and, and you can kind of go as deep or shallow as you want. But speaking in your DJ hat now, rather than your hat as a producer for pure energy go?

Sam  16:15

Okay. I mean, what goes into making the music? I mean, first and foremost, it's, it's inspiration. Why are we making the music what we're making the music for. From a pure energy point of view, we take on board a lot of feedback from the presenters. First and foremost, because we're making music for a purpose. We're not just doing, you know, it's sometimes nice to get in the studio and just creatively go off on a tangent, but we have to remember that we're actually, you know, creating this music for for purpose. So we take on that feedback, we feed back on what other producers have been doing. So you know, we're all we're constantly in communication with everybody really liked that. Yeah, that drum and bass album that they did, I think that that would sound good done in this style, or I really liked the the house music album that rocked his areas, just don't imagine if we could get one of the other producers doing something on that style. That's really good feedback with these presenters. So it really is just you know, accumulation of feedback that we take on bar before getting in the studio. We also obviously looked at sales, you know, what's selling well, what's down? You know, right, okay, the mind body stuff very, very popular. Okay, we need to make more of that. Obviously, there's a knack to the mind body stuff of keeping it fresh, and not just bashing out a load of nonsense, forgettable, you know? Because the thing is, with the mind body stuff, it's very, very easy to go down a track of just putting some cards and some pads and some chimes.

Will:  17:39

Yeah, I was about to say that right? Like, do you think that the Mind Body Music is your most popular, because it's the least kind of noticed by the people that are teaching it and doing it? Or do you think it's the quality of it that drives it? Or is it a mixture of both, because if I think about our M1ND, like I'm, I'm comfortable with that kind of being a more consistent sound. Whereas with a different type of class, for example, a R1DE, like a cycle class or a spin class, you kind of want each song to be very different, right to give yourself a bit of a peak and flow through the class.

Nikkie  18:10

I would say each one has its own identity. So it goes more on the instructors personality, and also teaching on that day. So if you are to just you only teach Pilates, you've got so much variety for who you're teaching. So you might have maybe like students, young ones, some more house type beat, you might have people of a certain generation who would like about my age, you might want to be a bit more vocal something. And then you've got like your dreamy stuff, which is really nice for meditation and mindfulness. So each album, it has identity and that goes with the instructors personality and the crowd that they're teaching on that day. You can move it about to soothe all different crowds.

Sam  18:59

I think as well that that our experiences running record labels comes into play because for each album, like Nikkie says, and you pointed out well, that we we do have it has it has its own identity and it would be very easy for us to go mind body volume 23, a lot of people will do that because it's easy to do, whereas, we come back from from using our A&R experience as the representative where we planning things and go right, well, the last release was this theme, let's try and mix things up and creatively come up with a different thing like the mind body beats, you know, series that we do and the trip around the world where we've gone to you know, the Mediterranean, you know where they...

Will:  19:41

Yeah, y ou did a full global circuit, but we're all locked in our houses. Ironically.

Sam  19:48

So, you know, is it is a matter of just keeping things fresh and you know, always looking to do something different and of course, if there is a popular series such as Ibiza, we will do like to revisit that, because who doesn't like Ibiza?

Will:  20:01

Correct. I 100% agree. I think we've I think we've established that. And so I wanted to ask as you're building your catalogue, do you? Do you ask DJs to create, I think you've already sort of mentioned this, but do you ask DJs to create a specific sound or type of music? Or do they bring their music to you? Or is it a mixture of both?

Sam  20:23

So basically, because of the array of producers that we work with, each producer has their strong point and one kind of style. So when we're commissioning the music, we know who to approach who's going to be able to nail that style out...

Will:  20:37

I was about to say Paul Chambers, they're our standards first for SH1FT Fitness.

Sam  20:45

Exactly like you know, you know, if you want a good 130 BPM house track, Ben is the man. If you want a really good chill out track, or you know something a bit more ambient, Paul Chambers is the man. Ya know, he's the certain producers who play well to certain styles. If we know how to approach them, we're always on the lookout for new producers as well. I mean, you know, from from the from the tardy point of view. And the other record labels that were involved with, we do get sent a lot a lot of demos, and we've worked with producers all around the

Will:  21:11

world, actually, can we hold on that for a moment? I'm really curious. So how does if someone is listening to this, I suspect that the people listening to this maybe aren't sitting in their rooms producing music, but maybe they know somebody that is. How does someone go into, like getting signed by a record label and eventually creating fitness music? Like if they've got a creative output? And I guess it's all done on a computer? And if someone's been honing that talent, how would they go about getting onto a label that could then be pushing it out on something like pure energy go?

Sam  21:38

Well, for pure energy go, certainly, we're always interested in listening to your demos, and you can reach us via the pure energy, social media, it's always a good place to start. The thing is, with record labels, this is just a generalization of all record labels that get sent a lot of music and their albums, you know, it's a very, very fast paced environment. So it can be easy for you as a producer, to to struggle to get your foot in the door. Yeah, biggest bit of advice for anybody who is trying to break out the bedroom and get the music signed, released, or get a little bit noticed is be consistent. And don't let up. You know, there's an art to be not annoying, but at the same time being persistant to the point of right, listen to my music, listen to my music. Take on board, any feedback that you get, the first demo you send over might not be right. But if you listen to what the person who's listened to the demo is telling you and say, well, we don't think it's quite right. But if you change that and change this, it might work. Always take that on board, you know, ditch the ego and listen to what people are telling you on that front. But certainly from our point of view, if you are a producer and you are making music that you think might fit the pure energy catalog, then we are all ears, please feel free to get in touch with us. You can drop us a DM on social media. 

Will:  22:47

Yeah, well, we'll put all the all the links in the show notes. So if anybody's listening to this, and they are either making stuff themselves or know somebody that is there, maybe they can check it out and get in touch. Okay, that's so that brings me to my next question, which is how much back and forward? Is there when you're creating a track that have will eventually go into an album? Like, do you get the music through and then go right, we need to have much more of a lift there, we need some vocals here? How often do you get the right thing first time and how often is there like significant back and forth,

23:15

It sometimes can feel right and then when we get more tracks and we eventually get to the mix, we'll find that one needs to be redressed. Sometimes it just happens and it's special. And it's just right there that you hit the nail on the head as they say. But sometimes that is a lot of backwards and forwards. Especially if we get somebody working on a new idea that we might have. Like, say, for instance, we have an idea about the next mindbody beats, we want it to be at a certain intensity, we may might want the intensity to go up and down or we might want it to constantly lift. And as the tracks come in, sometimes we have to ask the producer, can you just take that key up a little bit more on the next track? 

Will:  23:57

When you say key, your meaning the like, can you describe what key is for me? I'm really curious to know exactly what it is because I've got an idea of what it is my brain but I'm curious to know if it's right.

24:07

Key is literally the what what key the music is in so think of the keyboard, you know, from C, from middle C, up to D, up to E F G, you know, they're being seen, there's basically the, the tone of which the music is presented. Keys have certain feels to them, like, you know, A is quite uplifting. Whereas if you, you know, go down into your Ds and your Gs, it's good for low end like this. You can then elaborate on that with card structure. So a card is when you know three or more keys are put together to create a different type of mood. So I'm not particularly musically trained. So...

Will:  24:44

That's okay, we're talking about fitness music here. We're not talking about using music music. This isn't the conservatory.

Sam  24:52

The key is the tone of the track basically, the pitch of which the track is presented in and each different key as a different slightly different feel to it.

Will:  25:00

Sorry, Nikki started jumping Go ahead.

Nikkie  25:02

So you could be listening to a house track. Yeah, the key will change you not make feel like that energy has gone like, down. Whereas, you know, from exercise point of view as the mix goes on, I don't want the key to go down there, flatline or do a gentle rise, so that you feel it growing with you.

Will:  25:21

Yeah, and I'm a sucker for like an octave change. Like, I don't need me this way. Rolling octave change going into going into like a key for the final...that like nothing better than having that the end of the track and any type of Group Fitness class. 

Sam  25:34

Exactly, exactly. So yeah.

Will:  25:37

Okay, so we've talked about kind of how the how the tracks are made, and the process for going backwards and forth. You've already talked about what the most popular genres are. I'm really curious to know, what are the biggest, what are the biggest challenges that you face when it comes to creating the end product? Like what are the what are the stickiest parts of the process?

Nikkie  25:57

It's the, for me, it's the technical side of things. So once the music has been, we call a QC making sure that it's okay, the levels, it's then getting uploaded and put into the right section because I built the app. So then I have to put it in app, target in the right places.

Will:  26:17

Yeah. I mean, as someone who runs an app, I have to say, I feel so sorry for you. Because it is a it is a tricky, tricky job. It's like you use an app and you're like, wow, this app is great. It works so nicely. And it's like, oh, God, but there's so many sleepless nights that have gone into getting it right.

Nikkie  26:32

Exactly. But also, that's the hardest thing, because I want to make sure that the instructor finds the mix that they're looking for in the easiest way possible so they're not, where is it? I can't find it and the class is in five minutes. Yeah, I've put it in this place. So you can find it most easily. For me, at the minute, that's the hardest part of the job. But it's so satisfying when people go, oh, my god, I just found this, and they'll discover music, that the say for instance, they love Rob Tissera, but then all of a sudden, like what else can I listen to, and they find a new album. And they're like, oh my life. Well, at the minute, the hardest part is putting the music in the right place for the instructor to make it easier for them, I would say.

Will:  27:27

Sam, you have to choose something different.

Sam  27:30

I agree with Nikki on that. It's, it can be frustrating sometimes getting the music out there, and you want everybody to hear it. But obviously everybody doesn't listen to it, because of the way that music is categorized these days, you have to you know, everything has to have been individually filed into a certain genre or style. You know, it's not just a case of people can be heard music. So recommending it, it can be tricky sometimes with some of the producers. You know, we have to remember sometimes that these guys are coming back coming from a creative, they can do what they want background. And then when we're having to tell them to do something to very...

Will:  28:06

We'd like you to remove the bridge, the bridge is the most important part.

Sam  28:11

There's a couple of producers we work with and we keep telling them about the same things and every track...And they're like it will sound rubbish and we're like,  no, no, you're not getting the point here, mate. But yeah, I mean, that on the whole, the producers are brilliant to work with and do get the plot very, very quickly. But yeah, I mean, the, the process to begin with, of at least like anything, the more you work on it, the easier it becomes and the more you get to know certain people the easier it becomes. Yeah, it's, it's like you grow together and some of the producers that we work with have, you know, the passion that they've got into creating this music, I mean, you know, use Rob Tissera as an instance. Absolute legend of dance music, you know, he's been around the world five times, and back again, you know, made some of the biggest dance music records. He's one of the busiest DJs in the UK at the moment. And he comes into the office and the passion that he presents that music with is second to none, you know, is as passionate about this as anything else I've seen with him. And I've worked with Rob for you know, 15 years plus now. And I you know, the fact that he actually plays the pure energy music or the music he's producing.

Will:  29:16

I was gonna ask this so like when he's when he's actually playing a set, you'll get the occasional there will be something that was featured in L1FT fitness...will be played on the dance floor.

Sam  29:24

Yeah, it's Sunday. He sent me photos of him doing one in Ibiza, pumping some of the stuff from his 90s house party and everyone's just going mental. 

Will:  29:34

This is a really interesting thing, because I have a lot of instructors who we talked a little bit before about how instructors get upset about the licensing, the licensing restrictions that they face when they're teaching. And I have through the process of using pure energy music and like getting under the skin of that and as you guys grow your catalogue. While I appreciate that there's something that's nice about teaching a group fitness class that has a song that's been on the radio, like I completely get that. I think that there is just I think instructors still have a little bit of a little bit of a mental block when it comes to thinking that original music is of a better quality. And it's just factually not right. Like the music that you guys are putting out as being created by the people that create the mixes that go on the radio. It's just that they are not using the like Britney and Rihanna artists. But in terms of the actual quality, it's exactly the same, if not sometimes better, because it's being created for a fitness purpose. What do you what do you guys say to an instructor who goes only like originals are only like covers? Like, what's what's your argument against it, I've obviously just put mine forward. What do you guys say to that?

Sam  30:43

I'd like to be, you know, this is me speaking to the instructors who are listening and change your mind as a DJ and me as a DJ. Nothing pleases me more than presenting a new music to a roomful of people, and then seeing them embrace that music that I've presented to them. And, and really like getting on board with it, it's a really nice feeling to be able to educate and, you know, you know, present to somebody something that they've not heard before, it's, you know, it's a different element to what you what you might have done in the past, but you know, somebody who's who's you know, commanded and instruct in that room full of people, there is no better feeling than doing that. And it also gives you helps give you a bit of individuality to the classes because, again, you're not just falling down the class 101 We've got this tip on our we've got the Spotify playlist that everybody else is going to be listening to, it helps give you a little bit more of a unique angle and a USP to what you're doing by having this this amazing music that you can can present to.

Nikkie  31:42

I am a fitness presenter...

Will:  31:45

Yeah, we didn't talk about this actually, Nikkie, give us a little bit of background so you don't just work for pure energy. You're also a fitness presenter that's done done a lot of stuff and obviously have used original original music let's let's get your impression. So we've had, we've had the DJ. Now let's have the fitness presenter.

Nikkie  31:59

I've been a fitness presenter now for 24 years and I've traveled globally teaching routines in my programs like I've worked with Nike women in Europe and played music. Music is very, very important for what I do. Because I'm a choreographer, I'm a dancer. I love what I do. So the music has to be right. Last year at the International fitness showcase in Blackpool, I teach house dance. House music is very important to me. I brought house dance to the UK I was the first one to teach you here in the UK, and then put an education behind it. This year, IFS, I used this man's tech house album. I didn't tell the room what I was playing. I just said the DJ is in the room because Sam was there at the time supporting the event because pure energy were there as a sponsor. And it made everyone very aware that the DJ was in the room of the music that I was playing. I didn't tell him it was pure energy go. I didn't say it was license free. I didn't say anything about it. And the room erupted. It was the most special class I've ever taught at IFS. And at the end, I told them all what I was playing, and they were like, it's that good? Yeah. They thought they were listening to original artists. To be honest, I would rather call it original artists because it doesn't get any more original.

Will:  33:22

Right? Yeah, I was about when you said original artist, I was like, oh but it is!

Sam  33:25

Yeah, that's a good point actually, very good point.

Nikkie  33:29

This is an original person who makes music that I danced to, and it doesn't get any more authentic than that. So anyone that has a question about the music, send them my way, cuz...

Will:  33:43

To be fair, we like we get we get a lot of a lot of compliments about the music. I think as I said at the start, like I really do think it's a mental block from instructors that have been delivering a certain thing. And they think that their, they have they've experienced cover music in the past. And when it wasn't of the quality, how do I say this because we need to get away from the cover original thing, right? It's hard to get like the vernacular is probably a challenge as well. So they have they have used restricted artist music in the past. And they have an idea of what the what the rights included music sounds like. And that idea is completely wrong. That idea is old. It's historic, it's archaic. It doesn't actually fit with the type of fitness music that you can access through lots of companies most especially pure energy that we're talking to right now. So they have this idea of what it is and they're closed off to they having any other idea about it. And if you've been an instructor for a long time and I'm talking I know I'm talking to a lot of our listeners, if you have that mental block, you really need to challenge that because you always need to challenge anything that's a mental block and have a listen a real listen to this music because as Nikkie just said, the classes don't know the difference and they really will enjoy it and you instructor who is not using or not open into this music, I am asking you right now give it a go. Because I think you have an idea about what it is. And you have an idea about what your classes want. And that idea, I think, is at least half wrong, if not all wrong. Not saying that original music is not something that you want to use for certain classes, but it's certainly not better than the music that you can get. And that you can use in any platform on any type of media, which is so, so, so important for instructors in this day and age. That's me, I'll get off my soapbox now. So I wanted to give you guys the opportunity, if you could tell instructors one thing about what you do, and maybe we just covered it, actually what would be that thing.

Nikkie  35:40

We just try and give you the best music for your classes, and also come up with fresh ways of looking at it so you're not always listening. Like I know, we've already said it, but we're trying to come up with new ideas have to present the music, like at the minute, I'm working really hard on not having one producer on every album, I want several on the one. So it feels like the music does, it's not all one flavor. So that's mine, my main priority at the minute giving it a fresh injection of life to the catalog and showing it to you, the fitness instructor in a completely different way so that you never get bored, and you've always got something fresh, that we think and of trying to make the best of the music for the instructor to using it.

Sam  36:24

Yeah, I think I think just to mirror what Nikki said, I mean that the pure passion and effort that we put into this, and you you said it at the beginning of this podcast, Will. It's art, it's creating creative work that we're presenting to you. And I think that music, a lot of the time has been undervalued by by by the fitness industry, but at the same time, it's essential. You know, without music, there is the you know, you don't have a class, really. So it's it's appreciating the art of what we're doing. And the fact that we are putting as much effort into this as what we will do for you know, for commercially released records.

Will:  36:57

And that it's the same people doing doing the doing the work. It's a little bit, it's a situation where you have like the Louis Vuitton bag, and that everyone has the value, and then you have the bag that was made by the same people in the same factory, but doesn't have the label on it, it doesn't mean that it's not of the same quality, all it means is that you can access it for a much cheaper price. Not that I'm encouraging that. Maybe a poor example, given the context that we're talking about, but you get what I'm saying.

Nikkie  37:22

Yeah, well, also, just to touch base on what what we're doing to make it better is how much work we put into the pure energy go app. It's a tool for the instructor and it's growing, it's getting better. We're working on bringing a desktop form out so that the people who do teach on Zoom and use the music through the phones. But this is constantly like we're getting down with the technology trying to bring the instructors down because we do CDs anymore. But we're trying to make technical solutions like the app, where you can change, you can find the music in the right place. And then you know that that's been such a big mountain that we're overcoming. And it's getting better. Yeah, there's a few like technical things that get in our way every now and again. But we're learning with the developers to make it right for the fitness instructor. So the app is our new big mountain that we're climbing and we're trying to make it as best as we can for the instructors, right beat, right tunes.

Will:  38:27

And so like so instructors know, if you haven't checked out the app, we will put a link to it in the show notes, so that you guys can try it out. Because I think that if you're a fitness instructor, you should check it out. It is essentially a Spotify and Apple Music for fitness where every pure energy go, every single track is able to be taught in person, it's able to be taught live stream, and it's able to be pre recorded. And that's a difference from some of the other fitness music providers who do a great job as well. But those original, those famous artist vocals that you get covers of, they can't be used everywhere, because there's a whole other layer of rights. And so this is the only solution. And we searched long and hard for a partner because we knew our users and pure energy go was such a great partner because there's just no restrictions. And as you will have heard if you're listening to this podcast, I think if you're a fitness instructor, when you do some work, you need that work to be able to be played out in as many venues and places as possible. So if you're using music that doesn't allow you to record that workout to put it on a digital library, you're missing a trick. And this is something that can help you.

Sam  39:33

Yeah, 100%

Nikkie  39:34

Thank you, Will.

Will:  39:37

I haven't got this written down, by the way. So I think that kind of brings us to the end. I really appreciated the opportunity to to get a little bit behind the music that we use extra fitness and also the solution that you guys provide to instructors. Any final comments, any things you didn't get to say that you'd like to say to the instructors that are listening to this?

Nikkie  39:58

I just want to say thank you to you for bringing us on the podcast and elaborating on what we do and showing and giving us the time to explain everything because some people can have a perception sometimes that it's easy. It's not easy. Or like, can you just do this, and I'll have it tomorrow. It doesn't work that way. We work very hard behind the scenes to get things right. And I just want to say thank you to you for allowing us this time to explain who we are and what we do. So thank you.

Sam  40:29

Thank you, man. Much appreciated.

Will:  40:30

My pleasure. Well, thank you for coming on the pod. As I said, we will put links to you guys' social media and also to pure energy. And as a final comment, I would just say, check it out. Because if you've if you have listened to it, then you'll know what we're talking about. And if you haven't listened to it, then you are in for a pleasant and happy surprise. Thank you. Thank you for listening. If you're enjoying the show, don't forget to subscribe for all the latest episodes wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're there, please drop us a review. You can also get in touch with me at will@sh1ftfitness.com. I'm Will Brereton and you've been listening to Group Fitness Real Talk.