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Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

Now if they would only ban music. Nearly every person in a gym now has a smart phone and wearing earbuds. And for some reason gyms insist on blaring some god-awful awful generic "workout music." The net result being that customers have to compete with the gym's music in order to hear their own preferred music.

I tried to explain this to a manager at a gym last summer and he just stared at me blankly. It did not compute.

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I'm an avid gym-goer and I like the music on in the background. I don't wear earbuds because I value "awareness". I like being able to hear other happenings around me without them being blocked out. Same idea for public transportation. Anyways, the employees at my gym just play Spotify Premium and are friendly enough to take requests. Maybe you can ask your gym to play some music you like?

>Anyways, the employees at my gym just play Spotify Premium and are friendly enough to take requests.

Not a Spotify user so I don't know what I'm talking about, but it sounds like this might be a feature they could implement...some sort of "Jukebox mode," whereby anyone w/the Spotify app could make requests for the local area, given the right password (put on a whiteboard or something, the way we do for wifi).

There are public playlists that anyone can edit, which are cool if the people using them generally like the same sort of music. They might not work as well if the people have widely varying tastes.

I agree, I think there is a need for one of the big music streaming services to create a geo-fenced (or Wifi-fenced?) jukebox system. Can be used for bars, gyms, house parties, etc. Similar to Chromecast, but with filters to make sure the public doesn't troll the system. Such as:

a) Having a pre-made list of songs that users can select from. Something like a list of 1,000s of Top 40s going back a few decades, or a selection of the top 10 hits from a list of grammy-winning artists, being able to split the songs into genres and select certain genres, etc. The idea is to not allow users to submit songs that fits the atmosphere of the venue (e.g. prevent ambient music in a gym, only allow country in a southern bar, etc)

b) Preventing the same song playing within the same hour, and possibly preventing the same artist from playing ~3x in a row

c) Preventing users from submitting songs consecutively, such as 1 submission per every 30 minutes d) Monetize by allowing small fees to push your jukebox songs to the top of the queue ($0.99?)

AMI Music

>"Anyways, the employees at my gym just play Spotify Premium and are friendly enough to take requests. Maybe you can ask your gym to play some music you like?"

Does this strike you as a viable solution? Everyone goes to the front desk and requests that the gym play music to suit their personal taste? How does that work out for the rest of the people in the gym that have different musical tastes?

Also wearing earbuds doesn't mean someone doesn't value "awareness." I can listen to my music and not compromise my visual awareness in the least.

99% don't care, so the one person who does doing so is viable, yes.

>"99% don't care"

Do you have some data supporting this statistic?

Just an exercise I suggest you approach the staff at your local gym and ask them to play personal DJ for you. I'm fairly confident what the outcome of that interaction will be.

I meant 99% of patrons aren't bothered by the music, if you were taking that differently. In that person's situation, apparently yes, they changed the music for him.

A jukebox app for a phone could be an interesting thing for a gym. Maybe only on certain days/times.

iTunes used to have this. You could vote from your phone for a song playing on a PC. It was pretty neat when DJing for kids parties.

You would need to pay Muzak or SiriusXM or another vetted provider of public music. Businesses (bars, hair salons, gyms, etc) cannot simply play Spotify or Pandora in their business, unless they plan on getting sued by BMI and/or ASCAP.

Muzak and SiriusXM have ready-made solutions for exactly what these sorts of businesses are looking for.

AMI Music?

I didn't say that people who wear earbuds don't value awareness. I was just describing my particular preferences. Also, yes it is a viable solution. I've seen it work at a handful of gyms. Those who don't like it wear earbuds or leave the gym.

There are many open air headphones that allow the sound through. But you can’t use them in gyms if you want to hear your own music because of what they are blasting.

My gym, the Sports Centre of Montréal's Olympic Stadium, very much has no music and has signs saying that if you want music, bring your own device. Most of the cardio machines also have access to various forms of entertainment, including YouTube and local TV stations, so you can just hook up your earbuds to them.

I really love that gym.

Counterpoint: I've been to gyms when the music system broke, and the silence instantly makes it feel lonelier and more uninviting. This was late in the evening when there were few other patrons, so it might be ok during busier times.

Agreed. Playing some low-level white noise over the speaker system would drown out the grunting, panting, or conversations almost as well, and it wouldn't interfere with people's own music choices on their headphones.

That music is probably more for the employees nowadays.

My gym has TVs with sound muted, and subtitles enabled, and the music is heavy-metal. It works just fine for me, on those rare days when I forget to pack my headphones.

That would drive me crazy

It's probably because the sound of a hundred people grunting and panting in a silent room would be weird

What about using white noise?

That would open them up to hundreds of copyright infringement claims!!!

Even 4'33" of silence might!

Were I a member of staff, or even a frequent user who doesn't want his own music, I'd hate having to listen to white noise for extended periods.

They play white noise in my building at work and, your first week you really notice it but, once you get used to it being there you don't notice it all.

Except maybe when something happens and it turns off and then it's so loud that you wish it was on again.

It's a f...ing gym! If people can't deal with the sound from other people working out they can get earplugs or get a headset.

"can't deal with" seems like an unnecessarily personalized argument. Maybe they just like music better?

Ift's fine if they like music better but their need can easily be satisfied by wearing earphones. It's harder for people who don't want music to remove it.

if you listened to your arguments for the "other" people, you might consider getting ear plugs or noise-canceling headphones yourself.

Music at the gym should be opt-in, not opt-out.

There's still always going to be some "opt-out" sounds at the gym. I'd prefer it be any kind of music rather than "Hnnnggg, urrgghh" and clink-clanks.

Or just ban the grunters... sigh.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/no_grunting_allowed_at_the_...

Wow imagine getting publicly scolded and thrown out of a gym after having successfully benched 500 pounds. That’s surreal.

It's weird that a gym sounds like a gym? There's also strangers in funny clothes sweating next to yiou. This is what one expects at a gym.

There's a difference between what you expect, and what you like. It doesn't mean it can't be a little better. Having something playing in the background makes the other noises less weird. It also makes me less self-conscious when I make my own grunting noises.

You're telling me if they invented a machine that stopped anyone in a room from sweating or smelling, you wouldn't want your gym to have them?

>"Having something playing in the background makes the other noises less weird. It also makes me less self-conscious when I make my own grunting noises."

Which is presumably why the overwhelming majority of people in gyms are wearing earbuds and and enjoying their chosen music.

Okay, but unless I can get every single person to wear earbuds than it will still make me self-conscious to grunt in front of the ones that aren't. Also the gym staff. Etc.

If you have your own earbuds in, why does it matter if the gym is playing music?

Do you really believe that if I am working out next to you that I can't hear you grunting if the gym is playing music?

If you read the discussion you can see that the issue if you have to compete with the house sounds system which is much more powerful than your earbuds.

> Do you really believe that if I am working out next to you that I can't hear you grunting if the gym is playing music?

Not that you can't hear me. But that I'm not the only thing you hear.

It's a psychological thing. I'm no longer worrying that the only sounds for people near me to hear are my grunts. The music lets both of us tune it out. If you want to focus on me and listen, you can still do that, but it's weird.

> If you read the discussion you can see that the issue if you have to compete with the house sounds system which is much more powerful than your earbuds.

I've never been to a gym that I couldn't comfortably speak at a quiet level above the music, and wouldn't work out at one that does. This isn't actually a discussion about gym music, it's crappy gyms vs non-crappy gyms.

>"This isn't actually a discussion about gym music, it's crappy gyms vs non-crappy gyms."

It seems like its more a discussion about your own self-consciousness.

Correct. A crappy gym doesn't try to accommodate members needs like self consciousness or an overbearing music volume. A good gym does, among many other things.

I meant weird in the sense of unpleasant/unsettling, not unusual or surprising.

Plenty of ways to cancel that out from an owners' perspective.

Number one would be fans. Number two would be a noise-masking solution.

Music is a pretty widely-accepted noise masking solution, though.

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