Workout Music

The use of music to enhance athletic performance dates to ancient Greek Olympic Games, where flute music accompanied competitors in the stadium. Modern exercise-music research began in the 1990s with Dr. Costas Karageorghis at Brunel University, whose studies suggest music can reduce perceived exertion and help performance.

The aerobics boom of the 1980s with Jane Fonda workout videos (1982) created mass demand for high-tempo workout music, spawning entire workout mix album categories. By 2015, Spotify's running playlists included BPM-matched recommendations, and by 2020 workout music became one of the top-streamed categories globally during the COVID-19 fitness-at-home surge that increased home workout streams by over 300%.

Workout music transformed the fitness industry, influencing gym environment design, the development of BPM-matching algorithms in streaming apps, and the creation of entire music genres — eurodance, power metal, drum and bass — associated primarily with athletic activity. Companies like Peloton built billion-dollar businesses where music licensing is a core product feature, demonstrating how workout music became an industry in its own right.