The music matters, but perhaps not in the way instructors think

Music and indoor cycling performance: what the research shows

Music has always been central to indoor cycling. We use it to structure effort, create atmosphere, support changes of pace and, quite simply, make hard work more enjoyable. But a new study suggests that the music riders actually want to hear may matter more than we sometimes give it credit for.
Researchers asked 29 recreationally active adults to complete two hard cycling tests at around 80% of their peak power output. In one test they exercised without music. In the other, they listened to music they had selected themselves, within a tempo range of 120-140 bpm.
The difference was substantial; participants lasted an average of 35.61 minutes with their chosen music, compared with 29.80 minutes without it, an increase of around 20%.

They weren't suddenly fitter

This is perhaps the most interesting part. The music didn't appear to make exercise metabolically more efficient. Participants simply tolerated the hard effort for longer.
They spent longer working above their anaerobic threshold and consequently expended more total energy, but their energy expenditure per minute wasn't significantly different. At the point when they finally stopped, ratings of perceived exertion and other physiological responses were broadly similar between the two conditions.
In other words, the music seems to have changed how long participants were prepared or able to tolerate the effort, rather than giving them additional physiological capacity.
For an indoor cycling instructor, that's worth thinking about.

BPM isn't the whole story

Music selection in indoor cycling can become very mechanical. We look for a certain BPM for a particular drill. We consider whether the rhythm is easy to follow. We look for drops, choruses and changes in intensity that fit the profile we've planned - all of that is useful.
But a track can be technically perfect and still leave a room cold. The participants in this study weren't just given music at 120-140 bpm. They chose the music themselves. That is significant.
The research doesn't tell us that every rider will perform 20% better if we allow them to choose the playlist. Nor does it mean that an instructor should abandon the musical structure of a class. This was a small study of 29 recreationally active adults performing a specific time-to-exhaustion test, not an indoor cycling class. What it does give us is another reason to consider the psychological role of music alongside its mechanical one.

Do your riders actually like the music?

That's a harder question than 'does this track work for a climb?' An instructor may love a playlist because it's technically clever, beautifully mixed and perfectly matched to the session plan. The people on the bikes may experience it rather differently.
Musical preference is inevitably individual, and no group class can provide everybody's ideal soundtrack. Trying to please every musical taste would probably produce a terrible playlist. But we can pay attention.

• Which tracks visibly lift the room?
  
• When do riders start singing along?
  
• Which pieces of music seem to make a difficult effort feel more manageable?
  
• Which tracks consistently get a response, and which ones merely satisfy our programming requirements?
  

There's also a good argument for variety. If riders hear the same dependable tracks month after month, familiarity may eventually become staleness. Sometimes a remix, an unexpected older track or something completely new can provide the emotional response we're looking for without changing the underlying session at all.

Programme for the person, not just the bike

Good indoor cycling instruction has never been purely about prescribing cadence and resistance. We're coaching people through effort. Motivation, expectation, enjoyment and perception all matter alongside the physiological workload.
Music is one of the most powerful tools available to us for influencing that experience, and unlike many coaching interventions, it's present throughout almost the entire class. So when you're building your next playlist, it's worth asking two questions:

• Does this track fit the work?
  
• And will my riders actually respond to it?

The best choice may well be the one that does both.

Reference

Danso, A. et al. (2026). 'Feel the beat, not the burn: Effects of self-selected music in time-to-exhaustion cycling'. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 85, 103116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2026.103116