Should You Use Music In Your Yin Yoga Classes?

[00:00:00] Hi Yinnies welcome back. If you are new around here, welcome to a yin yoga podcast. I’m your host, Nyk Danu, I am a Yin yoga teacher, trainer, yoga therapist, and Yin Yoga fan. I’m obsessed with yin, which is why I started this podcast. And I also teach the general public. If you want more information about my therapeutic yin yoga teacher training program, I will leave a link in the show notes for you to click on The program is nervous system based trauma informed, a huge, , focus on making the poses accessible for a wide range of students and bodies.

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Okay. So let’s get to the topic at hand. , if you want some entertainment, go into any yoga, Facebook group, especially ones for teachers and type out the question, should you use music in your yoga classes and then watch the piranhas come? So here’s the thing. I don’t know why this is such a dogmatic opinion, but it tends to be people get really worked up about whether or not you should use music.

And of course, [00:03:00] because this is a yin podcast, I’m going to talk about this from a yin perspective, a yin yoga perspective, but I’m not going to tell you whether or not you should use music in your classes. Because that’s up for you to decide, but what I do want to talk about is why we might choose to use music, why we might not choose to use music, some things about music and the style and the type of music that you use that you may not have thought of.

And then also just very briefly, can you even legally use music in your classes? A lot of teachers don’t know this, but it’s not so easy to just throw on your Spotify list. You could actually be breaking the law. All right, let’s dive into some of that. Shall we? , first of all, I’m not going to tell you whether or not you should use music.

I have and have done both. I still do both, depending on where I’m teaching and what the intention is. But first, a story. So when I first started [00:04:00] teaching yoga, long before I even discovered yin yoga, my first teacher training program there was no music being used in classes, just not part of that tradition.

So it’s not like it came from a tradition where I was using music. And so I felt like I had to. But one of the first teaching gigs I had as a new budding teacher was in a sort of high end gym. And although the yoga classes were in a separate room that was like walled off with the door and you know it wasn’t glass so it was private and you know you could create a container of space.

Just outside of the door, however, was the main entryway of the gym. And so it wasn’t uncommon to hear doors opening and closing, oftentimes members not realizing there would be a class in would just stand right by the door and have a conversation. You could hear people talking to the receptionist and other staff.

 And then on the other door was the ladies only workout area. Where, you would hear like machines and conversations, you get the idea, it was not the quietest environment. [00:05:00] And so as a way to sort of create a container or space. Or like a bubble 

for those yoga classes, I put music on as a way to let people know when they’ve arrived that they’re in , this new space, this new intention, it creates a container for the space. Other things also can create the container for space, lighting, your presence, et cetera. But that’s a podcast episode for a different time.

But today we’ll stick to just music. So when they came in and they can hear the yoga music, it already started to create this intention of, ah, yes, here we are. We’re here to practice. And it also gives somebody who’s audio distracted like myself, I’m very audio distracted, an opportunity to have, uh, an audio stimuli that isn’t the noises outside of the room that are kind of constantly in flux.

Right. So that’s why I started. Using music in that space, [00:06:00] and then I just kept using music in my classes, even when I taught in other locations. I also ended up teaching in another gym that had a private, private room again, just for the classes. And so same thing though, , it was a gym. It wasn’t that room was much quieter, but still you were bound to hear some outside of the room chatter and noise.

So again, I use the music to create a container for the space. And then several years later, I moved that class as a gym closed into a church. And in this church, I was in a room called the theater, where they had on the stage, they had this little acoustic dome. And so whatever was happening on the stage was amplified throughout the space.

And despite that, I was still able to use music in that space. If I put it just outside of that dome so that the music would be gently in the [00:07:00] background, but my voice was amplified by the acoustic dome. And so it worked well there as well. And so I had just gotten in the habit of using music. I wasn’t really attached to it.

Although my students might have been at that point, but it was just, Habit I taught in non traditional spaces I didn’t teach in studios. And so there wasn’t kind of this studio culture where everybody knows if there’s class on you talk quieter etc in these spaces and so the music helped to create that container.

Of the class and then fast forward many years later to the city that I live in now and one of the churches that I teach in again in the room that we’re in again, acoustic dome. However, there’s two sort of separate acoustic areas. There’s one, which is where the sort of the minister would be preaching.

And that one really amplifies the voice almost in an echoey way. And then just ahead of that, or a little closer [00:08:00] to where the students are, there’s a secondary kind of dome where, again, the voice is amplified. And there’s a bit of a resonance that happens there, not as strong as the first place.

But what I noticed there, and that building itself is actually quite quiet. Something incredibly disruptive would have to be happening outside of that building in order to hear it. , it’s very quiet. And what I was noticing in that space is that when I had the music going.

With those acoustic domes and my voice that it was actually making it harder for my students to focus in class because there was this reverb or this resonance of my voice and of the music. And so I stopped using music in that location. And currently at the time of this recording, I teach in one yoga studio and their niche or their specialty, their kind of their jam is sound healing.

And so they have all kinds of gongs and [00:09:00] bowls and this and that, and all these beautiful instruments. Now I don’t do that kind of sound healing at this point at this time of recording, because I don’t have training in that, although I do hope to take some bells and some gong training it’s on the list.

So I can’t offer that kind of sound healing in my classes. So I do use music and I’m very intentional, but what music I choose to bring in that element of sound healing. And I also use my voice as well because I was a singer for years and so chanting is sort of my instrument. So in that practice, in that room, I do use music because that’s their jam, that studio, sound healing.

So my point of kind of breaking all of this down for you was to demonstrate that you can actually be, shocking but true, flexible as to whether or not you use music. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be [00:10:00] yes or no. It does not have to be black or white, pun intended. So if you’re just, if you’re saying, do I need to use music in my Yin class?

It depends. Do I want to use music in my Yin class? It depends. So I’m not going to tell you whether or not you should use music. I will say that in my opinion, and again, these are my opinions. I wouldn’t use it in your final stillness practice, whether that’s Shavasana or meditation. I would, the music off at that point.

And that’s something that I feel fairly strongly about that that part of the class be just quiet. So that , I will say is my opinion, again, my opinion, take it for what it’s worth. And the rest of what we’ll talk about here is some things to consider when you’re using music. Why are you using the music?

And also a little bit of legal stuff. So [00:11:00] when you’re a yoga teacher and you’re deciding whether or not to use music in your class, the first thing I would ask yourself is, why do you want to use music in your class? Is it just because all of the styles of yoga that you’ve done have used music and it just never occurred to you to not use music?

If so, you might want to explore that. So it’s never a good idea as a teacher to just automatically do something because that’s the way that it was when you were trained or how you’ve always done it or how you’ve always seen it, right? We don’t want to be sheep. So it’s always good to explore for yourself, to ask these questions for yourself.

To be curious, to be open, to use critical thinking. So if you’ve always used music in your class, or you’ve always been in classes with music, that might be just, you might just assume, of course, I’m going to use music, but have you ever questioned that? Have you ever investigated that? Have you ever tried?

Not using music. It does feel a little [00:12:00] weird at the beginning. It did for me, as I mentioned, all of the classes had been music and then there’s this one location where I didn’t use music and it did feel for me a little bit weird at the beginning, like something wasn’t quite right or something was missing.

But my students had a far better experience because in that location, my music was actually competing with my voice, with all of that reverb and all these acoustic domes. And so for them, it was actually a far better practice without music. That being said, , I used to teach at a studio that is sadly no longer around COVID casualty.

 And when I taught a restorative practice there, because I also love to teach restorative, I would put very light atmospheric music going on in the background. And one of my students told me that the reason that she preferred my restorative classes is because it had some music. Now [00:13:00] in a restorative practice, how I used to do the music is I would have it at a bit of a higher volume at the very beginning when everyone’s kind of filtering in and joining and getting their props and then slowly throughout that practice, I would turn the volume down, less and less and less and less and less.

Until kind of near the last few poses, there wouldn’t be music at all.

So that was how I handled that restorative practice. I do something similar with Yin. I start with kind of the music at a little bit of a higher volume as everyone’s settling in. And then I turn it down slightly because I do a bit of a guided centering, some mindfulness before we even start doing our shapes.

And then gradually throughout class, I turn the volume down to the point where by the time we are at the last pose or Shavasana, there’s no more music. So this is just how I handle this, but I definitely think that at least for [00:14:00] Shavasana, we should have quiet, whether that’s them lying in Shavasana or seated in meditation, that final stillness practice, let people have some silence.

Culturally, we are overly stimulated. Lights are bright, things are noisy, we move at a fast pace, and all of this kind of chaotic hecticness, whether it’s bright lights, smells, sounds, all the things, can really do a number on our nervous system. And so that might be one argument for why you may not want to use music in your yin classes.

You might want your yin classes to be this one time and place that your students actually get to experience quiet.

And again, this is just, you might want to. So the reason I’m bringing these things up is because I think a lot of teachers just automatically do what their teacher did or [00:15:00] automatically do what was in their teacher training or automatically do what they’ve always done without taking a step back to actually just be curious, to be open, to again, use your critical thinking.

And to let it be a case by case situation, as far as whether or not you’re going to use music. In my opinion, if too many of the students comment on my music after the class, I have failed because I don’t want the music in my class to be the focal point. I don’t want the music to be something that they rest their attention on so that they’re not able to drop into their body.

So yin yoga is a practice of interoception. And if you’re not familiar with that word, I’ll just briefly define it, but there’s, we’ve , another episode on that interoception is having an awareness of what is happening on the inside of you. And so if the music is either too uptempo[00:16:00] maybe it’s just too loud or it’s too uptempo, or if it’s got lyrics, I’ll talk more about that in a moment, then actually it can be pulling your students attention out of their body, out of their felt embodied experience and into the room, which sort of defeats the point of yin, because yin is an inside out practice.

We’re trying to encourage our students to drop inward, to notice what’s happening in their body. So, if the music isn’t chosen skillfully and wisely, it can end up being a distraction from that. So that’s something to consider as well, especially in a yin practice, because again, it is this sort of quieter form of yoga where we are trying to cultivate dropping in for our students.

So I know if I have failed with my music, if people comment on my music after class. Unless they’re a teacher, because as teachers, we always, when we’re at someone else’s classes, we’re always [00:17:00] analyzing all the things, the lights, the sound that, you know, so in that case, I’ll make that an exception.

Because I know I’ve been to plenty of classes where even though the music wasn’t necessarily a focal point, I noticed it because I’m a teacher. So if my students are constantly noticing the music, complimenting the music, or not liking the music, or talking about the music, then I don’t think I’ve done it well.

It’s either too loud, Or too uptempo, or there’s too many words. So let’s talk about some things that maybe we might want to consider when we’re choosing music for a yin class. If you have sat with it, you’ve analyzed the location, you’ve analyzed your intentions, and you’ve decided, Okay, yes, I do want to use music in my classes.

Again, nothing wrong with that. I do both. I let the situation determine what I do. I let the situation and the student’s needs determine what I do. Not a dogmatic blanket approach,[00:18:00] without consideration. So let’s say you’ve given it some thought, you’ve analyzed it, and you want to use some music.

Well, here are some things to consider. One, is the music so up tempo that it’s a stimulating or an energizing soundtrack? If so, you want to down, downplay that you want to find something that’s a little more atmospheric, a little more chill, because , again, practice energetically. is dropping us down and in.

So when you’re thinking about music for your classes, you also need to think about what is the energy and the vibe of this kind of practice. So you want to drop that down a little bit. You don’t want music that’s , too much beat, or too up tempo. You want to dial that down a bit.

A second thing to consider is, lyrics. So, in my opinion, I don’t ever use pop music in my yin classes. [00:19:00] I use music that is super ambient, super atmospheric, or is what you would obviously call like yoga music or like spa music. And the reason for this is, again, if you’re using popular music. With lyrics, people are going to be pulled out of their body and into their head and into the room.

They’re going to be deciding whether or not they like this song based on the lyrics. If they know the lyrics, they’re going to be singing along in their head. If they don’t know the lyrics and their language orientated, they’re going to be listening to the lyrics and analyzing the lyrics instead of dropping into their body.

And again, the whole point of a yin practice is, can you bring people inside? Then we have to talk about the subject matter. Of the lyrics, if there are lyrics, so I consider a yoga space, a healing space. I consider it a time when students are being quite vulnerable. [00:20:00] And so really pay attention to what is being said in those songs.

If you love hip hop, for example, that’s cool. Listen to it on your way to class, but a lot of hip hop, those lyrics, not overly healing. Right? So do you want to drop that into a space where you’re trying to encourage people to go inward and to heal? Not so much. And I’ve just using hip hop as an example. It could be anything.

I love me some punk. I’m a punker. I love me some classic metal. Absolutely. I do, but I’m not using it in my yoga classes because a, I don’t use music with lyrics and B, I want to be really aware of the lyrical content. When people are in a vulnerable, open healing space. So that’s something to consider.

Another thing to consider, which you may or may not have thought of. And so I do use a little bit of music that has chanting in it in my classes, but one thing you may not have considered, and this came up in my yoga therapy training. So if you haven’t [00:21:00] thought about this, that might be why is I like to use a little light chanting in the music

that I include, but I watch whether or not I’ve got a male voice doing the chanting. This is an anti man thing, by any means. I , absolutely love the male voice. But for example, you may or may not know that you have veterans in your class. And sometimes, , a male voice chanting, if they’ve served in the Middle East, can be a PTSD trigger, right?

So there are certain times in certain religions where you might hear chanting, prayer time, et cetera, et cetera. And if somebody has served in that area, that might make that feel like a very unsafe space for them now. So it might not be something you’d ever considered. If you haven’t done any trauma training, or if you’re not a yoga therapist, or if you don’t, I’ve never worked with veterans or known veterans.

You might not know if you’re teaching a dropping class, you could have that’s in there and have no idea. [00:22:00] So that’s something also to consider. So this is why I tend to, if there’s vocals, I tend to steer towards the female voice just for that simple reason. And again, if there’s vocals, it’s mostly vocal toning or light chanting.

Most of the music I use is sort of ambient atmospheric. , it’s instrumental with maybe the odd little bit of, , vocal toning. So those are things to consider in a sacred space, in a healing space. What kind of energy words are you bringing into that space? So as a teacher, when you show up and you close that door, you are responsible for cultivating the environment and the atmosphere of your class.

So be very intentional about it. Be just as intentional with your music as you would with your lighting as you would with your words, because all of this is very powerful [00:23:00] in a space where people are open and vulnerable in a space where people often kind of come in licking their wounds. Right. So we really want to think about that.

I would not recommend if you were a teacher who uses music and maybe you teach more active forms of yoga, and then you teach yin that you just bring the playlist that you would use in your vinyasa or your hatha class into yin. Don’t do that. They’re totally different energetics. So create a yin playlist or two or five so that you have a playlist for that kind of class.

Don’t just sort of bring in whatever playlist you just used in your flow class. So that’s some food for thought. So with every aspect of our teaching, in my opinion, and this really hit home for me when I became a yoga therapist, we really want to be intentional and conscious and deliberate with our choices.

We don’t want to go on [00:24:00] autopilot. And this may not have occurred to you before this, especially if you were a newer teacher, but now it’s an invitation for you to sit with it and go, okay. So today we’re talking about music, but it could also be language. It could also be, lighting in the room. It could be whether or not you have sents allowed.

I know a lot of people like to do, , classes with essential oils, for example, not my thing. And I would never do that unless there was clear warnings all over that class description. Same with incense because so many people have sensitivities, but if you’re making choices about what to bring into that sacred space, do so very clearly.

Very consciously having weighed out the options and then made a really intentional choice. Another thing I’ll say is from my experience, most often the music in a yin class or any yoga class actually is too loud. So it [00:25:00] should be fading in, especially in a yin practice, fading into the background. It should be background music, not foreground music.

So dial it back a little bit again. I’m using the music as a way to create a container to create that healing space, perhaps to be able to give people that are audio, orientated something to focus on other than the noise outside of the space. So that’s how I would consider using music in classes for those of you who want to.

Pay attention to the tempo, the volume, the vocal content, is there lyrics in there? If there’s chanting, can you be mindful of that fact that some chanting might trigger certain audiences? So take all of that into consideration. If you really want to use music in your practice. Take all of that in.

And I’m sure I’ve missed other points that could go in as well, especially for those of you that actually have training in sound frequency and things like that. I mean, [00:26:00] that’s a whole other level that I can’t speak to because I don’t have that kind of training. So really be conscious and deliberate and intentional.

If you’re going to use music, let it be part of the sound scape, the background, not the foreground, not a focal point, not a distraction,

even if you don’t use music and you don’t want to, but you do want some sort of a sound element there. Sometimes something as simple as putting a fountain on in the space, or things like that could be helpful. There’s plenty of just like soundtracks of just Ocean or white noise or whatever you can use other ways to , pull people into the room and out of the external environment.

So that might be an option could find some kind of a sound machine and have something just in the background if you’re in a noisy place, but you don’t want to use music.

And then I want to talk about, uh, the legal stuff. So your yoga teacher, strap [00:27:00] yourself in. You may not know that you going to your yoga class and just throwing on your Spotify list or your whatever list it is, your Apple music, whatever provider you’re using for your yoga classes is actually illegal. I know.

Truth bomb. Every country. And I’m only going to speak to Canada because that’s where I’m from, but I can give hints to the others. Every single country has a governing or governing bodies that controls music being played in a public space. A yoga studio is considered a public space. So if you are using music, even if you bought it, yes, I know, but I bought the CD doesn’t matter.

You bought the CD for personal listening and enjoyment. The rights to play music. For a professional [00:28:00] environment, which a yoga studio is, or a public performance, they call it often is a different kind of licensing than just buying the CD or downloading your music on Apple or Spotify or buying it. I know this is a very inconvenient truth.

But I would rather you know this now and decide accordingly than to get smacked with some huge ass fine. So each country kind of has an agency or agencies that allows for you to pay a fee to be able to publicly play music. That is copyrighted in your classes. In Canada, it’s called SOCAN I think in the States, there’s actually a few, there’s more than one, and I don’t know what they are.

Sorry, I’ll have to Google that. There’s somewhere else like Australia or wherever you are, you have to do a little research on your own because there’s no way I can research every country, but you cannot just show up [00:29:00] legally. With your Spotify list, with your Apple list, with your whatever it is, your playlist that you’ve made on your phone and pop that on.

If you were to get reported, it would be a massive fine. Now I can’t speak to how it works in other countries, but I know, for example, in Canada, because I’ve reached out to SoCan about this, because I’m like, I don’t need a big fine. Like, can I just pay like a small yearly fee to be able to use this music?

And unfortunately, the way it works in Canada is I, as an individual teacher, even though I’m a contractor and I’m self employed, cannot register the music I use in my classes. The studio has to do it. So the studio I teach at has to sign up for a SOCAN license, because if SOCAN were to find out that the studio is using, and the teachers are using music, And they don’t have a SOCAN license.

It’s the studio that would get fined. [00:30:00] So if you’re a studio owner listening to this going, holy shit, that’s something to consider. Either you pay for licensing so that , all of , your teachers can use music in their classes. Or if you don’t want to do that, then maybe you have to consider whether you want to make it that there’s no music in the classes.

I don’t know what the fines are, depending on where you live, but probably too much, probably more than is easily convenient. So I reached out to SoCan as a Canadian and said, Hey, I’m an independent teacher. I travel around to different locations. I’d like to just pay the yearly fee or whatever it is to be able to use music.

And they told me that I cannot, that it is the actual building, the location that has to pay for the license. Now, I don’t know if this is the same in the U S. I don’t know. And you can find royalty free music, online, places like that. You know, you can find royalty free music, , but you just going to have to do more research.

You can’t just go, Oh, it’s on Spotify or, Oh, it’s on Apple music or, Oh, it’s on [00:31:00] YouTube music or whatever it is. And now I’m going to use it. So this is something you may never have considered and you might be squirming a little bit thinking, Oh shit. That’s okay. Just know, this is the case. It is illegal to just publicly play music, even if it’s on your Spotify list, even if you bought it from iTunes or wherever you bought it from, even if you actually own the physical CD, cause you’re old school like I am still can’t legally play it in public unless there’s some sort of a licensing structure or unless you’re using royalty free music.

So for example, I’m just going to throw out a couple examples. There’s a DJ whose name I cannot think of right now, if I think of it, I’ll put it in the show notes. It may take me a while to think of it. who used to have a monthly fee that you could pay him, so that you could use his music in all of your videos on, in your classes, et cetera, et [00:32:00] cetera.

And if, again, if I find his link, I’ll drop it in the show notes. I just can’t think of his name off the top of my head. you can buy royalty free music. The other thing is that there may be certain musicians who have allowed for their music to be played in classes and they’re okay with it as long as you buy the music, or if you want to use it in your videos that you, link it in the video, you mentioned who the musician is and you send them, you send a link to them, et cetera, et cetera.

So there may be several musicians that do this. I know of one. Fred Westra. Hey, Fred, if you ever listened to this, Fred Westra is the musician that did the little hang drum sample for my intro. And he is a huge, , beloved musician in the Yin Yoga community. He has so many playlists and his music is beautiful.

And there’s so many different instruments and he’s just a great composer. And he [00:33:00] does allow you to use music. His music, in your classes, in videos, in things like that, you’d want to reach out to him first, obviously, to double check what the parameters are. But I know for example, if you’re using it for a video, you need to buy the music and then not just on Spotify, you need to buy it.

And then you need to, , obviously credit him. So definitely check with Fred Westra. If that is something that you are interested in, if you’re on Facebook, you can find him, um, on Facebook. I have a link in the show notes. That’s just his Spotify. He doesn’t have a website. Oddly enough, Fred, what’s up with that?

No website. So I don’t know a way to contact him directly other than through maybe through Spotify or maybe through Facebook. If you’re part of the yin yoga network on Facebook, the time of this recording, that is a pretty robust yin group on Facebook and he’s definitely in there so you could search him out there.

But he has really filled this niche market for yin yoga teachers. [00:34:00] Allowing us to have music that is totally Yin appropriate that’s beautifully composed with tons of variety and in a way that’s legal. So buying the music and then giving him credit. Is the way at least in the past that he’s asked us to do that.

So just double check with him and that might be a good solution for those of you who really just want to use music without having to investigate, , your country’s version of so can and pay for a license. Because again, unless you’re the studio, you can’t do that. At least in Canada, I, as an individual yoga teacher cannot.

register and pay a fee to use the music, which is crazy because it’s based on the physical location of the building. Strange. I don’t know if it’s the same in the States or other countries, so you’d have to look into that. And if you are a studio owner listening to this and you’re kind of freaking out a little bit now thinking, Oh my gosh, like that’s one more freaking fee I would have to [00:35:00] pay one more bill.

One more thing. Cause God knows studios are, you know, if COVID showed us anything, it’s that, , studios are not huge money making businesses trying to bootstrap the expenses. And so if you’re thinking, Oh man, one more thing that I need to pay for. In order to run my business. Yeah, it is. It is one more thing you need to pay for if you’re going to allow music.

 Or unless you’re going to do a lot of research and find royalty free music or things like that. So you really want to make sure that you’re protecting yourself and your business. Um, it’s a conversation to have with your teachers because if anybody is fined, it will not be your teachers. It will be you as the owner.

So maybe that means that you curate some royalty free music or you connect with someone like Fred and say, Hey, how can I support you and use your music? And then you make only that music available for your teachers to choose from. Maybe you have a, , an iPod or something,[00:36:00] in the practice space with some playlists that they can use.

I don’t know how you want to work that, but it’s something to consider. I know if I was opening up a studio and was attached to using music or thought that my staff would be, I would just reach out to whatever the organization is, you know, regulates this and I would just pay them a yearly fee to be able to use the music.

So that’s a lot about music. Again, something so , simple question. Should I use music in my yoga classes? There’s a lot that goes into it. So just to recap, should you use music? I don’t know. That’s up to you. , if you’ve never considered why am I using music or how am I using music or should I be using music, then you might want to sit with this and just kind of weigh it out and use your critical thinking skills and noticed is, am I using music just as a crutch because I’m uncomfortable with silence in my [00:37:00] classes, or I think my students will be uncomfortable with silence.

Because, you know, part of a yin yoga practice is being uncomfortable. Like yin yoga is not a comfortable practice. Being still and quiet and silence is part of the practice. So if you’ve never considered why you’re using music or the intentionality behind the music that you use, then maybe this episode’s giving you some food for thought and you can kind of sit with it and weigh it for yourself and write some pros and cons or bring it into your heart and see how you feel and decide, do I want to still use music?

That’s something to consider. And then I talked about the music you choose to use. If yin yoga is an inside out experience, if we’re trying to draw people’s awareness, , inside, then what kind of music we choose needs to reflect that intention. If it’s too uptempo, if it’s too loud, if there’s too many lyrics, if the lyrics are, um, Triggering, [00:38:00] or the sounds are triggering, maybe the vocal toning is triggering.

This is all something once you’ve decided, do I want to use music or not in my classes and choose for yourself, investigate that for yourself, then that’s a lot to consider, right? So, okay. If I’ve decided I’m going to use music, how intentional can I be with these musical choices? Maybe there’s some food for thought there.

I may have mentioned some things that you had never thought of. Maybe, maybe not. And then can you legally use the music? That’s the other question. Can you legally use it? And again, paying for Apple music, paying for Spotify does not count as legally being able to use the music. It is considered when you play music in a business, it is considered a public performance or a public space.

So you can’t just use the music that you’ve bought for your Apple personal use and your Spotify personal use [00:39:00] in your classes. And before you think, well, it doesn’t Spotify have like a professional version I can pay for it. No, they don’t because they don’t govern that again. This is like, there’s a governing body for what music can be played in public spaces in your country.

I don’t know what it is, but I will tell you that Google probably does. And that’s what you need to look into. And if you’re a teacher. You want to look into, at least in my country, I can’t register as a teacher and it’s the studio that’s responsible for that, but it might be different where you live. So that’s something else to investigate.

Can I, as a teacher pay for this licensing fee and will it cover me all of the places I teach or does the studio themselves have to do it? In which case it’s the studio that’s at risk with you playing music in your classes. Now, those of you who have other skills, if you are a sound healer, if you’re a gong player, a bowl player, a guitar, whatever it is, if you are a musician, then that opens of course, so many more doors as to what you can offer as far as [00:40:00] sound in your classes.

But for the regular folks like us that aren’t musicians that are listening to this, we got to choose other people’s brilliance to play in our classes. So I hope that that’s helpful. Apologize if it was a little bit of a, um, holy shit, when you realize that you can’t legally be playing the music you’ve been playing, but that is the truth.

However, inconvenient and uncomfortable and, whatever you choose, choose for yourself, take a moment to really sit with this, go over these things in your mind, and then make a conscious choice. What’s going to work for you, for your students, for your class, for the location you teach at. There is no right or wrong.

There is no black or white. As with always Yin, everything is shades of gray. Everything is, it depends. Okay, friends, I hope you found that helpful. And until I talk to you again, bye for now.[00:41:00]