Spotify’s next frontier: Fitness content

After expanding into podcasts, audiobooks, video and even physical books, Spotify on Monday announced its next big category: fitness content.

The company is banking on its reputation as a hub for revitalizing your workout playlists to actually become a home for the workout itself. To do this, Spotify has partnered with a number of well-known health content creators and exercise equipment maker Peloton.

Workouts offered by these providers will be accessed through the new “Fitness” hub within the app, or by typing the term “fitness” into the search box. Its content, in the form of music and video, will be available via Spotify’s mobile, desktop and TV apps.

At launch, both free and premium users will have access to dozens of playlists and educational workout content from creators including Yoga With Kassandra, Caitlin K’eli Yoga, Sweety Studio, Chloe Ting, Pilates Body By Raven, Abi Mills Wellness, Sophiereidfit, and more.

Meanwhile, the partnership with Peloton brings more than 1,400 ad-free on-demand training classes from many of its popular trainers to Spotify Premium users in select markets. This catalog includes a range of classes such as those focused on strength, cardio, yoga, meditation, running, and more, without the need for specialized Peloton equipment.

Trainings are currently available in English, with some options in Spanish and German. They can also be downloaded for offline access.

Participating creators will benefit from the partnership by being able to leverage Spotify’s existing monetization tools, such as the Spotify Partner Program. However, the company declined to share the terms of its deal with Peloton. In the future, the company could consider other forms of monetization as well, but it would not confirm whether or not this could include things like paid subscriptions or paid classes.

Spotify notes that its decision to invest in fitness content was based on data from its users, as nearly 70% of its premium subscribers exercise monthly, and there are more than 150 million fitness playlists on the service. The company has also seen an increase in demand for workout music following the recent launch of its AI-powered guided playlist feature.

However, adding another form of content to what was previously a music-only app could be a frustration for any user who already feels the app is becoming too crowded as the company expands into new formats. But Spotify seems to be thinking about trying it too: for example, it recently introduced the option to stop playing videos through the app.