Apple Fitness+'s Next Artist Series Is Madonna, and We Chatted With Them About It

Fitness+—Apple's streaming workout service that offers deep integration with devices like the Apple Watch and iPhone—is back at it with a new Artist Spotlight Series. This collection of classes lets you rock out while working out in a class that features tracks for a single artist or group.

Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift have all gotten the treatment among many others, but now Fitness+ is turning its attention to Madonna. This new Artist Spotlight Series lands on June 5, 2023, with a range of workouts, and ahead of that launch, Parade got the chance to chat with a few Fitness+ trainers Anja Garcia, Sam Sanchez, and Bakari Williams as well as Julz Arney, Apple’s Director of Fitness Technologies.

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Madonna x Fitness+

Madonna's Artist Spotlight Series arrives as eight classes across HIIT, Rowing, Cycling, Core, Treadmill, Strength, Dance, and Yoga. In typical, Fitness+ fashion, they'll all drop at once and be ready to stream from the Fitness+ app on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. It's also the 32nd Artist Spotlight Series.

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and the team at Fitness+ wanted to be sure to highlight someone who has been a supporter and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. Madonna is just that and has been an ally, advocate, and activist. In addition to this Artist Spotlight Series, Fitness+ will launch seven workouts and meditations that honor the LGBT+ community on May 29, 2023.

As Fitness+ debuted with the Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Series, it is not just about an entire playlist featuring the artist's music. But instead, the trainer's rock looks inspired by the artist and the studio gets a similar treatment. For instance, in a Cycling class with Tyrell Dèsan, he is rocking a wedding dress inspired by Madonna's Like a Virgin. In a rowing workout with Anja Garcia, the trainer will echo Madonna's reinvention throughout the decades of her work and honor her fashion sense, as seen in the "Material Girl" music video.

Arney noted that the combination of music and decor in a Spotlight Series "are the kind of things that really help our users keep coming back for more and continue to stay motivated to work out."

Trainer Anja noted that these workouts allow someone taking the class to discover another song from an artist they love or to explore a different side of them. "The user not only gets to experience their incredible music during the workout, but they get to learn about the artists themselves to help push them to give a little bit more during the workout," Garcia concluded.

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That level of extra immersion and fun increases the interaction with Fitness+ and aims to make the service more unique. Music has been a big part of Fitness+ since its launch, offering deep integrations with Apple Music. And that makes sense, considering both are services under Apple.

Music Is Central To the Fitness+ Experience

True to the service, you’ll be able to access a playlist for each of these Madonna-themed workouts and any on Fitness+ in Apple Music. This way, if you discover a new song, it’s easy enough to listen to it outside of the class, and, for many, you can listen in Spatial Audio. If you’re taking a Fitness+ class on the big screen via an Apple TV, you could up the immersion by using a HomePod for audio playback. Similarly, you could use AirPods Pro for easy listening while taking a class on your iPhone or an audio-first workout like Time to Walk or Time to Run via an Apple Watch.

Arney explained that Fitness+ cares and "thinks deeply about music as a part of the experience and whether you want to work out to, you know, upbeat anthems or hip hop, r&b or even top country today, we've got those nine music descriptors that, cover it off and make sure that we can offer something for everyone." That filter system is available regardless of how you access Fitness+—from an iPhone or an Apple TV—and makes it easy to find a class that might interest you.

Expanding on this, we chatted with Fitness+ Trainer Sam Sanchez, who unpacked the importance of music in a workout, noting that it's the heartbeat of the activity to her. Sanchez expanded, "even when you don't feel like you can finish that last rep. Music just gets you there. And speaking of heart, I think it's a really great avenue to connect with our users."

Our friends at Men's Journal recently toured the Fitness+ Studio and described the collaboration among trainers for creating the workouts, which extends to picking music for each workout. For instance, if a trainer is a diehard country fan, another trainer can ask them for the right songs that should be featured. The Fitness+ team works with music experts, in addition to the trainers, to help select tracks.

Trainer Bakari Williams expanded, "When we're building and creating our workouts, we are also reviewing them and checking with each other to see what we're all using. It's an experience. It's like a concert for your favorite artists meets your favorite workouts." So the big hits and anthems will be included. Still, the trainers also want to uncover some other tracks that might inspire you to do a workout. It's all to make the "most engaging playlist" in William’s mind.

Let’s Recap Fitness+

So, in addition to the regularly scheduled programming, Fitness+ will be launching seven LGBTQ+ themed workouts on May 29, 2023 and its 32nd Artist Spotlight Series on June 5, 2023. Another essential item to note is that this doesn’t require any extra cost; for the base price of Apple’s streaming fitness service, you get access to over 4,000 workouts across 12 activities—Core, Cycling, Dance, HIIT, Kickboxing, Pilates, Strength, Treadmill, Rowing, Yoga, and Mindful Cooldowns—and meditations.

To use Fitness+, you’ll need an iPhone to sign-up, and then you’re off to the races. If you also have an Apple Watch, you’ll get some epic integrations and see your activity rings, heart rate, and other key metrics on-screen with the workout.

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Fitness+ costs either $9.99 a month or $79.99 for the year and if you recently bought an Apple device, there is a good chance you’ll get around three months for free. Of course, if you want to upgrade or get a watch for the first time, we’d start with an Apple Watch Series 8 since it has all the health bells and whistles. It’s currently $50 off at just $329 on Amazon.

As far as the future goes, we're confident the Fitness+ team will continue to drop new Artist Spotlight Series, and other themed collections, that can encourage and pump up any user.

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