Peloton has reworked its business model to attract more people, and now offers a completely free set of workouts in the Peloton app.
New to Peloton? If you open the Peloton app and create an account, you can now access the free tier of the company’s guided workouts.
As you might expect, the number of videos on the free tier is somewhat limited, but does include pilates, yoga, running, bike riding and meditation disciplines, among others. Peloton says it offers “more than 50 classes curated across 12 of Peloton’s modalities.” Not bad for zero pence.
The Peloton app also has a calendar view, to see how many times you’ve worked out in the past month.
There are two tiers of paid membership in the new Peloton arrangement. Peloton App One costs £12.99 a month. This unlocks full access to most of the exercise disciplines. But for ones that use Peloton’s actual hardware, its exercise bikes, rowing machines and treadmills, you can only try three of those each month.
The top-tier all-access Peloton membership is called App+ and costs £24 a month. This lets you play as many of the exercise machine-based cardio video classes as you like.
Peloton’s message is clear: if you’re a hardcore Peloton fan, you will still need the top-tier £24 a month membership.
For those already paying for Peloton, not all that much changes. Before now we had the Digital-only membership at £12.99 a month, and the All-Access Membership for a pricier £39. Peloton says those already on an old-school membership will see theirs automatically switch over to the new equivalent on December 5.
Is Peloton a success?
Is it good news for everyone? Kinda, particularly for those interested in trying out the free-to-stream selection. While many apps offer these sorts of workouts, Peloton’s are of a quality level comparable with Apple Fitness+. The app can also hook up with Wear OS smartwatches and the Apple Watch models, to bring exercise stats into the experience.
It’s a clear attempt to expand the Peloton audience beyond those who might buy a Peloton bike, or other piece of Peloton equipment.
The company saw a huge spike of interest that maintained through the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, with gyms closed for much of that time. It saw Peloton’s stock price jump around from around $30 a share at the beginning of 2020 to a peak of $162 a share in December 2020.
However, its position is now weaker than it was before the lockdown, having hit lows below $6 a share in May 2023.
Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy stated in a letter to shareholders, a year ago in May 2022, that his goal was to increase the Peloton user base to 100 million. Statista estimates its current subscriber user base at 2.97 million. A huge jump is required, but giving away something for nothing is not a bad way to expand rapidly.
